U.S. fears missile attacks at airports

[Rose Siding]

U.S. fears missile attacks at airports
Inspections begin in Iraq, other potential overseas targets

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has dispatched teams of aviation safety investigators to Iraq and to major capital cities in Europe and Asia to determine if their commercial airports can be defended against terrorists who try to shoot down passenger planes using shoulder-fired missiles, senior administration officials say.

The inspections at airports in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Basra -- as well as Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Manila, Philippines; and several other foreign capitals where American air carriers have regularly scheduled flights -- are part of the administration's response to recent intelligence reports suggesting that a terrorist attack using small, heat-seeking missiles may be imminent, probably overseas.

Although the overseas inspections began several weeks ago, administration officials said they had not discussed them publicly until now out of concern that the information might prompt terrorists to attack before security was tightened at some of the airports.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/133981_terror06.html

[Pert_UK]

1. I am amazed that this hasn't been done before....

There was the missile attack on the plane in Kenya, where Al Qaeda operatives (apparently) fired a missile at a plane loaded with Israeli tourists, just prior to the truck bomb at an Israeli hotel in the same country.

How come security agencies haven't been looking into this prospect for years?

To be honest, I'm amazed (and thankful) that there haven't been far more attempts to shoot down commercial airliners - if Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups have got people willing to be suicide bombers and who are prepared to kill innocent civilians, it's surprising that they haven't just kitted a few people out with SAMs and told them to hang around near airports. The vast majority of commercial airports have got large areas of open access around them, so it would seem to be a soft target and easy method of attacking.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that so few of these attacks have happened.

[NNN0LHI]

2. What I don't get is if al-Qaida has Stinger missiles, why haven't...

...they used one yet? I have also seen reports that said that the Stingers that they may still have in their possession would no longer fire even if they did have some left. Seems like we get this Stinger warning every few months or so like clockwork. Like we are on a fear cycle or something? Why does the government even tell us about this crap at all? What are we supposed to do about it? Something ain't right here.

Don

[Sufi Marmot]

4. Expired batteries?

I thought I read somewhere that the Stinger missles had a finite lifespan. We gave plenty to the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, and they worked well against sluggish Soviet helicopters.

This looked informative, but I didn't see anything about batteries....

Asia Times Article

-SM

On Edit: more info here

[this_side_up]

3. These airports, cities and

countries aren't capable of making their own assessment?

Insofar as Baghdad, yes it needs to be done but nothing will
change until the shooters are dead.

WHY is this coming out now? Ashgroft's Victory Tour? Opps, I think
that is his so-called Victory Act.

Distraction from:

hussein, binny, blair, WMD and the lack thereof, Dr. Kelly,
the Anthrax here, unemployement worsening. What else needs to
be added to the list?

Edit to add: LOL Arnuld is a distraction!