Military equipment goes missing

Military equipment goes missing

Military equipment goes missing, A Washington state military base was put on lockdown after "sensitive" equipment was reported stolen, including military scopes , night vision goggles and military ID cards. More than 100 soldiers have been confined to their barracks, and a reward is being offered for the return of the equipment.

Sensitive" items are reported missing from a military base in Washington State. A 100-member infantry company has been under lockdown since Tuesday, while a criminal investigation continues. The missing items are described as weapons accessories, such as scopes and night lasers. local10.com

The company under investigation is from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

A spokesman Maj. Chris Ophardt said the missing items are not weapons, but weapons accessories. Army officials described the missing equipment as “sensitive.”

The lockdown will continue until an investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigative Division is complete, Ophardt said. The lockdown started Wednesday, he said.

“They'll be on base until the items are found,” Hinkle said. “This is the unit's property that's come up missing.”

The 4th Brigade has been to Iraq twice; it currently doesn't have deployment orders. It is one of the base's three Stryker combat brigades.

Ophardt said the company is restricted to its barracks and dining facility. Soldiers' families can visit them.

The Army is offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the recovery of the missing equipment.

The Army is interviewing soldiers and trying to recover the items, said. Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, also a Corps spokesman. Results of the investigation will be made public, he said

Several weeks ago, I did a blog entry highlighting how Iraq was an accounting black hole that's vulnerable to fraud and corruption.
Now we have revelations from CBS that $1 billion of military equipment has gone missing in Iraq and disclosures that United States commanders used sloppy accounting and could not always show that equipment, services and construction were delivered properly.
It coincides with a Government Accountability Office report which says that pentagon's use of the terms "independent" and "fully independent" to describe Iraq Security Force units creates at best an intolerable level of ambiguity and impedes Congress in its oversight role.
The Huffington Post's Dina Rasor says enough is enough and it's time to act.
"To stop what is currently going on, the media and the Congress have to be relentless in exposing the fraud, no matter where the path leads and the public has to be fed up enough to start demanding reforms," Rasor writes."That is what happened in the 1980s with the spare parts scandals remember the $7600 coffee brewer and the $436 hammer?which lead to reforms  and an actual freeze on the DOD budget in the middle of the Reagan military buildup. Things won't change unless the outrage becomes high enough that the editors are willing to run story after story, the Congress is willing to have hearing after hearing  and the public is willing to buttonhole every politician in Congress and complain or write a letter. Who will go first? Whoever is willing can become a hero for the countr

North Korea has announced a 'prisoner amnesty' to mark the birthdays of 2 former leaders, the first since 2005 - BBC