A new bombshell joint report issued by two international weapons monitoring groups Tuesday confirms that the Pentagon continues to ship record breaking amounts of weaponry into Syria and that the Department of Defense is scrubbing its own paper trail. On Tuesday the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) produced conclusive evidence that not only is the Pentagon currently involved in shipping up to $2.2 billion worth of weapons from a shady network of private dealers to allied partners in Syria – mostly old Soviet weaponry – but is actually manipulating paperwork such as end-user certificates, presumably in order to hide US involvement.
The OCCRP and BIRN published internal US defense procurement files after an extensive investigation which found that the Pentagon is running a massive weapons trafficking pipeline which originates in the Balkans and Caucuses, and ends in Syria and Iraq. The program is ostensibly part of the US train, equip, and assist campaign for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a coalition of YPG/J and Arab FSA groups operating primarily in Syria’s east). The arms transfers are massive and the program looks to continue for years. According to Foreign Policy’s (FP) coverage of the report:
The Department of Defense has budgeted $584 million specifically for this Syrian operation for the financial years 2017 and 2018, and has earmarked another $900 million of spending on Soviet-style munitions between now and 2022. The total, $2.2 billion, likely understates the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels in the coming years.
But perhaps more shocking is the following admission that Pentagon suppliers have links with known criminal networks, also from FP:
According to the report, many of the weapons suppliers — primarily in Eastern Europe but also in the former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Ukraine — have both links to organized crime throughout Eastern Europe and spotty business records.
The sheer amount of material necessary for the Pentagon program — one ammunition factory announced it planned to hire 1,000 new employees in 2016 to help cope with the demand — has reportedly stretched suppliers to the limit, forcing the Defense Department to relax standards on the materials it’s willing to accept.
It is likely that the organized crime association is the reason why the Pentagon has sought to alter its records. In addition, the sheer volume of weaponry continuing to ship to the Syrian battlefield and other parts of the Middle East means inevitable proliferation among unsavory terror groups – a phenomenon which has already been exhaustively documented in connection with the now reportedly closed CIA program to topple the Syrian government. The associations and alliances among some of the Arab former FSA groups the DoD continues to support in the north and east remains fluid, which means means US-supplied weapons will continue to pass among groups with no accountability for where they end up.
ht/ all too much
They had to set up another conduit after Benghazi. A lawless operation started during a lawless administration, directed by criminals at the top.
Faster and Furious-er. Straw man purchases. What could possibly go wrong?
Drain. The. Swamp.
Why is it so hard for the Trump appointees (James Mattis) to simply go from top to bottom within their own departments and replace all the holdovers?! Dunford, for example is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs appointed under Obama. Maybe he’s one of the good guys, but who the heck knows? And Deputy Chairman, Selva, same thing. I thought obama changed out all the independent thinkers and replaced them with “Social Engineering” types.
That black stain on America sure is tough to remove.
Every officer connected to this program should be reduced in rank to E-2 and Dishonorably discharged.
No retirement money, no hospitalization, no commissary. Real life is tough, you are accountable for all your actions, just like anybody else. The alternative is a firing squad.
So when Assad wins and captures those weapons and uses them to strengthen his power, naturally it’ll be Trump’s fault.
Gun running has been tossed around as the cause of Amb. Stevens trip to Benghazi but this is the first “smoking gun” we have heard of. And like a smoking gun it will soon be dropped as its too hot to handle. Maybe a few lower officers involved will be prosecuted but the big fish will swim happily away with their cushy retirements and reputations intact. Its a damn shame, but the bigger the crime the less likely it will be prosecuted.
@Extirpates September 13, 2017 at 5:13 pm
Bur, they were only following orders!
(cue Lucy)Whhaaaahhhhh!
Wanna bet McCain’s finger prints and blessings are all over this?
Indict and prosecute.
Remember the crap Ollie North had to take over the keeping the Contras alive after a Democrat Congress cut off their funding? Good times, Good times.
It takes continuous warfare to enrich the oligarchy that owns the military industrial complex. If there isn’t a legitimate enemy, one will be created.
Bet the State Dept ratted ’em out. They shoved the CIA to the side to take the top position of gun running. Those ‘end user certificates’ come from State in the first place.
This must be what happened to all our bullets.
My Neighbor, who’se an Author Told Me this was Happening Three Months ago !
She also Told Me a Year Ago That U.S Arms Shippments Were the Reason Libya Happened ! So Hill’y Seems to Have Allowed Massive Arms Shipments in’to Libya, and Left The Embassy With No Protection Simultaneously !!!
I wonder what’s next. The pentagon is supplying arms and ammo to the taliban in Afghanistan? Trading for drugs to supply antifa and other criminals in the USA?
I feel like the corruption is boiling over and congress condones it to enrich themselves.
This has the hildabeest’s hoof prints all over it.