CBS: US military equipment stolen by Taliban & sold in open air Pakistan markets

[Turborama]

Run time: 02:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQ3klg2634   Posted on YouTube: February 16, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 18, 2009 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 950

 

US Gear Ending up in Pakistan Markets

February 13, 2009
by Shahan Mufti

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Throughout the ages, this ancient Silk Road town near the border of Afghanistan has been the place where the black market thrives and the military spoils of empires are hawked openly.

Here in the storefronts you can still buy antique field rifles left over from the British presence of the 19th century and find uniforms and revolvers from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Now the shops in this industrial rim of Peshawar are filling with military equipment and computers looted from the most recent empire to bog down in this hostile and impenetrable terrain: the United States of America.

In the age of computerized high-tech warfare, it is not just American hardware available on the black market. Now there is also vital technology and information up for grabs and -- as military officials here and in the U.S. fear -- leaking into the wrong hands in this region where the Taliban and elements of Al Qaeda have a known presence.

I was recently able to purchase a U.S. military laptop for $650 from a small kiosk, which is known as the "Sitara Market," on the western edge of the sprawling open-air markets on the edge of Peshawar. The laptop, which has clear U.S. military markings and serial numbers, contained restricted U.S. military information, as well as software for military platforms, the identities of numerous military personnel and information about weaknesses and flaws in American military vehicles being employed in the war in Afghanistan.

Longtime observers of the region and military experts say the open market on U.S. military hardware and technology is increasingly compromising the American military supply route that runs from the Pakistani seaport in Karachi through the Khyber Pass and into neighboring Afghanistan. "This kind of trade has been happening in the past, but not so openly," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based journalist who has reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan for several decades. "In the past few months this has started in a big way," he added.

Continues (this is a long article with lots of info.): http://www.military.com/news/article/us-gear-ending-up-in-pakistan-markets.html?ESRC=eb.nl

[aquart]

1. How embarrassing is that?

[The Wizard]

2. This happened all the time in Vietnam

Our ships were unloaded by Vietnamese, many of whom were Viet Cong at night. Then there were the ARVN who'd be given supplies and take them to the black market in stolen American vehicles. It's the cost of engaging in a war where you don't belong. Democracy imposed at gunpoint isn't democracy, but imperialism.
Just as the Vietnamese wanted us out of their land, the Iraqi and Afghan people want us gone. While we're there they'll bleed us any way possible. It is their land and we can expect this to continue until we're unable to sustain the occupation(s).
We're all victims of the Military Industrial Complex. For most of us (excepting those doing the dirty work) our loss is in treasure, now and in the future. For those engaged in the fighting and their victims, it's blood.
It's an immoral venture brought to us by immoral swine. No good will come of it.
If we have the political will to end this insanity we'll save enough money to restore our economy. This is the first time unemployment has increased during war, and the first time in human history tax cuts were employed to pay for the war(makes as much sense as a bull with tits). Talk about getting it all wrong.

[pam4water]

3. What a complete fuck up