US Stinger missiles. With serial numbers that post-date the weapons supplied by the US during the Afghan-Soviet conflict.
Look: it’s probably unhelpful to speculate, but much that’s been surmised about Ambassador Stevens’ meeting with Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin prior to his murder surrounded a Libyan-flagged vessel, Al Entisar, that was received by Turkey just miles from the Syrian border.
News that US weapons Hillary Clinton and the CIA gave to the Qataris intended for anti-Khaddafi forces in Libya have found their way to the Taliban, and were used to fire on an American Chinook helicopter, bringing it down (though without any death to US servicemen) — while troubling enough on its face (knowing as we have that the “freedom-fighters” in both Syria and Libya have been organized more and more by Islamic extremists, including al Qaeda and its affiliates) — makes the release of 5 high-ranking Taliban leaders to the Qatari in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl, even more grotesque and outlandish. It’s like handing over our weapons directly to those pledging to kill us, in addition to creating an incentive to keep and hold American uniformed servicemen in captivity.
Some have surmised that Stevens was trying to retrieve surface to air missiles that had gotten into the hands of extremists just prior to his death; and that the intensive and relentless cover-up of the Benghazi debacle has its roots in providing political (and perhaps even criminal) cover for the White House and the Clinton State Department over where these weapons wound up — a “phony” conspiracy theory based around a “phony” scandal that, like the Bergdahl scandal, is just some “partisan” witchhunt “whipped up in DC” because, well, racism.
Well, where they wound up — at least some of them — is not in doubt now. And what this story shows us is the absolute utter and incomprehensibly naive failures of this Administration’s conciliatory foreign policy and attempt to buy their way into the good graces of extremists.
Soon, one of these surface to air missiles will no doubt target a US passenger plane or some other similar target. And though again attempts to provide cover for this lawless, arrogant, inept Administration and its elite technocratic buffoons — who place ideology and theory over history and experience — will be just as intensive, the truth will eventually come out.
We’ll be told of the complex nature of these decisions, about the fog of war, and the spin will eventually get around to Bush, etc. But the bottom line is this: when I noted the other day that it was okay to ask whose side Obama is on, I was being rhetorical. He is on the side of transnational progressivism and egalitarianism, including between nation states.
As such, he and his Marxist cohort are on the side of the US only inasmuch as they believe they’ve fundamentally transformed it into something of their liking, which is in itself a move away from what makes the US the US, namely, its constitutional republican system and its representative government.
If the weepy Mr Boehner and his gaggle of impotent establishment cronies can’t or won’t launch a full-scale investigation into the trafficking of weapons to extremists, then there’s no reason at all to even vote next election cycle.
The country is done. Until it’s entirely rebuilt, following what will be a wholesale collapse and a battle of ideological pruning that may even turn violent in some instances.
Yeah, not the news anyone really wants to hear. But then, I’m not terribly concerned with my likeability quotient here online. I’m more concerned with writing things that people need to hear, whether it harshes their mellow or not.
Deal with it.
My understanding is that opinions differ as to whether or not a small MANPADS missile could actually take down a commercial airliner (say, 737 or larger).
And even if such a nightmare scenario did happen – likely ending air travel in the United States once and for all – we all know that there will be more than a few people arguing that this is a good thing. After all, it would mean the end of those nasty, greenhouse-gas-spewing jet aircraft and the beginning of proper high-speed rail development, which is what “civilized” nations have.
If a bird strike can bring down an airliner, if a piece of aluminum on the runway could crash a Concorde in flames, I think a missile could do the trick. Hit an engine on takeoff, or a wing on landing approach, and you’ll create some serious mayhem.
It’s almost enough to cause someone to imagine ClownDisaster and Clinton are in the back pocket of the BigFlare-BigChaff combine. God knows our rulers always suffer impoverishment when they leave office, so have to look to make a bit of coin wherever they can.
Preach, Brother Jeff, Preach!
Related: When children — everyone loves them! — sing and twirl about, delight can be our only reaction, for aren’t they all precious?
And also related, who can wait until these sweet sweet Pakistani patriots lay their hands on the heretofore dangerous Pakistani nuclear arsenal and so render it safe for all mankind?
