War profiteering around the imperium
balkanalysis.com
August 3, 2006
by Christopher Deliso
What It’s All About
As bombs somehow continue to kill and maim ordinary Lebanese and
Israeli civilians, an extraordinary article from Reuters has revealed
the bottom line about what forces are really at work behind America’s
laissez-faire attitude toward the Israeli war on Lebanon:
“The Bush administration spelled out plans yesterday to sell $4.6bn
of arms to moderate Arab states, including battle tanks worth as much
as $2.9bn to protect critical Saudi infrastructure.
“The announcement came two weeks after the administration said it
would sell Israel its latest supply of JP-8 aviation fuel valued at
up to $210m to help Israeli warplanes ‘keep peace and security in
the region.'”
Indeed, there’s nothing like “peace and security.” After all,
that’s what the whole ideological ferment now brewing among
neoconservatives is all about, right? To create nothing other than a
new and “democratic” Middle East through sustained warfare by proxy –
a plan now adopted by President Bush and Tony Blair, his evil little
helper elf from across the pond.
Fueling the Fire: Aid to Israel and the Arabs
Behind the democratic facade, of course, is sheer and simple greed:
the desire to maximize profit for the American weapons industry,
by fueling a regional arms race. America is now using the specter of
Israeli might to scare the hell out of its neighbors. Racketeering
on an epic scale, disguised by the occasional recourse to diplomacy,
is the ugly reality behind America’s Middle East policy.
The full facts recounted in the above article point to a specific
cause-and-effect relationship. Coming after its decision to rush
bunker-busting precision-guided bombs to Israel, the U.S. announcement
came as some mixture of a gesture of friendship, a consolation prize,
and a threat.
The upcoming sales are heavy on air power. According to Reuters,
$808 million of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter gunships would go to the
United Arab Emirates. Another $400 million of AH-64 Apache helicopters
are promised to the Saudis, while Bahrain would get a $252 million
consignment of Black Hawks.
Don’t worry that Arab ground forces might feel left out. They will
also have something to cheer about, thanks to the U.S. beneficence.
Steadfast ally Jordan, for example, is in line for up to $156 million
in upgrades for 1,000 of its M113A1 APCs. Saudi Arabia is to get 58
“older-generation” M1A1 Abrams tanks, which would then be modernized;
plus, the 315 Abrams tanks the kingdom already possesses “would be
improved with such things as air-conditioning and infrared sights
for the commanders as well as the gunners.” Finally, little Oman is
set to pick up $48 million of Javelin anti-tank missiles.
The tactic used with all these Arab lackey administrations is something
like this: go ahead, keep (some of) your oil billions, just keep
buying your security from us. Because we have Israel on a long,
long leash indeed…
And don’t the Arabs know it! A recent article from Foreign Policy
in Focus provides some statistics on U.S. military contributions
to Israel. In the decade between 1996-2005, Israel received $10.19
billion in U.S. weaponry and military equipment, “including more
than $8.58 billion through the Foreign Military Sales program,
and another $1.61 billion in Direct Commercial Sales.” Some $10.5
billion was received between 2001-2005 in Foreign Military Financing,
“the Pentagon’s biggest military aid program.” FMF could also stand
for “Fun Military Freebies,” because it describes a program devised
to give outright grants of very expensive military hardware.
The article goes on to note that “the aid figure is larger than the
arms transfer figure because it includes financing for major arms
agreements for which the equipment has yet to be fully delivered. The
most prominent of these deals is a $4.5 billion sale of 102 Lockheed
Martin F-16s to Israel.” Now, taking the new crisis into consideration,
U.S. military aid for Israel from 2001-2007 is set to amount to over
$19.5 billion. Yet there are concerns that by using its American-made
weaponry offensively, Israel is in violation of the law governing
military aid.
Confronted with such staggering figures, Arab regimes can do nothing
but try to rectify their security deficit by placating Uncle Sam
through suppliant foreign and domestic policies and hard-cash
purchases. As a recent IPS report put it, “armed mostly with
state-of-the-art U.S.-supplied fighter planes and combat helicopters,
the Israeli military is capable of matching a combination of all or
most of the armies in most Middle Eastern countries, including Iran,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.”
