BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2006
Report: 14,000 Weapons Missing In Iraq
Guns, Spare Parts Given To Iraqi Forces Gone; October Death Toll Surpasses 100
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Deadly October In Iraq
October is now the fourth deadliest month in Iraq since the war began. CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports.
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UK Withdrawal From Iraq?
There has been growing talk that British forces will pull out of Iraq in order to focus on operations in Afghanistan. Mark Phillips reports from London.
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Ben Stein On The War In Iraq
Former presidential speechwriter Ben Stein weighs in on the situation in Iraq. He makes some suggestions as to what President Bush should say to the American people.
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In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Oct. 30, 2006, a team of machine gunners fires at an insurgent outside of Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006. (AP/U.S. Marines)
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In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Monday Oct. 30, 2006, Marines coordinate suppressive fire from a rooftop above Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006. (AP/U.S. Marines)
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Son hugs his mother as relatives carry coffin with the body of his brother out of Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Iraqi man grieves over his relative's body at Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Battle For Iraq
The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Religion In Iraq
An interactive guide to Iraq's religious, ethnic and ideological mix.
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Iraq Insurgency
More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
The report, prepared at the request of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Virginia Republican John Warner, also found that major challenges remain that put at risk the Defense Department's goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the Defense Ministry by the end of 2007.
A spokesman for Warner said the senator read the report over the weekend in preparation for a meeting Tuesday with Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Warner, who requested the report in May, "believes it is essential that Congress and the American people continue to be kept informed by the inspector general on the equipping and logistical capabilities of the Iraqi army and security forces, since these represent an important component of overall readiness," said Warner spokesman John Ullyot.
The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003.
The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent.
Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns.
The audit on logistics capabilities said there is a "significant risk" that the Iraqi Interior Ministry "will not be capable of assuming and sustaining logistics support for the Iraqi local and national police forces in the near term." That support includes equipment maintenance, transportation of people and gear and health resources for soldiers and police.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Monday announced the death of the 101st servicemember killed in Iraq this month.
In a brief statement, the military said the latest casualty was a member of a police brigade who was killed by small arms fire this morning in eastern Baghdad.
Earlier, a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died from injuries sustained during combat on Sunday, the military said in a brief announcement.
The Marine's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
October is already the fourth deadliest month for American troops since the war began in March 2003. The previous high monthly death tolls were 107 in January 2005; at least 135 in April 2004, and 137 in November 2004, when U.S. forces swept through the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The military said Sunday's death came in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a hotbed of the Sunni resistance to U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies.
CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that Anbar has long been the front line of the U.S. military’s fight against al Qaeda affiliated militants in Iraq, and, until recently, was one of the most deadly provinces for American forces.
The capital region has taken over as the scene of the overwhelming majority of U.S. troop deaths.
Logan says that one of the factors making life infinitely more difficult for U.S. troops in Iraq is the increasing level of attacks from Shiite militia groups.
Shiite militias — in particular the Mahdi Army, headed by the radical Baghdad-based cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — are taking more and more American and Iraqi lives, as a vicious cycle of attacks and revenge spirals out of control in the country.
In other developments:
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 59 CommentsThe answer to this question is that we leave no more dead or maimed American Soldiers, family members, contractors, nor journalists. We take with us our two Billion TAX Dollars a week back to America and put it to use in America. Leaving the forty plus billion tax dollars still unaccounted for behind in Iraq to be used as those who took them see fit. We leave the Iraqi people who are currently fighting each other to work out their differences as they see fit. Halliburton will have to renegotiate their contract with the Iraqi leadership. There will be no more need for (IED) Improvised Explosive Devises because we would have removed all our lightly armored Hummers and the American Soldiers driving them, with the removal of all our military equipment. So you see we can disengage from Iraq without any %u201CImmediate Threat%u201D of harm to the American People and without the fear of them coming after us with a mushroom cloud, yellow cake, or chemical weapons. It is a %u201CSlam Dunk%u201D that there are currently people at the Rand Corporation, Harvard Business School, Ohio State University, Virginia Military Institute, at most American High Schools or other businesses, that if ask, can come up with a operational plan to disengage from Iraq and bringing our troops and equipment home safely to America.
Vote for change on Nov. 7th; then pray that it really happens!
Impeach Bush & Cheney! Both of them must be held accountable for the way they have plundered America & Iraq. Even more, they must be held accountable for the blood that's on their hands.
