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The release of over 250,000 diplomatic cables has revealed a lot about the intricacies of U.S. diplomacy. However, one aspect of the WikiLeaks release that has been much under the media's radar is what the leaked cables have said about Russia and its surrogate-state sponsorship of what would most accurately be described as an international terrorist network. In a diplomatic cable dated August 6, 2008, regarding a meeting between U.S. and Russian experts on the export of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) from Russia, the State Department expressed its concern about "Russian ammunition, sold to Venezuela ... found in possession...

The FARC and the Quest for Surface to Air Missiles By Douglas Farah SNIPPET: "The Miami Herald today reports that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the military and police." SNIPPET: "It is not a...

A businessman from Hendon was sentenced to 47 years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of attempting to smuggle missiles into America. Clothing merchant Hemant Lakhani, 70, of Wykeham Road, was convicted in April this year of trying to sell shoulder-launched missiles to a Somali terrorist group to shoot down commercial airliners. The case centred on the evidence of the US government's key witness, Mohammed Habib Rehman, an informant posing as a representative of the Somali-based Ogaden National Liberation Front interested in buying missiles. The court in Newark, New Jersey, heard tape-recorded telephone conversations and viewed video surveillance...

The relations between Russia and the Shiite's religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people. At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish...

(AP) — Some highlights from an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in New Jersey, outlining the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States: _Investigation began in December 2001, when a "cooperating witness" or informant under federal law enforcement control began talking with the alleged arms dealer, Hemant Lakhani, about obtaining anti-aircraft guns and missiles. The witness told Lakhani he was representing a Somali group that wanted to buy one missile initially "with a purchase of a greater number of missiles to follow." _Between Dec. 2001 and Aug. 13, 2003, more than 150 conversations between Lakhani...

Russia's decision to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Syria is a "wrong deal to the wrong country at the wrong time," a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Wednesday. Sharon revealed on Tuesday that he had received a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin informing him of Russia's decision to go ahead with the sale of SA-18 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Both Israel and the U.S. had voiced their strong opposition to the sale. "We are not pleased with the sales of weapons to Syria, particularly sophisticated weapons that Russia intends to sell to Syria, weapons that...

<p>A federal judge yesterday set a Nov. 3 trial date for Hemant Lakhani, the British merchant arrested in New Jersey for allegedly arranging the sale of a shoulder-fired missile to anti-American terrorists.</p> <p>Lakhani's attorney, Henry Klingeman, said he wanted the trial to begin sooner, but told U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden that he would accept the date.</p>

MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 25 (RIA Novosti) - A portable antiaircraft missile system has been seized from a local criminal group in Yekaterinburg in the Urals region in the east of European Russia, the Russian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. According to acting minister Rashid Nurgaliev, this happened in January, when a "large network of organized crime" was exposed in the city. A disassembled Igla system was found in a hideout in a private house. Before that, the police used to find this kind of weapons only with militants in Chechnya, Nurgaliev said. The hideout was found to contain an entire arsenal...

Jan 17, 8:14 PM (ET) NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi guerrillas are using increasingly sophisticated weapons and tactics to attack U.S. aircraft, according to a classified Army study on the downing of helicopters in Iraq, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. Citing senior Army officials in Iraq and the Gulf who were familiar with the study, the newspaper reported that at least one advanced missile was used by insurgents. Rebels have used rocket-propelled grenades and heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, the latter which require a degree of skill, in the attacks. Scores of U.S. servicemen have died in recent months...

Nicked ... emotionless Lakhani arrives at court THE British arms dealer seized over a US terror plot hero-worshipped Osama Bin Laden.Hemant Lakhani, 68, tried to supply missiles for a blitz on the scale of the September 11 attacks.He spoke of a bid to shoot down a plane on the anniversary of 9/11.Lakhani hated the US and was hell-bent on killing Americans, prosecutors said last night.The arms dealer believed terror leader Osama Bin Laden “did something right and set the Americans straight” when he orchestrated the September 11 attacks.And he was ready to help extremists unleash a new wave of terror....

The Real Terrorist Missile Threat, and What Can be Done About It By Robert Sherman The past year has seen intense speculation on why early signs of the World Trade Center attack were not detected. Historians will forever dispute whether the FBI was negligent in failing to recognize that something consequential was in the offing as Arab students with poor flying skills asked to learn how to fly jumbo jets without learning how to take off or land. But today the civilized world faces a threat many times more serious than 9-11. The evidence of the threat is not subtle...

The United States won agreement from Asian and Pacific Rim governments to sharply restrict the use and transfer of shoulder-fired missiles that could be used terrorist groups to shoot down passenger planes. Meeting with Asian foreign ministers, Secretary of State Powell called for joint action to control trade in the American-made Stinger, Russian "Strela" and "Igla" MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems). These are shoulder fired missiles that weight under 30 pounds. The United States government had previously resisted formal international restrictions on the transfer of shoulder-fired missiles. The regional press is already misinterpreting the initiative as a "ban on purchasing"....

<p>August 13, 2003 -- A British arms dealer was arrested in Newark yesterday after he smuggled into the United States a shoulder-fired missile - which he wanted to sell to Muslim terrorists to shoot down a large passenger jet, sources said.</p>

A BRITISH arms dealer was seized by the FBI yesterday for plotting to help terrorists shoot down a US plane with a missile.The man was arrested in America after an amazing sting involving MI5, MI6, US and Russian authorities.The London-based dealer said he wanted to target George Bush’s presidential plane Air Force One, it was reported. The dealer shipped the sophisticated weapon from Russia to Baltimore — and believed he was selling it to a Muslim fanatic.But his buyer was really an undercover FBI agent — and the arms dealer is heard on tape saying the missile was to be...

Three Arrested in U.S. Missile Smuggling Plot   By Ellen WulfhorstNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities arrested three people on Tuesday in a sting operation that foiled a plot to smuggle a missile into the United States that could be used to shoot down a commercial airliner, officials said. Reuters Photo   One suspect, a British citizen, was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, trying to smuggle the Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the country. Two others were arrested in New York, officials in Washington said. The Briton believed he was selling missiles to would-be terrorists, but he was nabbed in the...

A Briton has been arrested in the US after a suspected plot to supply a lethal surface-to-air missile to terrorists. It is thought the alleged target might have been a commercial aircraft or the US President's personal aircraft. Western intelligence officials have confirmed to the BBC it was a multinational sting operation, involving agents from the US, Russia and Britain. It resulted in the arrest of a British arms dealer at Newark in New Jersey on Tuesday. Officials say he successfully imported a Russian-made Igla missile into the US and believed he was selling it to an Muslim extremist. But...

A United Nations committee recently took a vote that pleasantly surprised many pro-family observers. It was a significant vote when a U.N. subcommittee considered renewal of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status for the International Gay and Lesbian Association (IGLA). Austin Ruse, with the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said this was quite a departure from the norm for the United Nations. “The significance is that the U.N. stood up to the homosexual lobby and said no,” Ruse said. “The U.N. never turns anybody down. What they generally do is defer a group to the next year and then defer them ...