This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5041

Libyan Shoulder Fired Missiles Already In Jihadist's Hands?

August 27, 2011

August 24, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Now that Team Obama has gotten apparently what it wanted, the relatively finger-print free destruction of Muammar Gaddafi's brutal dictatorship, he will now have to deal with the consequences of a broken country with advanced weapons, ripe for plundering by Islamists dedicated to destruction of the West.

In April, during Congressional testimony, General Carter F. Ham, Commander of the U.S. Africa Command stated that Libya had as many as 20,000 shoulder fired SAMs which at the time posed a major threat to NATO war planes.

"...threats from Gadhafi's mobile surface-to-air missile systems have hampered efforts to use the AC-130 and A-10 aircraft for close air support for friendly ground forces. Ham said those conditions, which include as many as 20,000 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, contributed to the stalemate..." [source, Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press, General says US may consider sending troops into Libya as part of any international force, http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13318869]

With the country now in complete turmoil and absent a significant U.S. ground presence, the possibility of corralling the shoulder fired missiles is impossible. In fact there is reason to suspect that the most advanced missiles are already in the hands of North African al-Qaeda operatives.

"...al-Qaeda's offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's president said in an interview to be published March 28.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was '100 percent sure' of his assertion.

'The Islamists of al-Qaida took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere...'" [source, AFP, Al-Qaida Snatched Missiles in Libya: Chad President, Defense News, March, 25, 2011, http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6060143]

If Chad's President is correct and al-Qaeda has already snatched the most lethal of Libya's weapon stockpile, then the negative repercussions accruing to Team Obama's Libyan adventure will become apparent to all in short order.

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http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=libya8242011101%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5041