Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides

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Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides

By Dana Priest and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 7, 2004; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31050-2004Nov6?language=printer

Several thousand shoulder-fired missiles -- the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft -- are missing in Iraq, and their disappearance has prompted U.S. military and intelligence analysts to increase sharply their estimate of the number of such weapons that may be at large, administration officials said yesterday.

Some U.S. analysts figure that as many as 4,000 surface-to-air missiles once under the control of Saddam Hussein's government remain unaccounted for. That would raise the number of such missiles outside government hands worldwide to about 6,000.

But a senior defense official said yesterday that military intelligence analysts are having difficulty estimating just how many of the portable missiles may have vanished and how many of those may be in working order and therefore a threat to U.S. and other aircraft.

"We don't have a good estimate," the official said. "Some have put forward some figures, but there is none that the Defense Intelligence Agency has confidence in."

Is there ANYTHING that we can have confidence in coming out of this administration, besides the prospect of devastating failure?

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1. There is still a war on, folks

Bush still needs to be held accountable. There is still a need for whatever pressure we can exert and for any wedge that we can find to break up the media cheerleaders of the Iraq catastrophe.