Pentagon has lost track of exported missiles

[shraby]

Terrorists could use anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, critics say

Washington -- A still-secret congressional report detailing the Pentagon's inability to account for all of its Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles is causing consternation on Capitol Hill and raises the specter of terrorists using U.S.-made missiles to shoot down U.S. military or civilian airplanes.

The report by the General Accounting Office, circulating among senior House lawmakers, states that although the Department of Defense is supposed to monitor the end-use of Stingers given or sold to other nations, "DOD has no requirement for keeping records on the number and destinations of these Stingers." The report is also critical of what it describes as toothless multinational anti-missile proliferation efforts.

According to the report, which is scheduled for release this month, the Defense Department does not know where to find all of the Stingers that it has either sold or given away. For example, Army records show that the Army transferred 7,551 Stingers to foreign countries from 1982 to 2004. The GAO report found that the actual number was at least 8,331. "Army data shows that the U.S. has not exported any missiles to Egypt," it reported, whereas the GAO uncovered that the United States has exported 89 Stingers to Egypt. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine (San Diego County), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he is not impressed with the existing international efforts to prevent shoulder-fired missiles from falling into terrorists' hands

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<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/02/MNGT26VCPB1.DTL>

[hedda_foil]

1. Oh. My. God.

I wish I could pretend to be surprised. I'm not, but I am totally furious with these imbeciles.