U.S. Expands List of Lost Missiles

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - American intelligence agencies have tripled their formal estimate of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile systems believed to be at large worldwide, since determining that at least 4,000 of the weapons in Iraq's prewar arsenals cannot be accounted for, government officials said Friday.

A new government estimate says a total of 6,000 of the weapons may be outside the control of any government, up from a previous estimate of 2,000, American officials said.

The officials said they did not know whether missiles from Iraq remain there or have been smuggled into other countries, though a senior administration official said Friday that "there is no evidence that they have left the country.''

It was unclear whether Iraqi military or intelligence personnel removed the missile systems during the initial invasion of Iraq or whether they disappeared from warehouses after major combat ended.

http://nytimes.com/2004/11/06/politics/06weapons.html

But not surprising.

*'s war on terror gets some credibility, ironically.

The * pundits will now say they're glad * is still in because them animal terraists have these weapons.

:eyes:

Jeez, how could the dumbass American electorate miss the message that Kerry had about how the danger had grown???

:argh:

These missiles require unique batteries that degrade over time and special compressed gas bottles to cool the IR sensors.

A determined group with lots of technical know-how though, could get around this...

If all these weapons were really "out there" why haven't we seen them employed in greater numbers by the insurgents???

....to get around this fucking obstacle. Rat Shack has a TON of unique batteries of all shapes, sizes, voltages, and amps. Compressed CO2 can be had from any shitty BB gun store.

.

Thus, they're only incompetent at doing honest work and altogether too competent at secrecy, fraud, cronyism, embezzling, and all manner of lies and deceit.

Bush wasn't a "good troop" himself. Rumsfeld was in the military. For the rest of those "guys" who ignored and politicked the elements of national security after they had all ignored the advisements of the Clinton administration, as well as the intelligence reports before September 11, 2001; don't tell the American people that their sons and daughters, in uniform, are performing their duty in reaction to the lies and "deviant" political agenda that this administration has propagandized, and SOLD to the "media"; having further "propagandized" the lies, as being anything but false "patriotism". Being incompetent and the President of the United States must truly be "hard work" indeed!!

:dem: