I guess the words “unfit for ANY command” is a good way to describe this America-hating and dangerous imbecile in the White House.
Jan. 20, 2013 can’t get here soon enough for the sake of our country and the rest of the world.
And of course, the Obama-loving MSM, other than ABC News, to their immense credit, ignores this as they have every other blunder and scandal these incompetent lib dolts make or create on an almost-daily basis with their breathtakingly glaring ignorance.
OBAMA’S BLUNDER: 20,000 MISSING LIBYAN SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES
By Dick Morris And Eileen McGann
For twenty years – long before 9/11 – the danger of terrorists armed with surface to air missiles shooting at passenger planes has been the secret fear of many top political leaders. In the late 90s, a terrorist network was nabbed trying to bring them into Newark Airport, but the airline industry and the government have done nothing to equip passenger airplanes with any defense against these always deadly missiles.
Now Barack Obama has committed the ultimate sin: He has let 20,000 surface-to-air missiles escape from military depots in Libya. According to ABC News “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.” An estimated 20,000 of these “portable, heat-seeking missiles have gone missing from unguarded Army weapons warehouses.”
Senator Barbara Boxer (saying probably the first intelligent thing she’s ever said, I’ll add- BiB) , of the Senate’s Commerce, Energy, and Transportation Committee said that “matching up a terrorist with a shoulder-fired missile, that’s our worst nightmare.
And now, thanks to Obama’s carelessness and his unnecessary decision to intervene in Libya, it may be our future reality.
ABC News describes the missing missiles as “four to six-feet long and Russian-made, [they] can weight just 55 pounds with launcher.” They are accurate within a range of more than two miles. That a terrorist could sit on a boat off JFK airport and shoot down a passenger plane as it ascends could now be a real possibility.
In the Iraq War, during the run-up to the 2004 election, there were reports of unguarded US military depots from which insurgents allegedly stole thousands of explosives. The story broke in the week before the election and Kerry took down all his other ads and focused on this issue, first reported in the New York Times. By Election Day, it was proven that the report was bogus, adding to Kerry’s woes. Now, faced with this massive blunder and security threat, we hear nothing but the sounds of silence from any of the mainstream media except, to its immense credit, ABC News.
We need to assign a top priority to hunting down these missiles. In Afghanistan, our troops jumped through hoops to corral all the Stinger Missiles left over from the Russian War. This potential leak of these dangerous weapons is vastly more threatening. Obama needs to face this issue squarely and publicly. And we all need to learn the cost we may pay from having elected a rank amateur as president.
Nightmare in Libya: Thousands of Surface-to-Air Missiles Unaccounted For
The White House announced today it planned to expand a program to secure and destroy Libya’s huge stockpile 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 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.”
he 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.
“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.
“Once these missiles walk away from these facilities, they’re very difficult to get back, as the CIA realized in Afghanistan,” said Bouckaert.
Click here to read the rest…
No doubt the poor rebels will only use these to “spread democracy” even more effectively…
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@ Bumr50:
Yes they are like us, they just want freedom!
/////////////////////////////////////////////////
Surface to air missiles? Why not? They are our Mohammedan Brethern, da? Oh, they want to destroy us. That’s not good…
Come on, nothing to worry about.
These guys are McCains heroes.
I don’t think I’m going to fly at any time now or in the future… at least until they track these down….
Iron Fist wrote:
They’re just SAYING that to make them sound COOL and HARD….
Deep down, they don’t really mean it.
Trust me! John McCain said so!!
////
I need another donut.
@ Bumr50:
Damn straight! These Libyan Freedom Fighters like
to sit around the Camp fire & read jefferson & Adams.
What Koran?/
It’s not something I’d go out and celebrate about, but it’s also not as dire a threat as some people believe.
@ Iron Fist:
These are McCain’s heroes!
For the sake of argument;
If Gaddaffi had all of these SAMs why didn’t the NATO planes have to dodge them?
The NATO air support is the only reason MoDucky is on the run.
And 20,000? That’s a lot of missiles. SAMs aren’t as numerous as RPGs.
I smell a little exaggeration or misidentification.
@ lobo91:
You can’t change the fact that they want to kill us. That is a pretty big thing to factor into one’s analysis of the situation. These SAMs can’t (probably) take out a commercial airliner. That is something to be thankful for.
Poteen wrote:
Shhh! You’re ruining the narrative by asking reasonable questions…
I do believe there are a lot of rogue missiles and other arms floating around the world. They are stockpiled by various rebels and private armies and such. Most will never be used and many will be found by the “police forces” of 1st and 2nd world countries and will be confiscated or destroyed. A few, however, will eventually be used in terrorist operations and innocent people will be killed. I think it is important that we track these 20,000 down, but I can guarantee that our current administration will not spend the resources necessary to find them. It would go against their agenda of empowering our enemies.
Poteen wrote:
I think he’s at a Volkswagen plant…
///
@ father_of_10:
I’d love to have a Surface-to-air missile. It’d be my favorite pet. I could hold it and squeeze it and call it “George”…
Iron Fist wrote:
They’re designed to shoot down helicopters, not half-million pound airliners.
