Security Assistance; and Logistics - Federation of American Scientists

• Paragraph C18.7.3. requires that SA/LW recovered by law enforcement agenciesor foreign countries and returned to the custody of a DoD Component beregistered on the DoD Component Registry (DoD Component Registryinformation is provided to the DoD SA/LW Registry).• Paragraph C18.5.1.2. DoD SA/LW Registry shall provide a central repository ofSA/LW’ serial numbers from the DoD Component Registries, to include those onhand,in-transit, lost, stolen, demilitarized, or shipped outside the control of DoD.• Paragraph C18.5.2.10.2. requires that all new weapons or devices that could beconstrued as weapons be reported to the Joint SA/LW Coordinating Groupchairperson.Clearly defined procedures need to be established and enforced to maintain adequatevisibility for the accountability, control, physical security, and final disposition ofcaptured, confiscated, abandoned, recovered, and turned-in weapons held by U.S. forcesor the ISF. The make, model, and serial numbers of these weapons should be recordedand reported to the DoD SA/LW Registry.An unbroken chain of custody to account for, control, and maintain physical security ofcaptured, confiscated, abandoned, recovered, and turned-in weapons held by U.S. forcesor the ISF needs to be established to govern the process of handling these weapons untilfinal disposition, whether that be destruction, storage, or reissue to ISF.Further, a chain of custody by serial number would enable U.S. Forces and Governmentof Iraq law enforcement agencies to obtain serial numbers for weapons found to bemisplaced, lost, or stolen to identify the last accountable entity for those weapons. Thisinformation would provide a starting point for investigative officials to trace weapons anddetermine the cause of the loss.Processing Captured and Otherwise Obtained WeaponsIraq Ministry of Defense Memorandum #8578121, “Captured WeaponRecommendations,” April 22, 2008, provided preliminary guidance to Iraqi militaryorganizations on accountability, control and processing of captured weapons. The MoI,however, has not yet institutionalized a policy for captured weapons.The MoD captured weapons policy at Iraqi Army depots and Location Commands hasnot been fully implemented. Thousands of captured weapons were in storage at TajiNAD and the KMTB Location Command. These weapons had not had their serialnumbers recorded and had not been inspected for serviceability and placement into theIraqi military weapons inventory. MNSTC-I estimated that there may have been as manyas 80,000 captured weapons stored at various depot locations throughout Iraq. 15 Currentplanning calls for captured enemy weapons turned into the Location Commands were tobe inventoried and transported to Taji NAD for disposition.15 “The Advisor” Vol. 5, Issue 15, August 3, 2008, page 3, (a semi-monthly publication of MNSTC-I).42