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leveymg

(36,418 posts)
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 03:22 PM Sep 2012

Times of London: Shipload of Looted Libyan Missiles Arrives in Turkey

Last edited Fri Sep 28, 2012, 04:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Three days after the attack that killed the US Ambassador to Libya, The Times (UK) carried a story that a Libyan freighter loaded with stolen SA-7 antiaircraft missiles had offloaded at a Turkish port.

That September 14 article was captioned, “Syrian rebels squabble over weapons as biggest shipload arrives from Libya.http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3537770.ece

Meanwhile, ABC has reported that one of three Americans killed with Ambassador Stevens was part of group assigned to locate these looted Libyan MANPADS, shoulder-fired missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners.

The Times report states that a Libyan ship, 'The Intisaar', docked at the Turkish port of Iskenderun after "papers stamped by the port authority” were issued to “the ship's captain, Omar Mousaeeb." Mousaeeb is identified as "a Libyan from Benghazi and the head of an organization called the Libyan National Council for Relief and Support," reportedly delivering supplies to armed opposition groups in Syria.

If accurate, that account provides some of the most solid, detailed evidence yet of how the Eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has become the North African transit hub for weapons and foreign fighters departing for regime change operations in Syria.

This has been happening right under the nose of U.S. diplomatic and intelligence officers posted in Benghazi. The late Ambassador, Chris Stevens, arrived in Benghazi aboard a freighter in April 2011, and promptly set up shop coordinating Islamic militia groups in the overthrow of Muammar Gadhaffi’s regime.

According to the article, there were 400 tons of weapons, including an unspecified number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, aboard the ship. This is merely the largest in a number of weapons shipments that have arrived in Turkey with the seeming coordination and complicity by Turkish authorities.

After the overthrow of the Libyan government, huge weapons stockpiles were looted and went unaccounted for, most of them falling into the hands of militant groups. The Times quotes Libyan officials that "more than 5,000 of the missiles had vanished." The article references an incident earlier this year in which a Libyan ship carrying "a large consignment of Libyan weapons, including PRGs and heavy ammunition," was seized by the Lebanese authorities in Lebanon’s northern territorial waters.

U.S. officials have repeatedly stated concern that advanced weaponry from Libyan stockpiles, such as MANPADS (portable missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners), have not been accounted for. It was reported that one of the reasons for the continued presence of the Ambassador and the large CIA station in Benghazi are concerns about militant groups outside of Libya obtaining these weapons. In fact, a retired Navy Seal who died with the Ambassador stated to ABC that he was in Libya on a mission to locate these missiles. See, ABC, The Blotter, American Killed in Libya was on Intel Mission to Track Weapons, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/glen-doherty-navy-seal-killed-libya-intel-mission/story?id=17229037#.UGXzzq6QSEd

One of the Americans killed alongside Ambassador Christopher Stevens in an attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya Tuesday told ABC News before his death that he was working with the State Department on an intelligence mission to round up dangerous weapons in the war-torn nation.

In an interview with ABC News last month, Glen Doherty, a 42-year-old former Navy SEAL who worked as a contractor with the State Department, said he personally went into the field to track down so-called MANPADS, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, and destroy them.


It would seem that such efforts to prevent the export of MANPADS from Libya, if The Times and ABC are correct, has not been successful.

See, related, Libya Attack Casts Unwanted Spotlight on CIA and Blackwater Role in Syria http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021410954

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Times of London: Shipload of Looted Libyan Missiles Arrives in Turkey (Original Post) leveymg Sep 2012 OP
Following those leads is a career killer. Octafish Sep 2012 #1
It is astounding how little many people want to know about this. leveymg Sep 2012 #2
VOA reports that 15,000 Libyan SAMs have gone missing. UPDATE: video shows Syrian rebel SA-7 leveymg Sep 2012 #3
20,000 Libyan MANPADS - 5,000 secured = 15,000 loose and on the global market leveymg Sep 2012 #4

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
1. Following those leads is a career killer.
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 05:36 PM
Sep 2012

From an organization that respects both power and wealth:



U.S. Official: No Evidence Of 'MANPADS Leakage' In Syria

By JOHN T. BENNETT
July 27, 2012

EXCERPT...

