U.S.-Pakistani Fighter Jet Deal Up in the Air

[cosmicone]

http://www.armscontrol.org/aca/midmonth/2004/October/F16.asp

U.S. and Pakistani officials are denying claims by a senior Pakistani military commander that Washington is about to fulfill Islamabad’s long-stymied and controversial quest for advanced American combat aircraft.

Pakistani Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat told reporters in September that the United States would soon meet Pakistan’s 15-year-old push for F-16 fighters, providing at least 18 of the planes. In a subsequent interview with Jane’s Defence Weekly, Saadat said the transfers would probably be announced after next month’s U.S. presidential election.

Saadat appears alone in his certainty. Several Americans and Pakistanis, including government representatives of both countries, told Arms Control Today that they were not aware of any ongoing negotiations or said no agreement had been reached.

If such an agreement were reached it would end an impasse that began in 1990 when the U.S. government stopped a shipment of 28 F-16s to Pakistan in accordance with a U.S. law—known as the Pressler amendment (after former Republican Sen. Larry Pressler of South Dakota)—proscribing military exports to Islamabad if it was suspected of possessing a “nuclear explosive device.” Pakistan later publicly confirmed its possession of such a capability by responding to May 1998 nuclear tests by India with blasts of its own.

</snip>

If the chimp gets elected, he will sell the most advanced fighters to Pakistani military dictatorship and threaten his own puppet regime in Afghanistan as well as a newly emerging ally - India. These jets are more likely to be used against friendly countries and perhaps against US forces than against terrorists. If Pakistanis cannot capture Osama in their own country with ground forces, F-16s are not going to help capture him.

The chimp is making the world more and more dangerous.

[acmavm]

1. Gotta hand it to the chimp, there's not a treaty, constitutional amendment

or basic rule of human ethics that they guys not ready, willing, and if Kerry doesn't win, able to take a dump on.

The man is a menace to all life on earth. Doesn't this simple fact make itself more apparent with each passing day? He is simply evil incarnate. I know that he's not alone in this, that his whole administration is full of criminals pardoned by Nixon or Reagan, liars, theives, spies, and all round thugs. But for whatever's sake, these are the amoral bastards that he's drug into our government with him.

Don't believe the denials. This sounds like a typical chimp deal if I've ever heard one. And the big question: who benefits? Who makes the most money on this horrible horrible scheme?????????????????