Weapons Sales

Guess Who Arms Both Azerbaijan And Armenia

October 23, 2020 David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy. Educate! Armenia, Azerbaijan, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales

This war between Azerbaijan and Armenia is, quite typically, a U.S. war even if the U.S. public doesn’t think so, even if the news is that the United States is trying to negotiate peace — news that includes zero mention of cutting off the weapons flow or even threatening to cut off the weapons flow. The Washington Post would like to send in the U.S. military — which it thinks is a simple and obvious solution. That claim is dependent on nobody even thinking of the idea of cutting off the weapons. This is not a Trump war or an Obama war.

Israeli Weapons Fuel The Violence In Azerbaijan

October 22, 2020 Raul Diego, Mintpress News. Educate! Azerbaijan, Iran, Israel, Weapons Sales

The latest iteration of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has already claimed the lives of dozens of people, had been largely forgotten by the world before hostilities reignited in September. Only the collapse of the Soviet Union was able to bring about the end of the last war between these entrenched enemies in the 1980s and 1990s. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, the still contested region claimed under international law by Azerbaijan and de facto controlled by its ethnic Armenian majority has fallen under a new spell of violence thanks in large part to external actors vying for a larger war with another neighboring country: Iran.

How To Stuff The Middle East With Weaponry

October 13, 2020 William Hartung, Tom Dispatch. Educate! Middle East, Trump, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales

The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the endlessly war-torn Middle East. There, believe it or not, the U.S. controls nearly half the arms market. From Yemen to Libya to Egypt, sales by this country and its allies are playing a significant role in fueling some of the world’s most devastating conflicts. But Donald Trump, even before he was felled by Covid-19 and sent to Walter Reed Medical Center, could not have cared less, as long as he thought such trafficking in the tools of death and destruction would help his political prospects.

Israel’s Crimes Must Be Met With Arms Embargo

August 27, 2020 By Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada. Resist! Bombing, Gaza, Israel, Palestinians, War crimes, Weapons Sales

Israel’s bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip must be met with an “urgent and comprehensive military embargo,” the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee stated on Sunday. Israel has bombed Gaza every night for the past 12 days in response, or so it claims, to incendiary balloons flown from the territory. Those balloons have caused fires on agricultural land in southern Israel. Two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million are refugees, some of them from the lands just on the other side of the Gaza boundary fence. Israel denies them their right to return, enshrined in international law, while encouraging Jews worldwide to emigrate to Israel. Gaza has been under a devastating blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt for the past 13 years.

Military Spending In 2019 Hits Highest Increase In A Decade

May 3, 2020 Marlee Kokotovic, Nation of Change. Educate! Military Budget, Pentagon, Weapons Sales

Earlier this week a new analysis was reported showing the world’s military spent a combined $1.9 trillion last year with the U.S. being the top spenders. According to the most current annual report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the top military spenders after the U.S. were China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Total spending in 2019 was 3.6% higher than in the previous year and accounted for 2.2% of global gross domestic product (GDP). “This is the highest level of spending since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure,” says Nan Tian, a researcher at SIPRI.

Lessons From Battling The Pentagon For Four Decades

December 16, 2019 William D. Hartung, Tom Dispatch. Strategize! Military Budget, Pentagon, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales

I’ve been writing critiques of the Pentagon, the national security state, and America’s never-ending military overreach since at least 1979 -- in other words, virtually my entire working life. In those decades, there were moments when positive changes did occur. They ranged from ending the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994 and halting U.S. military support for the murderous regimes, death squads, and outlaws who ruled Central America in the 1970s and 1980s to sharp reductions in the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals as the Cold War wound down. Each of those victories, however complex, seemed like a signal that sustained resistance and global solidarity mattered and could make a difference when it came to peace and security.

The US Is Addicted To Weapons Sales To The Middle East

November 23, 2019 By William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com Educate! Middle East, US Imperialism, Weapons Sales

It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How do we know? Because he tells us so at every conceivable opportunity. It started with his much exaggerated “$110 billion arms deal” with Saudi Arabia, announced on his first foreign trip as president. It continued with his White House photo op with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which he brandished a map with a state-by-state rundown of American jobs supposedly tied to arms sales to the kingdom.

Arms Companies Failing To Address Human Rights Risks

September 11, 2019 Staff, Amnesty.org Educate! Human Rights, Weapons Sales

As the world’s biggest arms companies prepare to set up shop at a global arms fair in London, a new report by Amnesty International shows how major industry players including Airbus, BAE Systems and Raytheon are not undertaking adequate human rights due diligence which could prevent their products from being used in potential human rights violations and war crimes. For Outsourcing Responsibility, Amnesty International contacted 22 arms companies and asked them to explain how they meet their responsibilities to respect human rights under internationally recognized standards.

