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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistanis accused of aiding Taliban with missile parts |
| 2006-03-14 |
American and Nato forces are following up reports that the Taliban have received vital components for shoulder-fired Stinger missiles from Pakistani officials enabling them to be used against helicopters in Afghanistan. It is claimed that the missiles have been fitted with new battery packs allegedly provided by the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, in the past four months. Western sources say they are not sure whether the supplies, needed to make the US-made missiles operational, were provided by rogue elements within the Pakistani secret service, or approved at a high level. However, the effect of re-arming the Stingers could be to make Nato aircraft vulnerable while Britain is deployingalmost 6,000 soldiers in southern Afghanistan. It is believed that the battery packs had been fitted in between 18 and 20 heat-seeking Stingers which can hit targets at around 12,000 feet. They are reported to have been handed over in the Quetta region in Pakistan known to be used by the Taliban to launch attacks in southern Afghanistan. US and Nato forces have carried out a series of searches along the border areas in the hunt for the missiles, with a large-scale operation a month ago. No British forces were involved. It is not known if Stingers have been recovered. The Pakistan government yesterday denied the accusation as "baseless". An official spokesman said: "Pakistan has lost more security personnel in the fight against terror than any other country. We make no distinction in this fight between al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. No evidence to the contrary has ever been provided; these are just rumours, unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo." The Pakistan government also rejected suggestions of involvement by ISI rogue elements. "Our military and security services are disciplined forces," the spokesman said. Reports that the batteries had been fitted to the missiles surfaced at the end of last year along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It followed efforts by Afghan officials to buy Stingers which had been supplied to the Afghan Mujahedin by the US during the war against the Russians. Taliban fighters have yet to successfully use anti-aircraft missiles against US and Nato forces. However, both US and British pilots, who fly Tornados from a base in Kandahar, report that ground-to-air missiles have been fired at them. Western diplomats and military are extremely sensitive about the Stinger allegations as it comes at a time when Afghanistan and Pakistan are engaged in an escalating feud over insurgent attacks in Afghanistan. The Afghan government claims Pakistan is doing little to stem the flow of a resurgent Taliban who have launched a new offensive in Afghanistan from Pakistan. At the weekend the head of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, accused the Pakistani secret service of being behind a suicide bombing which injured him and killed four other people in Kabul. Pakistan has strenuously denied the charges, accusing elements in the Afghan government of a disinformation campaign. A resurgent Taliban and their Islamist allies have launched waves of attacks in which 1,500 lives, including 100 Americans, have been lost in the past year. The director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Michael Maples, recently told the Senate's Armed Forces Committee in Washington that the Taliban and their allies were at their most powerful since the official end of the war five years ago. He and other US and British commanders expect a major Taliban offensive starting in the spring. Stingers began to be delivered to the Afghan mujahedin by the Reagan administration in 1986. They proved extremely successful against the Russians' main helicopter-gunship, the Hind-D, and were a significant contributory factor in the full Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan three years later. More than 2,000 Stinger missiles were sent by the US. An effort by the CIA to buy them back after the war was largely a failure. In 2001 Pentagon officials said some of the missiles might have fallen into the hands of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. |
| Posted by:john |
| #7 thanks ISI! assholes |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-03-14 19:29 |
| #6 SU1984, I was trained (a LONG time ago) on maintaining and storing Stingers - was also unofficially trained how to use them, but that's another story. Stinger was designed to be as close as possible to a 'wooden round' - that is, you put it in the box at the factory and never need to touch it again until it's opened. Having said that, Stinger was never intended to sit for 20+ years in storage whose conditions can be best described as 'marginal'. The solid fuel motors have to have suffered some degradation by this point, and it is very likely that there are small, hairline cracks towards the ends of the motors - which will make the life of the shooter both exciting and short. In addition, there are likely problems with the sensor and fuze circuitry at this point as well. In short, the missiles are likely to do more damage to the guy holding it than any aircraft. Also, the missile is kicked out of the tube by a small booster charge - its really not much worse than catching a good gust of wind in the face. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-03-14 18:36 |
| #5 Would you want to fire one from your shoulder? allan needs shaheens of many skillz. More than one way to kill yourself. Of course a death by 2nd degree burn might take the edge off the experience. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-03-14 17:59 |
| #4 These are 20+ year old Stingers according to the article. Is the solid fuel still reliable? Would you want to fire one from your shoulder? And... IIRC: the IR sensors are supposed to have degraded to uselessness by now without proper repair, or so I recall reading when the subject was mentioned during the original 2001 invasion by the MSM. Anybody know more on this? |
| Posted by: Shase Unereng1984 2006-03-14 17:25 |
| #3 You can't buy Stinger battery packs at Radio Shack. This would not be the first time that the ISI has transferred US supplied equipment to terrorists. The Indians found timers and detonators used in the Bombay bombings (in the 90s) that were traced to US military stocks transferred to Pakistan as military aid. |
| Posted by: john 2006-03-14 12:46 |
| #2 "An official spokesman said: "Pakistan has lost more security personnel in the fight against terror than any other country." Yes, well, we base rewards on OUTPUT, not on INPUT. |
| Posted by: Perfessor 2006-03-14 12:28 |
| #1 Nooo! This can't be! ISI - Islamonutz Support Industry |
| Posted by: Hupeting Slineng3538 2006-03-14 08:39 |