Bohenerfag doesn’t even think it’s important to do a real investigation of the wholesale corruption of the Internal Revenue Service
why should he care if some stupid americans in a plane, most of which would be in coach anyway, get blown out of the sky by a terrorist?
oops *Boehnerfag* I mean
Hit an engine on takeoff, or a wing on landing approach, and you’ll create some serious mayhem.
Hitting a plane on landing would create much more mayhem, since it would then require closure of the entire airport until the pieces could be cleaned, and landing patterns are much more predictable than takeoff. The planes are also much more fragile, since they are already in the air. Most major airports have their landing patterns populated by industrial parks (which don’t mind the noise quite so much as residential would), which would allow for small trucks to transit in and out quickly. Most of them are also connected to major highways, if only to allow for high volume passenger ingress/egress.
They need not be directly under the approaching plane to score a hit. And it takes less than two minutes for a competent crew to set up, lock on, fire, and begin escape/evasion. With a second vehicle, they needn’t even be concerned with breakdown. If they are seeking the dramatic splash, they would want the credit, anyway, so no need to worry about forensic investigations.
Just as an example, from several of the major airports here in southern California, they could even simply come to a stop on the side of the freeway, fire, and be gone before CHP or local police could even get the first 9-1-1 call… (LAX has both the 405 and the 105, John Wayne also has the 405 and several State highways, Ontario has the I-10, San Diego has the entire harbor region and the downtown, plus the I-5, et alia)
Landing is also when damage to control surfaces can be most decisive, as they’re all in play and there’s no room to recover if the damage isn’t fatal in its own right.
And to think I swore off commercial flight because of the TSA. Now even if airport security theater weren’t so intolerable i’d still be leery of the risks.
Lets Connect The Dots, shall we….
Prez needs a boot to seal the deal on his re-election bid.
Killing OBL is just the perfect foil to his critics on the right.
The Taliban want their key leaders back. Giving up OBL is no skin off their nose.
A deal is struck, but Prez can’t just let them go. What would justify such an action? A high level trade, for maybe an ambassador. Raid goes wrong potential ambassador hostage gets killed.
Taliban threatens to expose deal if Prez doesn’t come through with his end of the deal.
Presto!. Deserter used to make the trade
– When all of the Demorats balls finally tumble to earth, and they will tumble sooner or later, there will be a political shit storm the likes of which has never been witnessed in this Republics history.
– Everyone knows thats coming. Problem is it will still leave us with a boatload of shit to clean up, which won’t be easy what with the Lefts expected bitter resistance at every turn.
– Fuck em. Let the battle ensue.
Fucking Buffoons were giving weapons through our embassy in that fucking shithole in North Africa run by that crazy motherfucker who was our enemy/ally/enemy/ally what the fuck….anyways lost my train of thought. Oh yea those crazy evil motherfuckers were giving weapons to attack Syrian fighter jets to Al Qaeda the main rebels in Syria. Iran was not amused and decided to show the United States that they are a bunch of useless motherfuckers when it comes to embassy protection. So they attacked the embassy with Hezbollah…of course no one wants to admit this because to do so would show what a bunch of traitorous bastards everyone R’s/D’s are in our government.
Oh BTW stingers can indeed bring down a passenger jet…big fucking time…unless of course your Jet Blue flight is flying around with some armor. Not so much eh? Stingers are made to shoot down armored military helicopters and jets. And indeed both types of armored targets, Mi-24 Hind being notably armored, have been shot down.
The limiting factor with Stingers is range, especially in the vertical. One couldn’t have brought down TWA 800, but planes do need to land eventually.
Even if Air Force One can be continuously refueled in flight, the number of refueler jets is finite.
And the number of locations where large planes can land is both finite and eminently predictable. Direction of approach is also limited to one of two directions, and usually only just the one, depending on prevailing winds.
I remember reading that one of the mandatory (although nor often mentioned) requirements for Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway system is that one mile out of every five be both as level and as straight as terrain allows, with no overhead obstructions, in order to serve as emergency military runways, but that doesn’t really apply to the big planes (747s+, B-52s, etc.) since they require runways much longer than merely a mile, even (ESPECIALLY) under emergency conditions.
Hillary to rape victims: “You shouldn’t have walked down that street in “those” clothes.”
