http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE27Aa03.html May 27, 2005
More arms for US's 'friends' By Thalif Deen NEW YORK - The United States has accelerated arms sales to some of the world's most repressive and undemocratic regimes since September 11, 2001, according to a new report from leading arms trade researchers. The report, from the Arms Trade Resource Center at New York-based New School University's World Policy Institute, says the increase in sales and military grants is a payoff to countries that have either joined what the White House calls its "war on terror" or have backed the United States in its military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. A majority of US arms sales to the developing world also go to regimes "defined as undemocratic by our own State Department" or Foreign Ministry, says the study. According to the report, US-supplied arms are involved in a majority of the world's active conflicts, including those in Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Colombia, Pakistan, Israel and the Philippines. The study cites the recent decision by the administration of President George W Bush to provide new F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan, while pledging comparable high-tech military hardware to India - thereby providing US arms to both sides in a long-brewing conflict among two nuclear-armed rivals. Moreover, the tens of millions of dollars in US arms transfers to Uzbekistan - where many anti-government demonstrators were killed recently - "exemplify the negative consequences of arming repressive regimes", it says. According to the study, countries defined as "undemocratic" in the State Department's annual human-rights report are also major recipients of US military aid or weapons systems. These include: Saudi Arabia (US$1.1 billion in 2003), Egypt ($1 billion), Kuwait ($153 million), the United Arab Emirates ($110 million), and Uzbekistan ($33 million). "Arming repressive regimes while simultaneously proclaiming a campaign against tyranny undermines the credibility of the United States and makes it harder to hold other nations to high standards of conduct on human rights and other key issues," said Frida Berrigan, co-author of the study, "US Weapons at War 2005: Promoting Freedom or Fueling Conflict?" The largest US military aid program - labeled Foreign Military Financing (FMF) - increased by as much as 68% from 2001 to 2003, rising from $3.5 billion to nearly $6 billion. Under FMF, recipient nations get outright US grants on condition these funds are used only for the purchase of US weapons systems, thereby ploughing the money back into the multi-billion-dollar US defense industry. The only two countries that are exceptions to the rule are Israel and Egypt, close US allies who are permitted to use FMF funds to buy weapons from their domestic armaments industries, according to the US Defense Department. The biggest FMF increases went to countries engaged as US allies in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These included Jordan (a $525 million increase from 2001 to 2003), Afghanistan ($191 million increase), Pakistan ($224 million increase), and Bahrain ($90 million increase). All of the increases, both in arms sales and FMF, were in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Two dozen nations, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Uruguay, either became first-time recipients of FMF during this period or were restored to the program after long absences. As a result, the number of countries receiving FMF assistance increased from 48 to 71 between 2001 and 2005 - a 47.9% increase. Natalie J Goldring, executive director of the security studies program at the School of Foreign Service at Washington-based Georgetown University, said the Bush administration had failed to demonstrate any link between open-ended weapons transfers and success in fighting terrorists. "This report indicates that the opposite may well be the case. By lifting controls over weapons transfers, we are more likely to increase the risks of these weapons falling into our adversaries' hands," Goldring told Inter Press Service. She said US law prohibits weapons transfers to countries that systematically abuse the rights of their citizens. Enforcing these laws would produce dramatic improvements in the US's arms transfer policy - but the Bush administration has failed to do so, Goldring added. Berrigan of the World Policy Institute said that no single policy is more at odds with Bush's pledge to "end tyranny in our world" than the US role as the world's leading arms exporting nation. "Although arms sales are often justified on the basis of their purported benefits - from securing access to overseas military facilities to rewarding coalition partners - these alleged benefits come at a high price," she said. According to the study, in times of crisis, such as the tsunami that killed more than 300,000 people, the US public has been very generous. "And they assume their government is as well. While the United States doles out billions of dollars in foreign aid every year, Washington tends to favor military aid and weapons sales over other forms of aid, de-prioritizing humanitarian, health and development aid, even though these types of foreign aid have long-term constructive impact," the study says. The Bush administration's arms trade policies mirror the those of 30 years ago, when then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger traveled the world, "treating arms transfers as if they were party favors," Goldring said. "These policies are short-sighted and may well create the very threats they are intended to combat." Weapons manufacturers, meanwhile, are profiting from an upsurge in contracts to produce US-supplied weapons, Goldring said. "But these transfers place current and future US military personnel at risk of attacks from American weapons that have fallen into the wrong hands. Once transferred, we have little control over these weapons." (Inter Press Service) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Dying to be thin? Anorexia. Narrated by Julianne Moore . http://us.click.yahoo.com/FLQ_sC/gsnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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