Washington ponders a policy shift toward Pakistan
Senior Pentagon officials have visited Pakistan recently with an eye toward assessing what shift might be needed in US military policy there. "Is it a threat that the [Pakistanis] are ready to handle? Do they need help? Do they need training help? Do they need other types of help? That's what we're trying to assess right now," said General James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Despite temptations to cut military aid to Pakistan, analysts warned that doing so would run the risk of making Washington look like a fickle ally. The Pakistani military is already worried about the reliability of the United States as a military partner, given that the most high-profile weapons sale -- of F-16 fighter jets -- was held up for years. In a time of transition, the analysts said, the Pakistani Army needs to be assured that Washington is on its side.
Gates arrives in Delhi to push weapons sale
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates plunged into one of the world's hottest arms market yesterday, saying rapidly expanding US-Indian defence ties were in both countries' interests.
His arrival coincided with news that India successfully tested its first nuclear capable missile from a submerged platform, completing its goal of developing air, land and sea-based ballistic missiles.
Asked if helping to arm an emerging nuclear power carried risks, Gates said, “We have to deal with the world as we find it.”
“India is the world's largest democracy. It is in our interest to develop this relationship, just as it is in India's,” he told reporters in New Delhi after strolling the grounds of the tomb of 16th century Mughal emperor Humayun.
He cited the ambitious schedule of US-Indian exchanges and exercises, and the growing defence trade relationship.
He also expressed hope for completion of a US-Indian civil nuclear technology agreement that has been held up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's communist allies, but said that was not part of his talks here.
Gates flew in from Indonesia, where he also pledged strong US support for arms sales to the Indonesian military and its emergence as a power in southeast Asia.
“This is a much bigger deal,” a senior US defence official travelling with Gates said of India. “There are larger amounts of more complicated equipment involved. But the real takeaway is that it's not just the equipment, it's the broad military relationship.”
“We have a much broader set of agenda items to keep ticking along here which move on their own timelines and set of actors,” said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
India announced last month that it will buy six Hercules C-130J aircraft from US giant Lockheed Martin in a deal worth $1bn.
“We have tried for some years now to get a seat at the table, a chance to compete, and we are finally there with India's signing a contract to purchase six C-130Js at the end of January,” said another US official.
US firms also are competing with Russian and European rivals to supply India with 126 multi-role fighters, a deal valued at $10 to 12bn.
Gates was scheduled to hold a series of meetings with Indian leaders before departing for Turkey today.
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Without mentioning China, Gates in earlier stops emphasised US interest in Australia and Indonesia assuming a larger security role in the region and the world in partnership with the US.
“One of the reasons we're having all these discussions about weapons procurement and joint training and exercises is that there is a fundamental commonality of interests between the US and these three democracies that we are visiting,” the senior defence official said.
William Cohen pushes Mideast arms deal
When Congress gets back to business in the new year, one of its priorities will be consideration of the Bush administration's request for a massive arms sale - in the neighborhood of $20 billion - to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.
Israel and Egypt also stand to gain billions more in U.S. weapons as part of the package Congress will review.
The proposed deal is controversial because of the Saudi component. Given the Saudi government's questionable record on fighting terrorism and curtailing terrorism financing, its funding of extremist wahabbist mosques, its supply of foreign fighters into Iraq and a judicial system that recently ordered 200 lashes for a rape victim, some in Congress don't believe the kingdom should be rewarded with top-of-the-line American weaponry.
Lantos Blocks Effort to Stop Saudi Arms Deal
An effort led by Jewish Democrats in Congress to block the Bush administration's planned sale of arms to Saudi Arabia is bound to fail because it is opposed by one of the top-ranked Jews in Congress.
Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) asked colleagues to sign on to a letter to Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, asking him to convene the committee to block the arms sale.
"Chairman Lantos does not intend to ask the committee to consider any resolutions of disapproval on this matter," Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weill said on Jan. 15 when asked about the letter.
The Bush administration formally announced the proposed $120 million sale of 900 Joint Direct Attack Munitions last Monday, the announcement timed for the Saudi leg of President Bush's Middle East tour. Congress has 30 days to reject the sale.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the sale brought to $11.5 billion proposed deals with Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. More sales could be in the offing, as Bush anticipated $20 billion when he announced the proposal last July.
