Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (116390)	10/8/2003 10:01:16 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 281500

Invincible......

To: GST who wrote (116390)	10/8/2003 10:43:45 AM
From: Rascal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

MISSING WEAPONS U.S. Can't Locate Missiles Once Held in Iraq Arsenal By RAYMOND BONNER AGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 7 — The United States military has been unable to locate a large number of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles that were part of the arsenal of Saddam Hussein, officials say, compounding the security risks for airports and airlines in Iraq and around the world. The lack of accounting for the missiles — officials say there could be hundreds — is the primary reason the occupation authorities have not yet reopened the Baghdad International Airport to commercial traffic, officials said. The terminal has been rebuilt and the runways repaired, and Australian soldiers are running the air traffic control system. But portable missiles were fired at incoming planes several times in recent weeks, one senior official said. Most of those incidents have not been reported to the public. The missiles missed their targets widely, suggesting that the people who fired them had not been extensively trained. United States military officers do not know exactly how many of the missiles are unaccounted for, because they do not have precise estimates of how many Iraq once possessed. "We just don't know," said an allied official, turning up his palms for emphasis. The American military is pressing the search for the missiles, offering a reward of $500 for each one. The Pentagon has been surprised how many of the weapons, mostly Russian-designed SA-7's, Iraqis have turned in, another coalition official said. Virtually every day, Iraqis are walking up to United States military posts to hand over portable missiles, and sometimes they have led Americans to small caches. All together, 317 shoulder-fired missiles have been handed over to the military since May 1, according to unclassified United States military figures. The military has paid more than $100,000 in rewards, the figures show. United States troops have also found several hundred shoulder-fired missiles, many in weapons dumps the locations of which remain secret, another allied official said. But occupation officials remain concerned, because there is a vibrant international black market for the missiles in which an SA-7 can fetch as much as $5,000 — far more than the United States military is offering. The missiles are easy to smuggle, with a weight of 30 pounds or less and a length less than six feet, and Iraq's borders are highly porous at the moment. In general, the operator of a shoulder-fired missile aims it at a low-flying plane or helicopter, then pulls a trigger, launching the projectile, which locks in on the heat emitted by the aircraft's engine. The United States and other advanced militaries have developed effective defenses like flares; their heat deceives the missile. United States officials have discovered that Mr. Hussein's overall conventional military arsenal was much larger than American prewar estimates. The C.I.A. has estimated that the weapons dumps found so far in Iraq hold 600,000 tons of all kinds of ammunition and weapons. The missiles believed to be available on the world black market include highly sophisticated American-made Stingers, nearly one thousand of which were given by the C.I.A. to the Islamic guerrillas who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980's. In December 2000, two Stingers were found on a North Korean ship smuggling drugs into Japan, according to American officials. The ship was sunk by the Japanese coast guard in a shootout. United States Navy divers secretly took the Stingers off the ship. It was raised, the drugs were displayed and the boat was put in a museum — all without public mention of the Stingers. American officials said they had not been able to determine where the missiles were being sent. Afghan-era Stingers are widely believed to be inoperable because of their age. But military experts say that while the Stinger's official military shelf life is seven years, with good maintenance and care they can be fired long after that. In Bangkok, police and security officials said an intense search began last week for at least six shoulder-fired missiles after the police received information that the weapons had been smuggled into Thailand from Cambodia. Later this month 20 world leaders, including President Bush, are to fly into Bangkok for an economic summit conference. In recent weeks at least two airlines have scrambled the times of their flights in and out of Bangkok's international airport after receiving intelligence reports from the United States that Al Qaeda operatives were planning missile attacks, diplomats and security officials there said. Moderating security fears is the fact that the portable missiles cannot be fired effectively without training. American soldiers go through a seven-week course to qualify to use the missiles and then are required to requalify quarterly. The SA-7 was developed by the Soviet Union in the late 1960's, and there are Chinese versions as well. It is the most widely available shoulder-fired missile. Experts estimate that there are about 100,000 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles in existence globally. In the last 15 years, more than 50,000 have been sold to governments of developing countries, according to Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. At least 30 insurgent and terrorist groups possess this kind of missile, Jane's Terrorism Intelligence Center reported in August. nytimes.com Rascal @http://www.twa800.com/index.htm

To: GST who wrote (116390)	10/9/2003 9:29:10 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy? _______________________________ By MAUREEN DOWD Columnist The New York Times Published: October 9, 2003 nytimes.com WASHINGTON - It's easy to see why the Bush crowd is getting so tetchy. The itch to ditch officials who fritter away the public trust is growing, as Arnold and his broom bear down on Sacramento. And we know now that our first pre-emptive war was launched basically because Iraq had . . . a vial of Botox? Just about the scariest thing the weapons hunter David Kay could come up with was a vial of live botulinum, hidden in the home of an Iraqi biological weapons scientist. This has very dire implications for Beverly Hills and the East Side of Manhattan, areas awash in vials of Botox, the botulinum toxin that can either be turned into a deadly biological weapon or a pricey wrinkle smoother. And it may have dire implications for the Pentagon and White House if Americans come to believe that their trust was betrayed when the president and his team spread the impressions that Saddam was about to blow us up and that he was behind the 9/11 attacks. It doesn't help to have a former-NATO-commander-turned-presidential-contender running around telling the country that the Bush dream team is a bunch of dunces. Or a former-diplomat-turned-angry-husband-of-an-outed-spy running around telling the country that the Bush dream team is a bunch of backstabbing lawbreakers who are dead wrong on Iraq. The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling. Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown. The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House. Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object. It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague. "And because he is a cantankerous egomaniac," one longtime Rummy watcher said, "he compounded his own problems by acknowledging it in public, further undermining his own stature." President Bush clearly realizes that Mr. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz have gotten him into a fine mess. He wants his trusted Mother Hen, as he calls Condi, the woman who probably spends as much time with him as Laura — weekends at Camp David, vacations at the ranch, workouts at the gym — to make it all better. This will be the first time Ms. Rice, a Soviet expert who has functioned mostly so far as First Chum, will have her reputation on the line. Some Republicans worry that it's risky to move accountability for postwar Iraq closer to the Oval Office because then there's no one else to blame. In a meeting with foreign reporters on Tuesday in Colorado Springs, Rummy made no effort to mask his displeasure, saying he had not been consulted, even though Condi said he had, and cattily referring to the "little committees" of the N.S.C. When a German broadcast reporter pressed the defense secretary, he hissed: "I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English?" One of Rumsfeld's Rules is: "Avoid public spats. When a Department argues with other government agencies in the press, it reduces the President's options." Hmm. Maybe Rummy hasn't brushed up lately on the Washington rulebook he wrote in the 1970's — after his stints as President Gerald Ford's chief of staff and secretary of defense. Otherwise, he might have recalled this Rumsfeld rule before he bullied the world and ripped up Iraq: "It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."