The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee spent a good part of today hearing testimony about the misadventures of Afghan defense contractor Blackwater (a.k.a. Xe Services a.k.a. Paravant). The senators were not happy, calling the company (and its shell companies) “reckless” and “irresponsible.” A document submitted to your duly elected reps revealed that Blackwater employees removed “hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles” from Kabul’s Bunker 22. The majority of the weapons, intended for Afghanistan’s national police force, disappeared. “It is not clear which Blackwater employee took possession of the weapons,” governmentexecutive.com reports. “The Defense Department said there was no paperwork documenting the transfer of weapons from the bunker and receipts showed the guns were issued to ‘Eric Cartman,’ a likely reference to the character on the animated television program, South Park.” Question: why are we supplying AKs to Afghanis? Surely we have something better?