U. S. Sale Of War Planes To New Zealand Faces Resistance

February 25, 2019 David Swanson, Worldbeyondwar.org Resist! New Zealand, US Imperialism, Weapons Sales

The U.S. State Department uses public funds and public employees to market private products designed for mass killing to foreign governments. Few corporations have benefitted more from this socialism for the oligarchs than Boeing. In one recent example, the U.S. government has persuaded the New Zealand government to buy four “Poseidon” planes from Boeing that are designed for working with submarines, of which New Zealand possesses zero. The purchase price of $2.3 billion in New Zealand dollars, $1.6 billion in U.S. dollars, may be too small for White House occupant Donald Trump to hold an illustration-enhanced media event about.

The Arms Industry Gains Even More Power In Washington, DC

February 1, 2019 By Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com Educate! Military Industrial Complex, Pentagon, Weapons Sales

The way personnel spin through Washington’s infamous revolving door between the Pentagon and the arms industry is nothing new. That door, however, is moving ever faster with the appointment of Patrick Shanahan, who spent 30 years at Boeing, the Pentagon’s second largest contractor, as the Trump administration’s acting secretary of defense. Shanahan had previously been deputy secretary of defense, a typical position in recent years for someone with a significant arms industry background. William Lynn, President Obama’s first deputy secretary of defense, had been a Raytheon lobbyist. Ashton Carter, his successor, was a consultant for the same company.

In Yemen And Beyond, U.S. Arms Manufacturers Are Abetting Crimes Against Humanity

October 1, 2018 By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, Fpif.org Educate! Capitalism, Military Industrial Complex, US Imperialism, Weapons Sales, Yemen

Our leading weapons dealers have developed a business model that feeds on war, terrorism, chaos, political instability, and human rights violations. The Saudi bombing of a school bus in Yemen on August 9, 2018 killed 44 children and wounded many more. The attack struck a nerve in the U.S., confronting the American public with the wanton brutality of the Saudi-led war on Yemen. When CNN revealed that the bomb used in the airstrike was made by U.S. weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the horror of the atrocity hit even closer to home for many Americans. But the killing and maiming of civilians with U.S.-made weapons in war zones around the world is an all too regular occurrence. U.S. forces are directly responsible for largely uncounted civilian casualties in all America’s wars, and the United States is also the world’s leading arms exporter.

Report: War Profiteers, US Arming Of Repressive Regimes

September 12, 2018 Staff, CODE PINK Educate! Israel, Saudi Arabia, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales

It is a rare moment when a mainstream US media outlet makes the connection between U.S. weapons manufacturers and the killing of civilians. But tragically, it is not rare at all that repressive regimes kill and maim civilians with American weapons. This report focuses on the five largest U.S. arms manufacturers—Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics—and their dealings with three repressive nations: Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt. The absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia is using weapons to repress internal dissent and to bomb Yemen into a humanitarian crisis that has spread death, cholera and famine.

I Don’t Remember Voting For US Bombs To Kill Little Kids In Yemen

August 18, 2018 Will Bunch, Philly.com. Educate! Saudi Arabia, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales, Yemen

It must have been a moment of unspeakable shock, terror and pain. But it’s hard to know exactly what it was like at the moment last Thursday when a school bus packed with Yemeni schoolchildren — summer campers coming back from a picnic — was struck from the skies by a powerful bomb, because so few of these innocent kids survived to tell about it, and because those who did are mostly clinging to life, maimed or badly burned by the blast. Instead, we can only gape at pictures of a twisted metal frame that hardly resembles the bus that was once filled with happy, singing children...

I Traced Missile Casings In Syria Back To Their Original Sellers, So It’s Time For The West To Reveal Who They Sell Arms To

August 1, 2018 Robert Fisk, Independent.co.uk Educate! Syria, US Imperialism, Weapons Sales

Readers, a small detective story. Note down this number: MFG BGM-71E-1B. And this number: STOCK NO 1410-01-300-0254. And this code: DAA A01 C-0292. I found all these numerals printed on the side of a spent missile casing lying in the basement of a bombed-out Islamist base in eastern Aleppo last year. At the top were the words “Hughes Aircraft Co”, founded in California back in the 1930s by the infamous Howard Hughes and sold in 1997 to Raytheon, the massive US defence contractor whose profits last year came to $23.35bn (£18bn). Shareholders include the Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Raytheon’s Middle East offices can be found in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Kuwait.

US Provides Military Assistance To 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships

June 17, 2018 By Rich Whitney Truthout Educate! Wars and Militarism, Weapons Sales

As of the fiscal year 2015, the last year for which we have publicly available data, the federal government of the United States had been providing military assistance to 36 of 49 dictatorships, courtesy of your tax dollars. The United States currently supports over 73 percent of the world’s dictatorships! Most politically aware people know of some of the more highly publicized instances of this, such as the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of US military assistance provided to the beheading capital of the world, the misogynistic monarchy of Saudi Arabia, and the repressive military dictatorship now in power in Egypt. But apologists for our nation’s imperialistic foreign policy may try to rationalize such support, arguing that Saudi Arabia and Egypt are exceptions to the rule.

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