From TPM:

Was the State Department involved in a shoddy and potentially illegal ammo shipment that led to the arrest of a 22-year-old Miami arms dealer last week?

That’s what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) now says. The House oversight committee says it has evidence that the U.S. embassy in Albania helped Albanian officials keep the allegedly illegal shipment of Chinese-made ammunition to Afghanistan under wraps and then failed to disclose that information when Waxman’s committee asked about it.

Last week we updated you about the arrest of Efraim Diveroli and three of his business partners with AEY Inc. Federal prosecutors say he violated the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits buying and selling weapons from certain countries, including China. The ammunition in question was obtained by AEY from an Albanian arms dealer.

Waxman’s new– and potentially explosive — evidence stems from an interview by the oversight committee of Army Maj. Larry Harrison, the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Albania. Harrison told the committee about a previously undisclosed November meeting that included Albanian officials and U.S. Ambassador John Withers and others from the U.S. embassy in Tirana.

Waxman describes Harrison’s account of the meeting in a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

From at-Largely: (a place I like to visit)

We know that there are a number of Saudi royals sympathetic to the Jihadi cause. We also know that many in the Saudi royal family fund terrorism in general and al Qaeda in particular. We know that the majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudi nationals - killing our troops. We know too that the majority of 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Yet, the US has continued to supply the Saudis with weapons, despite their role as being the world sponsor of terrorism. The latest is as follows:

“RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, trying to counter Iran’s growing military clout, made clear his commitment on Monday to go ahead with a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia as he began his first visit to the Islamic kingdom.

Just hours after his arrival in Riyadh, the U.S. administration said it notified Congress of its intention to offer the Saudis a controversial package of advanced weaponry as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with Gulf Arab allies.”

Sorry? If I recall we were fighting a war on terror and yet we are providing advanced weapons to the terrorists? How the hell is this not treason? Seriously, I want a Constitutional scholar to tell me how this is not treason. The Saudi regime may be Bush’s ally in the mythical war on terra, but they are no ally of the US, and they are certainly no ally of Israel or or India, or to any other democracy in the world.

Oh did I mention what types of weapons we will be handing to the Saudis? Our deal includes - sit down now - Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits.

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.
The Washington Post
cross posted at TRUTHOUT

Use of favored firms a common shortcut.

Under pressure from the White House and Congress to deliver a long-delayed plan last year, officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s counter-narcotics office took a shortcut that has become common at federal agencies: They hired help through a no-bid contract.

And the firm they hired showed them how to do it.

Scott Chronister, a senior official in the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement, reached out to a former colleague at a private consulting firm for advice. The consultant suggested that Chronister’s office could avoid competition and get the work done quickly under an arrangement in which the firm “approached the government with a ‘unique and innovative concept,’ ” documents and interviews show.

A contract worth up to $579,000 was awarded to the consultant’s firm in September.

Though small by government standards, the counter-narcotics contract illustrates the government’s steady move away from relying on competition to secure the best deals for products and services.

A recent congressional report estimated that federal spending on contracts awarded without “full and open” competition has tripled, to $207 billion, since 2000, with a $60 billion increase last year alone. The category includes deals in which officials take advantage of provisions allowing them to sidestep competition for speed and convenience and cases in which the government sharply limits the number of bidders or expands work under open-ended contracts.

Government auditors say the result is often higher prices for taxpayers and an undue reliance on a limited number of contractors.

“The rapid growth in no-bid and limited-competition contracts has made full and open competition the exception, not the rule,” according to the report, by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that in many cases, officials are simply choosing favored contractors as part of a “club mentality.”

read more HERE

Last month, Washington approved massive military-aid packages and arms sales to its Arab allies, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and a number of smaller Gulf States. But while U.S. officials say the deals aim to bolster the “forces of moderation” in the region, some local commentators see the move as an unnecessary - and dangerous - provocation.

“The arms deals represent a continuation of U.S. policy aimed at creating tension and polarizing the region,” Ahmed Thabet, professor of political science at Cairo University, told IPS.

