Free Republic

Evidence suggests some of the weapons used by Hamas in a bloody attack on southern Israel earlier this month likely came from North Korea. While Pyongyang has repeatedly denied supplying the terrorist group with weapons, expert analysis along with a trove of evidence that includes video as well as munitions seized by Israel, suggests otherwise. At the heart of the controversy is the F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon fighters typically use against armored vehicles. An image published by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack features members of the terrorist organization wielding a rocket-propelled grenade with a distinctive red stripe...

Soldiers, sailors and pilots should sell British-made weapons to help boost exports, according to the defence industry association. Having military staff who actually use the systems advising potential customers would increase the chances of securing foreign sales, according to ADS, which represents the country’s aerospace, defence and security businesses. Speaking as the Government prepares its defence review, which will set out military priorities, and France’s Rafale fighter landed a series of export deals that the Eurofighter Typhoon – in which BAE Systems is a partner – missed out on, ADS chief executive Paul Everitt said the industry needs formal support...

Japan is hosting its first ever international defense industry trade exhibition and conference, further emphasizing the government’s sharp departure from a 70-year self-imposed ban on the export of defense-related equipment by Japanese firms as well as collaborations with foreign defense companies. […] Firms from the United States are much in evidence, inevitable given Japan’s close security alliance with its Pacific partner, but a number of German companies are testing the waters of a new and potentially lucrative market. […] Not all of Japan’s neighbors have welcomed what they claim is a return to the aggressive nationalism of the early decades...

AUSTRALIA is quietly exporting dozens of missiles to other countries to try to recoup some of the $200 million it has wasted on them in botched military purchases. The Australian Defence Force has sold 30 anti-ship Penguin missiles to Brazil via Norway, several to New Zealand and two Popeye air-to-surface missiles to South Korea since the start of last year. The sales have been conducted without publicity, in part, because they are an embarrassing reminder of failed defence protects that have cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion. The sale of any missile is highly unusual for Australia, which is an...

NEW DELHI: The US has overtaken Russia as the largest arms supplier to India in the last three years. But in terms of overall numbers, Russia still remains the biggest weapons exporter to India, having notched military sales worth over $40 billion since the first MiG-21 jets and T-55 tanks in the 1960s to the present-day Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and T-90S main-battle tanks. Russia, of course, is now running scared of the aggressive inroads being made by the US into the money-spinning Indian arms market, as if the continuing challenge from France and Israel was not enough. India, incidentally, has even...

Your guns are in danger. Obama has stopped defending the Second Amendment. He did not get his gun control agenda passed in the Senate. So, he’s unconstitutionally trying to use the United Nations to control your guns. Don’t let him. Obama is getting dangerously close to signing the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. If he signs this treaty and the Senate ratifies it, the Second Amendment is toast. And your guns will be in the control of dictators around the world. This sounds like a bad movie or a conspiracy theory, and I wish it were. But it’s real. 130...

The Second Amendment got attacked this week from three sides, leaving gun owners scrambling to find safe ground. While President Obama has lost momentum for federal gun-control laws, he has picked up victories with his allies in blue states and at the United Nations. After Thursday, Connecticut should consider changing its state nickname from the “Constitution State” to the “Unconstitutional State” after Gov. Dannel Malloy signed an extremely restrictive gun-control law. The bill passed the state House Thursday morning and the Senate on Wednesday. Before the Newtown tragedy, the Brady Campaign determined that Connecticut was the fifth highest-rated state for...

UN members were presented on Wednesday with a final draft on a proposed Arms Trade Treaty, an attempt to instill some level of control into a largely unregulated industry. After nine days of touchy talks, the president of the negotiating conference, Australian diplomat Peter Woolcott, laid down his final attempt at compromise. “I will not consider any further amendments. It is ‘take it or leave’,” Woolcott told the conference at the UN’s New York headquarters. … The text would cover all cross-border trade in conventional weapons like tanks, combat aircraft, missiles and launchers, warships and some light weapons. The negotiators...

S.Amdt. 139 to S.Con.Res. 8 To uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. YEAs 53 NAYs 46 Not Voting 1

Shortly after Hugo Chávez won his first election as Venezuelan president in December 1998, a lawyer from the western state of Barinas, which was then governed by Chávez's father, delivered a prescient warning to Newsweek magazine: "Venezuelans are dreaming of a savior, but Chávez is a dictator. People don't know what they are getting."  More than 14 years later, a cancer-stricken Chávez is reportedly near death, but his autocratic legacy is very much alive. Venezuela long ago ceased to be a real democracy: The ruling regime effectively controls the Supreme Court (which in 2004 was expanded and packed with Chávez allies), the National Assembly...

