FBI Arrests Briton Who Attempted to sell Missiles to Al Qaeda

Suspected arms dealers, including a Briton of Indian descent, who smuggled Russian shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles into the United States and attempted to sell them to Muslim terrorists, were apprehended Tuesday in New Jersey and other areas in the United States.

What is more horrifying is that the missiles may have arrived at port in the U.S. The success of the smuggling indicates how vulnerable western countries are against large scale terrorist attacks, the British BBC noted.

The arrest proves that a series of warnings that the U.S. government issued that terrorists were planning to shoot down commercial airliners were accurate.

The FBI arrested a middle-aged British arms dealer, who is of Indian descent, at a hotel Tuesday near Newark Airport, New Jersey. The dealer, whose identity has not yet released, has reportedly been visiting Newark while residing in London frequently.

He purchased a surface-to-air SA-18 missile and shoulder-fired weapon in March from an executive of a Russian arms factory in Saint Petersburg and succeeded in bringing them by ship to an East Coast port in the U.S.

The arms dealer arrived in Newark Tuesday and the arrest took place at a warehouse in Baltimore, 60km northwest of Washington, where he tried to hide them receiving the packaged cargo.

He attempted to sell them to Al Qaeda agents in the U.S., but the terrorists turned out to be undercover FBI agents.

In the meantime, the New York Times reported differently to the BBC, saying that the arms dealer was a Russian intelligence agent.

The FBI secured an audiotape with the arrested arms dealer saying, “I hope the missile is used to shoot down a large commercial airliner,” the New York Times reported.

The SA-18 missile, dubbed Lgla, has been used by Chechen rebel troops in bringing down Russian helicopters and has a range of up to 5 km. It is equipped with an infra-red chasing device and could even bring down Air Force One.

Right after arresting the arms dealer, the FBI raided a gem dealership near Newark and arrested 2 other suspects allegedly linked to the smuggling. When British Police finish searching the arms dealer`s apartment, additional conspirators could be further arrested.

An U.S. intelligence agency, which received the tip-offs, notified Russian and British intelligence agencies soon after. The arrest is noteworthy as it is the first time since the Cold War that intelligence agencies of the three nations cooperated together.

Such cooperation is the outcome of last year`s agreement against terrorism that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed upon.

Such multilateral cooperation is likely to be further increased in the future. 10 Al Qaeda agents, who were planning to shoot down a British commercial airliner by a shoulder-fired missile, were also arrested in Saudi Arabia and, in the last 15 months, terrorist groups have attempted three time, but failed each time, to bring down western and Israeli airliners, the New York Times reported.

Recently, U.S. aviation authorities have been trying to ascertain the vulnerability of airliners against missile attacks by dispatching experts in cities in Iraq, Europe, and Asia, foreign media reported.

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com