WPI Report-- US sells arms to world's most repressive regimes

[TexasLawyer]

Freedom and democracy on the march, I guess. Some VERY damning stuff here.

http://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?"

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[MuseRider]

1. What was it

Randi Rhodes said today? Something like "we don't negotiate with terrorists, we support them". PLEASE somebody who heard that correct me. It was a great line and now I have forgotten it.

[TexasLawyer]

2. U.S. warns Americans in Uzbekistan

Looks like all those weapons transfers to Uzbekistan haven't made Americans or Uzbeks much safer.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/11763934.htm

Sat, May. 28, 2005

U.S. warns Americans in Uzbekistan

VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

Associated Press


TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The United States warned its citizens Saturday of potential terror attacks against American targets in Uzbekistan following the recent deadly riots in the Central Asian nation - a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism. The State Department urged Americans in the country to "exercise extreme caution, including avoiding large crowds, celebrations, and places where Westerners generally congregate."

It cautioned U.S. citizens to limit unnecessary travel to the eastern city of Andijan, where the government said 173 people were killed when Uzbek troops put down a May 13 protest after militants seized a local prison and government headquarters. The U.S. government has "received information that terrorist groups may be planning attacks against U.S. interests in Uzbekistan in the near future," said the announcement posted on the U.S. Embassy Web site.

It said supporters of extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, al-Qaida, the Islamic Jihad Group and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement remain active in the region and could attack Americans.

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[meow2u3]

3. Randi Rhodes is right

The Bushies never met a dictator they didn't like--and that's her words!