| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| WaTi: Team to Nicaragua seeks Accountability on SA-7s |
| 2005-02-22 |
| The Bush administration plans to send a high-level team to Nicaragua to protest Managua's failure to account for shoulder-fired missiles that could fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists, a senior U.S. official said yesterday. The United States has become increasingly worried about the fate of hundreds of Soviet-provided SA-7s like the ones used by terrorists in Kenya in 2002 to try to down an Israeli airliner. In that attack, the two missiles missed their target. The Nicaragua problem arose last month when a police sting, aided by U.S. officials, captured an SA-7 missile from four Nicaraguans who thought they were selling it to Colombian terrorists. To some U.S. officials, the missile's appearance at an air-conditioner repair shop in Managua was proof that elements of the military were hoarding scores of SA-7s for future sale on the black market. Last week, the situation worsened when the Nicaraguan assembly overrode a veto by President Enrique Bolanos that stripped him of power to, at his discretion, dispose of weapons. The override effectively ends, for now, Mr. Bolanos' plans to destroy about 1,000 SA-7s known to be in the country's arsenal. U.S. intelligence thinks there are about 80 additional missiles never declared by the government. The assembly's override demonstrated the extent to which the opposition Sandinista party has gained control of the legislature through elections and backroom deals. "This is essentially the Sandinista party taking control over the missiles," the senior U.S. official said. The official said the U.S. delegation leaving this week will be made up of Pentagon and State Department officials. They plan to meet with Mr. Bolanos, a U.S. ally who wants to destroy the SA-7s as promised to Washington, and legislative leaders who blocked destruction. A State Department spokesman yesterday said he had no information on a planned trip to Managua. But the senior U.S. official said the delegation has received "talking points" that include telling the Nicaraguans that loose SA-7s pose a major terror threat to the United States and to civil aviation worldwide. The source said the Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are unanimous in adopting a policy that Nicaragua must account for and destroy all its SA-7s, heat-seeking missiles that can hit aircraft within 15,000 feet. To underscore Washington's unhappiness with the left-wing Sandinistas' maneuvers, the Bush administration did not send a high-ranking military officer yesterday to attend the swearing-in of Gen. Omar Halleslevens as Nicaragua's top military officer. Instead, an American officer with the mid-level rank of major represented the United States. Normally, such a ceremony would attract a senior officer from U.S. Southern Command in Miami, perhaps even the four-star commander. The Nicaraguan military has denied that it harbors any SA-7s other than the 1,000 missiles left over from the 1980s civil war, which have been inventoried by the Organization of American States. But the serial number of the missile captured in the sting did not match that of any inventoried missile. U.S. officials have said they do not know whether any Nicaraguan SA-7s missiles have fallen into the hands of terrorists. |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |