♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Middle East,Security
at 8/29/2013 12:13:00 PM
I was watching Al Jazeera, designated the "real news" by Hillary Clinton, when I came across an interesting feature about how US military sales to Egypt were publicly disclosed by law. A little sleuthing brought me to the Department of Defense website. A Bing search (talk about irregularities in government procurement) brings us recent American "foreign military sales" to Egypt:Aircraft parts, anyone?
General Electric Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, (FA8604-13-D-7953) is being awarded a $9,148,074 requirements contract for contractor engineering and technical services support for the F-110-GE-100, J-85-21B engines and F-16 C/D aircraft. The locations of the performance are Dannelly Field, Ala.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Springfield, Ill.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Duluth, Minn.; Dover, Del.; Travis, Calif.; and Tinker, Okla. Work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/PZIEB, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Bahrain, Egypt and Israel.How about anti-aircraft system supplies?
Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors, Morristown N.J., is being awarded a $49,481,279 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for engineering, technical services and materials required for the resolution of obsolescence, reliability/maintainability issues, production/rework, testing, evaluation, installation and life cycle support functions for the Mk 92 Fire Control System. This contract will support foreign military sales (FMS) to Taiwan (40 percent), Egypt (24 percent), Poland (16 percent), Saudi Arabia (4 percent), Australia (0.4 percent), Turkey (0.2 percent), Spain (0.1 percent), Pakistan (0.1 percent) and Bahrain (0.1 percent).Other sources have tallied military aid to Egypt over the years alike CNN and NPR. The honest truth is that it is very hard for the United States to wash its hands off Egyptian military and police forces killing and maiming its own people. This life--I mean deathline has been extended for years and years. Why does the US take little action to punish Egypt aside from delaying more arms shipments or calling off joint exercises? Those are empty gestures. Aren't the Syrians doing exactly the same sort of thing, allegedly with other sorts of weapons? Either way they die--it's just that one country is using weapons proudly "Made in the USA" to do the deed.
As for US SecDef Chuck Hagel, part of allowing Egypt to sort out its own troubles is not supplying billions of dollars' worth of weaponry to one side (for a start).
