Ben Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 [url="http://www.canada.com/topics/news/oddities/story.html?id=908fbe46-df52-4b6d-8943-d51312e44157&k=81596"]http://www.canada.com/topics/news/oddities...157&k=81596[/url] [quote]WASHINGTON (AP) - Undercover U.S. government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided-missile radar test sets from a Defence Department contractor. Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, said a 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 armour 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 armour could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday. "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." A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said Friday night he had not seen the GAO report and had no immediate comment. U.S. Representative Christopher Shays, chairman of the House of Representatives government reform committee's national security panel, will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday. Earlier GAO reports also found lax security controls over sensitive excess military equipment. "During previous hearings we learned DOD was a bargain basement for would-be terrorists due to lax security screening of excess military equipment," Shays said in a statement Friday. "Based on GAO's most recent undercover investigation it looks like the store is still open."[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 If this is true I hope they pay the heaviest of prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bengalrick Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 [quote name='Jamie_B' post='300613' date='Jul 25 2006, 02:43 PM']If this is true I hope they pay the heaviest of prices.[/quote] damn straight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlackJesus Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 [center][b]Starts a "present for pissburgh" collection jar [/b] [/center] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 [quote name='BlackJesus' post='300694' date='Jul 25 2006, 04:16 PM'][center][b]Starts a "present for pissburgh" collection jar [/b] [/center][/quote] Can I be the first to sign those bombs? [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//3.gif[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlackJesus Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 [quote name='Jamie_B' post='301081' date='Jul 25 2006, 11:21 PM'] Can I be the first to sign those bombs? [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//3.gif[/img][/quote] [b]Now see that we can all agree on [/b] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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