Posted on 10/30/2012 12:26:59 PM PDT by Starman417
It's simple logic. In Libya there is only one possible threat to an AC130 gunship: surface to air missiles. Thus this is the only way Panetta wasn't lying when he said that it was lack of information about the threat environment that kept him from sending defenders into "harm's way" in Benghazi. He must have been afraid that the jihadists were lying in wait with surface to air missiles, and he had good reason to suspect such a ploy.
A primary task of the Libyan mission was to round up the war materiel of the deposed and decomposing Moammar Ghadaffi and funnel it to chosen opponents of Assad in Syria. Which part of the Syrian opposition has Obama been choosing to supply? Al Qaeda:
“Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats,” the Times reports.According to Adm. James A. Lyons (retired), the Libyan arms that have been funneled to the jihadists include substantial numbers of surface to air missiles:The paper quotes one U.S. official as saying, “The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” adding that “officials, voicing frustration, say there is no central clearinghouse for the shipments, and no effective way of vetting the groups that ultimately receive them.”
We now know why Ambassador Christopher Stevens had to be in Benghazi the night of 9/11 to meet a Turkish representative, even though he feared for his safety. According to various reports, one of Stevens’ main missions in Libya was to facilitate the transfer of much of Gadhafi’s military equipment, including the deadly SA-7 – portable SAMs – to Islamists and other al Qaeda-affiliated groups fighting the Assad Regime in Syria. In an excellent article, Aaron Klein states that Stevens routinely used our Benghazi consulate (mission) to coordinate the Turkish, Saudi Arabian and Qatari governments’ support for insurgencies throughout the Middle East. Further, according to Egyptian security sources, Stevens played a “central role in recruiting Islamic jihadists to fight the Assad Regime in Syria.”So of course Panetta had to worry about the jihadists having man-portable SAMs. He had been supplying them, and a successful SAM attack on our military with these U.S. supplied weapons would be devastating for Obama's election chances. From the start of the Libyan operation critics have been complaining about U.S. aid going to the jihadists. To have that treasonous strategy backfire in such spectacular fashion would be Fast and Furious times a thousand.
So they made a calculated decision. Our people on the ground would be sacrificed to Obama's political ambition and the Obamatons would coordinate on a cover story about there not being any planned attack at all, when it actually appeared to them to be so well planned as to look like a possible trap.
(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
I wrote every jot and tiddle of this article here 10 days ago includin the shoulder fire rockets and al queida.....
Here’s another one to add to your lists.
A LOT of the manpads floating around Libya are the SA-7, which is cheap crap and WILL get fooled by flares. It also has other limitations, also.
But the SA-24 has a ceiling of 19,000 feet, so it can quite easily reach up to the altitude at which the AC-130 typically operates.
But if it got close then as long as the Herc was the U version, well, then u can b sure it’s seeker would be dazzled to a crisp, or at least enough to provide for a good miss. So the American flight crew would sweat a good deal but probably be OK and could probably still carry out a good attack.
Ping.
“Well, you see, Mr. President, we’ve now got these things called ‘countermeasures’, they can fool the missiles and divert them from their targets.”
Like Afghanistan?
The most recent versions of the AC-130 have heavy machine guns and howtzer but can also launch hellfire missiles and there are even new specialiazed ports out of which the crew can drop very small missles with wings that flick out like a switchblade and are extremely accurate and have long-range, if launched from a very high (read here SAFE) altitude.
Sorry im typing this on aphone
Would terrorists on the ground be able to effectively aim and hit an aircraft that high?
It still doesn’t make sense, though, for them not to use the drone we already had there to take out a target already painted by Woods. I could see them sending in just an armed drone if they were afraid of having a manned aircraft shot down. But it makes no sense to have an armed drone right there and not let it fire on the X that Woods marked out for it.
What am I missing?
Why do idiots keeps saying that the armed platform HAD to be an AC-130...?
Someone tell me the answer to that.
One AC-130 was lost in the 1991 Gulf War and it was suspected to be from an SA-7. It could happen.
I know there are hundreds (just off the top of my head) of reasons for NOT voting for this poseur, the sitting pResident of the US, BUT if the fiasco surrounding outing and the subsequent loss (supposedly) of the ‘OBL’ SEALS (I will give ‘them’ the benefit of the doubt - a righteous Chain of Command may ‘fake’ the demise of people who suddenly got a target placed on their back by a bunch of phonies) but with this latest fiasco regarding the Ambassador, 2 Former Seals (CIA??), and aide -
ANYONE, who has ever worn the uniform or has someone presently serving, should not even be thinking of voting for this clown.
He has slapped the American public, Intel Community, Military etc directly in the face.
He should be worried about coming out of the White Hut in chains, doing a perp walk, rather than be having the extreme gall to run for Office.
Biden should be telling BO that HE has a pair the size of bowling balls for even thinking of running.
Newsflash: Our SAMs process IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signals so as to not shoot our own planes down.
At 19,000 feet they might get close but the missile seeker would by then be pretty fried (if the target were the AC130 that every one here has a raging boner for) also the missile would be at the end of its max burn so even a little jinking would provide a miss.
Shoot down fear was not totally misplaced but I still think he pussied out.
The UCAV is not yet fielded and probably not for...years...?
Why do idiots keeps saying that the armed platform HAD to be an AC-130...?
From the assets that I'm aware of in the theater of operations, it could have been a Predator, F/A 18, refueled Apaches, or a Specter. It didn't HAVE to be a C130-U. Could have been other assets as well. Who knows at this point?
5.56mm
This is the reason. And the fact is that the AQ still have the SAM’s. We gave AQ our weapons. Brilliant!
Does anyone believe Obama and Co will really help storm victims beyond his political BS? His words mean nothing except he wants us to forget Bengali.
I guess I meant an armed Predator. Thanks for pointing my egregious stupidity.
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