Bush made the sale a centerpiece of his administration's efforts to create an alliance that would confront Iranian hegemony in the region and bolster his bid for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year's end. This agenda featured prominently in his eight-day trip to the region earlier this month.
The JDAMs -- components that add deadly accuracy to long-range missiles -- had been the most controversial element of the weapons sale.
The big three arms dealers
A new report produced by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), and published in Washington, has claimed that the United States is the world's principal arms supplier to the developing world. It is followed closely by Russia and Britain. But the CRS report said the US arms trade cooled slightly in 2006, shrinking from nearly $46 billion in 2005 to nearer US$40 billion.
Russia, the world's second biggest wholesaler of weapons raked in $8.7 billion from weapons sale in 2006, nearly 22 percent of the market and the UK came in third with $3.1 billion in sales. Earlier this year, Britain's Prime Minster Gordon Brown, declared that he would shut down the Defence Export Sales Organisation, which supports and promotes British weapons system overseas. Britain is also at the forefront of the push for a UN treaty regulating global arms trade that would limit sales to war areas and so-called tyrannical regimes. The US is yet to present its stance on the proposed treaty to the UN.
Saudi links traced to Hasan Ali
The Enforcement Directorate investigating Pune's billionaire horse breeder Hasan Ali have found Saudi links to him in the latest development.
Ali ha been so far been charged with alleged billion dollar frauds and also terror links.
Indian investigators claim to have found links between Ali and billionaire Saudi Arabian arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi.
Enforcement Directorate sources told NDTV that Ali has received millions of dollars from Khashoggi into his Swiss accounts.
Adnan Khashoggi transferred US $300 million from his Chase Manhattan Bank account in New York into Hassan Ali's United Bank of Switzerland account in Zurich.
The Swiss authorities froze the account saying that the ''Funds were from weapons sale.''
Ali and his close associate Kashinath Tapuriah then adopted different techniques to try and make this account operational.
The link to Khashoggi adds a new dimension to the investigation into Ali.
Khashoggi is known in India as one of those named in the Jain Commisison of enquiry into the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination and globally for brokering arms deals between the US and Saudi Arabia.
Investigators say that this only convinces them of Ali's wide range of operations and contacts.
At the moment much of their leads are based on growing evidence of Ali's massive holdings in Swiss accounts.
Documents available with the ED, which they seized in searches at Ali's residence show that one of Hassan Ali's Swiss accounts had US $560 dollars in 1997.
Two years later, the same account mysteriously increased to $969 million. Most of this money is lying as liquid cash and bonds
Along with his partner Kashinath Tapuriah, Ali allegedly opened two fictitious companies Autumn Holdings and Paysons in the Virgin Islands and laundered money to the tune of US $280 million.
Shockingly a year after he was raided, the US $8 billion man still roams free.
Our military gun merchants
The soldiers, commanders and generals who have been involved in the selling of arms and ammunition from the Nigerian Army Central Ordinance depot in Kaduna to the Niger Delta militants surely know that these arms will be turned against their own colleagues deployed to maintain peace in that sensitive area, and yet commit the act. To them, it was just another “business.”
But it was a most treasonable business. That it went on for so long undetected raises serious questions about the alertness of our army, and about the professionalism, dedication and commitment of our officers and men in uniform.
Their unconscionable actions have led to the escalation and prolongation of the Niger Delta conflict and to the mounting casualties of Nigerian soldiers and civilians in that part of the country. It has also led to significant economic losses to the nation in reduced oil production and export. They have thus not only sabotaged the country militarily, they have also sabotaged the economy. Their actions are definitely acts of high treason.
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We are familiar with the police selling their weapons to armed robbers for criminal operations, but now, the military have added another dimension to this criminal propensity of our nation generally, and all this can be attributed to the general level of greed and corruption in the society. These shocking actions by the police and the army are indeed very consistent with the criminal looting of our treasuries by those who lead and govern our nation.
Having set a general climate from the top, of corruption with impunity, all others simply follow their example by exploiting the opportunities within their areas of authority and responsibility to have their own share of corrupt money.
The president, governors and others in the high echelons of government have access to the treasury through inflated contracts awarded to their cronies and families, and make use of that access to enrich themselves. Policemen do not have such access, but at least have access to weapons which they too can sell to also enrich themselves. So also, the soldiers.
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