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Ear to the Ground

America’s Christmas Present to Her Favorite Despots

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Posted on Dec 29, 2011
U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Jeffrey Schultze

Hold that thought about democracy in the Middle East while we sell $60 billion of military hardware to the princes of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. closed the first $30 billion half of a major arms deal Thursday to send 84 F-15 fighter jets to a country that only this month beheaded a woman convicted of witchcraft.

The U.S. will also help upgrade 70 existing Saudi jets as part of the package, which is the first installment of a major arms agreement that will also send helicopters and munitions to the kingdom.

Of course the whole deal is built around Washington’s obsessive fear of Iran, as the BBC relays from a State Department official:

In Washington, senior state department official Andrew Shapiro said it would send “a strong message to countries in the region that the United States is committed to stability in the Gulf and broader Middle East”.

“It will enhance Saudi Arabia’s ability to deter and defend against external threats to its sovereignty,” he added.

Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia and Israel are the other poles in the region, and the U.S. has promised to continue to arm both for the foreseeable future.  —PZS

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By willbt, January 1 at 9:03 am Link to this comment

Well I totally agree with what “Arabian Sinbad” wrote:”[The] USA is the
greatest threat to world-peace.”
What the f—-k is WRONG with Americans anymore?!
The US claims to be fighting a “War Against Terror”, yet the world since 9/11
has seen more terrorist strikes worldwide than before. Just not on American soil
(yet - I’m sure it’s coming)
Meanwhile it’s the same old Yankee shit - the Military-Industrial Complex arming the world
to it’s teeth. And as Arabian Sinbad pointed out, THIS particular sale to a fascist
totalitarian country like Saudi Arabia just makes a BAD JOKE out of America’s
alleged quest for peace.
Something’s gone snaky in the US ever since Bush hit the scene. HE was the
world’s worst terrorist. I hope to hell the “Arrest Bush”  initiative grabs him
soon.  See:
http://americanotstandingstill.com/2011/10/28/bush-skips-town-on-secret-
get-out-of-jail-free-card-canadas-cowardly-legal-lions-leave-no-paper-trail/

Report this

By felicity, December 31, 2011 at 10:39 am Link to this comment

bpawk - we did the ‘damage’ to ourselves.  Most
terrorist tacticians operate on three principles. 
Revenge, Reaction, Renown.  Take revenge, wait for,
hopefully, a monumental reaction (we cooperated big-
time on that one) and world-wide Renown will follow.

Without our, overblown doesn’t even cover it, reaction
to 9/11, binLaden would have remained a fringe madman,
with few minions world-wide joining his cause and
probably have died in relative obscurity.

Report this

By norry, December 31, 2011 at 6:54 am Link to this comment

There are a few naive posts here today.
@bpawk. (Osama Bin Laden.“while he was evil”)please inform me as to where you got the notion that OBL was ‘evil’.
A couple of the other posts make the authors appear like they came down in the last shower!
Makes me wonder where all these rocks are that people have been living under!
I wouldn’t mind so much if people stating the bleeding obvious didn’t think it was some profound original thought!

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By chris massey lynch, December 31, 2011 at 5:59 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Access to Amnesty International’s website has been blocked in Saudi Arabia today following the organization’s criticism of a draft anti-terror law that would stifle peaceful protest in the kingdom

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By Litl Bludot, December 31, 2011 at 1:30 am Link to this comment

Berniem,, the first post here,

you’re right, the billions go to Boeing. It’s corporate welfare, disaster capitalism
at its finest. The planes go to the stone age Islamic fanatics (similar to our
wacko christian crusaders now dominating the US military) who happen to have
been born on top of oil. Although, there will be a terminate bug in the F-15
software for the Israeli air force to trigger, if necessary.

There is no threat from Iran and the US military knows this as well. Iran is not
near developing a nuclear weapon, and if it had one, it wouldn’t use it unless
attacked, nor would their arsenal be one millionth as powerful as ours. It’s the
same disinformation by the same culprits and MSM that presaged the attack
and invasion of Iraq.  Regardless, nuclear war is nuclear winter, is the end of
photosynthesis, the start of pandemic nuclear poisoning of all life. It’s literally
the end. There’s no way to use nuclear weapons without killing ourselves and
the planet. But, again, the psychopaths are in charge.

