Unhappy US Congress Finds US Mil Aid Diverted to the Genocide in Sa’ada, Yemen
Oh Yay! Do not ship the copters, please. Yemeni strafed villages in the 2005 round of the Saada War. They’ll use them against the southerners today and in Sa’ada tomorrow. A better end monitoring structure needs to be in place. PDF of the original report to Congress here. Update: an excellent report with some interesting findings (equipment missing already) and very necessary conclusions including the need to rationalize Saudi aid.
World Tribune:, WASHINGTON — Congress has expressed concern that U.S. military aid to Yemen was being diverted to battle Iran-backed Shi’ite insurgents. Officials have acknowledged continued differences between Sanaa and Washington over Yemen’s security priorities. The United States has stressed the Al Qaida threat while Sanaa designated the Shi’ite rebellion in the north as the leading priority.
“As a result of this difference in focus, there are serious concerns that U.S. counter-terrorism assistance, provided to assist the ROYG [Yemeni government] in combating Al Qaida, has been diverted for use in the war against the Houthis,” the report said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has asserted that tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military and security assistance was diverted from the war against Al Qaida to Yemen’s campaign against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite rebels, called Houthis, in the north. The committee reported discrepancies between records of U.S. security assistance and those in the Yemeni military.
“This potential misuse of security assistance underscores the importance of enhancing the current end-use monitoring regime for U.S.-provided equipment,” the report, titled “Following the Money in Yemen and Lebanon: Maximizing the Effectiveness of U.S. Security Assistance and International Financial Institution Lending,” said. “Indeed, the existing end-use monitoring protocols in place have revealed discrepancies between U.S. records of security assistance and those that are in the possession of Yemeni defense forces.”
Officials said the U.S. military has been assigned to track assistance to Yemen. They said the effort included the Defense Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the U.S. embassy’s Office of Military Cooperation. The military has requested the deployment of reservists for six-month tours to monitor U.S. aid.
“Past problems resulting from a lack of coordination underscore the importance of unity of effort among all U.S. agencies,” the Senate report, dated January 2010, said.
The need for monitoring has become acute amid a significant increase in U.S. military aid to Yemen. Washington has approved more than $150 million in military and security aid for 2010 as the Pentagon oversaw an offensive against Al Qaida.
“Moreover, in the most recent round of inspections, the FMF officer found that much equipment was unaccounted for,” the report said. “There were also significant discrepancies between DSCA’s data on the quantity that had been provided and that which was in the Yemeni forces’ inventories.”
The Senate reported the diversion of U.S. night-vision equipment from Al Qaida to the Shi’ite war near the border with Saudi Arabia. The night vision goggles and other equipment were acquired by Yemen through the U.S. 1206 program, reserved for urgent counter-insurgency assistance.
“The reported use of night-time raids in Saada raises questions about whether the 1206-funded night-vision equipment has been used in these raids,” the report said.
Another concern was that the Yemen Air Force was using U.S. military equipment in air strikes against Shi’ite rebels. The report said the suspected diversion led to a U.S. embassy decision to suspend further aid on fuel-related equipment to the Air Force
.“Likewise, concerned about the possibility of the Yemeni Air Force using propellant activated devices in aerial campaign in the north, the embassy has put a hold on the provision of this equipment to the Yemeni armed forces,” the report said.
In what has compounded the problem, the report said, U.S. military representatives in Sanaa remained uncertain over whether Washington had actually banned U.S. aid to quell the Shi’ite rebellion. Regardless, U.S. diplomats were said to have urged Yemeni leaders not to divert assistance for the war against Al Qaida.
“The USG should develop a more robust end-use monitoring regime for Yemen, and for any other country where there is ongoing armed conflict in which U.S.-provided CT resources could be diverted,” the report said.
