Posted on May 21, 2017
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https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3727674/ABA-CHR-Assessment-of-Arms-Sales-to-Saudi-Arabia.pdf

UPDATE: So the total reaches $380 billion over the coming decade. Doesn't anyone on this website question either the legality or the wisdom of pouring so many weapons including very high technology weapons into the powderkeg of the middle east??? What kind of arms race are we stimulating among the middle eastern countries that are openly oppressive and can afford to buy massive arms stockpiles? Who is ultimately going to use these weapons when it is difficult to get Saudi citizens to bother to obtain an education or go to work? Certainly, the president will be using these and other weapons deals to bring far more riches to our domestic military industrial complex - and add a significant number of jobs to our economy. But, do we want to pledge our lives to making a living being the arsenal of an extremely repressive and dangerous exclusively male dominated authoritarian regime that cruelly deprives fundamental human rights, deeply discriminates against, and openly abuses women, dissidents (even ordinary reporters), and foreign workers. I would argue these guys are entirely consistent with the oppressive and exploitive thoughts, desires, speech, and manner of the president - but this is rather too obvious to belabor the point. Suffice it to say once $380 billion in weapons are introduced into the region there is absolutely nothing to prevent the regime from continuing to attack civilian and humanitarian targets in neighboring countries - and to redistribute these weapons at its discretion to countries inimical to our and our allies interests in the region. What if even a tiny fraction of these unprecedentedly massive weapon purchases end up in the hands of the kind of a Saudi terrorists or Saudi inspired terrorists who perpetrated 911 attacks? Something is very wrong with the president's foreign policy here - perhaps because he has no appreciation for the deeply violent history of the region and the effects of pouring so many weapons into what will inevitably become a powderkeg of arms escalation - involving not only the united states but numerous other countries keen to make a buck until the region destabilizes - and perhaps even open warfare breaks out among middle eastern states of diametrically opposed aspirations.

The American Bar Association opinion is that the Saudi's are in violation of laws restricting the use of American weapons to military targets. Evidence strongly suggests Saudi's intentionally targeted civilian humanitarian targets. Could the new agreement publically inked by Trump and Saudi King further erode the Trump defense against impeachment for high crimes violating our congressional federal arms export control & military munitions technology export control laws?

Perhaps there are good reasons US-Saudi sales were historically paltry and only once exceeded $10B per year - before Trump jumped in this year to sell off at wholesale some $110B in more sophisticated tactical and strategic military assets. What has changed to modify our sales limits?
Edited 7 y ago
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Responses: 34
CPT Jack Durish
4a428838
Please, people. Stop, just stop, before you give yourself a heart attack. Now I know you're going to defend yourself by saying "But these are lawyers. They know the law." Well, being an expert in the law doesn't make you judge, jury and executioner. American legal practice is a system of advocacy. Lawyers are advocates. This is why a lawyer can defend the guilty. It's not their job to determine guilt or innocence. It's their job to advocate for their clients. Lawyers who espouse ideological positions are doing the same thing. They are advocating. It doesn't make them right or wrong. It merely makes them Right or Left.
CPT Jack Durish
CPT Jack Durish
7 y
LTC Orlando Illi - Let not facts get in the way of a good hate...
SSG Michael Eastes
SSG Michael Eastes
7 y
The Saudis have allied themselves with us against Iran. As much as I dislike Saudi policies on many subjects, I prefer them to the Persians. Why no outcry when previous administrations sold them arms? As noted by Ltc Illi above, it is hardly a new policy.
CPT Jack Durish
CPT Jack Durish
7 y
SSG Michael Eastes - Not to put too fine a point on it, Persians practiced Zoroastrianism - they worshiped fire. As a matter of fact, just ask a Shiite Muslim if he still worships fire and see what sort of response you get. Those Iranians who claim to be Persians are no more Persian than an American is an American who worships at the altar of the Left. It's sad that we didn't stand with the Persians when they rebelled against the Sunni Muslim clerics and military leaders. Why didn't we? You'll have to ask President Obama...
SSG Michael Eastes
SSG Michael Eastes
7 y
I call them Persians out of a sense of history; they have long been striving to be THE power in the region. It also helps to remind me, a person with no experience in the Middle East beyond a trip to Israel, to remember that these particular Muslims are an entirely different ethnic category from their Arab, African, and Asian coreligionists. I do realize that they are as far removed from ancient Persians as I am from ancient Germanic/Celtic groups.
LTC Orlando Illi
Well Sandy I was a Military Advisor to the Saudi Arabian Army. We sold them a great deal of hardware - from F15 Eagles - to Tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers
SSG Robert Webster
SSG Robert Webster
7 y
SP5 Christine Conley - When did this actual fund get started and who sits on its board? Interesting that it is a World Bank project and neither of the individuals mentioned Ivanka or Melania sit on its board either. Get your fact straight.
I do not see a single Trump on any of these boards of the World Bank - http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/leadership/managers
http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/leadership/governors
http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/leadership/directors
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/CORP_EXT_Content/IFC_External_Corporate_Site/About+IFC_New/Leadership (NO TRUMP here either)

Ivanka Trump is in discussions with the World Bank about setting up a fund that would pool resources from G-20 countries to support female entrepreneurs, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
“This is not an Ivanka Trump fund,” said Jamie Gorelick, her lawyer at law firm WilmerHale. “It is a World Bank project that she thinks is a great idea, but she will neither solicit for it nor will she have any operational role.”
The International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, has funded women entrepreneurs before. In 2014, it started a $600 million fund, the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility. That effort was done together with the 10,000 Women program, a project of the charitable arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. aimed at providing training and access to capital for women starting small and medium-sized enterprises. The effort was overseen by Dina Powell, who was head of the Goldman Sachs Foundation before joining the Trump administration.
Kim, the World Bank president, released a statement Wednesday saying the organization is working on the initiative, and he thanked Ivanka Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for their leadership on the issues.
SSG Robert Webster
SSG Robert Webster
7 y
SP5 Christine Conley - Yes you did when you said hostages and Iran Contra as part of the same subject. As in trading arms for hostages.

Ronald Reagan - First Inauguration 20 January 1981 - While the inauguration was taking place, the 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran were released.

Iran-Contra Affair - Started 1983 after Lebanese Hezbollah started kidnapping people as insurance "against retaliation by the U.S., Syria or any other force" against Hezbollah, for the killing of over 300 Americans in the Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut.

Get your facts straight. Don't believe me go see your local college or university History Professor.
SSG Robert Webster
SSG Robert Webster
7 y
SP5 Christine Conley - No shit!
SMSgt Keith Klug
SMSgt Keith Klug
7 y
SP5 Christine Conley - Come on don't get caught up in the Liberal crap. It was given to the World Bank, not a charity run by Ivanka Trump. As stated earlier, don't let facts get in the way of a great off base rant.
LTC Orlando Illi
Edited 7 y ago
I also escorted a member of the Royal Family from Riyadh to TACOM to initiate talks on purchasing M1 Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles in 1989. This opinion is at best frivolous and more than likely fatuous.
SPC Erich Guenther
SPC Erich Guenther
7 y
Did you read the part in the report where the lawyers say "We inferred they were targeting......." "We backed up our inference by......." Jeeeeeeeessssssuuuuuussss. If I said that as a Infantryman in any one of my old units....I would have been on my way out of the Army with a boot in my azz. You either know what is going on or you don't in a matter like this. The lawyers in the report admit that their evidence is based entirely on them guessing and that is it.

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