“Growth Markets”
It goes without saying, therefore, that the interests of politically
connected American arms dealers would definitely not be met by any
resolution of the Middle East armed conflicts. Thus the marked lack
of enthusiasm of American leaders for the proposal of UN chief Kofi
Annan and much of the rest of the world – an immediate cease-fire
between Israel and Hezbollah.
According to Reuters, the Arab aid deals are being masterminded by the
Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “which administers
U.S. government-to-government arms sales.” And the project’s prime
contractor would be the Land Systems business unit of Sterling Heights,
Mich.-based General Dynamics, a mammoth defense contractor that in
2005 spent almost $5 million on lobbying alone.
Since the “war on terror” began almost five years ago, firms such
as General Dynamics have enjoyed soaring profits and unprecedented
opportunities that “growth markets” such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and
now Lebanon have opened up for them. As the Arms Trade Resource Center
recounted in October 2004:
“[C]ontracts to the Pentagon’s top ten contractors jumped from $46
billion in 2001 to $80 billion in 2003, an increase of nearly 75%.
Halliburton’s contracts jumped more than nine times their 2001
levels by 2003, from $400 million to $3.9 billion. Northrop Grumman’s
contracts doubled, from $5.2 billion to $11.1 billion, over the same
time frame; and the nation’s largest weapons contractor, Lockheed
Martin, saw a 50% increase, from $14.7 billion to $21.9 billion.”
Falling Into the Wrong Hands?
Putting aside for a moment the major moral objections and economic
ramifications of such “aid,” there are two other concerns regarding
this deadly profligacy. First, since terrorist attacks and other
militant challenges have been witnessed in several of the countries
on the U.S. recipient list, one marvels at the wisdom of loading up
unstable Arab states with high-tech American weaponry – states which,
at present, have no foreign power to fear except, potentially, Israel.
Really, is anyone going to attack Oman? The government there probably
won’t need anti-tank missiles. Yet these are just the kind of toys
prized by insurgents and terrorists, of which the neighborhood has
many. What if corrupt elements in the armed forces of these “moderate”
Arab regimes decide to go freelance, selling to the highest bidder?
Further, an even more unsettling thought would be the complete
collapse of any of these countries’ governments under the weight
of a popular revolt. “Moderate” Arab leaders have made themselves
increasingly despised among the masses for allying with an America
that is allowing Israel to kill fellow Muslims in Lebanon, even
as it abets internecine warfare and kills Muslims in Iraq. As one
young and generally pro-Western Arab put it, “so many of us are just
waiting for a new leader in Egypt, who will stand up to Israel and
the Americans – Egypt is the only country that can save us!” While
Egypt has pledged to stay on the sidelines and not get involved,
how would the U.S. react if such a large and vital country (which
also receives plenty of U.S. military aid) were to undergo a coup
d’etat that brought militant anti-Israeli factions to power?
Such a hypothetical concern does not even need to be realized for the
American “military aid” to be dangerous enough already. As the British
also know, American experts concede that it is basically impossible
to guarantee the final destination of not only the military hardware
but also, and perhaps more importantly, the knowledge needed to make
it. The hemorrhaging of sensitive weapons-design information often is
due to espionage, aided by corruption in high places and expedited
by fraudulent end-user licenses. Yet this is just one of the ways
that foreign regimes get their hands on cutting-edge American weapons
technologies.
Outsourcing Everything
There are simpler, more direct methods too. The same corporate greed
that necessitates endless wars in the first place has also willingly
allowed these technologies to go “offshore.” Industry giant General
Dynamics, for example, in the late 1980s sold Turkey 160 F-16 fighter
planes – and gladly accepted that government’s contractual stipulation
that the planes be mostly assembled in Turkey. Not only did the
company save money by hiring cheap foreign labor, it also gave the
buyer know-how for developing their own independent and competing
arms industry in the future.
