Yeah right.... Of course it would HAVE to be a US made Stinger.

Let me ask you something ....Does a "blame America first" leftist such as yourself really mean it is "possible" it could be a U.S. made Stinger or do I detect the vivid stench that you are hoping a U.S. made Stinger would be used in such an attack? That would make it nice and convienient to blame the U.S. instead of the terrorist scum.

The reality is such an attack would most likely come from a Russian made SA-7 or SA-18 shoulder launched surface to air missile.... or a Chinese made system.

Shoulder launched SAM's (Surface-to-air-missiles) are known as MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems).

There is a relatively small amount of American made Stingers unaccounted for on the black market. It is believed to be less than 500 and most would no longer be operational. We only gave the Afghans 400 of them in the 80's and most of those are probably no longer operational.

European allies were also given the technical specs for the Stinger many years ago and produced their own versions. (Even the Swiss have a version out there)

There are however literally tens of thousands of MANPADS made by other countries (about 150,000 unaccounted for). Most are the Russian made MANPADS. The rest are mostly French and Chinese made units and a few are even British and Swiss.

Any American made Stingers out there in circulation are also very expensive on the black market. An SA-7 can be obtained much more cheaply. Would a terrorist prefer the American made model if operational... maybe ... but they could buy a handful of SA-7's for the price of a single Stinger. In both cases they are taking a chance whether the units would work at all.

So the odds are very low that an American made Stinger would be used. Most likely a Russian or Chinese made weapon. The communist Chinese (America's largest and strangely never discussed enemy) are selling tons of weapons all over the place and mostly to America's other enemies. Also the newer Chinese QW-2 MANPADS are supposed to be superior to Stingers. (The newest QW-4 in development should be in terrorist hands in the near future.... maybe in time for Ramadan)