Al-Qaeda snatched missiles in Libya

[JJ_BPK]

Not good,, but to be expected,, expedient re-sourcing of hi-tech weapons.

Now, how long before the spoils from Libya, Egypt and others get to our AO's???


'Al-Qaeda snatched missiles' in Libya

From correspondents in Paris
From: AFP
March 26, 2011 1:03PM

AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 per cent sure" of his assertion.

"The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.

"This is very serious. AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region," he said.

His claim was echoed by officials in other countries in the region who said that they were worried that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might have acquired "heavy weapons", thanks to the insurrection.

"We have sure information. We are very worried for the sub-region," a Malian security source who did not want to be named said.

AQIM originated as an armed Islamist resistance movement to the secular Algerian government.

It now operates mainly in Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where it has attacked military targets and taken civilian hostages, particularly Europeans, some of whom it has killed.

"We have the same information," about heavy weapons, including SAM 7 missiles, a military source from Niger said.

"It is very worrying. This overarming is a real danger for the whole zone," he added

"AQIM gets the weapons in two ways; people go and look for the arms in Libya to deliver them to AQIM in the Sahel, or AQIM elements go there themselves."

Elsewhere in the interview, Chad's president backed the assertion by his neighbour and erstwhile enemy Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that the protests in Libya have been driven in part by al-Qaeda.

"There is a partial truth in what he says," Deby said.

"Up to what point? I don't know. But I am certain that AQIM took an active part in the uprising."

After years of tension between the two nations, which were at war during part of the 1980s, Deby has more recently maintained good relations with Gaddafi.

The Chadian leader described the international military intervention in Libya, launched a week ago by the United States, France and Britain, as a "hasty decision".

"It could have heavy consequences for the stability of the region and the spread of terrorism in Europe, the Mediterranean and the rest of Africa," he cautioned.

Deby denied assertions that mercenaries had been recruited in Chad to fight for Gaddafi, though some of the several thousand Chad nationals in Libya may have joined the fight "on their own".

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/al-qaeda-snatched-missiles-in-libya/story-e6frfku0-1226028543204#ixzz1HjoFAkYZ

[Stras]

Funny..... I just wrote a paper about AQIM and how Africa is emerging as the next Terrorist threat once we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Go figure, this article hits the day after I turned in my paper..

[incarcerated]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/bracco-asks-u-s-approval-to-send-chemical-war-treatment-for-use-in-libya.html

Bracco Asks U.S. Approval to Send Chemical War Treatment for Use in Libya

By Viola Gienger - Mar 21, 2011 9:01 PM PT
The conflict in Libya has spurred Bracco SpA to seek expedited U.S. approval to ship a treatment for chemical warfare agents to that country, where leader Muammar Qaddafi has supplies of mustard gas.
Bracco’s health-care protective products division applied for an exemption from arms-trafficking restrictions that bar sending the decontaminant to Libya, said Timothy Henry, vice president and general manager of the Princeton, New Jersey-based unit.
A global humanitarian relief organization, which Henry declined to identify, wants to provide the Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion, or RSDL, to its aid workers in Libya as a precaution, Henry said.
Bracco’s application marks “the first time operational concerns caused a non-profit, high-profile relief agency to use their limited dollars to protect workers with RSDL,” Henry said. Milan-based Bracco is selling the organization six cases for the cost of one, he said.
Jason Greer, a spokesman for the State Department, declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing applications that are pending or have been approved.
Governments generally restrict the export of such treatments for fear they may make it easier for a regime with chemical weapons to work with the materials, said Michael Rowell, head of the health and safety branch of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an inter-governmental agency in the Hague, Netherlands.

‘Significant Quantity’
U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited Libya’s “significant quantity” of mustard gas as one worry for the military coalition seeking to stop Qaddafi’s forces from attacking opponents and rebel fighters.
“There’s no indication he’s moving toward using that, but certainly that’s something we’re watching very carefully,” Mullen said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on March 20. “We’ve had our eyes on that for a significant period of time, literally the last two or three weeks.”
While Qaddafi for a time renounced terrorism and the use of weapons of mass destruction, he still has chemical agents he once assembled for potential use in warfare. Qaddafi’s rapprochement with western nations ended last month, when he ordered his military to put down anti-regime demonstrations.
A military coalition including the U.S., U.K. and France, supported by the Arab League, began bombarding Qaddafi’s air defenses March 19 to impose a no-fly zone over the country.

‘Frequently Invisible’
“We know Libya still has about 9.5 metric tons of sulfur mustard,” said retired U.S. Army Major General Stephen V. Reeves, a consultant for Bracco. Mustard gas in the environment is “frequently invisible, quickly penetrates clothing, and it can be six to twelve hours before exposure becomes physiologically apparent.”
If chemical warfare agents are used, “it seems highly plausible that an aid worker could simply, unintentionally walk into a contaminated area,” said Reeves, who formerly served as the Pentagon’s joint program executive officer for chemical and biological defense.
RSDL gained approval for military use from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2003 under the sponsorship of the U.S. Army Surgeon General. It won clearance from European and Australian regulators in 2009.
The lotion has the effect of neutralizing all known chemical warfare agents on the skin, according to the company.

More Practical
Because it’s portable, it’s more practical for cases where large quantities of soap and water aren’t available to douse someone who has been contaminated, Rowell said.
“It’s a proven technology,” said Rowell, whose organization implements the global Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is among the buyers of the lotion, according to Bracco. Other customers include most NATO militaries, the fire departments of New York and Chicago, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Henry said.
The company first applied on Dec. 22 to remove RSDL from the defense articles regulations, before the non-profit group’s order came in, he said. Without a response, Bracco last week filed for an exemption to ship the product to Libya under the regulation.
Reeves said RSDL works as soon as symptoms appear, neutralizing blood, blister and nerve agents, including mustard.
“The fact that it is a lotion makes it far more effective in treating later post-exposure victims” than previous methods, he said.