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As fighting continues in Libya, a disturbing new report reveals that over 20,000 surface-to-air missiles have gone missing in the country. This is a Brian Ross special, so take it with a huge grain of salt, but the White House basically confirmed the report in a morning press gaggle.
U.S. officials had once thought there was little chance that terrorists could get their hands on many of the portable surface-to-air missiles that can bring down a commercial jet liner.
But now that calculation is out the window, with officials at a recent secret White House meeting reporting that thousands of them have gone missing in Libya.
“Matching up a terrorist with a shoulder-fired missile, that’s our worst nightmare,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D.-California, a member of the Senate’s Commerce, Energy and Transportation Committee.
The nightmare has been made real with the discovery in Libya that an estimated 20,000 portable, heat-seeking missiles have gone missing from unguarded Army weapons warehouses.
Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to this today while on Air Force One from Los Angeles to Denver.
“The potential for conventional weapons proliferation from Libya has been of concern for many years. . . Since the beginning of the crisis we have been actively engaged with our allies and partners to support Libya’s effort to secure all conventional weapons stockpiles including recovery, control and disposal of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.”
A State Department official is on the ground in Libya, Carney said, working on the issue.
The potential for proliferation isn’t the best reason to not get involved in a foreign country in the midst of a civil war, but it’s always worth recalling that this was going to be a concern if Gadhafi was overthrown. And this goes back to the selling of conventional weapons to Libya, which the US willingly approved back in 2009. Weapons proliferation starts at that point; when shoulder-fired missile launchers “go missing” that’s just an extension of the loss of control begun by the sale.
Ultimately, we’re never going to get a full handle on the whereabouts of all these Stinger-type missiles. That was the case in Afghanistan after the Soviet war and it’s the case today. Funny how blowback keeps, well, blowing back.
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no worries, the ATF probably launched operation “Fast & Furious: Libya Grift” and promises to track the arms back to the bad guys. /s
My understanding is that these are WWII era missiles that any number of countries are capable of manufacturing, so the actual impact on security may be less than it appears.
I’m sure the count is accurate, just like the 193,000 AK-47 lost in Iraq. I have a call into McCain, Lieberman and Graham that we need to invade some country to rectify the situation. After all, it’s not the missile that kill people, it’s people that kill people.
looks like they got your message. (see Juan Cole)
Meanwhile, back in the USA:
NYPD chief: We could take down plane if necessary
“[NYPD] sources told The Post that Kelly and Browne were referring to Barrett .50 caliber rifles that can be mounted on most police helicopters. The bullets can rip through cockpit glass as well as fuselage, and their force has been compared to that of a bazooka.
“The rifles are stored in an NYPD safe and are deployed only for “special occasions,” such as when the president is in town, the sources added.
. . .
“Kelly also told “60 Minutes” that the NYPD has intelligence officers stationed in cities around the world, including Abu Dhabi, Amman, Montreal, Toronto, Singapore and Paris.”
Source.
Maybe the NYPD bought some:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44666835/ns/today-today_news/t/nypd-chief-we-could-take-down-plane-if-necessary/
That being said, the WH should have known clearly that this would happen given what’s happened in Afghanistan, etc.
Awesome. While you’re being groped by a TSA agent in the airport security line to make sure you aren’t smuggling aboard a nail clipper, the guy in the van at the end of the runway is arming his AA missile.
Putting official boots on the ground has always been the goal, reports at the CFR and FP magazine keep pushing this line but change the pretexts.
Stingers, stun guns and steroids. What more does civilian law enforcement need?
Who sold them the missiles was it us?
Just read the link Russian missiles but no mention of what kind of missiles.
Are you sure that there is such a thing as a “WWII-era” shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile?? I was in Army Air Defense in the early ’70s and never heard of such a thing. The closest would be the tripod (large) or mobile “flack” weapons.
I assume they work and are much newer, otherwise they would not have been in inventory.
I know nothing of where any of this info came from, but there were no Stinger type missles in WWII. The US (Navy, I believe) was developing radio controlled missles during the war, and Germany used wire-guided and radio controlled missles, mostly in the Med, where they did great damage. However, none of these could possibly be operational now. Shoulder-launch is a whole different degree of technology, and came MUCH later.
Why would Libya buy WW2 stuff instead on modern missiles they had the money to buy modern missiles?
What countries do we think Gaddafi is in do we think he has them and or do his secret police have them? What countries have a strong Al Quadia presence are near Libya and had friendly relations with Gaddafi?
Which African countries are at war right now and might want to buy them?
Oh, well, someone will just have to make 20,000 more to keep up the balance of terror in the world. Bidders, anyone?
Why would the U.S. sell Russian missiles?
“And this goes back to the selling of conventional weapons to Libya, which the US willingly approved back in 2009.
This seems like Iraq 2.0 when America sold weapons to Iraq in the 80′s. This maybe the propaganda prelude to have an even more open presence in Libya as opposed to just our CIA and Special operations units doing the bidding of corporate oil and weapon interest. Last time, America had to wait until Saddam Hussein used the actual nerve gas and weapons sold to him to invade Kuwait before the multi-national corporations could move in and take over. However Kuwait wasn’t enough for the PTB, thus the removal of Bush the Red Lips from the throne after one term. With the crowning of Bush the Lesser the plan was back on track to get the whole enchilada of Iraq under corporate rule.