On July 28, the Bush administration announced its intention of providing Egypt with a $13 billion military assistance package, to be paid out over the next 10 years. The deal comes within the framework of the Camp David peace accord, to which Egypt, along with Israel, has been a signatory since 1979.

The White House also announced its willingness to sell some $20 billion worth of advanced U.S. weapons systems to several Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Despite a degree of domestic opposition, the sales are expected to be approved by the U.S. Congress next month.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying that both the aid package and weapons sales reflected Washington’s commitment “to provide for the security of our allies.” She added that the deals were intended to “counter the negative influences of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran.”

Continue reading at Antiwar.com

Interesting, other nations are complaining that U.S. weapons are making their way into their countries and into the hands of anti-government militants. I have a feeling that was the plan to begin with. Iran is one of those countries.

PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — In a hidden corner of Rome’s busy Fiumicino Airport, police dug quietly through a traveler’s checked baggage, looking for smuggled drugs. What they found instead was a catalog of weapons, a clue to something bigger.

Their discovery led anti-Mafia investigators down a monthslong trail of telephone and e-mail intercepts, into the midst of a huge black-market transaction, as Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into the bloodbath of Iraq.

As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered.

For one thing, The Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command - a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.

Why these officials resorted to “black” channels and where the weapons were headed is unclear.

More at the Assoicated Press

Isn’t that grand? We sell weapons to all these countries so they can blow each other up and our arms manufacturers can make billions of dollars. What a deal!

When the United States sells state-of-the-art weapons systems to Arab nations, it invariably provides even more lethal and sophisticated arms to its steadfast ally, Israel, in order to help counter the firepower of its neighbors.

So, when Egypt gets the M60A3 and M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, Israel gets the TOW-2A and Hellfire antitank missiles to blow up the Egyptian vehicles - in the event of a military confrontation between the two countries currently wedded to the 1979 Camp David peace treaty.

Likewise, when the United States grudgingly provides McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, Israel is armed either with Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles or Hawk and Stinger surface-to-air missiles to bring down the US’supplied Saudi aircraft.

Every US government has ensured that no weapons sales to Arab nations would undermine Israel’s traditional “qualitative (military) advantage” over its perceived rivals.

Last week, the administration of President George W. Bush ran true to form when it announced its decision to simultaneously sell arms both to Israel and seven Arab nations: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The package, which is also expected to include one set of weapons to counter the other, includes equipment worth some 20 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf states, plus 30 billion dollars in military assistance to Israel, and 13 billion dollars in similar grants to Egypt, mostly for purchases of US-made weapons systems.

More at Antiwar.com

A bipartisan effort in Congress to stop a proposed multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia is gaining steam, and 114 lawmakers have now declared their opposition to the plan, which the Bush administration says would stabilize the Middle East.

Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) have gathered signatures for a letter to President Bush stressing members- opposition to the deal. Weiner and others released the letter at a Thursday press conference.

“If a sale containing weapons for Saudi Arabia is proposed to Congress under the Arms Export Act of 1976, we intend to stop it,” reads the letter to Bush.

Under the act, Congress is given 30 days to review any large arms package - such as the one being proposed between Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern allies, including Egypt and Israel - once lawmakers receive official notification from the administration. Congress could then offer a joint resolution of disapproval, which could block the deal.

While Ferguson was the lone Republican to support the effort earlier this week, the number of GOP lawmakers who vowed to take action has swollen to 18.

More at the Hill

Opposition to a massive military sale to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern allies from the United States picked up more steam Tuesday, when a Republican House member joined leading Democrats to block the deal in proposed legislation.

Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) gathered with members of the Democratic leadership as well as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) at a Tuesday press conference to condemn the deal.

“Fundamentally, they have not been an ally of the United States,” said Weiner, referring to Saudi Arabia.

Weiner and others are hoping to attract more support for their position by reaching across the aisle.

