Thread: U.S. Sending More Contractors Secure Libya’s Weapons Stock

U.S. Sending More Contractors to Secure Libya’s Weapons Stockpile

By ERIC SCHMITT and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: October 14, 2011

WASHINGTON — The State Department is sending dozens of American contractors to Libya to help that country’s fledgling efforts to track down and destroy heat-seeking antiaircraft missiles looted from government stockpiles that could be used against civilian airliners.

The contractors, weapons and explosives specialists, are part of a growing $30 million American program to secure Libya’s conventional weapons arsenal, which was ransacked during the fall of the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

American and other Western officials are especially concerned that as weapons slip from state custody, they can be easily sold through black markets to other countries, fueling regional wars or arming terrorist groups. Analysts are particularly worried about the dispersal of the SA-7, an early-generation, shoulder-fired missile in the same family as the more widely known Stinger.

“We are very concerned about the threat that’s posed,â€

WAR IS A RACKET

“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe,
as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.
Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted
for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."
-- Major General Smedley Darling Butler
Major General USMC, "Old Gimlet Eye'' and "Hell Devil Darling", most highly decorated military men from the pre-World War II era.
Source: from a speech in 1933
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blo ... Quote.C29D


“I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.
If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight.
The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent
over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent.
Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag."
-- Major General Smedley Darling Butler
Major General USMC, "Old Gimlet Eye'' and "Hell Devil Darling", most highly decorated military men from the pre-World War II era.
Source: from a speech in 1933
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blo ... Quote.5390


“I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy
investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for.
One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.
War for any other reason is simply a racket."
-- Major General Smedley Darling Butler
Major General USMC, "Old Gimlet Eye'' and "Hell Devil Darling", most highly decorated military men from the pre-World War II era.
Source: from a speech in 1933
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blo ... Quote.5403