US Army lost track of $1 billion worth of arms & equipment in Iraq, Kuwait

 

A newly released declassified audit from the US Department of Defense shows that negligent accounting by the military has resulted in the Pentagon not knowing what happened to more than $1 billion in arms and equipment meant for the Iraqi Army.

 

The Office of Inspector General for the Pentagon’s findings from September 2016 was made public Wednesday as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from human rights group Amnesty International.

Over $1 billion worth of arms and military equipment designated under the Iraq Train and Equip Fund (ITEF) and meant to assist the Iraqi government in combatting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), was not accounted for, the DOD audit found.

https://www.rt.com/usa/389643-amnesty-army-lost-billion-arms-iraq/

US Could Be Stuck Fighting Daesh ‘for a Decade, Maybe Even a Generation’

In a joint piece for The Atlantic magazine, Biddle, an adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Shapiro, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton, lay out why the war against the jihadist group isn’t likely to end in the neat and clean way that American officials might have hoped it would.
The reason for this, they suggest, stems from the nature of the war: “Civil wars of the kind in which the US conflict with the Islamic State is embedded are notoriously hard to terminate and typically drag on for years. Datasets vary slightly, but most put the median duration of such conflicts at seven to 10 years; and an important minority drag on for a generation or more.”

“When they do end, it’s rarely because an empowered, victorious army marches into the enemy capital, pulls down the flag, and governs a newly stable society.”

Like neighboring Syria, Iraq, the authors suggest, is likely to remain embroiled in civil conflict because, as is typical in civil wars, there are outside interests which prefer instability and chaos to a decisive victory for their opponent.

“Civil wars like today’s conflict in Syria and Iraq are often complex, multi-sided proxy conflicts in which a variety of local combatants have ties to outside backers who fund, equip, train, and advise allies’ forces. This outside support enables fighters to weather setbacks and hang on in the face of military adversity. Outside backers usually have geopolitical reasons of their own to support local proxies.”

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160424/1038535434/war-against-daesh-generational.html

WHY WE’RE NEVER TOLD WHY WE’RE ATTACKED

Yet, Western militaries have killed infinitely more innocent civilians in the Middle East than Russia has. Then why won’t Western officials and media cite retaliation for that Western violence as a cause of terrorist attacks on New York, Paris and Brussels.

Instead, there’s a fierce determination not to make the same kinds of linkages that the press made so easily when it was Russia on the receiving end of terror. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Obama Ignores Russian Terror Victims.”]

For example, throughout four hours of Sky News’ coverage of the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, only the briefest mention was made about a possible motive for that horrific assault on three Underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people. But the attacks came just two years after Britain’s participation in the murderous invasion of Iraq.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the Iraq War’s architects, condemned the loss of innocent life in London and linked the attacks to a G-8 summit he’d opened that morning. A TV host then read and belittled a 10-second claim of responsibility from a self-proclaimed Al Qaeda affiliate in Germany saying that the Iraq invasion was to blame. There was no more discussion about it.

http://www.infowars.com/why-were-never-told-why-were-attacked/

How oil can play spoilsport for govt’s fiscal math

Will the budget math work out in favour of the government on the oil front?

The budget has announced a 3% cut down of the government’s subsidy bill of Rs 2.5 lakh crore. This has been largely due to a 10.2% reduction in petroleum subsidy.

A 3% reduction in the subsidy bill could save thousands of crores for the government. From Rs 30,000 crore in 2015-16, the bill could come down to Rs 26,947 crore in 2016-17.

But all this is assuming that oil prices remain at $35 per barrel for the fiscal year.

So what’s the oil story on the global front?

Historically, crude has been a volatile commodity. There was an initial surge in prices after Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Qatar froze production in January.

But the lifting of sanctions against Iran by the US and the European Union in January made the country free to sell as much oil as it wants, and to whoever it wants. Moreover, Iran is also looking to raise production.

Then there’s Iraq, OPEC’s (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’) second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia. The country needs the money from selling crude to fund its internal wars.

“Unless Iran decides to freeze production, oil prices will be range-bound — They are likely to hover at $35 to $45 a barrel” said SC Tripathi, former secretary, oil ministry.

“The world is producing an extra 1.7 million barrels per day. There has to be a drastic production cut, otherwise prices will remain range-bound,” said RS Sharma, former CMD, ONGC.

