{Terror} Beware of strange men with rocket launchers

[BEER980]

Beware of strange men with rocket launchers

By Michelle Malkin


This week, New Jersey Transit officials joined the New York Police Department in performing hapless random searches of Granny's knitting bag and Junior's Thomas the Tank backpack to prevent the next al Qaeda attack. But not everyone is fighting the War on Terror blind. Some U.S. military personnel have been given a very clear and un-p.c. mission:

Be on the lookout for Middle Easterners carrying rocket launchers.

Yup, that's right. Many readers have e-mailed me about a recent report floating on the Internet that reveals military concerns about a suspicious trio of Middle Eastern men who apparently pointed a rocket launcher at low-flying aircraft near Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma earlier this month. It's authentic. Battle Staff Directive #41, categorized as "For Official Use Only," was issued at Hill Air Force Base in Utah last week to raise a red flag about the incident at Tinker AFB:

"On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared to be aimed towards a low flying aircraft. The three individuals were described as being of Middle Eastern decent and left the area when approached. The weapon was later identified as a rocket launcher (MANPAD) and the low flying aircraft to be a B-1 Bomber. FBI in Oklahoma City and AFOSI [Air Force Office of Special Investigations] determined the threat to be credible."

Someone leaked the directive to a website called Soldiers For The Truth (sftt.org) and it was picked up by another site, the Northeast Intelligence Network (homelandsecurityus.com). Tinker AFB staff and FBI officials remain tight-lipped about the incident. But Capt. Sean Carter, a public affairs officer at Hill AFB, verified the directive for me.

In a phone interview, Capt. Carter told me the memo was issued to let base personnel know that "there's a threat out there somewhere" and to inform them of what to look for to guard against possible terrorist activity. Hill AFB participates in the "Eagle Eyes" program, an anti-terrorism initiative launched by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations that "enlists the eyes and ears of Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror."

The threat of an al Qaeda attack using shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles has been of increasing concern to homeland security officials. Last year, the FBI arrested two imams in Albany, N.Y., in connection with a sting operation involving laundered funds that the defendants were led to believe were proceeds from the sale of a missile launcher to be used in a New York City terrorist plot. Federal prosecutors noted during the trial of convicted al Qaeda bomb plotter Wadih El-Hage that his role entailed "conveying military orders from Bin Laden including . . . seeking weapons including Stinger missiles for al Qaeda members." In 2002, al Qaeda terrorists used two Russian-made Strela missiles to try and bring down an Israeli-chartered airliner departing from Mombasa, Kenya.

That effort failed, but the terrorists will no doubt try, try again. Hundreds of Stinger missiles have gone missing since the first Persian Gulf War, according to the General Accounting Office. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted last year that "there are an estimated 300,000 to one million shoulder-fired missiles in the world today — thousands are thought to be in the hands of terrorist and other non-state entities." Thomas B. Hunter of Jane's Intelligence Review reported: "Al-Qaeda reportedly possesses a number of MANPADs, including SA-7s and Stingers…It is logical to assume that Al-Qaeda is in possession of additional MANPADs. If this is true, then Al-Qaeda represents the most significant threat to international civil aviation."

Washington has been squabbling over whether and how much money to spend on retrofitting all 6,000 planes in the American commercial fleet with electronic countermeasures to combat the threat. In the meantime, common-sense vigilance is the best defense. Thankfully, military watchdogs on guard against Islamist terrorists with rocket launchers know better than to stop Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan look-a-likes with Louis Vuitton pet carriers strapped around their shoulders.
Source

[GalvestonDuck]

Be on the lookout for Middle Easterners carrying rocket launchers.

Isn't this kind of like warning us not to put Drano in our eyes?

[banshee]

Typically I like to read Michelle Malkin, but I'm not sure what the point of her article is this time.

[kevin]

I beware anyone with a rocket launcher. Even Eskimos.

[Rainband]

Be on the lookout for Middle Easterners carrying rocket launchers.

Isn't this kind of like warning us not to put Drano in our eyes?

I agree

[x-y-no]

"On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared to be aimed towards a low flying aircraft. The three individuals were described as being of Middle Eastern decent and left the area when approached. The weapon was later identified as a rocket launcher (MANPAD) and the low flying aircraft to be a B-1 Bomber. FBI in Oklahoma City and AFOSI [Air Force Office of Special Investigations] determined the threat to be credible."

So three guys are at the perimiter of Tinker AFB with a rocket launcher, and we're close enough to positively identify them as Middle Eastern, yet all that happens is that they "leave the area when approached."

Funny, but I don't remember seeing any news reports about the massive manhunt in Oklahoma last week. Apparently, we're supposed to belive that we just quietly gave up the hunt because they "left the area."

What a crock!

