6 Billion proposed to equip airliners with missile defense systems
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.
The missiles, four to six-feet long and Russian-made, can weigh just 55 pounds with launcher. They lock on to the heat generated by the engines of aircraft, can be fired from a vehicle or from a combatant’s shoulder, and are accurate and deadly at a range of more than two miles. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch first warned about the problem after a trip to Libya six months ago. He took pictures of pickup truckloads of the missiles being carted off during another trip just a few weeks ago.
“I myself could have removed several hundred if I wanted to, and people can literally drive up with pickup trucks or even 18 wheelers and take away whatever they want,” said Bouckaert, HRW’s emergencies director. “Every time I arrive at one of these weapons facilities, the first thing we notice going missing is the surface-to-air missiles.”
Gosh, couldn’t have seen this one coming from a million miles away….was the ATF in charge of this operation?
Q: Now that we have created another terrorist state in the name of Democracy, who shall be held accountable?
A: No one is held accountable for anything anymore.
This was no accident; when our CIA and Mossad pull another false flag operation, shooting an air liner out of the sky, they’ll have an imaginary someone to blame.
That’s a great big WTF!
#40 Baggins
That was my thinking. Libya was entering a civil war regardless of US or European assistance. The only difference being was the duration of the conflict.
And by raising a big stink over US involvement, I believe Congress succeeded in removing any chance of US Forces securing any of these arm depots to avoid looting. Can’t have any “boots on the ground” now, can we?
Before we forget, this is a good time to congratulate Prez Obama for winning the war in Libya without any American casualties.
That’s another way to create jobs.
Accidentally lose 20,000 shoulder fired SAM and now we have to equip all the domestic airplanes with a missile defense system.
I am sure there are probably more appropriate words to use instead of “accidentally” and “lose”
Look on the bright side!
At least they can stop the TSA inspections since they are pointless now.