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.
Hey, here’s a thought: Why not start watching the local flea markets and gun shows? I’m sure there were plenty of people who realized a single missile is worth more than they make in a year or more and will be looking to unload it. Just send the “boots on the ground” out to buy ‘em all back at top dollar.
Or maybe try an “arms for toys” campaign. I heard they work great in the ghettos of the US. Ramadan 2012 will be here before you know it!
Maybe Col. Ghadddafi was saving them for a rainy day. That guy always out thinks us.
You gotta love all the Tuesday morning quarterbacking that goes on in this blog.
# 18 I would suggest you should join the military and help out.
its been done already.
The 1978 Air Rhodesia Viscount Shootdown is the first example of a civilian airliner shot down by a man-portable surface to air missile. The pilot of the aircraft managed to make a controlled crash landing, however ten of the survivors were killed by ZIPRA guerrillas.
Air Rhodesia Flight 827 was also shot down in February 1979 by ZIPRA guerillas armed with a Strela 2 missile. All 59 passengers and crew were killed.
1993 Transair Georgian Airline shootdowns involved two separate aircraft shot down a day apart in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia, killing 108 people.[20]
1998 Lionair Flight LN 602 shootdown: On October 7, 1998, the Tamil Tigers shot down an aircraft off the coast of Sri Lanka.
2002 Mombasa airliner attack: On November 28, 2002, two shoulder-launched Strela 2 (SA-7) surface-to-air missiles were fired at a chartered Boeing 757 airliner as it took off from Moi International Airport. The missiles missed the aircraft which continued safely to Tel Aviv, carrying 271 vacationers from Mombasa back to Israel. In the photos, the missle systems were painted in light blue, the color used in the Soviet military for training material (a training SA-7 round would not have the guidance system).
2003 Baghdad DHL shootdown incident: On 22 November 2003, an Airbus A300B4-203F cargo plane, operating on behalf of DHL was hit by an SA-7 missile, which resulted in the loss of its hydraulic systems. The crew later landed the crippled aircraft safely by using only differential engine thrust by adjusting the individual throttle controls of each engine.
2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash: On March 23, 2007, a TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 airplane crashed in outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, during the 2007 Battle of Mogadishu. Witnesses claim that a surface-to-air missile was fired immediately prior to the accident. However, Somali officials deny that the aircraft was shot down.
Someone had better warn the drones!
So much for half baked leftist plots of “the way the world is and the way it should be”
I guess that the crew is going to blame bush for this too
You are all a bunch of hypocrites, sane, rational, but hypocrites none the less.
I bet right now some of you are envious that some camel jockey with sand in his jockeys is hefting a SAM on his shoulder and you don’t have one! ‘Cause Uncle Sam keep a watch on the door of the toy store.
Well, its not like in the ‘States. They don’t have a second amendment in Libya.
But I>nobody is going to fuck with somebody carrying a SAM. We’re talking I>nobody…
If some mother fucker thinks that the Libyans are ever going to get suckered again by some lying sack of shit with braid on his shoulder and a snazzy-looking uniform, he’s going to get a face full of rocket-propelled iron and it go BOOM!
Look at Switzerland.
EVERY ONE of these fuckers has a military grade automatic weapon and two years of training in how to use it and unarmed combat to boot. Both boys AND girls. (Think on that next time you see a Swiss hooker. She doesn’t particularly like her job, but its better than a short-lived attempt at a life of crime, emphasis on short-lived.)
I agree with #16…
Way to go, Barry!
#24 You have a point but a lot of us were saying this is stupid as soon as we knew what the plan was.
I thought every congress critter that voted to give shrub the right to go to war any time he wanted should have be removed from office.
I never saw any reason to think that Iraq had any weapons that justified us sending in troops and taking over the country.
It was obvious we didn’t have a plan for victory in a Iraq.
It was obvious that we sat on our hands and threw away any hope of a smooth transition and a graceful out in Afghanistan.
I’ll throw in a few more. It is obvious that the more money wasted on Greece the worse the pain is going to be when it does default and you have to be nuts if you think it has the economy to actually pay off those loans.
Many states in the US and the Fed Gov are going to in some manner default on promises made relating to pensions, health care etc. When there is no money and taxes and regulations have killed the local economy and no one left stupid enough to lend you money all that is left is inflation.
That will pretty much wipe out everybody’s savings and make doing transactions a super pain. The good news is we will no longer be dependent on foreign energy supplies so the greens will be happy!
Look on the bright side.
This makes TSA inspections entirely pointless.
It’ll be a f__king turkey shoot.
Thanks Obama. Ron Paul wouldn’t have started a war in Libya if he was President.
#26, don’t forget TWA 800. True John Kerry referred to it as a bombing, but a missile attack is more likely. George Stephanopoulos was less clear and just said attack, as did Dick Morris. The official line is still a mechanical failure of the fuel line, but it is not a coincidence that Al Gore said e wasn’t running for president shortly after Kerry’s Boston Globe printed a story about how Gore was in charge of the aviation security commission after TWA 800. Maybe not shoulder fired missile, but perhaps the Navy shot the plane down trying to shoot down the smaller plane that was on a suicide run?
#34- Shortly after it happened, I spoke with a pilot that had flown that aircraft prior to the incident. He strongly insisted there was no way that the fuel pump caused the explosion. This is one time that the conspiracy theorists are correct. I think the powers that be realized that no possible good could come from revealing the truth behind the incident. How many other times has the CIA produced a video to explain an “accident”?
No point scaring the sheeple, present company included, because the ability to acquire shoulder fired arms has been there for decades.
Rumsfeld sent truckloads of these things to the Taliban during the GOP proxy war with Russia and ass-licking of Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
This story reminds me of the story of the Colt revolver:
One of the first truly modern-style handguns, the Colt revolvers became known as “The Great Equalizer,” because they could be loaded and fired by anyone, where most previous guns required sufficient strength and dexterity. In theory, anyone who had a modern-style revolver was equal to anyone else, regardless of their relative physical abilities. This term came to be used for firearms in general, as awkward weapons like muzzle-loaded muskets became obsolete.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt%27s_Manufacturing_Company)
We have this huge military and these stinger-type missiles are the great equalizer. When a missile costing tens of thousands can bring down a plane costing tens of millions, it’s trouble for the big guy.
Wonder what the russians will do if this load ends up in Chechnyan hands… They can not turn the country into rubble again since it was never rebuilt.. nothing left to destroy and those people are bloody desperate.
Osama’s dead but his plan is still working. If one terrorist with one missile shoots down one commercial airliner in America, it will have a HUGE psychological and economic effect on the entire country. Now that’s leverage.
We’re still acting like the ruler of the world even though we obviously are not any more. Used to be we could bomb any third-world country we wanted to with impunity. Now, they’re getting uppity and have stinger missiles.
Seems to me that the looting of these SAMs was inevitable…US assistance or not. Am I wrong?
Also, how old are they? How many of them are probably duds? Just thinking…the failure rate on them could be fairly high…not that it would help.
ANOTHER REASON not to fly !!! Add that to “Homeland InSecurity” and “TSA” (Tittie Squeezing Agency), I won’t be travelling much anymore !!!