The Hindu : Bid to 'bring' Russian missile into U.S., Briton held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 14, 2003

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Bid to 'bring' Russian missile into U.S., Briton held

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington AUG. 13. A British national, identified by a section of the media as being of Indian origin, has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for "planning to smuggle a missile into the United States".

The FBI's sting operation, which also netted two others in a gem store in Manhattan, New York, involved the coordination and cooperation of intelligence agencies of Russia and Britain; and the suspected arms dealer who believed he was selling a shoulder-fired missile to a Muslim terrorist to bring down a commercial airliner was actually striking the deal with an undercover FBI agent.

The "arms dealer" arrested in Newark, New Jersey, had come from London to close a deal on the sophisticated Russian missile, SA-18 Igla, that can bring down commercial jets. He was quoted as saying that he had paid $85,000 to a "corrupt" Russian official who was actually an undercover agent. At the time of his arrest by the FBI, the "arms dealer" believed that he was in the process of getting his final payment.

The British national will be formally arraigned in court and he is not suspected of belonging to the Al-Qaeda or known terror outfits. Rather, he is considered as someone interested in making a commercial deal. According to the Newark media, the Briton would be charged with "material support to terrorism and arms smuggling". The two others picked up in New York city are likely to be charged with money-laundering.

The U.S. Justice Department has not said much about the case. The names of those picked up are yet to be made public under court orders. All that is known is that the Russian authorities passed on information about the arms deal to the FBI and even permitted the investigative agency to work in Russia. Other agencies involved included the British MI 5, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and the Secret Service.

A report in ABC News said the British national was supposed to have boasted that the missile could even bring down Air Force One, the Presidential 747 jet. According to sources quoted in the report, the suspect did not say that the missile was going to be used for the purpose. His "boasts" were not taken seriously as the aircraft had special devices to take care of such threats.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have been seriously concerned about terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles to bring down commercial jets. These concerns have heightened since two SA-7 missiles narrowly missed an Israeli jet when it took off from Mombassa, Kenya last November — an attack blamed on the Al-Qaeda to coincide with the blast in a nearby hotel. And Russia has seen the Chechen rebels use Igla missiles to bring down military aircraft, including helicopters carrying Russian troops.

Authorities here are not so much worried about the SA-7 shoulder-fired missile as they are terrified at the prospect of the Igla falling into the hands of terrorists. Unlike the SA-7, the Igla is a highly sophisticated weapon with extremely accurate infrared targeting capability. While terror outfits are eager to get hold of the SA-18, defence analysts are saying that this is all the more the reason why such weapons are kept secure.

The prospect of terrorists using shoulder-fired weapons to bring down commercial jets has prompted the Department of Homeland Security to ask high tech companies to look into the possibility of developing anti-missile technology for commercial airliners. In fact, there is a proposal in Congress for funding such a technology to protect the 7,000 or so American commercial planes at an estimated $10 billion.

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