Afghans aim to buy back old missiles

[seemslikeadream]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 31, 2005
By Stephen Graham
ASSOCIATED PRESS


KABUL, Afghanistan - Authorities are launching a new push to collect U.S.-made Stinger missiles distributed to Afghans fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s in an effort to keep the weapons from terrorists and governments, including Iran, an Afghan official said Sunday. The Afghan intelligence service is offering to buy the anti-aircraft missiles for an undisclosed sum, taking up a CIA program to recover weapons given to Islamic fundamentalists who battled the Soviets alongside Osama bin Laden in the 1980s.

...

The CIA in the 1980s supplied an estimated 2,000 Stingers to Afghan mujahedeen rebels, who put the heat-seeking, shoulder-fired missiles to deadly use against Soviet helicopters and transport planes.
But since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the United States has been trying to buy back unused missiles for fear governments or terrorist organizations could get hold of a weapon equally effective against civilian airliners.

It is unclear how many remain unaccounted for, despite cash offers reportedly as high as $150,000 each.

...

Some of the Stingers distributed in Afghanistan went to Islamic radicals such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister now accused of sponsoring attacks on U.S. and government forces in Afghanistan.

Dozens reportedly fell into the hands of the Taliban in the 1990s, with others smuggled as far afield as Sri Lanka, the Balkans and Iran.

more
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10777612.htm?1c

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Hmm no mention of Iraq

No Stinger in Iraq hehe.

[Stella_Artois]

2. There are no stingers in Iraq

Our military scientists have proved beyond doubt that gravity is stronger near Baghdad, that is all. Move along.

[Oversea Visitor]

3. Moving moving

wont be long.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Tell us what we've won, Johnny

One by-product of Reaganism, though, has been the mess in Afghanistan. Reagan directed the CIA to funnel enormous material support to Islamist rebels fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the mid 1980s. Among the aid we gave Afghan Mujahideen were shoulder-held Stinger missiles, which wreaked havoc on Soviet helicopter gunships and are now a primary source of concern for our counter-terrorism efforts. It is well known that Osama Bin Laden cut his teeth as a guerilla fighter during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Once Gorbachev withdrew Soviet forces in 1989, the resulting power vacuum ensured the eventual emergence of the Taliban, as Gorbachev feared would happen. In other words, in pursuit of ratcheting up conflict with the Soviet Union, Reagan helped sow the seeds of our greatest existing menace.

Ronald Reagan became a star in the world of make believe. His hagiographers appear determined to carry on that legacy by crediting him with bringing about the exctinction of the Evil Empire. Their hope is that we won't remember the much more sobering legacy he actually left us.
more
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=136


Proclamation 5165 -- Afghanistan Day, 1984
March 20, 1984

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For much of the world spring is now beginning. It is a time of new life, renewal, freshness, and hope.

For the people of Afghanistan, March 21 is the traditional celebration of the New Year, the beginning of the cycle of life. It is a period of rejoicing and celebration for life's regeneration as a gift of God.

But today, for most of the people of Afghanistan, the March 21 New Year brings only the renewal of fighting, destruction, and death. For more than four years, the armed forces of the Soviet Union have occupied Afghanistan. More than 100,000 Soviet soldiers now occupy that beleaguered country. The overwhelming majority of the Afghan people are struggling against the Soviet occupation troops and the puppet regime headed by Babrak Karmal. It is a regime that is maintained only by Soviet force.

Afghan resistance to Marxist rule grew dramatically after the Soviet invasion, and it has now spread throughout the country. A solution to the Afghanistan problem must begin with the removal of the Soviet troops. A negotiated political settlement can be achieved if the Soviet Union agrees to withdraw its military forces of occupation.

The goal of United States policy remains clear and consistent. We seek the removal of Soviet military forces so that the Afghan people can live freely in their own country and are able to choose their own way of life and government.

Hope, it is said, springs eternal. We continue to hope that a negotiated settlement can be found, a settlement which fulfills the conditions spelled out five times in resolutions resoundingly endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

These resolutions, passed by the overwhelming majority of the world's nations, call for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan; reaffirm the right of the Afghan people to determine their own form of government and to choose their economic, political, and social system; reiterate that the preservation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence, and nonaligned character of Afghanistan is essential for a peaceful solution of the problem; and call for the creation of the conditions which would enable the Afghan refugees to return voluntarily to their homes in safety and honor.

We stand in admiration of the indomitable will and courage of the Afghan people who continue their resistance to tyranny. All freedom-loving people around the globe should be inspired by the Afghan people's struggle to be free and the heavy sacrifices they bear for liberty.

Afghanistan Day will serve to recall the fundamental principles involved when a people struggles for the freedom to determine its own future and the right to be free of foreign interference. Let us therefore resolve to pay tribute to the brave Afghan people by observing March 21, 1984 as Afghanistan Day. Let us pledge our continuing admiration for their cause and for their perseverance, and lend our support to the Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Let us redouble our determination to help find a negotiated settlement that will enable the Afghan people to again welcome spring without the suffering brought by war, but with celebration and joy.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim March 21, 1984, as Afghanistan Day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 20th day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighth.

