The photograph above shows a rebel with an apparently complete (tube, gripstock and battery) SA-16. Another photo shows another rebel with an apparently complete SA-24, one of the most advanced heat-seekers in the world. This might be the only time an SA-24 MANPADS has been photographed outside of state control.
…”While much of the public discourse was diverted into breathless inquiries about which American general slept with whom, the potential consequences of the Syrian war became much more complicated, and much more dangerous.”
Exactly.
Watch Bam Bam pull the high moral ground in his presser today.
There are some very wealthy arms dealers walking around the planet with suitcases full of blood money these days. Yuri Orlav (Nicolas Cage- Lord of War) would be proud of them.
B-b-b-but I was told Al Qaeda was decimated.
Sell the savages weapons and ammo, make a nice profit, then wind them up to play whack-a-mole with each other.
The rest of us can live in peace and have money to spend.
Has the Obama administration been turning a blind eye to Islamists obtaining Ghaddafi era Libyan SAM(Soviet made) hand held ground to air missles, because it is trusting them to only use them against the Syrian regime and not, for example, some civilian airliner?
Your response Mr President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, please speak clearly into the microphone provided by the Senate Intelligence Committee, et al.
Every weapon ever made will fall into the wrong hands. The right hands today are usually the wrong hands tomorrow. Iraq was our ally, Iran also as well as Syria. Afghanistan didn’t know we existed when this song was written. Nothing has changed since then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp6dsKleGpU
There are videos of the rebels taking these launchers from Syrian army bases. They may also have come from Libya.
Bless them I hope they put it to good use.
Are these what was being dealt in benghazi – as Beck theorized?
Iran Contra Redux.
Regarding the SA-24, the more worrisome of the 2, they are already a concern in South America via Bam Bam’s buddy Hugo.
“According to a state department cable dated 14 February 2009, released via Wikileaks, the United States government had expressed concern to about the sale of the SA-24 Igla-S MANPADS to Venezuela, citing a fear that the weapons could be diverted to the FARC. It also expressed a concern that through FARC, the weapons could be further distributed, including to drug cartels in Mexico.” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/9k338.htm
Which begs the question: where do the current, but obsolete, weapons go after replacement?
Regarding the SA-24, the more worrisome of the 2, they are already a concern in South America via Bam Bam’s buddy Hugo.
“According to a state department cable dated 14 February 2009, released via Wikileaks, the United States government had expressed concern to about the sale of the SA-24 Igla-S MANPADS to Venezuela, citing a fear that the weapons could be diverted to the FARC. It also expressed a concern that through FARC, the weapons could be further distributed, including to drug cartels in Mexico.” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/9k338.htm
Which begs the question: where do the current, but obsolete, weapons go after replacement?
Peterj said: Iraq was our ally, Iran also as well as Syria.
For some very, very loose values of “ally”.
For all the talk of “our” weapons ending up in the wrong hands, it sure looks like they all have pretty much 100% Soviet gear.
(I remember people simply asserting that the US had “armed Iraq” before 1991 – but a look at actual arms transfers shows that they got jack all from the US; a few unarmed observation helicopters.
All the tanks, the small arms, the attack copters, the rockets, the jets?
Soviet.
Now, the Iranians did get some US jets before the Revolution… which they basically couldn’t use afterwards because we stopped selling them parts and offering training. Training is far more important than having jets, turns out.)
All the tanks, the small arms, the attack copters, the rockets, the jets?
Soviet.
Not all. The Soviets and Warsaw Pact countries accounted for 68.9% of arms transfers to Iraq from 1973-1990 followed by 12.7% from France.
Source: SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, Iraq 1973–1990
There is probably a direct connection here to the Bengazi attack. It is fact the attack on Bengazi was a coordinated rebel attack and now it is revealed that there were probably heavy weapons stored in Bengazi that are now in rebel hands. What Stevens or the CIA or the whitehouse knew about this is up to speculation until someone like Petieus can confirm it.
The Bengazi affair and the on-going drone attacks signals that either the pentagon or the CIA/Whitehous has wanted to get into Syria for some time and needed some “spark” incident to justify committing military involvement.
In any event the Obamunists lied about Bengazi and the Obamunist media white washed the issue all through the election and now there is a coup/cover up involving a CIA chief. Anyone who thinks this is all coincidence should never leave the nursery without a grown up.
An Obama special, brought to you by the death of Americans.
LAS >
“They may also have come from Libya………Bless them I hope they put it to good use.”
No worries they have, watch what’s happening in Mali with Gaddafi’s stolen armories.