In July, the Obama State Department approved an extraordinary license for a newly formed U.S.-based organization, the Syrian Support Group, to raise money for Syrian rebels – overriding the administration’s own sanctions and Obama’s Executive Order against such activity. To some counterterrorism and terror finance authorities in Washington D.C., this extremely rare privilege raises considerable concerns. This is especially true because two related figures with the organization, Louay Safi and Mazen Asbahi, have previously been tied to terror fundraising efforts by Islamic organizations identified by the U.S. government in federal court as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. One U.S. Treasury...

"We need answers on this. Not defensive BS. Real answers." In email exchanges with subordinates in February and March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder and the department's second-highest official expressed growing concern that something might have gone wrong in a federal gun-smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious. Two of Holder's emails and one by Deputy Attorney General James Cole were among documents the Justice Department showed Tuesday to Republican and Democratic staffers of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee in an effort to ward off a criminal contempt vote against the attorney general. The full contents of the...

$60bn in defence deals expected to lift Saudi economy Ivan Gale Last Updated: Nov 20, 2010 Boeing, which has orders for Apache helicopters, above, Little Bird helicopters and F-15s will shoulder most of the offset burden. AFP Defence firms selected to provide Saudi Arabia with up to US$60 billion (Dh220.35bn) in arms and military aircraft will generate more than $20bn in economic benefits throughout the kingdom's economy in return. The boost will come via the nation's offset rules, which require the contractors to help build ventures in other sectors of the economy. Saudi Arabia's five planned economic cities, including the...

Well, only a few months after Russia decided not to sell the advanced S-300 surface to air missile system to Iran, spinsters in Tehran are touting a homegrown version of that very missile. From the AP: Iran has successfully tested a newly developed air defense missile system during the country’s biggest ever air defense drill, the country’s military announced Thursday. Iran’s state television said the test was Tehran’s response to Moscow’s refusal to deliver the advanced Russian S-300 air defense system amid U.N. and international sanctions on the country. Gen. Hamid Arjangi, a spokesman for the five-day exercise, said the...

'Weapons of War' Germany Considers Loosening Arms Export Controls REUTERS "Eurofighter," "Leopard," Submarine Class 214: Germany is the third largest weapons exporter in the world, despite restrictive guidelines. Now the federal government wants to make arms sales abroad even easier to make up for defense budget cuts at home. It all started with the French. Years ago, the Defense Ministry in Paris presented an official plan promoting arms exports. The German response? Self-imposed limits. Arms exports should be "restrictive," according to the "Federal Arms Exports Guidelines" from the year 2000. The situation hasn't changed much since. In a recent issue...

Booming Business Germany Now World's Third Largest Arms Exporter German arms exports more than doubled during the last five years, according to a new report, placing the country behind just the US and Russia on the list of the world's largest weaponry exporters. The opposition in Berlin wants more oversight. When it comes to arms exports, few will be surprised that the US tops the list, with 30 percent of global expenditures on arms going to weaponry from America. Second place is likewise hardly a shocker -- 23 percent of the world's weapons originate in Russia. Third place, though, is...

The UN, appalled at the ethnic slaughter going on in Sudan (in the south and the west/Darfur) has put an embargo on weapons shipments to Sudan. Everyone agrees this is a splendid idea, and agrees to abide. Yet Sudan, and various rebel groups, continue to get weapons, and other military equipment. And it's no secret who's supplying the stuff. China ships weapons to the Sudanese government, and denies it. Ukraine appears to be the main supplier of weapons to Sudanese rebels in western and southern Sudan. These are shipped in through Eritrea (for Darfur) and Kenya (for southern Sudan.) It...

India's defence diplomacy: Many forces at work Jyoti Malhotra/New Delhi - Feb 15,2010 00:35 AM Six companies from five countries are competing to sell India military hardware, and the winners will indicate the directions of India's strategic vision. As India contemplates the dawn of a new decade, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must watch with satisfaction the glints in the eyes of foreign nations as they salivate over the $100 billion defence market that India will offer over the next seven to 10 years. The biggest jewel in this star-studded constellation of high-tech avionics, gargantuan platforms and generation next weaponry is...

US arms cartel cranking up its presence in Indian weapons bazaar 7 Feb 2010, 0531 hrs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks Some months before Bob Dylan wrote these lines about the US weapons industry in the song Masters of War, outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower coined the term ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ in his 1961 farewell address. He cautioned...

U.S. Defense Exports Still Dominate Market Dec 2, 2009 Robert Wall/Dubai, UAE China, France and Russia are increasingly aggressive in courting customers for their military products, but it is the U.S. that is raking in the big dollars — and increasingly so. What’s more, the U.S.’s improving relationship with India could signal that record high levels of military exports are not just an aberration but are sustainable. This prospect would bring relief to U.S. defense companies, which face the possibility of shrinking modernization projects when Washington starts focusing on cutting its massive budget deficit. A decade ago, the U.S. booked...