On Libya, American officials have been trying to determine for months where former strongman Moammar Gadhafi's MANPADS currently are; some officials have estimated Gadhafi might have had up to 20,000 of the portable launchers. Shaprio said in early February that U.S. intelligence showed most of those mobile launchers are still in Libya.

CONTINUED...

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/dotmil/2012/07/27/us-official-no-evidence-of-manpads-leakage-in-syria



Lots more detail on the subject from the Federation of American Scientists:

Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) Proliferation

Thank you, leveymg, for a most important OP. It is astounding how much one can learn by reading your posts.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
2. It is astounding how little many people want to know about this.
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 06:27 PM
Sep 2012

Is the motto at the State Dept.(and the wider audience with a perceived stake in politics), "What can be ignored, can't hurt you?

It's little better at DKos, these days. Elections have everyone drugged. Perfect time for those who want to advance the game to prepare for what comes next, it seems.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
3. VOA reports that 15,000 Libyan SAMs have gone missing. UPDATE: video shows Syrian rebel SA-7
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 06:44 PM
Sep 2012

Last edited Sun Sep 30, 2012, 02:04 PM - Edit history (3)

News / Middle East
Syrian Rebels Step Up Efforts to Get Anti-Aircraft Missiles


Email

ON EDIT: Syrian opposition groups now have MANPADS. Video at 00:43, tall man with light blue pants in background row with SA-7.



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August 16, 2012
ALEPPO, Syria - Syrian rebels are redoubling their efforts to acquire portable anti-aircraft missiles following government airstrikes on cities and towns in the north of the country.

In the latest such strike, a Syrian Air Force jet bombed the rebel-held town of Azaz near the Turkish border, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 100.

Rebel commanders and activists say their buyers are now scouring the arms black markets in the region to get the shoulder-fired missiles that can counter the government airstrikes.

According to opposition activist “Tony” al-Taieb, who works with the rebel military council in Aleppo, representatives with cash from rich Syrian exiles are negotiating to buy the portable surface-to-air missiles, often called SAMS or MANPADS, for “Man-Portable-Air-Defense-System.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear about the Qataris and Saudis supplying us with heavier weaponry,” al-Taieb says. “We are getting hardly anything from them.”

Al-Taieb said acquiring as many MANPADS missile systems as possible was now the highest priority for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the umbrella organization for many of the rebel brigades that have been trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the past 18 months.

He said the government airstrikes on Aleppo, Azaz, Tel Rifat and villages such as Akhtarin and other settlements closer to the Turkish border were apparently designed to menace the rebel enclave in the region and disrupt rebel supply routes from Turkey.

Military analysts say shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles can turn the tide of battle in an insurgency war like the one in Syria.

The example most often cited is the Afghan Mujahedeen insurgency against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan 25 years ago. Many military analysts say U.S.-supplied Stinger portable missiles downed dozens of Moscow’s feared Hind attack helicopters and helped the Afghan guerrillas defeat the Soviets.

According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, many of the casualties in the town of Azaz were women and children buried under piles of rubble. Opposition activists in Azaz said the death toll would likely rise to 25.
Rebel commanders say portable surface-to-air missiles could help them defend towns such as Azaz and even give them the advantage in Aleppo, where forces loyal to President Assad managed to uproot rebels from parts of the city after eight days of bloody fighting.

“We need a no-fly zone and, failing that, anti-aircraft missiles,” says Zaher Sherkat, a 32-year-old commander of the rebel Abu Bakr brigade. The unit is now down to about 120 fighters after losing 20 men in the Aleppo fighting.