NOW, SOME 44 MONTHS AFTER BUSH DECLARED
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"
WE SEE HOW EFFECTIVELY REPUBLICANS ARE WINNING IN IRAQ WITH THIS MONTH BEING THE 4TH HIGHEST FATALITY RATE FOR OUR SOLDIERS SINCE
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"
IF THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS ANY IDEAS OF HOW TO 'WIN' IN IRAQ, LET BUSH 'BRING 'EM ON'!
"WINNING" IS A GAME MENTALITY. THE LIVES OF OUR TROOPS IS NOT A GAME. IF WE DID "WIN", HOW WOULD WE KNOW THAT? HOW WILL 'VICTORY' IN THE IRAQ CIVIL WAR BE DEFINED?
I'D ALSO LIKE TO KNOW WHO IS THE ENEMY?
THE SHIITES?
THE SUNNIS?
THE KURDS? OR
THE DEMOCRATS?
Borrowing the money to pay for the cuts actually amounts to a significant TAX INCREASE, when the interest is added to it ($400 billion plus per year and increasing).
Going after al qaeda and the taliban in Afghanistan was indeed fighting terrorists, but the unjustified OFFENSIVE invasion of Iraq was not and at the very least it should have ended with Bush%u2019s declaration of %u201Cmission accomplished%u201D. %u201C
The fiasco in Iraq can be compared to jumping off a mile high cliff without a parachute, and we keep pushing soldiers off the cliff trying to save the jumper.
Republicans keep asking what is the Democrats plan? Look at what the bush administration has accomplished.
Which is better, admit you made a mistake or deny it while those around you are suffering the consequences?
The best %u201Cplan%u201D I can think of now is stop pushing people off this cliff
"Every death, both American and Iraqi is blood on the hands of the war-loving cowardly Republican Party."
Many reasons that I won't vote for Republicans in the next few years:
1. IRAQ
2. CORRUPTION
3. INCOMPETENCE
4. NO DEBATE
Republicans of today don't actually stand for anything.
They might say, what about the immigration debate? There is none. The corporate aligned GOP/Republicans parties are the ones who so willfully allowed so many jobs and tax dollars to go overseas and now the people who lost their jobs here in the US are actually seeing many "immigrants" working for cheap taking "their" job. It's all bull. It's just a meaningless distracting talking point for the GOP/Republicans to insert whenever someone puts them down for their incompetence about IRAQ or the many other things of which they have failed Americans.
Don't get caught in the talking point memo circulation. LOOK FOR THE REAL DEBATE. When you do, the incompetence of the GOP/Republican controlled government of ours will shine bright.
VOTE FOR CHANGE. PLEASE.
One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some smart people in our government, but they%u2019re not in the White House, that I know too.
Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.
Why are we in IRAQ? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.
Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:
I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.
I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.
Someone, who is aligned or controlling the GOP, Republican, whatever, wants YOU to be HIGH on MONEY but LOW ON CASH.
Why, you might ask?
Marketing, I mean MARKETING, everything like POLITICS, PRODUCTS, SERIVICES, SENSATIONALISM.
"They", GET YOU TO BELIVE AN IDEA BECAUSE OF REPETITION, talking points, simple rhetoric.
You know what? We fall for it. We, I mean Americans. We sit in front of the TV and Watch "NEWS".
Next elections, don't them do it to you. Turn off FOX NEWS. Start reading more newspapers, but not just one. Get more sources. Get a balanced look at the world. Get Smart. Get Centered.
If the adult politicians will not discuss or negotiate on any level - which they have shown us so far, then send them to the front lines to fight their own war/s. Stop using children and stop lying to the children's parents.
I am across the street playing basketball. He stops and yells something about being a Repub and then drives slowly off.
A few minutes later he comes back. This time he stops and yells out to my wife if she is on food stamps....lol.
Wanting to make sure this idiot isnt out to harm my family I kinda run over to him ( his window was down ) and ask him if he's a Democrat. "No!" I'm a Republican ! I work for a living !" This guy was old with a nice car.
I said, what do you think I do ? I work for a living too. And, I believe in God etc.
I said you should vote Democratic. He drove off.....
Funny as hell. That was typical of these idiot Republicans. They all think Democrats are food stamp loving, poor, commi, gay, pinkos who must be weeded out and destroyed.
I havent laughed that hard in several weeks.
How many more facts does someone needs to realize that the people in power have LOST ALL CONTROL??
The sorry thing is, ANYONE who voted for this guy second time around is also an idiot and we obviously have alot of them in this country.