Annihilating the cradle of mankind, destroying the most ancient artifacts of
humanity, eviscerating the most ancient cultures on earth, is the predictable
path for the psychopaths now in charge of our lives and the planet. The path
leads to the total elimination of eukaryotic life, not that its beauty has made
much of an impression on the indescribably disgusting corporate fascists who
infect every pore of what’s left of humanity’s future.

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By prosefights, December 30, 2011 at 7:07 pm Link to this comment

“Of course the whole deal is built around Washington’s obsessive fear of Iran,”

http://orlingrabbe.com/speccoll.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~bpayne37/theinvestigation/swissradio/swissradio.mp3

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James M. Martin's avatar

By James M. Martin, December 30, 2011 at 5:40 pm Link to this comment

When will we realize that the Saudis are not our friends?  The Saudis made a pact with the Devil when they made concessions to jihadist fundamentalists, the Wahhabists, who hate the West and are given free reign over the public education in Arabia.  Almost all of the 9/11 killers were Saudi-born; presumably they were brainwashed to be martyrs as grade school students.  The Bush family was very close to the House of Saud, yet when Dubya went there with his hands out trying to get an increase in production, he came back empty handed.  The jets we sell to a friend today may be the ones our enemy uses to attack us tomorrow.

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By bpawk, December 30, 2011 at 1:48 pm Link to this comment

I have to laugh but not in a funny way everytime people squeal with delight in killing Osama bin Laden. While he was evil, he did more damage to the U.S. in terms of wasted money on security, war etc. than they did to him - it’s no great victory to say the US spent billions on security, war, seeking Osama, etc. and all they got out of it was loss of civil rights, huge deficit and a bag of bones.

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drbhelthi's avatar

By drbhelthi, December 30, 2011 at 11:53 am Link to this comment

@felicity
Even the FBI found no evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the events on
eleven September 2001. He repeatedly stated that he was not involved.  Had he
been, he would have broadcast acknowledgement, and proudly.  On 11Sep2001, he
was on his deathbed, and died 19 December 2001. 

Instead of getting into conspiracies, you might try getting into sources of accurate
information.  Like the following link:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread705302/pg1

Report this

By felicity, December 30, 2011 at 11:29 am Link to this comment

Wonder if there’s any connection between bin Laden’s
hatred of the Saudi royal family (for allowing
Americans and American flotsam and jetsam on the
sacred soil of Saudi Arabia) and his ultimate attack
on America in 2001.

(If I were into conspiracies I might also wonder if,
given that the Bush family is tied at the hip to the
Saudi royals, there was any connection between a Bush
being the president and the 9/11 attack.)

I also wonder if it ever occurs to anyone in the
federal government that the arms that we distribute
world-wide might, just might come back to bite us in
our big, fat, rogue-military-state asses.

Report this
Blueokie's avatar

By Blueokie, December 30, 2011 at 10:52 am Link to this comment

The Empire’s got to make its coin somehow.  At least its doing what it does best.

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By John Boyle, December 29, 2011 at 9:16 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Sixty billion sale to Saudi Arabia?

And what is the annual handout to Israel?

We reap what we sow.

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Squirt1's avatar

By Squirt1, December 29, 2011 at 9:13 pm Link to this comment

Thanks for posting! It’s good to hear at least we’re
doing something right! For real yo!! smile God Bless
America

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Arabian Sinbad's avatar

By Arabian Sinbad, December 29, 2011 at 5:43 pm Link to this comment

Well, this is another proof that the USA is the greatest threat to world-peace as it continues to be the merchant of death, providing weapons of mass destruction to a fascist, terrorist regime like Israel, while at the same time providing weapons of mass destruction to despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia.

And the worry does not stop at selling such weapons to such regimes, but along with these weapons goes the secret covert operations to make sure that these weapons would be used by provoking regional wars to make the terrorist and despotic regimes continue to be dependent on and continue to work within the orbit of neocolonialist American power.

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By Rehmat, December 29, 2011 at 5:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Saudi Arabia is a ‘Cash Cow’ for both the US and Britain. Riyyadh has pumped over $300 billion into American economy so far. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is the only dependable US-Israel ally in the Muslim East. It’s trying its best to counter Iranian influence in the region.

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/israel-us-saudi-alliance-against-iran/

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By berniem, December 29, 2011 at 3:44 pm Link to this comment

Isn’t the truth more like we, as in us, gave Boeing $60B. so that they would “sell” Saudi Arabia the planes? Really, isn’t this just more corporate welfare? Ooops, almost forgot! It’s part of a jobs bill, right?

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