(PatriotWise.com) — The Inspectors General for the Defense Department and USAID last week launched coordinated reviews of the military’s temporary floating pier in Gaza, which has faced security concerns and multiple problems, including breaking apart in choppy waters.
The Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General will specifically probe the “effectiveness” of the military’s efforts to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery through the temporary pier, according to a June 27 press release.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General’s Office for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will review the “plans and controls” USAID had in place for the distribution of humanitarian aid from the temporary pier, with a particular focus on the handoff of supplies to the UN World Food Program, the press release said.
The temporary pier, known as JLOTS (the Joint Logistics Over the Shore), was first opened in mid-May. Since then, the military has had to re-anchor the structure twice: once after it broke apart in choppy waters a week after it opened and again when it was deliberately dismantled in anticipation of further heavy seas in mid-June.
The Inspectors General’s probes were announced just one day after House Armed Service Committee Chair Mike Rogers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan criticizing the operation, which he said had so many setbacks that it was “sidelined more often than operational.”
Chairman Rogers described the $230 million operation as “a gross waste of taxpayer dollars” and called on the administration to put an end to the “failed operation before further catastrophe occurs.”
US officials said last Friday that the pier had again been removed due to weather and that the Pentagon was considering not re-installing it.
The UN World Food Program paused participation in JLOTS last month, and a spokesman for the group said last Friday that the pause would remain in place until security concerns on the ground were addressed.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh confirmed last Friday that she was not sure if and when the pier would be reinstalled.
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