U.S. Missiles Found in Libyan Rebel Camp Were First Sold to France

France got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. It would be very easy to determine whether the weapons were truely damaged as they state. Furthermore given the portable but heavy nature of the weapons no special forces would lug them around in their surgical engagements. In parallel mark my words, in less than a decade the weapons sold to UAE and Saudi will be used upon western targets. We will read some excuse on how this or that tin-hat nut case stole them from some base and it wasnt really the UAE/Saudi 'intent'. Than they will donate a couple million to PACs and order a few more billions in weapons...

France started the whole Libyan mess and now wants to drag the US in deeper. Obama should have done what Ike did when the UK and France attacked Egypt. Leading from behind doesn’t work.

again, the US and it's lackeys, in the Saudi inspired roles starting wars and helping terrorists, - their illegally supplied weapons fall into the wrong hands. I remember how the French were caught out dropping weaponsto terrorists in that other illegal war against Ghadaffi. In this case, from the wrong hands into the right ones. I think Hifter is the good guy in this mess. Or, the least bad.

Obama, Hillary Clinton and their friends in France and Britain sponsored and participated in the civil war which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi. They should all be arrested and tried for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. All of the blood and suffering in Libya is on their hands. How can anyone forgive them?

This story is reflective of a much larger problem. The US is the world's arm supplier, we are flooding the world with weapons; it's common for them to end up in the wrong hands. We then get involved with conflicts in which American weapons are used against American soldiers. In a majority of world conflicts American weapons are being used by both sided. It seems that the most effective policy would be to get out of the weapons business. It only benefits the arms manufacturers. And it's not only in armed conflicts but also in the drug trade. Virtually all drug related killings in Mexico are done with American guns. All in an effort to meet the demand of American drug users.

Commenter LND, who writes that he did his homework on this, reports that the suspect missiles were actually Chinese, not American. Whew! But I guess we all knew that, eh? Arms dealers only sell US weapons to customers who promise not to misuse them -- one who are trustworthy (Did I mention that?). I just can't imagine some French soldier would resell US-manufactured weapons, earning a "profit" that's more than the soldier gets paid by the French army in a year. Whatever happened to honor, and truthiness, and that sort of thing?

Say it ain't so! You mean, you mean somebody bought US missiles (at $170,000 a pop) and then resold them? Who'd have guessed that US customers would behave so dishonorably, eh? I guess we could avoid this entirely unforeseeable problem by simply not selling missiles in the first place, eh? But that would be too easy. Surely there must be some more complicated way. Can you think of one, or are we relegated to being simple-minded here?

"... the Javelins are guided by infrared technology ..." Based on web research* , there were FGM-148 Javelins in the Libyan cache, but the photo at the top of the article does not show them. I believe the photo shows Chinese-made Norinco GP6 projectiles. The upper-right shipping box in the photo says: "HE Laser Homing Projectile Tube" And the upper-right missile body has "155mm" printed on it. Javelins have a smaller diameter -- 127 mm. Further, the missiles are missing two important components -- the seeker head and the fins. Also, the tubes are useless without a launcher, which is a separate component. Whatever they are in the photo, they are not FGM-148 Javelins. * Per web research on the FGM-148 Javelin, including the Wikipedia article, online photos, and Youtube videos: "American missiles FGM-148 Javelin found at a military base used by Gen. Haftar in Western Libya" (ImazighenLibyaTV) "Libya: UN-backed govt forces display weapons 'captured from Haftar'" (Ruptly) NB: "HE LHP GP6" is visible in the second video.

This brings to mind the public complaint of a Syrian rebel about 7-8 years ago, just after Assad announced that he would send Syrian Army troops to put down a rebellion in some Syrian city east of Damascus. The rebel concluded, probably correctly, that Assad's announcement would increase the demand for bullets, which in turn, he predicted (again, probably correctly), would increase bullet prices at the local bazaar, where mostly "Made in USA" bullets were openly sold.

This looks increasingly highly fishy - so it appears that France sold missiles to its ally Hifter and his henchmen - the same people who bombed a detention (or as AOC would put it concentration) camp of refugees headed for the EU

The only winners in these "wars" in Southest Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa are the arms manufacturers.

So France is supporting a militant group fighting against the UN-backed government. We don't consider that terrorism? Just imagine if Iran was helping the same group. France would be the first to say that Iran was violating the will of the international community.

The Turks are always against NATO! Why are they still in it?

It would seem reckless to leave those missiles in some warehouse, even if they are indeed damaged and no longer usable. I don’t believe the French would be so careless. Rather, it is entirely possible that they are trying to avoid the installation of an Islamist regime at the doorsteps of Europe. If that is the case, the US should help them out.

"he said the missiles were being temporarily stored in a warehouse awaiting destruction and were not transferred to local forces."..... There is no simple solution but, this is exactly the problem (similar to guns in America) that occurs when either by carelessness or criminal act, weapons end up in the hands of the wrong people. As the worlds largest supplier of arms why are we surprised when the model and serial numbers of dangerous weapons found all over the globe say Made In America?