GAO, ABC, MSNBC Release Nature of Sensitive Military Equipment Available Online

The General Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today detailing the nature of sensitive military equipment for sale at online sites like eBay and Craigslist.

The report was prepared by the Special Investigations Unit of the GAO for the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, which held a hearing today. Chairman John Tierney was prominently featured in a subsequent news release entitled “Investigation into the Sale of Sensitive, In-Demand Military Equipment and Supplies on the Internet.”

Most of the equipment in question, such as aircraft parts, night vision goggles, antennae, and chemical/biological protective gear, could jeopardize technical secrets if it fell into the hands of enemy military forces capable of sophisticated reverse engineering.

One relatively simple piece of equipment, however, would also allow individual terrorists or insurgents to easily masquerade as American soldiers, putting both soldiers and missions at risk. Stolen military uniforms, much like police badges and uniforms, have been available on the black market for some time; this specific piece of equipment, however, is small and simple; it’s the size of a name tag and is made to be used with special night vision goggles that allow US forces to operate at night with a huge advantage over the enemy. Unlike the more complicated equipment, it could potentially be copied by terrorist or insurgent organizations or cells.

ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson aired a story containing the nature of the equipment in question yesterday evening after a copy of the report or some part of the report was apparently leaked.

Today MSNBC, as well as cnet.com and fcw.com, also published the nature of the equipment.

That the GEO and the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs would alert God only knows how many terrorists and insurgents to both the existence of this equipment and its availability is highly questionable. Moreover, the release of the report has significantly increased the demand for this “sensitive, in-demand military equipment,” raising its value considerably.

Raising the value of such equipment can only increase the rate at which it is being stolen and sold on the Internet.

The fact that so few news organizations chose to publish the nature of this particular piece of equipment is heartening; ABC and MSNBC, however, should surely have shown more restraint.

Newsprism

Bush Announces Exit Strategy, Timetable for Withdrawal

In a speech today at the White House (transcript), a relatively sombre and downcast President Bush (video) announced his exit strategy and timetable for withdrawal from Washington, DC: on January 20, 2009, at precisely noon, Mr. Bush will leave office barring unforeseen circumstances.

At that time, a new president—if the Petraeus/Crocker hearings were any indication, Barack Obama—will inherit the war in Iraq, which Mr. Bush said is “not endless.”

“Not endless” is about as optimistic as the president could be. His hopes for a positive conclusion to the war were sketched out using “if” and ”would” rather than “when” and ”will,” an indication that he isn’t able to realistically predict, or even define, victory:

if we succeed in Iraq, after all that al-Qaida and Iran have invested there, it’d be a historic blow to the global terrorist movement and a severe setback for Iran. It would demonstrate to a watching world that mainstream Arabs reject the ideology of al-Qaida and mainstream Shia reject the ideology of Iran’s radical regime. It would give America a new partner with a growing economy and a democratic political system in which Sunnis and Shia and Kurds all work together for the good of their country.

The fact that after all the US has invested in Iraq the situation there is increasingly untenable is already being touted as a victory for the insurgents and jihadists who continue to tie up our armed forces. A “watching world” has seen terrorist attacks increasing across the globe, due in part to outrage over the arrogance of launching an unnecessary, unjustified pre-emptive war against an already desperate and isolated Iraq. As for transforming Iraq into a prosperous, democratic, and unified ally, one wonders if the happy Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will all be riding unicorns across rainbows to fields of cotton candy.

On the other hand, the president admitted that failure in Iraq would bring about dire consequences:

If we fail there, al-Qaida would claim a propaganda victory of colossal proportions and they could gain safe havens in Iraq from which to attack the United States, our friends and our allies. Iran would work to fill the vacuum in Iraq…. This would diminish our nation’s standing in the world and lead to massive humanitarian casualties and increase the threat of another terrorist attack on our homeland.

The “propaganda victory” Mr. Bush refers to has already been accomplised by al Qaeda and the Sunni and Shiite insurgents, who’ve fought the world’s only remaining superpower to a draw using geurrilla tactics and improvised weapons and strategies. Iran has already been made the dominant force in the region, and our standing in the world, both economic and moral, declines daily. As for “massive humanitarian casualties,” one wonders what the president considers the nearly 100,000 dead, the two to four million displaced, the ethnic cleansing, and the decimation of Iraq’s already fragile economy—not to mention the cost in American dead and wounded—to be.

The sole silver lining in Bush’s remarks was directed at soldiers deployed to Iraq after August 1, who will serve the traditional 12-month stint rather than the current 15-month stint that has strained our military to the breaking point. This change in policy, however, hints at the damage the Iraq quagmire has done to the military, which the army openly acknowledges and which has left us increasingly vulnerable.

President Bush essentially slathered lipstick on the proverbial pig this morning. Even the centrist Christian Science Monitor characterized the speech as a defeatest hand-off to the next president, who will have to re-define “victory” and come up with a plan for a responsible withdrawal.

The president seems almost delusional in his stubborn refusal to admit what an astronomical miscalculation he made in launching an invasion of Iraq.

All that was missing today in the White House’s Cross Hall was another banner reading, “Mission Accomplished.”

Newsprism