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The Pentagon Has No Idea Where $500 Million Of Weapons Went In Yemen

by Sean Levinson
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Over $500 million worth of weapons supplied by the US to Yemen is now nowhere to be found.

The Yemeni government was overthrown by Shiite rebels last January, according to the Washington Post, making it impossible for the Defense Department to keep track of the hundreds of rifles, body armor suits and night-vision goggles sent to the Arab nation since 2007.

A legislative aide on Capitol Hill said,

We have to assume it's completely compromised and gone.

This lack of control worsened when the US closed its Yemeni embassy last month due to the overwhelming danger and took back many of the military advisers stationed there.

Many of the country's military bases are now controlled by these rebels or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Pentagon officials have admitted that the equipment, which also includes four helicopters, two patrol boats and 160 Humvees, may very well have been obtained by terrorist organizations.

A defense official told the Washington Post,

Even in the best-case scenario in an unstable country, we never have 100 percent accountability.

The Defense Department has therefore suspended the delivery of a series of Jeeps, unarmed drones and additional aircraft that was supposed to be delivered to Yemen at some point in 2015.

Undisclosed nations in the Middle East and Africa will instead receive the $125 million in military gear.

Yemen has asked for more jets and tanks, but the US is currently sending only small guns and ammunition.

The Washington Post reports that Yemeni rebels won't become any more threatening should they obtain US firearms because they didn't have any problems arming themselves beforehand.

The US is the only nation with more gun owners than Yemen, where large amounts of heavy artillery are sold at local markets.

But the mishap shouldn't be taken lightly since a similar accident can partially be attributed to the rise of the Islamic State.

A great deal of the Sunni militants' arsenal was taken from the Iraqi army, which the US spent $25 billion arming after invading the nation in 2003.

Citations: Pentagon loses track of 500 million in weapons (The Washington Post)