Two convicted in shoulder-mounted missiles scheme

In the 2006 budget the Bush administration allocated $108 million to examining different systems for protecting commercial aircraft from shoulder-mounted missiles. In the proposed 2007 budget, the administration asked for less than $5 million for the project. Maybe this story will cause some rethinking. A Chinese national living in Southern California admitted yesterday to trying to arrange the sale from China to the United States of 200 shoulder-mounted missiles which could be used to bring down airplanes. Chao Tung Wu, 51, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to conspiring to import the missiles for a buyer who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

Wu was indicted in November along with another man, Yi Qing Chen. Both became the first people charged under a 2004 U.S. law forbidding the import of aircraft-destroying missile systems into the United States. Wu, who also admitted to trafficking methamphetamine, counterfeit bills, cigarettes, and ecstasy tablets into the United States, made a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of reducing a possible 25-year prison term. The indictment identifies the missiles as the QW-2 shoulder-fired type used by the Chinese military since the late 1990s. According to court papers, the undercover FBI agent was told the missiles would be shipped from China to Cambodia and then to the United States with the help of bribed officials. The third-party country was later changed to Paraguay. The missiles were never delivered. Wu will be sentenced on 31 July. Chen is awaiting trial.