Assoluta Tranquillita: Libya: Up to 20,000 anti-aircraft missiles stolen

Friday, September 30, 2011

Libya: Up to 20,000 anti-aircraft missiles stolen

What could possibly go wrong?

From JihadWatch:

The Great Libyan Jihadist Garage Sale continues. Of all things, a Human Rights Watch official below is reportedly miffed at Obama's decision not to put ground troops into Libya, blaming it for allowing this situation to materialize. "Free for all: Up to 20,000 anti-aircraft missiles stolen in Libya," by Neal Munro for the Daily Caller, September 27:

A survey of weapon depots in Libya shows that up to 20,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are now missing, partly because President Barack Obama has refused to send troops to guard the weapons depots, according to a left-of-center advocate.

“We were quite disappointed after talking to administration officials … that nothing more was done, even about the [storage] facilities in Tripoli, which are unsecured now,” said Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies at left-of-centre group Human Rights Watch.

‘“The major impediment [to action] is that the administration doesn’t want ‘boots on the ground,’” he said.

“If these weapons get into the wrong hands, any civilian aircraft operating in the region will be threatened,” said Bouckaert, who has just returned from a visit to Libya. The missing missiles are Russian-made SA-7s and SA-16s: Shoulder-launched missiles that can home into the hot exhaust trails from civilian and military jets. The SA-16 is only five feet long and weighs just 24 pounds....

And the article ends with this:

The missing missiles and other weaponry has gotten relatively little publicity, despite the danger posed to the U.S. and European and African countries. In October 2004, in contrast, the New York Times ignited a political scandal just days before the 2004 presidential election by publishing a front-page report claiming that a few hundred tons of explosives had been stolen by gunmen from the Iraq’s al Qa’qaa storage facility.