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Obama aids Egypt as it tries to buy U-boats
Daily Caller ^ | 09/10/2012 | Neil Munro

Posted on 09/12/2012 10:44:06 PM PDT by Qbert

President Barack Obama’s deputies are negotiating a $1 billion aid package with Egypt’s new Islamist government, even as Egypt’s cash-strapped military revealed that it is trying to buy $1 billion worth of German submarines that could threaten Israel’s fast-growing offshore energy projects.

The German government has pointedly declined to deny the incendiary revelation about Egypt’s request to buy the two submarines.

Instead, the German government offered vague support for Israel, which is facing renewed threats from Iran’s nuclear program and the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt.

“There has been no change in the German government’s position towards Israel, in the commitment the German government feels towards Israel’s security,” a spokesman for Germany’s chancellor told Der Speigel, a major German newspaper.

State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland did not respond to an inquiry by The Daily Caller.

The submarine purchase will likely be an issue in the U.S. election, because both parties are vying for support from a relatively large concentration of swing-voting Jewish Americans in Florida.

During the Democrats’ convention in Charlotte, for example, several speakers declared that Obama is a strong supporter of Israel’s defense.

“The Democratic platform reflects the president’s unflinching commitment to Israel’s security and future as a Jewish state,” former Rep. David Wexler declared Sept. 4. “To strengthen Israel’s qualitative military advantage, the president has increased security assistance to Israel to record levels — more than any other president,” he claimed.

Those declarations came after party leaders OK’d a platform document that did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Obama reversed the decision, and directed that Jerusalem be cited in the platform document.

Islamist groups, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in the United States, oppose any recognition of Israel and its capital city.

But the brotherhood’s hostility is constrained by its need to revive Egypt’s stalled economy and to feed its population of over 80 million.

The Islamist government recently won promises of aid from Arab countries, and hopes to complete the $1 billion loan-forgiveness deal with Obama’s deputies by the end of the year.

The U-boat controversy began Sept. 31 when Egypt’s leading newspaper, Al-Ahram, reported that the country’s chief naval officer, Osama al-Gindi, said “We have agreed to a deal with Germany to procure two submarines of the latest 209 Class.”

The Type 209 submarines are among the most advanced non-nuclear submarines available. They’re made in Germany, which has a long history of submarine production. In German, a submarine is called a “unterseeboot,” which is translated into English as u-boat.

The Type 209 submarines can stay underwater for lengthy periods, are sufficiently quiet to elude easy detection and can launch attacks without being identified. They can carry 14 torpedoes, mines or missiles that can sink ships or destroy oil rigs.

Israel has already bought six of the U-boats to protect its trade routes from future attack by any of the many Muslim-majority states around the Mediterranean Sea.

Three of the U-boats are in Israel already, where they also are being used to protect Israel’s network of offshore drilling rigs that are developing the nation’s newly discovered underwater reservoirs of oil and gas.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 209class; aidpackage; egypt; egyptianavy; foreignaid; islam; israel; muslimbrotherhood; obama; spendspendspend; submarines

1 posted on 09/12/2012 10:44:11 PM PDT by Qbert
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To: Qbert

A submarine that only costs 500 million? Is it for the bath tub?


2 posted on 09/12/2012 10:53:52 PM PDT by arrogantsob (The Disaster MUST Go. Sarah herself supports Romney.)
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To: arrogantsob

No, it’s deadly quiet, big and carries the ability to lauch torpedoes and cruise missiles. Some variants can operate submerged for up to two weeks.

These things are no joke, and with well trained crews are as dangerous as anything we face. The only good news is that Egyptian crews likely will never have anything like the experience the Germans, Americans, Israelis, or Russians have.


3 posted on 09/12/2012 11:01:39 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: DesertRhino

Our nuclear subs cost a lot more than 500 million. These are not nuclear, right.

Good practice for the Israelis. How long do you think these would last? A week, two?


4 posted on 09/12/2012 11:06:08 PM PDT by arrogantsob (The Disaster MUST Go. Sarah herself supports Romney.)
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To: Qbert
Obama Funds the Egyptian Government
A Muslim Brotherhood–controlled government gets $1.5 billion.

5 posted on 09/12/2012 11:08:31 PM PDT by South40
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To: Doohickey; SmithL

{{ping}}


6 posted on 09/12/2012 11:12:18 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (54 days)
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To: arrogantsob

They can be quieter than a nuclear boat. They can spend long amounts of time at sea, for example, you could sail one from there to NYC.
These are significantly less expensive than our nuke boats. But they’re are not some WWII diesel boat.

Having 2 of them, i would imagine that they would be the focus of intensive intel and tracking by the Israelis and us. The Israelis have te advantage of uing the same boat and knowing it intimately. I would guess that in any war launched by Egypt against israel, they would both be quickly sunk. And the israelis would ever say a word.

And the Egyptians would get bored and use them for something stupid like landing terrorists in rubber boats.


7 posted on 09/12/2012 11:20:21 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Qbert

With MB running Egypt, this is the best evidence yet that, given his druthers, 0bomba would have the US wage war against Israel. He’s buying the equipment that will be fired against our former ally by his fellow muslims.


8 posted on 09/13/2012 1:06:09 AM PDT by C210N ("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))
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To: Qbert

There is only one reason Egypt would need submarines and that is to kill Israelis.

A sensible president wouldn’t have anything to do with this deal but Obama is determined to build the new Islamic caliphate with stolen taxpayer money.

Our grandchildren and their children will be paying the bill for these submarines long after they are on the bottom of the Mediterranean.


9 posted on 09/13/2012 1:43:20 AM PDT by Iron Munro ("In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit." - Ayn Rand)
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To: Iron Munro

There sole goal of Obama-the-Undocumented-Moslem-Tyrant
is murder, rape and crucifixion of American and Israelis
and Christian Egyptians.

Never has such evil inhabited America and it is supported
by the majority of the silent, on-its-knees,
US Congress which is now antiSemitic
and antiAmerican and racist beyond anyone’s fathers’ dreams.


10 posted on 09/13/2012 4:02:24 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Vi veri veniversum vivus vici)
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To: Iron Munro
There is only one reason Egypt would need submarines and that is to kill Israelis.

Or put a really big hole in one of our ships and claim it was the Israelis that did it.

11 posted on 09/13/2012 4:05:56 AM PDT by USAF80
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

12 posted on 09/13/2012 5:30:53 AM PDT by SJackson (none of this suggests there are hostile feelings for the US in Egypt, Victoria Nuland, State Dept)
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