But if geopolitics or a supply constraint set oil prices zooming, the government has a back-up plan ready to protect its fiscal math.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business/how-oil-can-play-spoilsport-for-govt-s-fiscal-math/story-ggJ7ITrRPcG5cSP0ur7aNK.html

Canada will expand in Iraq, halt air war against the Islamic State

Last month, Canada was left out as seven major players in the fight against the Islamic State group met in Paris. U.S. defense officials said at the time that the meeting included only those countries with the most ‘‘skin in the game,’’ a comment that made front-page news in Canada considering its long-term partnership with the United States in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Three weeks later, Canada has altered its involvement in the military campaign, saying Monday that it will suspend all airstrikes against the militants by Feb. 22, but significantly boost its financial assistance to the region and triple the number of military advisers it deploys to Iraq to train local forces. Canada also will continue to refuel other coalition aircraft, officials said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/02/09/canada-will-expand-iraq-halt-air-war-against-islamic-state/2mu4PFxpmGh5TSjKPFHNpI/story.html

Nearly 200 Pentagon photos show abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq

The Pentagon has released 198 photographs on February 5 showing abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq by U.S. personnel.

Many of the photographs released by Pentagon show close-ups of cuts and bruises on the arms and legs of the prisoners.

According to Pentagon, the photographs came from investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by U.S. personnel.

Pentagon also added that 14 of those allegations were sustained and led to disciplinary action against 65 U.S. service members, including life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the Amnesty International, said hundreds more photographs and documents pertaining abuse of prisoners in the two countries, remain withheld.

http://nation.com.pk/international/06-Feb-2016/nearly-200-pentagon-photos-show-abuse-of-prisoners-in-afghanistan-and-iraq

 

Washington releases photos linked to abuse allegations in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Pentagon has released 198 photographs linked to allegations of abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them showing close-ups of cuts and bruises to arms and legs of prisoners held in US facilities, Asharq Alawsat reports.

The Pentagon was forced to release the photographs on Friday, in the culmination of a major court battle that has lasted for 12 years.

They are part of a cache linked to investigations of detainee’s abuse at 24 US military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said the photos came from criminal investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by US personnel. It said 14 of those allegations were substantiated and even led to life imprisonment.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than a decade ago for the photos, said the images were part of a larger collection of 2,000 mostly unreleased photographs tied to American detainees.

“The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centers,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director in a statement.

http://www.albawaba.com/news/washington-releases-photos-linked-abuse-allegations-iraq-and-afghanistan-802628

 

We’ll probably see more American boots on the ground in Iraq’

ISIS guerrillas are going to go back into the Iraqi cities and fight guerrilla warfare, so it’s going to be a long slog and there are no local ground forces to adequately fight the terrorists, says Ivan Eland, US senior defense analyst from the Independent Institute.

 

There are currently about 3,600 US military staff in Iraq in training and military support roles. Earlier this week, US officials said “hundreds, not thousands” more will be dispatched shortly. However, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter himself vowed on Thursday that the numbers would “increase greatly as the momentum of the effort increases.”

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/329898-american-boots-iraq-isis/

‘We’ll probably see more American boots on the ground in Iraq’ (Op-Edge) https://t.co/e1lg2tu6qJ pic.twitter.com/d45wLI5Ajv

— RT (@RT_com) January 23, 2016

 

Iraq’s biggest dam on verge of ‘catastrophic collapse’ – US commander

The extremists seized the dam in August of 2014, provoking fears that they could blow it up and unleash a deluge on the densely populated Tigris River valley, as well as on the cities of Mosul and Baghdad, potentially killing thousands of people.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces recaptured the dam two weeks later, eliminating the threat of the demolition. However, IS militants stole all the equipment necessary to maintain the dam and chased away the technicians, leaving the edifice bedridden with structural flaws, according to US Army Colonel Steve Warren, the US-led coalition’s spokesman.

“There was a steady grouting schedule that had been maintained for a long time. When that stopped, obviously the deterioration of the dam increased accordingly,” Warren said as quoted by Reuters.

https://www.rt.com/news/330505-iraq-biggest-dam-collapse/

Iraq’s biggest dam on verge of ‘catastrophic collapse’ – US commander https://t.co/bnxBlCnHDM pic.twitter.com/4Nqc2Ix6VY

— RT (@RT_com) January 28, 2016

Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources

U.S. intelligence agencies investigating the kidnapping of three Americans in Baghdad, Iraq last week are focusing their probe on three militant Islamic groups closely affiliated with Iran, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the principle focus of the investigation into the armed kidnapping of the three Americans in the Dora neighborhood, south of Baghdad, the sources said.

The three men are employed by a still-unidentified small company doing work for General Dynamics under a larger contract with the U.S. Army.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-kidnapping-idUSKCN0UZ2R1?utm_source=twitter

Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources: https://t.co/YYZx8EMJcl pic.twitter.com/v87n7AuqSd

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 21, 2016