Reply #2: Selling arms to the Saudis has been going on for a long time. [View All]

[Whoa_Nelly]

And, yes, this latest BushCo/PNAC move is just more of the move for global domination. However, wanted to post this about the fact that sales much like what's going on now has been happening already.



These are just the figures through 1999. Am sure there is even more up-to-date info out there in cyberspace. It's all very dirty business.


http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/saudi_arabia.htm

<snip>
Saudi Arabia is America’s top customer. Since 1990, the U.S. government, through the Pentagon’s arms export program, has arranged for the delivery of more than $39.6 billion in foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, and an additional $394 million worth of arms were delivered to the Saudi regime through the State Department’s direct commercial sales program during that same period. (Foreign Military and Construction Sales and Direct Commercial Sales are recorded and published by the Dept. of Defense in Foreign Military Sales, Foreign Military Construction Sales and Military Assistance Facts; the most current online edition includes information through FY 1999.)

Oil rich Saudi Arabia is a cash-paying customer. It receives no U.S. military assistance to finance these purchases, although it does demand that about 35 percent of all major contracts be "offset"-that is, economic benefits equaling 35 percent of the arms contract value must be steered back to the Saudi economy. (Check out the Offsets Monitoring Project for more information on this phenomenon.)

The United States has very close and long-running military ties to the Saudi regime dating back to 1945. Following the 1990-91 war against Iraq, more than 5,000 U.S. troops and thousands of U.S. military contractors have been continuously based in Saudi Arabia. However, several concerns have been raised about this close military cooperation and the related sales of sophisticated arms. These concerns are:

* sophisticated arms sales to Saudi Arabia spurring regional arms races
* high level military expenditures undermining stability
* opposition to American military presence on Saudi soil
* political repression and violations of human rights
* border disputes and regional tension
* concerns about proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles
* support for international terrorism

(The above asterisked subgroups are links at the page link)

...more re: SA and US at main page link