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| AP: Humvee & M113 near Pearl Roundabout |
Readers may remember that the kingdom of Bahrain used Saudi troops to help quash protesting citizens during the "Arab Spring" uprising
[photo]. But the oppressive character of the country's government does not stop the Obama administration from selling it advanced weaponry in secret. Fearful that public arms sales to Bahrain would met with widespread condemnation during an election cycle, the Obama State Department is using a legal loophole to secretly sell 44 armored Humvees and over 300 advanced missles (TOW) to Bahrain. A planned $53 million arms sale was blocked by congressional opposition. State did not release details of the new sale, but only briefed a few chosen congressional offices. The US government can sell less than $1 million in arms to a foreign government without listing the sale publicly on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency website. So the Obama administration is treating the transaction as multiple sales of under $1 million to avoid publicity or objections. State claims the weapons are only for "external defense" not for use against Bahrainis, But when the first sale was being processed a
video popped up on the Web showing the Bahraini military using US manufactured equipment (M113 personnel carriers) to suppress civilian dissent, making
a liar out of the State Department, again. An official of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights commented to the
Cable blog that selling arms to the Bahraini regime sends the wrong message to the whole Arab world and is exactly similar to Russia selling arms to Syria. He said, "Bahrain has become the United States' test on how serious they are about standing against human rights violations, and they are failing miserably." Congressional opponents of arms sales to Bahrain have introduced legislation in both chambers to prevent the secret sale being consummated.
