The World - News from Nov. 9, 1987

The Pentagon cannot account for substantial quantities of weapons and equipment used in a Central American training exercise last year, prompting concern that the equipment might have been left behind for U.S.-backed Contras. An Army audit report obtained by United Press International repeatedly criticized the U.S. military’s failure to monitor the use of guns, ammunition and other equipment in a 1986 training exercise involving 10,000 Army reservists and National Guard members in Honduras and Panama. The report said the Pentagon’s weak controls left an undetermined quantity of arms and ammunition in Central America “susceptible to diversion and unauthorized use.” A Pentagon spokesman denied that the exercise was used “to orchestrate a diversion” of weapons.