thank you...
Posted on 12/31/2009 11:23:02 AM PST by Beaten Valve
A woman called police on Monday and said a man was forcing his way into her apartment in the 5300 block of Elm Street.
When officers went inside, they found something that made them concerned enough to call the bomb squad.
They found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.
"It gives infantrymen the advantage with an ultra-light weapon that can stop vehicles, armored vehicles as well as main battle tanks and fortifications," said Oscar Saldivar of Top Brass Military and Tactical on the North Freeway.
That type of rocket launcher has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The renter of the apartment didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2.
"This is my house," the woman said. " Get away from here. I don't want to talk to nobody."
The woman did tell police that the rocket launcher belonged to Nabilaye I. Yansane, someone whom she allowed to store items at her apartment.
Police records show that she didn't want Yansane at her apartment, so she called them.
According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2 about that, either.
"I don't know," she said. "You'll have to ask the police."
Yansane was charged with criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three days in jail, which he has already served. No charges related to the rocket launcher or writings were filed.
"Other people could have had access to the apartment, so maybe if a rocket launcher was located there, as is stated in the offense report, maybe it belonged to somebody else," attorney Garl Polland said.
Prosecutors said there are no state charges for having the unarmed launcher or possessing Jihadist writings, unless they contain some type of threat.
The former director of Houston's FBI office said rocket launchers can be dangerous if they're in the wrong hands.
"I don't know any other use for those weapons except in combat," Don Clark said. "I've had them in combat, used them in combat. That's what they are used for."
Houston police said they did a thorough investigation and did not find any ties to terrorists or a terrorist network.
In general, merchandise gets exported while people get deported. So he can be exported only if dead.
Mind you, I don't disagree with your sentiment. :)
rocket launchers can be dangerous if they’re in the wrong hands”
To be printed as a surgeon general’s warning on every rocket launcher produced in this country....(sarcasm)
The woman looks mmore dangerous than the weapon!
“The former director of Houston’s FBI office said rocket launchers can be dangerous if they’re in the wrong hands”
Paging Mr. Obvious....
The Right to Bear Arms goes along way in Texas :)
so is a gun....
Not really seeing what is wrong with having a rocket launcher in the ‘right’ hands...
You can sometimes find expended ones in Army-Navy stores. They are basically trash. They aren’t reloadable. A lot of modern weapons are sealed one shot units. You pop the sights up, arm the launcher, pull the trigger, drop the tube, walk away.
If you still lived at The Manor, I’d be looking carefully at the address of this discovery. :)
I'm shocked at this startling revelation.
To all who say its ‘just a spent tube’...My experience in the Army was, if you fire it, you crush it. This was meant to prevent IED’s (although we didn’t use that term back then).
I just don’t think DRMO sells spent rocket launchers, especially uncrushed ones. This means the launcher is likely s-t-o-l-e-n.
If I’m in law enforcement, and I come across an A’rab, complete with jihadist writings...well by golly, I investigate the rocket launcher. Where did it come from? Did you but it? Is it as simple as some GI smuggling it off base after training? Or did somebody steal a live one and fire it (maybe at an airliner). Was a lot # stenciled on it - could it be traced to a point of origin? Maybe I would poke around the apartment a little more - see if this fella likes black powder. Maybe check and see if he’s got a storage shed, etc, etc, etc.
I wouldn’t just ignore it.
“Not really seeing what is wrong with having a rocket launcher in the ‘right’ hands”
My post 90 explains why I think the empty launcher is problematic.
If you are implying that us average citizens should be able to have an unexpended rocket launcher...its quite a slippery slope. I’m sure the shape charge at the end of the rocket makes it a class whatever explosive...with a whole set of requirements. I don’t know where the 2nd ammendment stops - somewhere between rifles and nukes...and that’s a whole different debate.
I just thought it was a strange statement that a rocket launcher ‘could be dangerous in the wrong hands’...which seems patently obvious to me.
I dated an AT-4 like that when I was younger. Thanks for the info. I had forgotten her name.
I saw this on the TX message board when I got back on FR.
Cheers!
Actually, I served under Mr. Clark when I was in the Army, and he is an expert. The story doesn’t exactly make him sound like a genius, however.
As a peice of expended ordnance, the AT4 launcher is demilled by the Army (or a contractor) before being released fore sale to a scrap/surplus dealer. The mechanical acutuating mechanism is removed and certain locations of the launcher are cut to render the tube pretty much worhtless. While I am certain a good ordnance man can get a demilled copy back into useable condition, the rockets are rather hard to obtain outide complete AT4 munitions, so outside of some machine shop and homemade explosives, it is an unrestricted curio.
I have a carbon fiber rocket launcher tube sitting about 3 ft. from where I’m sitting right now. It has been made into a reflector telescope. I don’t think it’s going to kill anyone.
thank you...
Its only the past 45 years that we have been willing to let anyone into the country and have uncontrolled immigration.
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