Ronald Reagan

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1984/32084c.htm


Reagan's Dark Global Legacy

From Afghanistan to El Salvador
Reagan's Dark Global Legacy
By DENNIS HANS


Afghanistan. "Ronnie Poppy." This opium flower honors President Reagan's contribution to the explosive growth of the Afghan heroin industry in the 1980s through his unconditional support for the most extreme Islamic fundamentalists who were justifiably opposed to the murderous Soviet occupation....

Angola. "The Gipper Stump." This polished-oak peg leg features a heart-felt message from the Cold War commander-in-chief, who worked with the South African apartheid state to keep Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA terrorists armed and dangerous,.....

Argentina. "The Reagan Islands." Technically, the former Falkland/Malvinas Islands are no longer the property of Argentina, but Argentinians voted for the new name to honor Ronnie's role in the restoration of civilian rule in their country.....

Cambodia. "Reagan Skull Bag." This handy Khmer Rouge carrying sack holds up to 25 skulls. The Skull Bag recognizes the Reagan administration's unstinting support for Pol Pot's assaults on Cambodians from 1981 to 1989,.....

Costa Rica. "El Rancho Reagan." The former "front farm" of a CIA and contra collaborator, El Rancho Reagan is preserved in its mid-1980s pristine prime.....

El Salvador. "The Reagan Missionary Position." No, not a sexual position for raping American churchwomen (for that would be in poor taste), but a position as in a stand. The Reagan Missionary Position, formulated by high officials Al Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick, is that the three nuns and one layworker were pro-Marxist "political activists" and thus hardly innocent.....

Guatemala. "The Reagan 'Bum Rap' Rap." Grandmaster Ronnie first laid down this rap in 1982 to discredit reports by Amnesty International and others of the army's slaughter of thousands of Indian villagers in the first months of General Efrain Rios Montt's rule.....

Honduras. "Reagan's Rascals." The crazy cut-ups of Battalion 316 comprised a secret unit of CIA-backed torturers and murderers. They rid Honduras of real and imagined subversives and dissidents,....

Haiti. "Ronnie Doc." Duvalier loyalists awarded Reagan the highest degree a Haitian can steal, the Doctor of Kleptocracy.....

Kurdistan. "Reagan Red Hot." Nothing's more appetizing than human skin drenched with mustard, or for that matter, mustard gas, which is what a "Reagan Red Hot" hot dog is.....

Laos. "Ronnie Rain." In the mountains of Laos, April showers dump bee feces on flowers. Ronnie Rain salutes the 1982 White House "Yellow Rain" disinformation campaign - spread by the demented Wall Street Journal editorial board.....

Lebanon. "The Reagan Wink." It's as good as a nod. Go into the home of any member of the Lebanese Phalange militia and you'll see a glossy photo of the handsome Gipper closing his right eye. In 1982, Reagan engineered the withdrawal of PLO soldiers from Beirut by guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian civilians left behind.....

Nicaragua. "The Reagan Wall." Modeled after the U.S. memorial to Americans who died in Vietnam, the Reagan Wall lists the names of the thousands of civilians murdered by "the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers" (Ronnie's pet name for the contras).....

South Africa. "The Reagan White House." Not a replica of the Pennsylvania Avenue edifice but a Johannesburg mansion that harkens back to a simpler time when whiteness reigned supreme in Pretoria, to the delight of President Reagan. Pay the admission price of ten rand and hassle the black servants, demand to see their pass books, and interrogate the Nelson Mandela look-alike in the basement cell.....

Zaire. "Reagan Cane." Before he was chased into exile, President Mobutu Sese Seko high-stepped with this gold-encrusted walking stick. In its day, the Reagan Cane was ideal for maintaining balance or whacking a dissident.....

more
http://www.counterpunch.org/hans06072004.html

[struggle4progress]

5. "... The Americans believe between 200 and 300 Stingers ...

... fell into the hands of the Taleban or al-Qaeda although none has been used against US forces in Afghanistan ..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4220575.stm


This seems to be an "omigolligosh moment" for Reagan-worshipping Bushistas, on the heels of "revelations" that we really can't build good antimissile defenses for civilian aircraft:


Study Cites High Costs of Airliner Antimissile Systems
The Rand Corp. says the U.S. would be better off curbing the spread of shoulder-fired weapons.
Greg Krikorian and Jennifer Oldham, Times Staff Writers

Although airlines face a clear threat from terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles, a new study by Rand Corp. concludes that combating the proliferation of such weapons holds more immediate promise than equipping jetliners with costly and unproven antimissile systems. <snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror26jan26,1,1470849.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[daleo]

6. This is just a coincidence

It has nothing to do with any planes or helicopters crashing. Only a conspiracy nut would jump to such conclusions. :tinfoilhat: