AP Exclusive: Pentagon plans big increase for understaffed Iraq weapons sales office

The Pentagon is bolstering a badly understaffed office in Baghdad to speed the flow of warfighting gear to Iraqi forces and help keep the weapons from insurgents and off the black market.

The increase in staff from six to nearly 70 includes a two-star general who arrived in Iraq two weeks ago to manage the expanding team. Army Reserve Maj. Gen. George Smith replaces a colonel, evidence of the greater clout for the office handling billions of dollars in arms sales.

The new push is intended to untie the bureaucratic knots blocking aircraft, armored vehicles, radios, and guns from getting to Iraqi police and the military units that are taking more control over the …