U.S.-Supplied Weapons Vulnerable After Afghanistan Withdrawal --- Weapons given to Afghanistan have gone missing before, and it may happen again. --- When Afghanistan fought the Soviet Union during the 1980s, the CIA sent shoulder-launched, surface-to-air Stinger missiles to the mujahedeen fighters battling the Red Army. When the Soviets left, many of the missiles went missing, and CIA operatives – including Robert Baer – were assigned to track them down. -- Finding the Stingers was a top priority for the agency because of fears they could be used by militant groups like al-Qaida, which was then based in Afghanistan and in 2001 carried out terrorist attacks against the U.S. The lack of controls for those missiles haunted American officials for years. -- “There was no plan,” Baer says about efforts to supply weapons to the mujahedeen. “Congress told the CIA basically to give them weapons to fight the Red Army, even though they knew it would be hard to track and control them.” -- Weapons are once again at risk of falling into the wrong hands in Afghanistan, as the U.S. military prepares to leave the country after more than a decade of war. About $4 billion in used equipment will be scrapped, destroyed or sold, and there are concerns some weapons may once again wind up with militants in the region. --- The Pentagon is working to ensure that does not happen, but problems already have been uncovered in efforts to track its arms transfers to Afghanistan: The Afghan National Security Forces, or ANSF, have a glut of supplied weapons far above their agreed-upon needs, according to a new report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR. -- "Without confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to account for or properly dispose of these weapons, SIGAR is concerned that they could be obtained by insurgents and pose additional risks to Afghan civilians and the ANSF," says the report, released Monday. --- The Afghan police and army have 112,000 more weapons than they need, including 83,000 excess AK-47 rifles supplied to the Afghan National Army by the Pentagon. After 2010, the Defense Department stopped providing non-NATO-standard arms like AK-47s, and the Pentagon told the inspector general it is the Afghan government's responsibility "to determine if they have weapons in excess of their needs," according to the report. The ratio of Afghan personnel to excess weapons may become even greater if the Afghan government downsizes its security forces as projected by 2017, the report says, adding to the risk that the guns will fall into the wrong hands. - More, US News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/07/28/pentagon-weapons-vulnerable-after-afghanistan-withdrawal