|
Gates: US must speed up weapons for Iraq
5.10.2007
|
|
|
|
October
5, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile - The United States must
deliver weapons to Iraq more quickly, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday after an
announcement that the Iraqis have ordered
$100 million in military equipment from China.
The U.S. military has expressed concerns that it is
harder to track weapons purchased from countries
other than America. In many cases, the Iraqis cannot
account for arms flowing into the country, which
often end up in the hands of insurgents.
Speaking to reporters, Gates said the issue of slow
foreign military sales also arose at his meeting
with Chilean Defense Minister Jose Mario Goni just
before a news conference. |
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates
|
"This is an issue that we have to look into and see
what we can do in the United States to be more
responsive and be able to react more quickly to the
requests of our friends," he said. "Unfortunately
the (foreign military sales) program was set up in a
way that was not intended to provide sort of
emergency or short term supplies, as in the case of
Iraq, and we're trying to
figure out how to do that better."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani said in an interview that
Iraq ordered the Chinese military equipment for its
police force in part because the U.S. is not
delivering the arms fast enough.
Gates said he is not worried that the Iraqis turned
to China to get the equipment, but is more generally
concerned about the slow pace of the U.S. process.
He noted that the U.S. has already delivered about
$600 million worth of equipment to the Iraqis, and
has another $2 billion to $3 billion on order.
The Defense Department and the agency that handles
foreign military sales — the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency — have been working for more than
a year to speed up the process, said Maj. Gen.
Richard J. Sherlock Jr., director of operational
planning for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It used to take a year, but now averages about five
months from the time they get a precise list of what
the Iraqis want to the time it is fielded, he told a
Pentagon press conference.
"It depends on what equipment is being requested, it
depends on whether it's in production, whether it
needs to be placed in production, whether there's
another claimant for those pieces of equipment that
are in production, or whether that equipment's on
the shelf," Sherlock said.
Gates said the U.S. has opened offices in Baghdad
for the military sales so officials can have
day-to-day dialogues with the Iraqis and "get their
requirements more quickly and get them processed
more quickly."
"This is a concern for us and is something we have
to devote some attention to," said Gates, who was in
Chile as part of a five-day, five country swing
through South and Central America.
The Pentagon sent a team of investigators to Iraq in
August because of the growing number of cases of
fraud and other irregularities in contracts
involving weapons and supplies for Iraqi forces.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said
earlier this year that the Pentagon cannot fully
account for $19.2 billion worth of equipment
provided to Iraqi security forces.
AP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 