You and Obamba must be proud.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-11-14/mali-militants-say-they-will-not-give-up-shariah
Fly EL AL, apparently their airliners have systems to defeat such weapons and no other airlines have them.
Um…Knight…Mali =/= Syria. “They” refers to someone completely different.
Seriously: get help. You have a cognition problem.
LAS >
“Bless them I hope they put it to good use”
Yea, having lived for a couple of decades in the region I think I know the geography well enough.
Your Obamba liberated guns from Libya that you wish to now have Al Qaeda use on Syrians are already being put to good use murdering the little black people in Mali.
I know that’s a hard concept for a pot-head to understand but that is what you’re cheering for Cheech.
This is the Obamba Foreign Policy that LAS celebrates and supports:
“Bless them I hope they put it to good use” – LAS
“….the fall of Muammar Gaddafi left behind huge warehouses of modern weapons that have now fallen into the hands of these major African Islamic militant groups — Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Libya’s Ansar al-Sharia, Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Mali’s Ansar al-Dine and the West African Monotheism and Jihad. (See: “8-Sep-11 World View — Thousands of surface-to-air missiles missing from Libya warehouses”) These weapons were used in the Benghazi attack that killed Chris Stevens, they were used in the takeover of Mali, they’ve been used in terrorist attacks in Algeria, they’ve been used in battles between Christians ans Muslims in Nigeria, they’ve been used against Egyptian forces in the Sinai, and there is certainly much worse to come. “ – Breitbart
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/09/28/29-Sep-12-World-View-Aftermath-of-Libyan-military-action-sees-big-increase-in-al-Qaeda-activity-in-Africa
Capitalizing on Chaos in Syria, Mali
“The combustible mix of AQIM, Ansar al Dine, and Tuareg rebels is complex and dangerous. They are all well armed, thanks to looting Libyan arms depots after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. AQIM has acquired weapons from Libyan caches that probably make it the best armed al Qaeda franchise in the world.” – The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/30/al-qaeda-s-arab-comeback-capitalizing-on-chaos-in-syria-mali.html
Look for the Chicoms to move into Africa as “peacekeepers” once things get more messed up than they already are.
Simple heat seeking missiles are rather easy to distract with flares or other intense IR sources. The only thing I’d worry about is a fire and forget ground to air missile that homed in on an image of its target – a lot harder to confuse.
For those with more knowledge of the subject, how does the SA-24 compare to the US Stinger? The other big question is how well does the missile stand up to handling and maintenance by 7th century goat herders? Russian weapons were designed to be operable by idiots and I wonder if the same holds here.
The only danger I can see from these missiles is to civilian aircraft and that would be primarily when they were landing or taking off. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the Russians had some sort of deactivation system so they couldn’t be used to shoot down Russian helicopters.
What are Israeli strategic imperatives now?
I suspect the current Gaza cleanup could be a prelude to possible action against Tehran. A two front war would not work well for Israel. The Egyptians are focussed on themselves with a confused military capablity. Hezbollah in Lebanon is more worried about their own position if Assad goes down.
Long term the Israelis might face a radical Islamic government in Syria which might not be a upgrade over Assad. Once Gaza is secure will the Israeli’s be forced into a pre-emptive strike on Iran? Even a failed attack on their nuclear sites will set Iran back for years. It might even be enough to dispose of some of the mullahs in an internal Iranian uprising.
What options does Israel have? Hostile Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi’s and Iranians. No Turkey to restrain aggressive behavior. Is it really an option to stand down? I don’t think so.
This is the Obamba Foreign Policy that LAS celebrates and supports:
No it isn’t you lying sack. I never supported it. You are a dishonest lying POS.
LAS >
Your words not mine.
“They may also have come from Libya. Bless them I hope they put it to good use.” – LAS
“It is a twist of fate, or perhaps by design, that President Barack Obama’s Syria policy puts America in league with al Qaeda and other hardline Islamists helping to oust another dictator. We may come to regret our Syrian policy.”
http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/13/maginnis-has-america-partnered-with-al-qaeda-in-syria/
Now who has the cognition problem?
You’ve done nothing BUT support Al Qaeda and any other disintegration of the west since you’ve started posting on SDA, – You treasonous lying sack of sh!t.
The more comments LAS posts, the more he reminds me of this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD3kqlj-g_s
You still can’t make the point that I supported Obama’s foreign policy. I win.
LAS >
“I win.”
Oh yea, you’re a winner all right.
BTW thanks yet again for giving me the platform off your back to highlight all of the information I provided to the unaware who are now better informed, you’re a trooper.
🙂