Friday, July 21, 2006

Jizya? Pentagon OKs $6 BIL. Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia

Will someone wake me when these nightmares end?

From al Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Thursday it approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of 24 UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters, radios, armoured vehicles and other military equipment worth more than $6 billion (3.25 billion pounds).

Congress has 30 days to block the sales, although such action is rare.

The Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the principal contractors for the different sales included Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp., General Electric Co., Harris Corp., ITT Corp., General Dynamics Corp., and Raytheon Corp..


The agency said in a mandatory notice to Congress that the arms sales would help strengthen Saudi Arabia's military and its ability to help the United States fight terrorism around the world. The deal comes amid escalating fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia had asked to buy 24 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters, spare parts, communications and other equipment valued at $350 million, if all options were exercised, according to the agency, which oversees foreign arms sales.

Sikorsky and GE would be the main contractors for the new helicopters, which would help Saudi Arabia modernise and increase its rotary wing fleet and respond more quickly to possible threats against its infrastructure.

A second deal, valued at up to $5.8 billion, would include 724 lightly armoured vehicles built by General Dynamics, based in Falls Church, Virginia. The deal also would provide more than 2,300 long-range military radio systems built by Harris, based in Melbourne, Florida, and other equipment to help modernize the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

The Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the deal would help make Saudi Arabia more capable of defending stability in the region and less reliant on deployment of U.S. forces.

4 comments:

Jason Pappas said...

So much for the claim that a positive regard for Islam and Saudi Arabia is only a clever facade ... the administration really knows the truth.

If anyone bought that, I have some swamp land in Florida … cheap. And I’ll throw in this Bridge to Brooklyn.

Kiddo said...

I'd just like a President here who is not practically making out with the Saudi royals. Hell, we've seen what several barely armed Saudis can do on our airplanes, we've seen what Saudis can manage to fund in the way of organizations, Imams in our prisons, mosques, and pretty much the entire network of Wahhabist indoctrination (and conversion) in the US and the rest of the world. Hey, here's an idea, let's help arm the whole kingdom! Great one!

Yep, I've wondered about that Brooklyn Bridge being up for sale lately. If ever there was a time...

Pastorius said...

Well, I guess I better buy look into that swamp land, huh?

Anonymous said...

But the Saudis are our frieeeends!
/sarcasm

I can't believe this. I'm also tired of seeing Bush hand in hand with Saudis. This is so going to bite us in the butt.

American in Canada