[An ex-Pat S.African sent me this. I’m not sure I agree with his reasoning. But he does raise some interesting possibilities. Is S.Africa secretly taking top-notch missile technology with Iran? I wouldn’t be surprised. Jan]

Jan,
I was thinking of the new pact between SA and Iran. I’m surprised Israel still shares missile technology with us considering this government’s loyalties to every enemy of the west ever had. I mean what stops Mbeki passing on this missile technology to Tehran and co. For many years we had Israeli help who used our vast firing ranges to test their own weapons. For instance, many of our new AAM’s are copies of isreali missiles. For instance, the SAAF’s medium range R-darter missile is identical to it’s isreali counter part named the Derby. In fact, kentron’s own website shows exactly the same colour scheme as the isreali Derby … ( white nose with a yellow band around it’s mid section …URL’s :

http://www.kentron.co.za/Home.asp?Page=airtoair (U-darter)

http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/missile_systems/air_missiles/derby/Derby.html
(Derby)

Which brings me to the fact that Israel’s weapons are American based. Is America inadvertantly selling their technology to Israel only for Iran to get their grubby hands on it through our governments need to deal with terrorist countries only. To give you an idea, our missile technology is of the best in the world thanks to Israel. The Israeli Python 4 missile can kill a aircraft behind it … yes, a missile that can shoot down another aircraft directly behind itself. Makes you think.