THE CONTINUING NIGHTMARE – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  As security forces hunt for a possible terror team in the U.S. to stage its own commemoration of 9-11, we're reminded that terrorists might soon get their hands on far more deadly weapons than they've had up to now.  The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent report from Libya:

As Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) hunt for and collect the weapons that fueled Muammar Qaddafi's war machine, they are quickly learning that some choice pieces of his vast stockpile of mines, mortars, and explosives are missing.

At newly discovered weapons-storage sites, thousands of shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) are unaccounted for. At one unguarded facility, empty packing crates and documents reveal that 482 sophisticated Russian SA-24 missiles were shipped to Libya in 2004, and now are gone. With a range of 11,000 feet, the SA-24 is Moscow’s modern version of the American “stinger,” which in the 1980s helped the US-backed Afghan mujahideen turn their war against the Soviet Union.

This is the first I've read that modern shoulder-fired SAM's (surface-to-air missiles) are missing.  We'd been told before that the missing SAM's were older, 1970s vintage Soviet models.  The newer ones are far more deadly and reliable.  Teh great fear is that a terrorist can jump out of a car near an international airport and bring down an airliner landing or taking off.  And, with a missile range of 11,000 feet, he wouldn't even have to be close to the airport any longer. 

The usual suspects in journalism are urging that we "move on" from the war on terror, concentrating on our domestic needs.  (They always want to "move on."  They've even named a movement "moveon.org.") 

There is no moving on.  We're in it, and it will take a long time.

September 10, 2011