Discussion Questions

August 14, 2003

British citizen Hemant Lakhani is accused of smuggling a surface-to-air missile into the U.S. CNN's Jason Bellini describes a surface-to-air missile and its capabilities.

1. Who is Hemant Lakhani? Of what crime has he been accused? What were the circumstances surrounding his arrest?

2. Do you think Lakhani's arrest is politically significant? State your rationale.

3. What is an SA-18 and how does it work? According to Jane's Military Research, when did the Soviets introduce the SA-18? To which countries did the Soviets export the SA-18?

4. Why do you think the U.S. government is concerned about the existence of Soviet surface-to-air missiles?

LINKS

Related Show Transcript

Man accused of smuggling missile into U.S. charged (http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/13/missile.sting/index.html)

Factfile: SA-18 missile (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/08/13/igla18.factfile/index.html)

Airliners and the missile threat (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/08/13/missile.threat/index.html)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/)

KEYWORDS

SA-18 missile

black market

Soviet Union

terrorists