Bill Clinton.
Dems will suddenly be interested in this conflict because they can say Bush screwed up somehow and "let" these get into the hands of terrorists.
They should be able to trace the lot numbers.
...smuggled out of Afghanistan maybe.....
The missile matters, but do they have launchers too?
There are probably 25 countries that have bought the TOW over the past 10 years or so. I'm sure the CIA has the serials and can tell you which country purchased it. The interesting story will be how that country explains that this was "stolen" but never reported back to the US. The next question will be how many of these were "stolen". If you consider the cost of each TOW...you have to be picky about when and where you use it, and the guy has to have some kinda training...which would be third question...where he got this training.
I would be prepared for alot of US weapons showing up here...in the arms of Hezballah. The Iranians front them on cash...so they can purchase on the world market and they've probably got several underground bunkers with weapons stored and waiting.
THese are clones of American TOWS. I forget who it is that makes them but these are not American-made TOWs (or at least not according to the littlegreenfootballs website.)
They are probably a gift from the NY Times.
There were a couple of convoys hit during the early days of the Iraq War II (Jessica Lynch and others captured). They were hauling supplies, maybe some got hauled into either Syria or Iran and from there to the Hezzies...
Peace sells, but who's buying?
4-5 April 2000 The TOW Weapon System Partnership Committee met in Huntsville for the second time. Usually held in Luxembourg each April and October, the United States agreed to sponsor this month’s meeting, which was hosted by the CCAWS Project Office and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) Deputy for Systems Acquisition (DSA). This meeting also marked the committee’s 25th anniversary. Although several systems had weapon systems partnerships, TOW had the longest running committee. Member nations included Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The United States was not a committee member, but it did serve as an advisor to the group." http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/tow/tow_chronology.html
"MISSILE, AT (or 'Anti-Tank'), TOW, one each"
I know a while back there was a thing with Israeli black market folk who were selling weapons, primarily small arms, to the Palestinians.
However, I don't think they were responsible for anything as large as a TOW and anyways, that'd be stretching the realm of possibility. The Saudis had TOWs at least as of Desert Storm, but the regime there hates the Shiites. Of course, this could be a case of who Saudi Arabia hates more...
Also, they could conceivably be weapons captured from our forces in Iraq (kinda like the M249 Zarqawi fired in his video for propaganda purposes) and smuggled through Syria (if there are only a handful of them). But I don't know if we'd have any reason to have TOW missiles in Iraq, and getting missiles AND launchers would be difficult.
Well, sorting through the wanderings of my mind, I think the Saudi route sounds most reasonable IMO.
I agree with some of the comments about the way the number 7 is written. But that is not as obvious as the number 9. We always use a straight backed nine rather than the rounded 9 like a backword e.
Also the weight is listed in kg not lb like in the post with the specs. Maybe someone in the military can comment on how the government lists weights on ordinance like this.