Bumr50 wrote:
Yeah. And we’re building Chevy Volts instead of Pontiac Predators.
@ lobo91:
Have they been specified? Portable could be anything from shoulder fired to a motorized ICBM. And 20,000 would take a big-ass warehouse.
Bumr50 wrote:
Well, we’re pretty good at taking out aspirin factories . . . I guess we could take out a VW plant.
I kinda wish he would have a successful counter-revolution and come back into power and go medieval on the rebel scum.
Not that I have a soft spot for momar, but he could be a useful idiot tool.
@ lobo91:
100%. I worry about the President, though. He travels in helicopters from time to time. The right person with the right missile could wreak havoc on us. I dispise Obama, but I don’t want him assassinated.
Of course, lots of people believe that a .50 caliber rifle will bring down an airliner too.
Or that a stray handgun bullet fired in the cabin will decompress the plane.
Thank you, Hollywood…
Arab Spring coming to an aircraft near you
Fox News.com “Exclusive: New online course from the Poynter News University cautions journalists against over-blowing the threat of jihad, advising reporters to put the death toll from Islamic terrorists — including the thousands killed in the 9/11 attacks — in context that compares it to the deaths each year from malaria, HIV/AIDS and crime”.
Taken in context of all the munitions in the world this is no big deal according to the above report.
Iron Fist wrote:
His helicopter has state of the art defensive systems.
@ Poteen:
Hey I finally saw one the other day!
It was sitting, unsold, in front of a dealership, but I saw it!!
It was my first, and I’ve been looking.
Beyond the ugliness of the design, it also had HUGE block letters down the entire side of it that said VOLT.
Crappy, yet overstated.
Poteen wrote:
According to the article quoted above:
They’re talking about shoulder-fired missiles.
@ Bumr50:
Oh yeah! Ugliest thing ever built. Inside and out. Move over Edsel.
Buffalobob wrote:
Brought to you by:
@ lobo91:
Missed that. Thanks. Stinger lite more or less. I’m still suspect of ’20,000′ and ‘missing’.
@ waldensianspirit:
الجميع يمارس الجنس مع بعقب!
بعقب! بعقب! بعقب اللعنة!
More suspicious I am.
Buffalobob wrote:
That is a pretty deceptive way of stating it. These things can damage commercial airliners, and they can bring down helicopters. They are not toys, nor as limited in their potential damage as so-called “Assault Weapons”.
Rush just reported that Henry Kissinger, Nancy Reagan, and G.W. Bush have personally urged Chris Christie to run.
And I guess Bill Kristol has taken it personally:
It is amazing the lengths a handful of people are going to to try and get this man to run.
I think that Herman Cain’s success, whatever you think of him, has been seen as a real shot across the bow by some people.
Bumr50 wrote:
Nice comment on a pile of crap. I’m stealing it for my blog, if that’s ok with you!
Bumr50 wrote:
Exactly that. They are offended that this N*word is doing so well. He isn’t right politically don’t you know? I have my differences whit Herman Cain. He isn’t strong enough on the Second Amendment the way Perry is. But I could vote for the man, as opposed to merely voting for the lesser evil, if you know what I mean.
Just a few minutes ago:
@ father_of_10:
Feel free!
It comes from the heart!
@ Iron Fist:
@ lobo91:
It depends. I can see them being used while a plane is taking off or landing. Either way, it will be a nasty surprise when it happens.
@ father_of_10:
Here’s a picture.
PaladinPhil wrote:
That’s the only time you could use one against an airliner.
The reason they aren’t particularly effective is because they’re heat-seekers. They go for the engines.
Losing one engine, even on takeoff or landing, won’t generally cause a plane to crash.
Thanks Bumr50.
Here’s the latest from the father_of_10 blog. Short but sweet about the VOLT.
http://father-of-10.blogspot.com/
What a blunder.
OT -- Guy painting Jesus. It’s pretty amazing.
Bumr50 wrote:
Your link didn’t work. It came up as the google home page.
@ father_of_10:
Excellent. I bookmarked ya.
Over at AT, Rick Moran says this:
@ father_of_10:
Sorry, I did a search.
This one will work.
@ Bumr50:
Pretty fucking incredible. I admire artists. I wish I could express what I feel visually the way that they do. I used to write music, and that was somewhat similar…
@ Bumr50:
Sales will go up significantly once it’s the only car on the market.
Notice that there were never excess Volgas or Trabants…
@ lobo91:
Okay, so it would still be able to land. Now think of the reaction during, after, and much later. The sheer terror of someone striking an airliner like that would be huge.
Bumr50 wrote:
Great! By then all the Star Trek freaks can scoop them up, no problem!
@ PaladinPhil:
Or maybe it would be more than 1 jihadi w/ more than 1 SAM.
lobo91 wrote:
That appears to be their business model. If the government mandates that you are the only official car of the regime, then I guess you are the only official car of the regime. Your sales should spike. Especially if Obama gets gasoline over $7 a gallon the way he talked about doing. You have a plug-in car that will get you to and from work, and then to the grocery store and such. It is a real limit on people’s freedom, but freedom doesn’t appear to rank very highly on Obama’;s priority list…
@ PaladinPhil:
Exactly. The terror of the weapon just being fired at an airliner would cause us to make a change due to them. This is a threat to both us and others.
