[sam_paine]

xzins, the point that is glossed over here is not that they had the weapon there, but why they had it there. Just exactly what kind of people are you setting up in a sting when selling rockets??? Could it be, oh, Idunno, terrorists???

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TOW Weapon Systems are the preferred anti-armor systems of the U.S., NATO, the Coalition Forces, the United Nations, and many international peacekeeping operations.

TOW Weapon Systems are designed for anti-armor, anti-bunker, anti-fortification, and anti-amphibious missions. The TOW 2 family, currently in production, includes the multi-mission TOW 2A and TOW 2B missiles. The TOW 2A features a tandem warhead armament system to increase its lethality against tanks configured with explosive reactive armor. The TOW 2B is a fly-over, shoot-down missile with explosively formed penetrator warheads. It is designed to defeat advanced armor well into the 21st century.

The TOW 2 guidance system "hardens" the guidance link to defeat battlefield electro-optical countermeasures and infrared countermeasures. TOW 2 missiles can operate in daylight or darkness, and through smoke, haze, and other battlefield obscurants.

More than 40 international armed forces employ TOW Weapon Systems and they are integrated in more than 15,000 ground vehicle and helicopter platforms worldwide.

[Poohbah]

Maybe the sting target was just a golf course greenskeeper trying to get rid of that pesky gopher.

[sonsofliberty2000]

good link up; I passed right over that line from the story "But its discovery prompted an evacuation that slowed rescue efforts April 19, 1995, in part because the missile had been marked as live ordinance to make it look believable to the targets of a planned law enforcement sting, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. "

[xzins]

I agree with you more than I don't.

The Tow is our current SOLDIER-DEPLOYED anti-tank weapon....the descendant of the old bazooka. While it is more easily mounted on a Hummer, it is intended for individual use rather than team use. THEREFORE, it is deployable by an individual.

When most think of MISSILE the think of something large like an icbm. With a tow, however, You could easily carry it around with you. (The replacement for the Tow, the Javelin, will be even more deployable by an individual soldier. Javelin is a "fire and forget" missile whereas with the tow you have to guide it to its target with the optical guidance system. That makes the soldier vulnerable to return fire.)

There could be any number of folks who would want to buy a tow....survivalists, terrorists, gangs, crime syndicates, drug cartels, honest weapons collectors, etc. It doesn't require one to be a terrorist to want a tow missile. (The gov't shouldn't be in the business of entrapping exotic weapons collectors....the 2nd amendment doesn't say I can't have a tow missile.)