“There is significant Republican concern,” said Ferguson, the lone GOP member of the group. The New Jersey Republican said that he has had several conversations with members from his own party, who are concerned but holding back for now.

More at The Hill

I wonder how long they will be “friendly states.” We have to buy friendship with weapons. What’s wrong with that picture? Is this the pay off for supporting an attack on Iran?

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - The United States won no specific new promises of Arab help for struggling Iraq after a gathering Tuesday of several nations listed as recipients of an expanded aid and weapons package for friendly states in the region.

Iraq’s Arab neighbors repeated a general pledge to promote stability in Iraq, torn by more than four years of war and bitter sectarian divisions that have killed thousands and driven far more from their homes.

“I think we know what the obligations of the neighbors are,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, adding that Egypt and other U.S. allies are working to meet past promises of relief of Iraq’s heavy international debt, additional foreign aid and help tamping down violence inside Iraq.

More at Yahoo News

Germans aren’t too happy with the U.S. arms deals in the making.

From Spiegel:

German newspapers criticized the plan.

Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“By toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the United States indirectly strengthened Iran. Now the US is trying to curtail Iran’s power again. But this will only succeed if the USA, in addition to arming the neighboring states, rediscovers the other half of their old strategy — and conducts direct and comprehensive talks with Tehran.”

Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“Washington is once again resorting to the instrument of military cooperation and modern weapons sales to kill several birds with one stone: shore up Israel’s security, maintain established links with allies and not least to counter Iran’s bid to become the predominant power in the Gulf region.”

“America has been noticably quiet for a long time about promoting democracy, which used to be its miracle weapon against the malaise of an Islamic Arab world in which militant Islamism is fermenting.”

“Even if President Bush continues to believe in exporting democracy — his policy is geared towards achieving security and stability in the region in the classic way.”

Left-wing Berliner Zeitung writes:

“This is just the same political approach the US used after the Iranian revolution in 1979 when it armed neighboring Iraq under Saddam Hussein. This rearming didn’t just lead to a long and horrifying war with countless victims on both sides. It also made the dictator Saddam feel strong enough in 1991 to march into Kuwait sand oppose US interests. Bush surely must have learned this lesson: The autocrats ruling the rich oil states can’t be bossed around like the coup generals Washington used to back in Latin America.”

Left-wing Frankfurter Rundschau writes:

“Washington shifted the balance of power with its war in Iraq. Now it’s looking for ways to get the genie back in the bottle: Pushing back Iranian influence in the region is the new leitmotiv of US policy in the Middle East.

“The Bush Administration now thinks it has found a way: massive arms sales to Israel and those Arab regimes that Washington calls moderate. Anyone who believes an arms race in the Middle East is a clever strategy must have given up on alternative strategies. It’s the same kind of logic as trying to put out a fire by pouring oil onto it.”

Arms Arms and more arms. Just what the world needs. Israel is like the spoiled child. Well if Johnny got two new toys, I need to get 8 new toys because I’m better than Johnny. What Israel wants, Israel gets.
Israel and some of its supporters in Congress
We didn’t put you there to support Israel. Israel is not one of the states. We still have a gulf coast in shambles. How about you support rebuilding it?

The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to eventually total $20 billion at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.

The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous. Senior officials who described the package on Friday said they believed that the administration had resolved those concerns, in part by promising Israel $30.4 billion in military aid over the next decade, a significant increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.

But administration officials remained concerned that the size of the package and the advanced weaponry it contains, as well as broader concerns about Saudi Arabia’s role in Iraq, could prompt Saudi critics in Congress to oppose the package when Congress is formally notified about the deal this fall.

In talks about the package, the administration has not sought specific assurances from Saudi Arabia that it would be more supportive of the American effort in Iraq as a condition of receiving the arms package, the officials said.

More at the New York Times

H/T to Bur$atil for this post and for keeping us up to date on economic and financial news!!! Sounds alot like the politicians here. When in trouble, scream terror terror terror!!!

By David Leigh and Rob Evans
Guardian Unlimited