@ PaladinPhil:
Not if they can’t shoot it out of the sky. They would be smarter to go after tMarine One, but that will have state-of-the-art countermeasures, no doubt. As terror weapons, these are more effective in the abstract than they are in the real world. But terror works in the abstract. Fear is a potent weapon.
Iron Fist wrote:
Yup. They’re next to useless as an effective weapon for that purpose, but people will be afraid of them because the media will hype the idea. Just like the “dirty bomb” threat.
Or chemical weapons, for that matter.
@ Iron Fist:
That’s the one thing you really give up being in a place like this. I live in a fairly decent apartment, rent-free, and I don’t have to pay for transportation to and from work. It sounds good in the abstract, but the reality is that it’s a nice cage.
@ Iron Fist:
From what I have seen, rarely do terrorists go after really tough targets when an easier, softer, target will do. I could go into details, but I don’t know who reads this and don’t want to give any ideas they don’t already have. Besides this concept was originally written as a novel back in the mid 70′s.
lobo91 wrote:
I can see that. HEre I have my liberty, if I have nothing else. If I want to go buy a rifle, I go buy a rifle. If I want kittens, I get kittens. Kittens and rifles are fun! Seriously, I have the liberty to do damn near anything I want to do. That is more valuable than diamonds…
@ Iron Fist:
I don’t think the Kuwaitis (or my employer) would be amused if I bought a rifle.
I can have all the kittens I want, though, as long as I move out of company housing.
Poteen wrote:
Please dont insult the Edsel like that. The general public may have rejected the Edsel, but it was a truly innovative and far ahead of it’s time car.
I spent most of the afternoon searching online for a company that will ship grill accessories to APO addresses, to no avail.
I have no idea why, since there are no restrictions in place on things like that.
Amazon won’t ship much of anything here, which really pisses me off.
@ lobo91:
Can you get someone to buy it for you in the states and then ship them to you?
@ lobo91:
It is good to have kittens. Kittens make life worth living
Seriously, freedom is something we Americans take for granted too often. It can be taken away too easily if we are not vigilant.
MikeA wrote:
Probably.
@ lobo91:
You can get shit through customs in the US pretty easily. I’ve bought a couple of nice switchblades from Italy that went through customs as camping supplies. I don’t know how it would work in Kuwait, but it isn’t like you are trying to import a machinegun…
Iron Fist wrote:
It has nothing to do with customs.
@ lobo91:
What is the problem, then? I’ve never had trouble buying internationally except to worry about customs on things like switchblades. I’ve bought all kinds of things from all over the world without problems. Is Kuwait that different?
Oh, and just FYI, switchblades.it is the company I’ve dealt with in Italy. A reasonable quality knife for a reasonable price. I’d do business with them again if I wanted another knife for my collection.
@ Iron Fist:
It’s his APO address. A lot of retailers won’t ship to an APO address.
Mike C. wrote:
And there’s no good reason for it. All they care about (aside from the obvious alcohol, pork, etc) is that packages meet the size/weight limits.
Amazon won’t send me a replacement screen for my electric shaver here.
Makes no sense.
@ Poteen:
My thoughts exactly. Those are expensive pieces of ordnance. Suppose they were so ineffective that it took you 10 missiles to guarantee a kill on an enemy aircraft. 20,000 missiles = 2000 killed enemy aircraft. What potential enemy (to Kadaffi’s Libya) could launch 2000 aircraft against him? What potential enemy would want to?
I could see Khadaffi ordering a few hundred of these, maybe a thousand, but 20,000 sounds like an order of magnitude too high.
As far as blame goes, the lion’s share of the blame has to go to the damfool Frenchmen and euros in general. Obama is mostly guilty of saying, “me, too!”
@ lobo91:
I wouldn’t want to be aboard an airliner that was struck by a shoulder-launched missile as it was climbing steeply just after takeoff, with a full fuel load. It might continue to fly on 3 engines, but with a wing partially destroyed, and a fire raging , it might not continue to fly long enough to circle around and make a forced landing.
@ Bumr50:
Just another in endless line of jellybean cars. Without badging, who could tell a Volt from a Civic, or a Corolla, or a Kia.
Car “styling” has succumbed to the tyranny of the wind tunnel.
@ Daffy Duck:
Precisely. Of course, they have never practiced redundancy before.///
@ lobo91:
The bastards only have to get lucky once.
What else is there to say?
lobo91 wrote:
That’s just plane stupid. We’re not talking about an engine that quits working. There’s the hydraulics, fuel (which tends to be flammable) lines, etc.
@ Bob in Breckenridge:
Tell that to the crew of the DHL plane that was hit by one taking off from Baghdad a few years ago.
I never said that there’s no danger. Hell, a flock of birds brought a plane down not that long ago.
All I’m saying is that it’s really not something that anyone needs to stay up at night worrying about.
@ Iron Fist:Full context ,read #24