Posted on 08/12/2003 6:37:47 PM PDT by Dr. Marten
|
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities arrested three people on Tuesday in a sting operation that foiled a plot to smuggle a missile into the United States that could be used to shoot down a commercial airliner, officials said.
|
One suspect, a British citizen, was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, trying to smuggle the Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the country. Two others were arrested in New York, officials in Washington said.
The Briton believed he was selling missiles to would-be terrorists, but he was nabbed in the international sting by the FBI (news - web sites), British and Russian authorities, officials said.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, which first reported the story with ABC News, said the suspect was a British arms dealer who successfully imported a Russian Igla missile into the United States and believed he was selling it to a Muslim extremist.
The buyer was in fact an undercover FBI agent and the arms dealer's voice is heard on tape saying he wanted the missile to be used to shoot down a large passenger plane. The FBI said it knew the missile, disguised as medical equipment, was shipped from Russia to Baltimore, Maryland, the BBC reported.
Officials at the FBI in New York and in Newark did not return calls seeking comment on the report.
The arms dealer, first spotted five months ago in St. Petersburg and Moscow, flew to New York with his wife on Sunday on a British Airways flight from London. He was followed by an FBI agent and arrested in New Jersey after he collected a package marked "medical supplies," the BBC said.
The man is an established arms dealer, thought to be a middle-aged man of Indian origin, who lives in London, it said.
In November 2002 two shoulder-launched missiles were fired at an Israeli passenger plane taking off from Mombasa, Kenya, but did not hit the aircraft.
Defense expert John Pike called the Igla a "Russian version of the Stinger," referring to the small U.S. shoulder-launched missile designed for attacking aircraft at low altitude -- possibly during take-off or landing.
Pike said the Igla was an improved version of earlier Russian-made surface-to-air missiles and would have a better chance of bringing down a passenger jet than its predecessors.
"It has a longer range and a more sophisticated heat-seeking sensor on it," said Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, a non-profit defense policy group based in suburban Washington.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) said the incident illustrated the need for the U.S. Homeland Security Department to speed up its two-year plan to develop a missile defense prototype for commercial airplanes.
"The threat facing commercial airliners from shoulder-fired missiles here in the United States is no longer theoretical," Schumer said in a statement.
"The White House ought to be providing homeland security with the money it needs to begin protecting civilian aircraft with jamming devices immediately, before it's too late." (additional reporting by Greg Frost in Boston and Deborah Charles in Washington)
One suspect, a British citizen, was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, trying to smuggle the Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the country....The British Broadcasting Corporation, which first reported the story with ABC News, said the suspect was a British arms dealer who successfully imported a Russian Igla missile into the United States and believed he was selling it to a Muslim extremist.
The FBI said it knew the missile, disguised as medical equipment, was shipped from Russia to Baltimore, Maryland, the BBC reported.
Damn it. Bush scores again.
He left out the part that should say "Homeland security did a great job averting a potential disaster. Kudos."
My name is Mansoor Lakhani. I was born in Pakistan to a Sunni Lakhani family. I know there are lot of Islameeli Lakhanis in Pakistan, but we are not related to them in anyway.
Anyway, according to my grandfather my ancestors who resided in India shared the last name of Lakhan. Then some Saint from Persia moved to India and converted many followers of Hinduism to Islam. Those members of the Lakhan family that converted changed their last name to Lakhani to distinguish themselves from those who did not convert. Well, ours was the family that converted and that is why we ended up with this last name "Lakhani".
NY POST.com: "AGENTS DEFUSE MISSILE SCHEME" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Two others accused in the plot were seized in Manhattan following a sting operation by FBI, Secret Service and British and Russian agents. The alleged smuggler was identified by The Times of London as Hekmat Lekhani. He is a British national of Indian descent in his 60s who thought he was selling the state-of-the-art missile to terrorists, sources said. Lekhani allegedly promised that he could eventually get 50 of the lethal missiles for the buyer - who was really an undercover FBI agent.") (August 13, 2003) (Read More...)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.