Years After We Learned the Pentagon Was Selling Used/Surplus War Hardware to Questionable Sources, The Practice Continues Full Speed Ahead

This was a terrible bit of news when we first learned about it in 2002 or so, and it's even worse to learn that our government has no freakin' idea to whom they sell this used or surplus hardware. This means the likelihood that Americans, children, and yes, even Mr. Bush's prized, precious Snowflake Babies may be killed by hardware the Pentagon sells a terrorist. But then, some of us wonder if Mr. Rumsfeld and at least the civilian top-rankers at the Pentagon should be defined as terrorists, too.

From the wires:

Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

"The body armor could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "Many of the other military items have weapons applications that would also be useful to terrorists."

Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.

The list included circuit cards used in computerized Navy systems, a cesium technology timing unit with global positioning capabilities, and 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.

At least 2,669 sensitive military items were sold to 79 buyers in 216 sales transactions from November 2005 to June 2006.

"DOD has not enforced security controls for preventing sensitive excess military equipment from release to the public," the report concluded. "GAO was able to purchase these items because controls broke down at virtually every step in the excess property turn-in and disposal process."

No accountability, no responsibility, no sense whatsoever.