Watching CBS's Face the Nation (10-29-06), and watching Bob Bob Schieffer's attack on the Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman, trying desperately and breathlessly to smear Mehlman and insinuating that he was directly responsible for the Bob Schieffer-labeled "racist" ad against Tennessee Senate Candidate Harold Ford, further proves that Bob Bob Schieffer himself is a card-carrying liberal racist and race-baiter himself.
respectfully yours
bluestardad
Had we equipped the Iraqs with AR-15s, for example, then it would have been very hard to explain how the Mahdi Army and Badra Brigades were walking around with US manufactured weapons.
Outfitting Iraqi troops with the enemy's weapons took care of the problem of America and the rest of the world finding out that the Iraqi Army was on the other side. The missing records of serial numbers conveniently helps conceal whats going on too, as does the "we need five years of training to be ready to assist the American forces" ploy.
What is Rummsfeld's solution: give them more money and equipment, them being, as it turns out, the militias and Sunni insurgency.
Boehner said it all: "You're doin one heck of a job, Rummy".
I can hear cheney and Rummy now; "Missing guns? Big Deal we make more everyday.""Just think of all the ammo we'll sell!"
The idiots are running the asylum.
This war is costing us $1600.00 A SECOND!
Exxon Mobil profits for 3rd Quarter = $1300.00 A SECOND!
We are paying our money and blood to protect those oil profits.
But the right wing republican tax cuts for corporations and the rich insure that our grandkids pay the tab, not us.
Those are right wing republican family values.
90 kids lost while they adjusted their slogan.
God Bless our Troops and protect them from right wing incompetence.
God forgive George Bush
CBS ......... working hard to elect their pals the DEMs............ typical and predictable... but sad and shameful.
I bet you were the guy that pulled in front of my house asking if we were on food stamps.....LOL
Bob Schieffer is beyond reproach. You, however, are not.
Does it ever occur to you zeros that maybe these news reports are ACTUALLY THE TRUTH ? And, dont you feel like complete fools for believing these Republican crooks who could carealess about you except for what's in your wallet ?
Did you see how fast your corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack dropped that story?
I bet you a million bucks this story is dropped on November 8th.........
How about this famous Groucho Marx line in Bush's next speech: "So who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"
ITEM TOTAL
Under barrel Grenade Launcher 3,900
Launcher. RPG-7 1,528
Machine gun, M-2, .50 caliber 12
Machine gun, MP-5 518
Machine gun, PKM 5,221
Machine gun, RPK 14,982
Pistol, 9mm, Generic 38,053
Pistol, 9mm, Glock 138,813
Rifle, Assault, AK-47 165,409
Rifle, Assault, MF-1 751
Rifle, Assault, M-4 620
Shotgun 384
Sniper rifle 60
Total 370,251
These are the weapons that were given to the Iraqis. Now we find out we have no idea who has what. Any bets on how many are in insurgent or militia hands and being aimed at our sons and daughters?
RUMSFELD!! RESIGN NOW!
GW!! RESIGN NOW!
CHENEY!! RESIGN NOW!
ROVE & company!! RESIGN NOW!
VOTE THESE IDIOTS OUT!
Haven't you figured it out yet? Tax breaks for only the the rich, about 5% of the population you *******.
Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns. NICE JOB...BRING OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME and get all those jackasses out of Washington before they take down OUR Country!
How convenient for Washington...
'Nuff said.
One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some resonable people in our government, but they are NOT in the White House, that I know too.
Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.
Why are we in IRAQ? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.
Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:
I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.
I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.
Fools rush in and that is what we did going into Iraq, so calling the people wanting this war stupid or arrogant fits the bill just fine.
GW Bush has nothing to do with the way the military is going to employ tactics.
The military commanders do not want unnecessary deaths, but right now, they are on the ground in Iraq, by order of the President. People are dying all around our troops and they cannot do much about it. They do not know why they are there, or why the people in Iraq started killing each other.
If the experts said it would be this way, why did we not take the time to create a better plan? I think I know part of the reasons: "politics". The party wanting this war needed it to BEGIN quickly or it might never come to pass.
How unfortunate for our brothers and sisters in the military that they can be wasted along side of Iraqi people without a known, true and just cause.
Two days before the last Presidential election,Bin Laden had released a video tape in which he was talking agianst Bush.It was obvious when the worst enemy of USA was talking aginst Bush,Americans were supposed to vote BUSH which BIN LADEN actually wanted.Our Army was supposed to be deployed to Iran but because of this administration's policies has only been used to help Iran and Alqaeda terrorists against us.
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