U.S. Failure Created 'Nightmare' Threat To Airliners?

Warning by former CIA chief Petraeus only part of story

WND

AARON KLEIN

TEL AVIV – At a conference here this week, former CIA Director David Petraeus warned of a “nightmare” scenario in which missile proliferation could provide terrorists the capability to shoot down a civilian airliner.

Unmentioned by Petraeus is that the largest terrorist looting of Man-Portable-Air-Defense-Systems, or MANPADS, took place immediately after the U.S.-NATO military campaign that helped to end Moammar Gadhafi’s rule in Libya.

Gadhafi had hoarded Africa’s biggest known reserve of MANPADS, with his stock said to number between 15,000 and 20,000. Many of the missiles were stolen by militias fighting in Libya, including those backed by the U.S. their anti-Gadhafi efforts.

Petraeus was speaking at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, a think-tank at Tel Aviv University.

He referred to a video posted on YouTube by the Sinai-based Ansar Jerusalem jihadist group, which claimed it had fired a surface-to-air missile at an Egyptian helicopter.

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“I mean, shooting down a helicopter with an apparent shoulder-fired missile is a big deal,” Petraeus said.

“As you know, that was always our worst nightmare, that a civilian airliner would be shot down by one. Which is why we were so concerned when they moved around,” he said.

The MANPADS didn’t just move around. Thousands were looted when Gadhafi’s reserves were unprotected following the NATO campaign there in 2011.

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