This pattern has been repeated in many countries since. A more recent
example is of another deal between Turkey and a different company –
AM General of Indiana, for decades lavished with untold millions to
make the celebrated Humvee; this of course is the iconic APC that
has all too often proven vulnerable to insurgent bombs in Iraq,
with lethal results for American soldiers.
Now AM’s longtime foreign collaborator, Otokar, “the leading brand” in
Turkey’s defense contracting industry and a subsidiary of the nation’s
biggest company (Koc Holdings), is making a fortune exporting their
own homemade variety of the Humvee, the Cobra, to neighboring Arab
countries. Although the company does not disclose exactly which ones,
the visit last June of Bahrain’s minister of internal affairs to the
Otokar plant, a month before the company announced its largest-ever
order from abroad ($88.4 million for 600 vehicles) seems wonderfully
coincidental. (It is thus notable, perhaps, that Bahrain is going to
be receiving air, not ground, equipment according to the Pentagon’s
latest military aid announcement.)
According to Otokar, the Cobra was “a joint development with AM
General of USA [which] utilizes many common parts with HMMWV [the
Humvee].” In other words, American technology was shared with the
foreign company, leading to domestic production in Turkey, and finally
the establishment of a competitive Turkish defense industry. In May,
the Otokar general manager was happy to announce that “in 2005, we
increased our export by 230 percent and accomplished an 85 percent
growth in defense industry vehicles.”
As with the fighter plane deal and countless others, more jobs in
America were lost. So much for that great argument of those who defend
the weapons industry’s culture of death by arguing that at least it
helps save American industry.
Case Studies: the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus
There are other aspects of the U.S. defense industry in general and the
U.S.-Israeli relationship in particular, exacerbated by the present
conflict, that have contributed to making the world a more dangerous
place. U.S. oversight legislation (ignored, in Israel’s case) has it
that nations violating human rights and going on offensives should
not receive American weapons; Israel, being entitled to everything,
has thus become a conduit for interested third parties. As former
CIA officer Philip Giraldi stated about the Israeli-Turkish alliance
in a recent Balkanalysis.com interview, “the so-called ‘friendly’
relationship between the two countries is very narrowly focused. It is
largely the Turkish Army’s General Staff that keeps the relationship
going, because it provides access to U.S. military assistance and
weapons that would otherwise be embargoed.”
Yet the Muslim Turkish population is naturally opposed to Israeli
suppression of their fellow Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon. The
outcry against the current war being felt in Turkey (among many other
places) can only feed into the inherent tensions between a secular
military and an Islamic-leaning government and population. Usually,
whenever such challenges to the secular order arise, the result is
vividly manifested in military crackdowns against the Kurds and
military provocations against Greece. The former option has the
possibility to directly affect U.S. interests in northern Iraq,
while the latter could have fateful repercussions for Turkey’s EU
bid and the always dangerous discord over Cyprus (which, by the way,
has suffered from the war already due to a very costly refugee influx).
Nevertheless, the U.S. will no doubt continue arming both sides in the
Greek-Turkish conflict, as it always has, resulting in ever greater
profits for the Washington lobbyists representing the two countries’
interests and the defense contractors who stock their arsenals.
The same danger of a regional arms race is being witnessed in a
nearby region, the Caucasus. Azerbaijan, itself a strong American
and Turkish ally and pivotal export hub for Caspian Sea oil and gas,
has also seen the light and publicly voiced its desire to deepen ties
with Israel. Funny that Azerbaijan, boosted by oil riches but still
not entirely immune to human rights violations itself, is at the
same time involved in an unprecedented military buildup for possible
offensive action against Armenia, to recover the disputed province
of Nagorno-Karabakh that lies between the two Caucasus states.
Nearby, in Georgia, nationalist President Mikhail Saakashvili is
again moving toward war to recover his own breakaway provinces,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which have sought support from
Russia. As an American client state receiving millions in military
aid and advice, Georgia is regarded as the front line in containing
Russia in the Caucasus, and also an energy corridor for the $3-billion
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline that commences in Azerbaijan and
concludes in Turkey. Like Saudi Arabia, whose new military aid from
the U.S. is earmarked for protecting “critical infrastructure’ (i.e.,
Western oil interests), U.S. military aid in the Caucasus will no
doubt go toward protecting the pipeline.
