US: No 'Firm Evidence' Libyan Missiles Have Left the Country
By KIRIT RADIA (@KiritRadia_ABC)
Dec. 19, 2011
Fears that Libya's portable anti-aircraft weapons may have walked out of the country amid the chaos of the country's civil war may not have been realized, a top State Department official said Monday.
"Thus far, we have not seen any firm evidence that they have left the country, but we are still obviously very concerned about it," Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro, whose bureau has overseen efforts to track down and secure or destroy those weapons, told reporters.
A human rights activist who documented the looting of Libyan weapons depots, however, said the State Department was "putting lipstick on a pig" by saying there was no hard proof missiles had left Libya.
The Gadhafi regime was believed to have stockpiled up to 20,000 of the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons known as MANPADs since the 1970s. Some of the weapons have heat-seeking capabilities and could be used to take down a commercial airliner. After this year's NATO-led bombing campaign many, perhaps thousands, were destroyed and others got loose, sparking fears that they could fall into the hands of terrorists.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-firm-evidence-libyan-missiles-left-country/story?id=15189482#.Tu_58eZyciw
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