http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/nightmare-libya-20000-surface-air-missiles-missing/story?id=14610199The White House announced today it planned to
expand a program to secure and destroy Libya's huge s
tockpile of dangerous surface-to-air missiles,
following an ABC News report that large numbers of
them continue to be stolen from unguarded military
warehouses.
Currently the U.S. State Department has one official
on the ground in Libya, as well as five contractors
who specialize in "explosive ordinance disposal", all
working with the rebel Transitional National Council
to find the looted missiles, White House
spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters.
"We expect to deploy additional personnel to assist
the TNC as they expand efforts to secure conventional
arms storage sites," Carney said. "We're obviously at a
governmental level -- both State Department and at
the U.N. and elsewhere -- working with the TNC on
this."
ABC News reported today U.S. officials and security
experts were concerned some of the thousands of
heat-seeking missiles could easily end up in the
hands of al Qaeda or other terrorists groups, creating
a threat to commercial airliners.
"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.
Though Libya had an estimated 20,000 man-portable
surface-to-air missiles before the popular uprising
began in February, Assistant Secretary of State Andrew
Shapiro told ABC News today the government does
not have a clear picture of how many missiles they're
trying to track down.
"We're making great progress and we expect in the
coming days and weeks we will have a much greater
picture of how many are missing," Shapiro said.
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 e
mergencies director. "Every time I arrive at one of
these weapons facilities, the first thing we notice
going missing is the surface-to-air missiles."
The ease with which rebels and other unknown
parties have snatched thousands of the missiles has
raised alarms that the weapons could end up in the
hands of al Qaeda, which is active in Libya.
"There certainly are dangerous groups operating in
the region, and we're very concerned that some of
these weapons could end up in the wrong hands,"
said Bouckaert.
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Nightmare in Libya: Thousands of Surface-to-Air Missiles Unaccounted For
"I think the probability of al Qaeda being able to
smuggle some of the stinger-like missiles out of
Libya is probably pretty high," said Richard Clarke,
former White House counterterrorism advisor and
now a consultant to ABC News.
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security
Council, told ABC News in a statement similar to
Carney's remarks that, "Since the beginning of the
crisis, we have been actively engaged with our allies
and partners to support Libya's efforts to secure all
conventional weapons stockpiles, including recover,
control, and disposal of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft
missiles."
Boxer: U.S. Passenger Jets at
Risk
Adding to the urgency is the fact that America's
passenger jets, like those of most countries, are
sitting ducks, despite years of warning about the
missile threat. Since the 1970s, according to the U.S.
State Department, more than 40 civilian planes
around the world have been hit by surface-to-air
missiles. In 2003, Iraqi insurgents hit a DHL cargo
plane with a missile in Baghdad. Though on fire, the
plane was able to land safely. Four years later,
militants knocked a Russian-built cargo plane out of
the sky over Somalia, killing all 11 crew members.
Now there are calls in Congress to give jets that fly
overseas the same protection military aircraft have.
"I think we should ensure that the wide-bodied
planes all have this protection," said Sen. Boxer, who
first spoke to ABC News about the surface-to-air
security threat in 2006. "And that's a little more than
500 of these planes."
Boxer sent a letter today to Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano urging the two to establish a joint
program "to protect commercial aircraft from the
threat of shoulder-fired missiles."
According to Boxer, it would cost about a million
dollars a plane for a system that has been installed
and successfully tested over the last few years,
directing a laser beam into the incoming missile.
"For us to sit idly by and not do anything when we
could protect 2 billion passengers over the next 20
years [with] a relatively small amount of money [from]
the Department of Defense, I think that's malfeasance,"
said Boxer. "I think that's wrong." And it could be
more practical than trying to round up all the missing
Libyan missiles.
they're very difficult to get back, as the CIA realized in
Afghanistan," said Bouckaert.
When the Afghan mujahideen were fighting the
Soviets more than two decades ago, the CIA supplied
the Afghans with 1,000 Stinger surface-to-air
missiles, which had a devastating effect on Soviet
military aircraft. After the Soviets had retreated,
however, the CIA spent millions of dollars trying to
buy back the remaining missiles from the Afghan
fighters.
According to Bouckaert, the CIA spent up to
$100,000 a piece to reacquire the Stingers.
"In Libya we're talking about something on the order
of 20,000 surface-to-air missiles," said Bouckaert.
"This is one of the greatest stockpiles of these
weapons that has ever gone on the loose."