Another Path
The same dynamic is in place all around the world, everywhere that
money can be made on exporting the instruments of death. All things
considered, it would seem obvious that journalists might ask government
officials just why their stated devotion to peace and stability has
to go hand in hand with ever greater arms buildups. Yet all too often,
they don’t.
President Bush and his officials talk about building a sustainable,
lasting peace in a new and reshaped Middle East. They talk
optimistically about a “final status” for Kosovo that will respect
and guarantee the rights of embattled minorities. They talk about
resolving the Caucasus frozen conflicts to everyone’s benefit. They
plead for peace and stability between the Greeks and Turks, between
Indians and Pakistanis, even as they keep loading up their arsenals
with increasingly deadly weapons. And so it goes, all around the world.
Despite the rhetoric, there is one thing every U.S. administration
has never tried to do in any of these conflicts. It is something that
leaders have never been able to do, for reasons of their own political
survival: to make peace through peaceful means, without even a word
being spoken about arms sales. Is this really too much to ask?

His Holiness Aram I Appeal for Immediate Ceasefire
ArmRadio.am
03.08.2006 13:25
Speaking to the press after the meeting of the spiritual Heads of
the Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon, His Holiness Aram I,
the head of the Armenian Orthodox Community said: “This is the true
Lebanon; this togetherness of Muslim and Christian Spiritual leaders
concretely manifest the real image of Lebanon. This very meeting by
itself is a living message. It is a message of the crucial importance
of coexistence; it is a message of peace with justice; it is a message
of compassion tolerance and mutual respect. In fact, violence is
not the way to solve problems. Dialogue, mutual understanding and
compromise based on justice and peace for all, is the most efficient
way of dealing with complex issues and situations”.
Referring to the meeting of religious Heads, His Holiness Aram I said:
“Together with one voice in our joint declaration we appealed for
immediate ceasefire and cessation of all hostilities. We expressed our
full support to all actions and initiatives taken by the government
of Lebanon. We emphasized the importance of the expansion of the
state’s authority over all the territories of Lebanon. It is our
firm expectation that international community and particularly the
United Nations will act decisively to stop violence and help Lebanon
to recover itself”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Community In Rostov Condemns Church Desecration
ArmRadio.am
03.08.2006 13:31
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders condemned the desecration
of Holy Cross Armenian Church in Rostov, Russia, and an attempt to
burn down the Russian-Armenian friendship situated inside the church.
Unknown assailants Monday reportedly desecrated the temple and tried to
burn it. Failing to enter the church they broke and burnt the windows
and sprayed the slogans “white justice has come” and “Russia is for
Russians” on the church walls.
A meeting was held Tuesday at the Armenian Consulate General in
the Southern Russian, during which Consul General Ararat Gomtsian
condemned the act of vandalism and read a message directed to the town
and provincial authorities, as well as to law-enforcement bodies. The
message demands that the persons responsible for this be found and
punished.
The Russian-Armenian Yerkramas newspaper reported that the director of
the Rostov regional monuments protection agency Alexander Kozhin said
“the desecration of historic monuments is terrible.” He added that
the Holy Cross Church was the only architectural monument in Rostov
that date back to the 18th century, Armenpress reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Prime Minister Margarian meet Platini
ArmRadio.am
03.08.2006 14:03
Legendary football player Michel Platini, Vice-President of the French
Football Federation, member of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees,
is in Yerevan on an official visits. Today Armenian Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian received the guest.
The visit is takeing place by the invitation of Ruben Hayrapetian,
President of the Football Federation of Armenia. In the frameworks
of the visit Platitni yesterday took part in a number of festive
opening ceremonies of two football fields in Avan and Kanaker-Zeytun
communities of Yerevan. To be reminded Armenia is taking part
in a UEFA development program and is to receive 1 million Swiss
franks. A condition for receiving the grant is opening as minimum
40 minor football fields with artificial grass. Michel Platini is
also supposed to meet with representatives of state institutions and
social organizations of Armenia, Arminfo reported.

