WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is preparing to tell Congress next month it plans to sell Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbors billions of dollars in advanced arms as a counterweight to Iran, Syria and militant groups.
"We expect to make the formal notification of the initial sales soon," before Congress recesses next month, a State Department official familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
A so-called pre-notification clock started on Tuesday with word to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat pressing to block the most controversial proposed sale to Saudi Arabia.
At issue is a Boeing Co kit that turns unguided bombs into precision munitions -- a sale frowned on by Israel's backers in the U.S. Congress.
State Department officials have been consulting lawmakers in a drive to head off a potential drawn-out clash over these so-called Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs.
The coming sales may include Patriot anti-missile battery upgrades for several countries, plus a new class of shore- patrolling warships for Saudi Arabia's eastern fleet, according to retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, who held talks on the matter before stepping down in August as the Pentagon's top arms-sale official.
The warship piece "of the so-called package could run as high as $11 to $13 billion and take well over a decade before delivery of the last ship" of up to 12 vessels, he said in a telephone interview.
U.S. suppliers likely to benefit from the new round of Gulf arms deals include Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp, General
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1519551620071115?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews
2 comments:
Are more weapons needed in this area? When these weapons fall into the wrong hands other will accuse us of supplying terrorists, insurgents and the like, but we are quick to do it when some element has another countries weapon. Will this help the American economy........well weapontry has been our biggest export for years.
This deal was made before 2000 with the Saudis. Yes the Saudis did their part in the 9/11 attack for the GOP. Now you know why most of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have their own plan with their brothers from the Middle East. The Saudis only needed two things for their plan to work. A US President that was an idiot and a VP who was greedy. So the plan was to put Bush/Cheney is the White House. The Saudis have studied the Bush Family for many years and invested in the idiot Gerbil's failed businesses only for this day. As yourself why would a country give more money to an idiot, drunk, druggie and liar who has failed at every thing he's done. Yes for this day the plan is complete and notice how rich the Saudis have become during the Bush Administration. Two thumbs way up for the Saudis for the will thought out plan.
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