– Speaking of Hildebeast, Obama was already showing his two Lwft feet way back in 2008. If anyone still thinks that politics is anything but the dirtiest game ever invented, forget it. Both sides will do anything to win.
– Even when a Pol does something right as in this case, its just a matter of what they can get away with and how conniving they are, never because they have any class.
– I’m sure every candidate is told point blank “Be prepared to sell your soul and lie out your ass if you want to win. In politics the best liar always wins.”
– I was on the design team for the Stinger and several other missiles at Gen. Dynamics. Like most armaments its effectiveness depends on the nature of the “hit”, and McGehee is correct on the range limitations.
– Problem is I’m doubtful its Stingers. They’re kind of dated at this point and I suspect the actual arms is more like some of the latest units which have a bigger more powerful payload and other improvements, and are therefore much more deadly, but who knows. Whats known is the whole pile of shit was a disastrous miss-calculation on the Choom gangs part and continues to grow in the size of the shit storm its caused. More and more prominent Dem’s are distancing themselves from the entire mess, and not just because of the upcoming elections. As one unnamed Dem wag put it “Its too the point where even I can’t stand to lie anymore.”
– “Yeah, but that was 5 minutes ago, so…..”
“They indicated [it was] Secretary Hagel [who made the final call],” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, R-California, told reporters following the briefing Monday evening. “It was the president of the United States that came out [in the Rose Garden] with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?”
Yep. Obama didn’t know any of this stuff until he saw it on the news. Because he’s so competent.
– Which prompted a question…
– And elicited some well deserved mocking laughter….when the press sec tried to maintain that “Congress trusts the admin”….
– Because thats exactly what waffle ears has become, a laughing stock.
– In the mean time Hillary is busy trying to cover her saggy old ass on the “broke” comment, with no success.
I’d thought that they were Soviet manpads from the Libyan stashes, SA-7, SA -14 or even SA-24s which were reported to be seen during the 2011 war.
In 2000 she got an 8 million advance for her book, 8 months later in 2001 Bill got 10 million for his book advance plus they both had regular incomes. Her 187,000 Senate pay and his 200,000 presidential pension. That’s before any of the speeches etc.
Damn hard to keep fresh fruit on the table with only $18, 387,000.00 coming in for the year. Ask Michelle she knows.
More arms for terrorists.
The Party of the rubes.
I’m sure they spent $19 million on legal fees and other assorted bribes, payoffs etc. that year.
Hard to keep your head above water when the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy is out to get you, you know?
Those guys are way more unexpected than the Spanish Inquisition ever was!
Her 187,000 Senate pay and his 200,000 presidential pension.
That doesn’t include the free medical care for both, plus the taxpayer-provided USSS security forces (for which they were also collecting rent on the guest house on that home property from that same USSS – to wit, the taxpayers), and all the PAC money from lobbyists for her since she was actively serving in the Senate even before Bill left office. (To wit, “You in favor of sugar subsidies? I can get you money from the sugar companies. You against them? I can get you money from the candy companies.” Ad infinitum, ad nauseum.)
****According to the pre-publicity, the latest book – Living History: The Heavily Discounted Bulk Order of the Phoenix – would see Hillary rise from the ashes yet again, step out of Billy’s shadow and prepare to take Housewhites back from the evil usurper Lord W Bush (as fans know, the W stands for Woldemort, but by tradition the name is never said). But instead it’s mostly hundreds of pages about who Hillary sat next to at the many school dinners she’s attended, with a brief passage about when Billy told her about Moaning Monica. According to the book, after spending the summer golfing with Uncle Vernon Jordan, he admits to Hillary that, although he did play quidditch, he never put his bludger in the golden snitch. Hillary thinks this is a lot of hufflepuff and, although he doesn’t die, Billy finds himself under an impediment curse which means that for the rest of the book he hardly gets to take his wand out at all and Uncle Vernon starts calling him Nearly Headless Bill.
But has the series lost touch with its original fans? Many of those young readers from a decade ago are now in their mid-50s and may have difficulty still believing in fantastical tales about boys who don’t inhale and girls who can’t remember where they placed their billing records. “Oh, you say that every time,” chuckles J K Rodham. “Believe me, they’ll still be swallowing this stuff 20 years from now.”
~from The Daily Telegraph, June 21st 2003. Eleven years later, they’re still swallowing this stuff.****