Turk-Israeli Friendship Group on verge of dissolution
ArmRadio.am
03.08.2006 14:43
The Turkish-Israeli Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group has come to
the brink of dissolution, with members resigning one by one in protest
of Israel’s military assaults in Palestinian territories and Lebanon,
Turkish Daily News reported.
Opposition Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) Hatay deputy Zuheyir Amber
resigned from the 263-member parliamentary group yesterday, bringing
the number of deputies who have stepped down from the group to
25. Amber, who is also deputy leader of ANAVATAN, applied to the
Parliamentary Speaker’s Office yesterday to submit his resignation.
“It is not possible to accept what Israel has done. … I condemn
Israel and resign from the friendship group,” Amber said in
his resignation. Amber also said he believed that international
friendship groups played effective roles in contributing to peace,
human rights and respect
“I had earlier said I would not resign from the Turkish-Israeli
Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group as I thought it would be healthier
to prevent what was being done by remaining within the group,” he said.
Amber said Israel’s non-stop attacks targeting unprotected civilians
and children without recognizing the law and without any respect for
human rights caused him to change his mind.
“The merciless killing of almost 60 innocent civilians and children
in the [southern Lebanese] town of Qana was the last straw,” he said,
noting that the bombing of Lebanon’s fuel stores and petrol stations
by Israel had caused an environmental disaster that could spread to the
Mediterranean.”Those facts caused me to resign from the Turkish-Israeli
Friendship Group,” he said.

Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity key for Karabakh issue – community leader
ANS TV, Baku
3 Aug 06
If Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is ensured, then the country
will be satisfied with any other conditions, Nizami Bahmanov, head
of the Azerbaijani community of Nagornyy Karabakh, has said in his
comments on the latest proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
He said that previously there were discussions around the [Lacin]
corridor, but now the issue of corridor cannot be a topic of
discussions. The talk is about the functional [as heard] road of
Agdam-Xankandi-Susa-Lacin-Gorus. This is the road which will be used
by both Armenians and Azerbaijanis there.
As for the option of a stage-by-stage solution, the latest stage
can concern granting a status. Commenting on the liberation of the
occupied districts, he said that the liberation of Lacin and Kalbacar
districts at the latest stage is a possibility. Asked to what extent
it is correct to station peace-keepers before determining Nagornyy
Karabakh’s status, Bahmanov said that peacekeepers could be deployed
only after the occupation of the territories is over.
The community leader believes that the key problem for resolution of
the Nagornyy Karabakh issue is that the mediators themselves cannot
come to an agreement. In his view, the co-chairs often come up with
new ideas.

SENATOR TO VOTE AGAINST BUSH’S AMBASSADOR NOMINEE FOR ARMENIA BECAUSE OF GENOCIDE POSITION
AP Worldstream; Aug 02, 2006
FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman said Wednesday he will vote against
President George W. Bush’s selection to become the next ambassador
to Armenia because the nominee refuses to describe the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
According to the Armenian National Committee of America, Coleman
is the first senator to say publicly that he will vote against the
nomination of Ambassador-designate Richard E. Hoagland. Several other
senators have expressed misgivings.
“My problem isn’t with Hoagland,” Coleman, a member of Bush’s
Republican Party, said in a telephone interview. “I continue to be
troubled by our policy that refuses to recognize what was a historical
reality.”
The Bush administration does not question that Turkish troops killed
or drove from their homes 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915 but
has omitted the word genocide to describe it.
Turkey strongly objects to the use of the word genocide, and U.S.
policy-makers are wary of antagonizing an important strategic NATO
ally.
On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Coleman
serves, postponed a vote on Hoagland’s nomination until next month. The
committee has 10 Republican members and eight Democrats.