[yoda]

"On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared to be aimed towards a low flying aircraft. The three individuals were described as being of Middle Eastern decent and left the area when approached. The weapon was later identified as a rocket launcher (MANPAD) and the low flying aircraft to be a B-1 Bomber. FBI in Oklahoma City and AFOSI [Air Force Office of Special Investigations] determined the threat to be credible."

So three guys are at the perimiter of Tinker AFB with a rocket launcher, and we're close enough to positively identify them as Middle Eastern, yet all that happens is that they "leave the area when approached."

Funny, but I don't remember seeing any news reports about the massive manhunt in Oklahoma last week. Apparently, we're supposed to belive that we just quietly gave up the hunt because they "left the area."

What a crock!

I don't know where the crock comment is aimed towards..

But in these types of circumstances, true that would have been all over the news. But it was supposedly classified info, so we wouldn't have known anyway.

[HurryKane]

I beware anyone with a rocket launcher. Even Eskimos.

Ditto. Why do we have to be all exclusive and only beware the "strange" ones?

[x-y-no]

I don't know where the crock comment is aimed towards..

But in these types of circumstances, true that would have been all over the news. But it was supposedly classified info, so we wouldn't have known anyway.

The crock comment was aimed at the notion that, having observed three men with a rocket launcher at the perimiter of an Air Force base, we would have quietly allowed them to "leave when approached."

There's absolutely no way such an event could have escaped notice. State and local police would have been called in to set up roadblocks and otherwise assist in trying to apprehend these guys, and the local media would have caught wind of that immediately.

EDIT: Either that, or this is a scandalous failure of homeland security.

[yoda]

I don't know where the crock comment is aimed towards..

But in these types of circumstances, true that would have been all over the news. But it was supposedly classified info, so we wouldn't have known anyway.

The crock comment was aimed at the notion that, having observed three men with a rocket launcher at the perimiter of an Air Force base, we would have quietly allowed them to "leave when approached."

There's absolutely no way such an event could have escaped notice. State and local police would have been called in to set up roadblocks and otherwise assist in trying to apprehend these guys, and the local media would have caught wind of that immediately.

EDIT: Either that, or this is a scandalous failure of homeland security.

There was a case up here about a man who got onto the runway of BWI by climbing over the fence, and was able to escape from police, and last I heard, has not been found.

[x-y-no]

I don't know where the crock comment is aimed towards..

But in these types of circumstances, true that would have been all over the news. But it was supposedly classified info, so we wouldn't have known anyway.

The crock comment was aimed at the notion that, having observed three men with a rocket launcher at the perimiter of an Air Force base, we would have quietly allowed them to "leave when approached."

There's absolutely no way such an event could have escaped notice. State and local police would have been called in to set up roadblocks and otherwise assist in trying to apprehend these guys, and the local media would have caught wind of that immediately.

EDIT: Either that, or this is a scandalous failure of homeland security.

There was a case up here about a man who got onto the runway of BWI by climbing over the fence, and was able to escape from police, and last I heard, has not been found.

OK ... that was one guy, without a rocket launcher. Yet he was not simply allowed to "leave when approached." There was apparently enough of a manhunt for him that you heard about the story.

Yet we're to believe that three men observed at the perimiter of an Air Force base holding a rocket launcher did not warrant a far more massive manhunt?

If this story really is true, heads should roll, both in the Air Force and in Homeland Security. I'd call it a huge scandal, if it were true.

Personally though, I still think it'a a crock.

[Aslkahuna]

Either a crock or there was a clampdown on information as to what actually happened for Security reasons. There are a lot of things that happen that we aren't told about because Sam doesn't want us to know-this is especially true with regards to Border Security(?). BTW an illegal has been arrested on 9 counts of arson for torching vehicles in the Hereford and Palominas areas south of Sierra Vista.

Steve

[streetsoldier]

AFOSI is going out of their way to "detain" these people, TRUST me! I've seen these cold-eyed pros at work (sometimes alongside of them), and they will not stop until they have 'em.

[azsnowman]

Beware of cops carrying Tasers TOO!

Dennis

[Aslkahuna]

They will also do it without the media tagging along as well.

Steve

[BEER980]

Perhaps they are in custody and the story was floated so to seem like they got away. A little phog to flush with.

[Swimdude]

I have a very strange tendency to avoid any rocket launcher.

[Jim Cantore]

One word

duh

[alicia-w]

"On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared to be aimed towards a low flying aircraft. The three individuals were described as being of Middle Eastern decent and left the area when approached. The weapon was later identified as a rocket launcher (MANPAD) and the low flying aircraft to be a B-1 Bomber. FBI in Oklahoma City and AFOSI [Air Force Office of Special Investigations] determined the threat to be credible."

This was NOT real. It was from a Hill AFB EXERCISE message two weeks ago.