Posted on 11/30/2002 12:57:04 AM PST by sarcasm
WASHINGTON — The missiles that were fired Thursday at an airplane carrying 261 Israeli tourists as it left Kenya's resort city of Mombasa are readily available on the international black market, relatively easy to use and probably in the hands of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the leading suspect in the attack.
"This is not only an Israeli problem," said Avi Pazner, an Israeli government spokesman. "What can be done against an Israeli aircraft, can easily be done against a European or American one."
Meanwhile, Kenyan police said they had detained 12 people, including an American woman, for questioning in the fatal hotel attack that occurred almost simultaneously with the attempt to shoot down the airliner. Hotel managers in the resort town said many of those detained were tourists who were picked up largely because they checked out of their hotels near the time of the attack.
U.S. officials have worried for some time that terrorists might turn such heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles against commercial jetliners.
In May, the FBI warned U.S. law-enforcement agencies and airlines that intelligence reports indicated that Islamic extremists may have smuggled SA-7s and U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles into the United States. The reports were based on monitors of Internet chat rooms that Islamic extremists use.
The SA-7 Strela, the Soviet-designed shoulder-fired projectile that was fired at the Israeli airliner, is the missile that most worries counterterrorism experts. Two Strela launchers were found after the attack.
"You need to be mindful of and concerned about the fact that these things are fairly small, and it is not difficult to smuggle them anywhere," said a U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The SA-7 is a missile with a high explosive warhead and an infrared guidance system that homes in on engine heat. The SA-7 has an effective range of about 3 miles and can hit aircraft flying as high as 13,500 feet.
Thousands of SA-7s, known to Western militaries by its NATO acronym of Grail, were exported from the former Soviet Union after the Cold War, and many are thought to have ended up in the hands of terrorists. The United States and other countries make similar missiles.
Commercial airliners make large targets as they pass low near airports. And they aren't equipped with the anti-missile defense systems that are on many military planes. Such systems are designed to detect incoming missiles and divert them by spewing clouds of flares and metal strips known as chaff.
In a measure of the mounting concern over airliners' vulnerability to missile attacks, the state-run Israel Armament Development Authority earlier this year unveiled a commercial version of an anti-missile system it builds for military helicopters.
Eric Doten, an aviation-safety consultant and former Federal Aviation Administration official, said U.S. airlines hadn't installed such systems on their planes because the threat was considered to be primarily overseas.
Moreover, he said, portable anti-aircraft missiles aren't an especially reliable means of downing large passenger aircraft. Most big planes have more than one engine and could still fly after losing one to a heat-seeking missile.
An anti-missile system costs about $2.98 million per plane to install, which also may be one reason that the cash-strapped U.S. airline industry has not rushed to equip jets with them. Doten said U.S. airlines might begin to show "greater interest" in anti-missile systems as a result of the Mombasa attack.
The Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 escaped being shot down because the two missiles fired at it apparently were old and inaccurate, Israeli experts said yesterday, dismissing speculation that an on-board system of decoy flares deflected the attack.
Roni Daniel, military commentator on Israel TV's Channel Two, said the attack failed apparently because the missiles were not up to the job. "These missiles are a bit old. Age can reduce their ability to score a hit," he said. "It's (also) possible the operators weren't sufficiently trained."
Another military correspondent, Alon Ben-David, said "only luck" saved the plane.
Avner Yarkoni, former director of Israel's Civil Aviation Authority, said "it's a lost battle to protect airplanes against those kinds of threats, meaning missiles. We don't succeed doing that with fighter planes," he said. Instead, efforts should be focused on trying to improve ground security, such as trying to keep an area with a radius of 7 miles around an airport secure, Yarkoni said.
There has never been a successful missile attack against a large civilian aircraft, though rebels in Sri Lanka and Chechnya have brought down several planes and helicopters carrying soldiers. Also, not all systems are effective against all missiles, experts said.
"The question is who decides on the level of threat," said Philip Butterworth-Hayes, editor of Janes' Aircraft Component Manufacturers. "If you think there is a one-in-a-million chance of this happening, and it costs billions (to protect yourself), who decides that this is a price worth paying?"
Meanwhile in Mombasa yesterday, Israel investigators began combing through the debris of an Israeli-owned resort hotel in this coastal city, looking for clues to the identity of the suicide bombers in the deadly attack. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis died in the attack, as well as the three suicide bombers who crashed their bomb-laden sport-utility vehicle into the hotel's entrance.
"The Kenyans died instantly; the only thing wrong they did was to go to work ... all these people are fighting their enemies in my country," said Daniel Mbui, a janitor at another resort hotel. "It's not Kenyans who were intended to be killed; this suffering was not for us."
Initial suspicion centered on two groups: al-Qaida and al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamic group suspected of having links to bin Laden's network, said a U.S. official, speaking yesterday on condition of anonymity. It is also possible the two groups were working together, the official said.
Simultaneous attacks, like those on the airliner and hotel, are an al-Qaida trademark, officials said, also noting that bin Laden's recent audio message threatened Israelis. The previously unknown Army of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attacks. But Palestinian officials denied that any Palestinian group was involved.
-http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/797899/posts?page=49#49--
SEATTLE TIMES.com: "MISSILES SHOT AT JET ARE READILY AVAILABLE" by Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In May, the FBI warned U.S. law-enforcement agencies and airlines that intelligence reports indicated that Islamic extremists may have smuggled SA-7s and U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles into the United States. The reports were based on monitors of Internet chat rooms that Islamic extremists use." (113002)
stepping back in time...JEWISH WORLD REVIEW.com: "AL-QAEDA'S IRANIAN ESCAPE HATCH" -Column by Richard Z. Chesnoff (COLUMN SNIPPET: "Senior counterterrorist agents in Europe have told me that, despite emphatic denials by the Iranian government, fugitive troops loyal to Osama Bin Laden continue to slip freely across Afghanistan's 600-mile border with Iran. From there, say the sources, they are being smuggled by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to a variety of countries in the Middle East, South America and possibly elsewhere." (March 13, 2002)
I would think that if an airline advertised they were the only US airline with anti-missle technology, they would capture immense market-share.
I would think that if an airline advertised they were the only US airline with anti-missle technology, they would capture immense market-share.
My God, what have we come to these days?
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