Stolen US technology for sale

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, September 3, 2021: Following the Withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan a treasure of highly sophisticated American weapons was left in US bases there. The value of US weapons is estimated at billions of dollars.

The Taliban seized most of these weapons by occupying Afghanistan, considering them the “spoils of war.”

According to the Pentagon figures, the weapons left are more than 2,000 armored vehicles, including U.S. Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft potentially including UH-60 Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and Scan-Eagle military drones.

Additionally, between 2002 and 2017, the United States gave the Afghan military an estimated $28 billion in weaponry, including guns, rockets, night-vision goggles, and even small drones for intelligence gathering.

But aircraft like the Blackhawk helicopters have been the most visible sign of U.S. military assistance and were supposed to be the Afghan military's biggest advantage over the Taliban.

Furthermore, Between 2003 and 2016 the United States provided Afghan forces with 208 aircraft, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In the last week, many of those aircraft were most useful for Afghan pilots to escape the Taliban.

One of the U.S. officials said that between 40 and 50 aircraft had been flown to Uzbekistan by Afghan pilots seeking refuge. Even before taking power in Kabul over, the Taliban had started a campaign of assassinating Afghan pilots.

Since 2003 the United States has provided Afghan forces with at least 600,000 infantry weapons including M16 assault rifles, 162,000 pieces of communication equipment, and 16,000 night-vision goggle devices.

Others who stole US weapons are local militias, drug smugglers, and war lards to name a few.

Thus, the black market and gun hunters get a good catch to the extent that the value of these weapons decreased due to the law of supply and demand. The process of acquiring American weapons and manufacturing them using “reverse engineering” has become possible and easy.

Following the disclosure of this news, the CIA is busy in a mission impossible to ensure these weapons or at least the sensitive ones should not fall into the hands of terrorists. 

The moral of the story is that while FATF has terrorized the citizens of Pakistan, it failed in its mission of fighting terrorism.