Elizabeth Chouldjian, a spokeswoman for the Armenian committee,
said nine of the 18 have misgivings over the Hoagland nomination.
“We welcome Mr. Coleman’s action, because quite frankly, it’s a
question of effectiveness for a U.S. ambassador,” she said. “Is
it effective for an ambassador to Armenia to deny the Armenian
genocide? It is effective for him to be taken seriously as a diplomat
in Armenia? The answer is no.”
“As someone of the Jewish faith, I bring a heightened sensitivity
to the reality of genocide and mass murder and the importance of
recognizing it for what it is,” Coleman said.
“I was brought up believing you never forget the Holocaust, never
forget what happened. And I could not imagine how our ambassador
to Israel could have any effectiveness if he couldn’t recognize
the Holocaust.”
In May, the White House announced the recall of the current ambassador
to Armenia, John Evans, two years into the normal three-year diplomatic
term. Last year, Evans told Armenian-Americans, “The Armenian genocide
was the first genocide of the 20th century.”
Sixty members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice protesting that Evans was being
punished for his reference to “genocide.” In a separate letter,
Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts
demanded an explanation from Rice for Evans’ recall.
“It absolutely was cut short because of that,” Coleman said,
referring to Evans’ use of the word genocide. “That I also found to
be troubling. Evans was a
good ambassador.
“To me, it’s almost bizarre diplospeak that you have barred our
ambassadors from using a single word; that in effect you had the
removal of an ambassador who used that single word, genocide, even
though it’s true.”
Asked whether Evans was recalled for using the word genocide, State
Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez would only say, “U.S. ambassadors
serve at the pleasure of the president.”
At a Foreign Relations Committee hearing in June, senators failed to
get Hoagland to use the word genocide.
“I have not received any kind of written instruction about this,”
Hoagland said at that hearing. “I simply have studied the president’s
policy. I’ve studied the background papers on the policy. And my
responsibility is to support the president.”

AZERI GENERAL CONSUL CONCERNED ABOUT STATEMENT OF HEAD OF KARS
ADMINISTRATION ABOUTING UNBLOCKING BORDERS WITH ARMENIA
Yerevan, August 2. ArmInfo. The Turkish-Armenian borders may be
unblocked under three conditions only. APA informed that Hasan
Zeinalov, General consul of Azerbaijan to Kars, stated about this.
“The borders may be unblocked only, Armenia should renounce the issue
of the Armenian Genocide, give up territorial claims from Turkey and
leave the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” Zeinalov said. He added
that there are forces in Turkey that are interested in unblocking the
border with Armenia. “I state once again that the issue of unblocking
the borders is neither in the plenipotentiaries of the head of regional
administration, nor in the rights of the interested forces,” he said.
It’s worth mentioning that Alibekoghlu, head of Kars administration,
emphasized the importance of opening borders with Armenia in the
interview to “Turkish Daily News” newspaper. He said this will help
export the Turkish goods to the Middle East and Far East by a cheap
and reliable path.

“CILICIA” ARMENIAN VESSEL SHIP CONTINUES ITS NAVIGATION DOWN RIVERS OF RUSSIA
Yerevan, August 2. ArmInfo. “Cilicia” Armenian vessel ship continues
its navigation down the rivers of Russia.
Armen Nazarian, participant of the voyage, informed ArmInfo that that
the vessel-ship sails down the numerous sluices of the Volga-Baltic
channel and will head for the Upper Sheksana river thought the
Black Sea.

CILICIA VESSEL ARRIVING IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.08.2006 13:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cilicia vessel, made in Armenia according to XIII
century drafts, is arriving in Nizhny Novgorod today. The ship is an
exact copy of the vessel, on which Cilician seafarers navigated in
XI-XIII centuries. Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister
of the Armenian Embassy in Russia Ashot Manukyan is arriving to meet
the crew.
The vessel has followed the route Venice-Amsterdam, having doubled
Spain and France, visited Saint Petersburg. The voyage in Russia is
the final stage of the way, devoted to the official declaration of
the Year of Armenia in Russia.