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The U.S. State Department on Jan. 27 requested that the government of Nicaragua investigate allegations that its military is hiding caches of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). The request came two weeks after a U.S.-aided sting operation netted a black market SA-7 in Managua. The predominant concern is that SAMs possessed by Latin American guerrilla groups will fall into the hands of militant groups around the world -- even those that target the United States or U.S. interests.
The threat of SAMs in the hands of militant groups is not new -- though its perceived threat-level takes peaks and valleys depending on the latest news. On Jan. 28, for example, Northrop Grumman said that later in 2005 it would test its prototype system for defending civilian airliners against SAMs. Regardless of the ebb and flow of public perception about it, the SAM threat remains fairly stable.
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