Islamists gain control of a dozen commercial jets
Anyone see a strategy yet? A dozen commercial airplanes are missing since Islamist militias took over the airport in Tripoli, Libya.
The state-owned Libyan Airlines fleet until this summer included 14 passenger and cargo jetliners, including seven Airbus 320s, one Airbus 330, two French ATR-42 turboprop aircraft, and four Bombardier CJR-900s. Libyan state-owned Afriqiyah Airways fleet is made up of 13 aircraft, including three Airbus 319s, seven Airbus 320s, two Airbus 330s, and one Airbus 340.
The aircraft were reportedly taken in late August following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport, located about 20 miles south of the capital, by Libyan Dawn. Al Jazeera television reported in late August that western intelligence reports had warned of terror threats to the region from 11 stolen commercial jets.
The situation in the Arab Middle East continues to deteriorate, and the only way to stabilize that I can see will involve major warfare involving many countries.
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Anyone see a strategy yet? A dozen commercial airplanes are missing since Islamist militias took over the airport in Tripoli, Libya.
The state-owned Libyan Airlines fleet until this summer included 14 passenger and cargo jetliners, including seven Airbus 320s, one Airbus 330, two French ATR-42 turboprop aircraft, and four Bombardier CJR-900s. Libyan state-owned Afriqiyah Airways fleet is made up of 13 aircraft, including three Airbus 319s, seven Airbus 320s, two Airbus 330s, and one Airbus 340.
The aircraft were reportedly taken in late August following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport, located about 20 miles south of the capital, by Libyan Dawn. Al Jazeera television reported in late August that western intelligence reports had warned of terror threats to the region from 11 stolen commercial jets.
The situation in the Arab Middle East continues to deteriorate, and the only way to stabilize that I can see will involve major warfare involving many countries.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Strategically all of the 11 jets should have been destroyed by some force that has the air capability (someone at a high level had to actually strategically realize the potential and push the button) to do so as things deteriorated. If you are talking about a strategy in the White House we could certainly discuss whether our leadership and its actions and inaction is either planned or just a function of incompetence, inexperience and general lack of interest or is it providing material assistance to the enemy? I will err on the side of just general incompetence, and the par for the course “voting present”, to go to the other is to dance with the devil. Which ever the real answer we have two or so years left of this “leadership”.
This “leader is a reactor, he does not act because he has a belief system that is counter to a traditional American belief system, this is a fundamental problem.
So, where does one hide eleven large jets?
Fly them to operational civilian airports in friendly nations.
No one will risk destroying then once there.
Park them in hangers there and refit them as needed undercover.
There is actually a market for stolen aircraft of any size. And that market would know how to disguise a stolen craft as a good one not on any the watch list.
As for possible uses. Their budget is the only limit.
I’m sure the fact this happed about 2 weeks before Sep 11 is just a wild coincidence.
This might be a more correct sentence:
“I’m sure the fact this WAS ALLOWED to happen about 2 weeks before Sep 11 is just a wild coincidence.”
Lets not forget the galvanizing effect all of the “fear” and “Terror” news that has been constantly fed to all of us over the last 13 years is having. The combination of the immediacy of individuals information gathering capabilities and the mass medias (multinational corporations) constant pumping of that information becomes in many ways a tool of control and a weapon of war. It becomes very difficult to determine where “truth” lies and where manipulation takes over but I am confident that when you “lead from behind” the only end result can be being behind.
Details like these planes going “missing” and their potential as weapons should never have been allowed to happen. Things do just happen, they slip through the cracks but something like this, at this time in history and under these circumstances is just plain stupid and a demonstration of our leaderships incompetence. And that is what we should all be “afraid” of.
Your assumption this admin even has a clue how to stop aircraft like that disappearing from a war zone is amusing, but really unfounded. If anything they would be pushing to not be so intrusive as to monitor all of them like that.