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posted by martyb on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the artful-dealing dept.

Ahead of the US president's visit to Saudi Arabia, a series of multi-billion-dollar arms deals have been outlined. The previous US administration suspended some supplies because of human rights concerns.

Deutsche Welle

When President Trump arrives in Riyadh this week, he will lay out his vision for a new regional security architecture White House officials call an “Arab NATO,” to guide the fight against terrorism and push back against Iran. As a cornerstone of the plan, Trump will also announce one of the largest arms-sales deals in history.

Behind the scenes, the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have been conducting extensive negotiations, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The discussions began shortly after the presidential election, when Mohammed, known in Washington as “MBS,” sent a delegation to meet with Kushner and other Trump officials at Trump Tower.

After years of disillusionment with the Obama administration, the Saudi leadership was eager to do business. “They were willing to make a bet on Trump and on America,” a senior White House official said.

[...] The most concrete part of the idea is a mammoth U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia that Trump will also announce in Riyadh. Final details are still being worked out, but officials said the package will include between $98 billion and $128 billion in arms sales. Over 10 years, total sales could reach $350 billion.

The sales include huge upgrades for the Saudi army and navy to include Littoral Combat Ships, THAAD missile defense systems, armored personnel carriers, missiles, bombs and munitions, officials said. Some of the production and assembly could be located in Saudi Arabia, boosting MBS’s project to build a Saudi domestic defense industrial capability. But most of the items would be built by American defense contractors.

The Washington Post

Additional coverage:

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @07:20PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @07:20PM (#512311)

    Each link goes to a different page.
    Both are by Medea Benjamin.
    Each contains 10 items but they differ slightly in content.

    intolerant religious authoritarians

    I am certain that if you are spending time on your knees and/or casting your eyes skyward as if a magical man is up there, that is a waste of time.

    Those attempts to communicate with mythical beings is only demonstrating how foolish you are to accept children's fables as a basis for your life but, as long as you aren't using your nonsensical belief system to hurt others, then no harm, no foul.

    The story of the Nazararean doesn't include any examples of that character saying "Build gaudy giant monuments to me" yet "his followers" do that quite often.
    Now, there -are- passages in that scripture that have him quoted as instructing his followers to see to the earthly needs of other humans, yet a vast majority of those folks who profess to be his people don't do that.

    ...then there's the "Prosperity Gospel" types who completely distort the content of the scripture that they claim to be their founding principles.

    ...and many of the ragheads' practices aren't called out in their holy book; those are tribal paternalistic/misogynistic patterns established even before their prophet delivered his nonsense.
    Again, some folks have allowed themselves to get stuck in the 7th Century.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 19 2017, @09:43PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Friday May 19 2017, @09:43PM (#512395) Journal

    That has to be the most verbose 'whoosh' I've read in a long time. Here, let me help: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf_Y4MbUCLY [youtube.com]