“We have had 20 ‘martyrs’ from my brigade and about 30 wounded,” he says.

Sherkat says he established the brigade after Assad’s forces killed half a dozen children in his hometown of Al Bab.

Despite press reports that rebels already have a small supply of MANPADS missiles, rebel commanders insist they don’t. And there have been no verified media reports of rebels firing such missiles.

Last week, rebels in Deir el-Zour province claimed they had shot down a Syrian jet, and activists released a video they said showed the government Soviet-made MiG warplane catching fire after apparently being hit by ground fire.

The jet exploded in flames and rebels claimed to have captured the pilot. Rebels said they shot down the plane using a captured 14.5 mm anti-aircraft gun, the largest weapon in their armory.

“Machine guns were used to shoot at the plane,” says Aref Hammoud, an FSA spokesman in Turkey. “It was in a low range, which made it possible to hit.”

The Syrian government conceded it had lost a warplane, but said it crashed because of “technical difficulties.”

The U.S. and other western governments sympathetic to the anti-Assad rebellion have so far declined to supply the rebels with portable anti-aircraft missiles. One reason cited is that such missiles, capable of shooting down a commercial aircraft, could fall into the hands of terrorists or foreign Jihadists now reported infiltrating into Syria.

At a recent meeting with reporters in Washington, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro said the U.S. government hadn’t seen any evidence of MANPADS missiles getting into Syria from Libya, but acknowledged such a possibility was an area of concern.

U.S. officials estimate that the late Moammar Gaddafi’s Libya may have had as many as 20,000 MANPADS missile systems and that several thousand of them turned up missing during the civil war there last year.

Al-Taieb, the Aleppo opposition activist, would not talk about the possibility that Syrian rebels were buying some of the Libyan missiles.

“In the coming days we will have a consignment of MANPADS, Insha'Allah,” says al-Taieb. Asked whether if rebels managed to secure MANPADS, would they have trouble moving them into Turkey and then across the border, he responded:

“The Turkish government turns a blind eye to some things but not others.”

Print

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
4. 20,000 Libyan MANPADS - 5,000 secured = 15,000 loose and on the global market
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 07:53 PM
Sep 2012

The first tranche go from Benghazi to Turkey to Syria to take out the Syrian AF, then move on to Iran. But, some will end up blowing up US flag carriers, which will no doubt be blaimed on Hezbollah, providing a cassus belli for war with Iran.

Put the above VOA story together with the below: http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120412/DEFREG04/304120002/5-000-Libyan-MANPADS-Secured

5,000 Libyan MANPADS Secured
Some May Have Been Smuggled Out
Apr. 12, 2012 - 11:14AM |
By ANDREW CHUTER | Comments
gannett.com


A team of weapons experts has been unable to rule out the possibility that a number of man-operated portable weapons secured from Libya may have leaked out of the country or been acquired by terrorists.
A team of weapons experts has been unable to rule out the possibility that a number of man-operated portable weapons secured from Libya may have leaked out of the country or been acquired by terrorists. (Mahmud Turkia / Agence France-Presse)


LONDON — A multinational team of weapons experts has secured and destroyed 5,000 Libyan man-operated portable air defense systems and components left over after the fall of the Gadhafi regime, according to the British Ministry of Defence. The team has been unable to rule out the possibility that a number of the weapons may have leaked out of the country or been acquired by terrorists.

“The team has concluded that most remaining MANPADS are likely to be under the control of regional military councils and militias,” the British said, adding that they were helping fund the Libyan authorities and the U.N. implementation of a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program to bring the remaining systems back under the control of the central government.

A joint military-civilian team made up of U.K., French, U.S. and Libyan personnel have been in country since last August helping to track down the large numbers of weapons left by Gadhafi’s regime.

The U.S. government estimates Gadhafi’s forces had about 20,000 MANPADS in their armory at the time of the regime’s collapse, raising fears that the weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.
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