Posted on 01/29/2012 7:32:16 PM PST by Nachum
President Barack Obama's administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices that they will move forward with a new and different package of arms sales -- without any formal notification to the public.
The congressional offices that led the charge to oppose the original Bahrain arms sales package are upset that the State Department has decided to move forward with the new package. The opposition to Bahrain arms sales is led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), and also includes Senate Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee chairman Robert Casey (D-PA), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Wyden and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) have each introduced a resolution in their respective chambers to prevent the U.S. government from going through with the original sale, which would have included 44 armored, high-mobility Humvees and over 300 advanced missiles.
The State Department has not released details of the new sale, and Congress has not been notified through the regular process, which requires posting the information on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) website. The State Department simply briefed a few congressional offices and is going ahead with the new sale, arguing it didn't meet the threshold that would require more formal notifications and a public explanation.
At today's State Department press briefing, The Cable asked spokeswoman Victoria Nuland about the new sale. She acknowledged the new package but didn't have any details handy.
Our congressional sources said that State is using a legal loophole to avoid formally notifying Congress and the public about the new arms sale. The administration can sell anything to
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
Most OPEN administration in US history, WHAT A JOKE..!
Doesn’t this sound sorta.....KENYAN...? >_<
Czars up the ying-yang, won’t disclose WH visitor list, NCAA, machine-gun smuggling, now this.
What did I leave out?
Birth Certificate ...
College transcripts
List of former classmates, girlfriends
His way of paying for college
His attendance record at Trinity hate-whitey church
“Cole Bockenfeld, director of advocacy for the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), told The Cable on Friday that the new sale will be perceived by both the government of Bahrain and those in the opposition as a green light for the government to continue its repression.
“In the broader picture of the Arab Spring, this further erodes the credibility of U.S. rhetoric about democracy and human rights in the region,” he said. “Rewarding regimes that repress peaceful dissent with arms sales simply does not square with the administration’s rhetoric. The administration can no longer afford to endorse the status quo in Bahrain.”
Maryam al-Khawaja, the head of the foreign relations office at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, told The Cable on Friday that the sale of U.S. arms to the Bahraini regime sends the wrong message to the people of Bahrain, and the region in general.
“This message of ‘business as usual’ will only strengthen the regime’s belief that there will continue to be lack of consequences to their human rights violations internationally,” she said. “At a time when the United States is already being criticized for practicing double standards when it comes to the so-called Arab spring, to the protesters in Bahrain, the U.S. selling any arms to the government of Bahrain is exactly like Russia selling arms to Syria. Bahrain has become the United States’ test on how serious they are about standing against human rights violations, and they are failing miserably.”
barack hussein obama (intentionally not capitalized) loves selling arms to other powers. He’s got experience with that. (Fast & Furious).
OK, but is Bahrain considered a “power”?
I thought Bahrain was basically like Kuwait.
Enlighten me, please.
OK, nations. Not powers, but nations. As in Mexico (F&F).
Manama is the home port of the US Fifth fleet. There is also a causeway connecting Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. I have no problem selling arms to Bahrain.
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