Somalia,Yemen, and Oman may not be far behind with a greater American presence. Just by looking at a map of the area, one can see the American mid-east policy at work. United States Naval Forces Central Command is located in the Arabian sea and with control of Afghanistan, the U.S. is trying to control all routes of access in and out of the oil producing nations.
I hope we are using what is happening in Libya as at least a loose template for what might happen in Pakistan should we “invade”.
Only real difference? They have nukes.
How in THE FOOK could they not guard this many missiles?
Is everyone in the military chain of command INCOMPETENT except the soldiers?
Good Gods! What a bunch of morons
Which WE gave them as well as that eminently insane country, North Korea… that was Bush’s bright idea.
Nothing incompetent about it – Obama first makes an excuse that something like this couldn’t happen, then now that inevitably did happen, it gives Obama a reason to continue with the perma-war. Like gosh, we couldn’t get rid of the Patriot Act since now there’s all these heat seeking missiles out there.
Or something….like “there’s a great probability the US will be attacked again”.
Now, it’s greater
WTF? What WW II “Heat Seeking Missiles”?
Name them.
If this is even close to rue, all airplane need to be grounded immediately, before there is a disaster (simultaneous attacks at the take off point at many airports).
I can name may airport by coasts where planes are extremely vulnerable to a shoulder fired missile from a rowboat.
“that’s our worst nightmare,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer.
I’m sure it is. Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction, tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes at nuke sites, and millions thrown out of their homes by predatory bankers doesn’t even register on bab’s beany baby brain.
This happened quite a few months ago. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal now.
I bet some have been converted into other kinds of weapons by the Rebels. Rebels have every kind of weapon known to man mounted in the back of pick-up trucks to use against Khadaffy ground troops.
They’re grandstanding idiots. Helicopter mounted sniper rifles. What makes them think that an attacker would use the same method of attack twice? If you haven’t noticed, they always do something different. We are too dumb to figure things out in advance and all we can ever do is try to ensure whatever moronic thing that happened, doesn’t happen again.
We can’t see past our own noses. If we had half a brain we’d ask WHY DO THEY ATTACK US? And do something to try to stop those seeds from being planted. Instead, we fight pointless wars, kill hundreds of thousands of siblings, parents, friends and the like and we scratch our head why someone would have the least bit of hatred towards this country or why they’d seek harm against us.
We only make things worse continuing the path we’re on. At what point is the war on terror over? When there is no hatred in the hearts of men? Or do we instead sacrifice any and all freedoms instead?
Iran Contra the CIA might want to make a profit but does not want America officially linked to Libya?
from my notes:
The prevalent system found in Libya to date has been the SA-7, a Soviet-designed pre-Stinger system that is no longer especially effective against modern military aircraft but still a grave threat to civilian aircraft. There are also SA-24 heat-seeking, anti-aircraft missiles.
The Libyan military had, by the available records found by journalists and arms researchers to date, at least 7,000 of them — though the United States government has estimated the actual MANPADS procurement in Libya over the years might have been almost three times that. By way of background, MANPADS typically require three components to be complete — the missile in the tube, the battery/cooling unit that activates the weapon and a grip stock that allows an individual shooter to aim the weapon, acquire a target, and fire the missile.
from Chivers
At the latest depot known to be looted, in Tripoli, nine cases of SA-7s and one case of SA-24s were found emptied and left behind. Each case had held two missiles and two battery/cooling units required to fire them. Earlier reports suggested that the single crate of SA-24 heat-seeking, anti-aircraft missiles discovered at the depot had contained the shoulder-fired variety of this missile, and described these weapons as modern, Russian-made Stinger equivalents now loose in Libya.//
The Soviet SA-7 and SA-7b, an updated model, are the main shoulder-fired missile in Qaddafi’s arsenal. The units are about five feet long and sell on the black market for several thousand dollars.
Africa Command chief Gen. Carter Ham told the Senate in April that Libya held “perhaps as many as 20,000 ManPads missiles at the outset of the war.” (Man-portable air defense systems)
While the SA-24 is one of Russia’s state-of-the-art short-range anti-aircraft missiles — with a greater resistance to countermeasures, a more powerful warhead and a more menacing engagement envelope for ground-to-air use— to date the only known launchers for the system in Libya have been of the bulky, vehicle-mounted variety. The Russian manufacturer confirmed to Aviation Week in the spring that it had sold SA-24s to Libya, but said it sold only the multiple-tube launchers to go with them. Whether this is true or not is an open question, and there are ample grounds to view Russian arms-export statements with skepticism.
Only real difference? They have nukes.
No Sh*t…! 8-(
I’d argue that it’s the same CIA template, IV…!
2007 West Point Study Shows Benghazi-Darnah-Tobruk Area was a World Leader in Al Qaeda Suicide Bomber Recruitment…
I believe the first heat-seeking missle was deployed in the early 1950s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-to-air_missile
First combat use in 1958;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-9_Sidewinder
And here I was thinking that the Taliban’s 100 CIA-provided Stingers were a ‘Blow-Back’ threat!