Piled behind an abandoned gas station near Misrata is one of the bigger concerns facing Libya's new rulers: Crates of anti-tank shells, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other heavy ammunition are stacked high and many of the boxes are smashed open, their contents scattered.

"Everything… we found everything!" chortled the man who appointed himself our guide. A closer look reveals they indeed found a lot in their looting of Moammar Gadhafi's warehouses, bunkers and bases.

For months I have documented several piles like it -- the disparate parts of Gadhafi's (former) arsenal -- from the early days before NATO air power joined the fray to most recently during the fall of Tripoli. I will share some of these findings in a series of posts to The Desk.

A disclaimer though: This ‘project' was never intended as the catalogue of a weapons expert but rather a reporter's record of observations about what Gadhafi had and where it came from.

Mainly, it offers a glimpse at the firepower now in the hands of rebels and that, if uncontrolled, risks seeping through Libya's borders and into the black market.

At that gas station, the heavy ammunition and the rest of the spoils just sit there uncovered and unguarded. Of particular concern in this inventory: shoulder-to-air missiles, as shown in this photo.

These are of Russian provenance like much of the arsenal Gadhafi had collected. The crates are marked with ‘9M32M'. This variety of missile -- known also by the names Strela or SA-7 -- has a range of about 5.5 kilometers and its portability makes it a worry.

"This is a fairly simple weapon to use," according to Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch, who is collecting information on Libya's loose weapons, "It can be fired against a civilian aircraft."

(Before NATO planes joined the revolution I saw a man near Ajdabiya aim an SA-7 at the sky thinking he heard one of Gadhafi's jets and finding no target instead fired it toward the town).

The proliferation of weapons and heavy ammunition is a serious concern for rebel leaders, NATO and the United Nations. Every rebel victory 'liberated' arms from Gadhafi's domain. Rifles and pistols flood a country now acquainted with using them, especially the young men who gained a sense of purpose from the revolution.

The heavier stuff is more than a headache if it ends up in the hands of so-called ‘bad actors'. Many of Libya's African neighbours have fought grinding civil wars. Portable missiles like the ones we saw at the gas station could find their way to militant groups like al Qaeda.

In Tripoli, we visited a row of warehouses packed to the rafters with virtually every type of war material including 'poison gas,' according to rebels tossing crates of ammunition onto their trucks.

The date stamps on the crates show a lot of it was old -- some of it manufactured in the 1970s. When arms embargos were lifted in 2004, Libya went on a buying spree and countries like Russia, Romania and Italy were more than happy to comply.

Many nations it seems were represented in the great arms bazaar that is Libya. In the bunker of Gadhafi's son, Muatessem, his national security advisor, I found a 1999 purchase offer from a Swiss arms dealer for anti-tank systems manufactured in the United States.

A confidential report by a UK firm even recommended Canadian-made surveillance technology to detect sniper and small- arms fire. This type of military vehicle might look familiar:

Gadhafi's army hid stockpiles of weapons, ammunition and supplies in unmarked buildings or bunkers as a means of concealing them. At one, in Tripoli's Ain Zara neighbourhood, residents I talked with claimed they ‘didn't know' what was stored in the leafy grove near their homes until it was razed by a NATO air strike in July.

What was there? Surface-to-air missiles. Nearly a hundred of them by my count, plus launchers and propellant (and who knows what else was underground).

Remarkably this site with the surface-to-air missiles -- most still in protective steel casings -- was deserted and completely unsecured.We easily stepped over the concertina wire ringing the perimeter and spent two hours walking, taking pictures.

Could anybody help themselves? Would anybody notice?

The European Union's counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, said members of al Qaeda have capitalized on Libya's turmoil and "gained access to weapons, either small arms or machine-guns, or certain surface-to-air missiles which are extremely dangerous because they pose a risk to flights over the territory."

The de facto government says it will create a weapons registration system, yet weeks after the collapse of Gadhafi's regime there is still the danger of loose arms in many hands.

Back at the gas station, the security advisor travelling with us pointed to at least two damaged anti-tank shells and a mortar that were technically 'live.' We figured it was good time to leave, as rebels there wished us a safe trip in 'free Libya.'