"Congress Likely to OK Saudi Arms Deal" HUH? But..but...but I thought 15 of the 19 911 terrorists

[in_cog_ni_to]

were from Saudi Arabia???? :crazy: Have I lost my mind or does this just prove their 911 story is bullshit?


Congress Likely to OK Saudi Arms Deal

Saudi King Abdullah, right, examines the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit on P...
By MATTHEW LEE and ANNE FLAHERTY, AP
13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led Congress is unlikely to block U.S. plans to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns from some members that the systems could be used against Israel.

The Bush administration on Monday notified Congress of its intent to sell the bomb-delivery systems as part of a multibillion-dollar arms package to bolster the defense of U.S. allies in the Gulf.

Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, does not intend to consider a resolution of disapproval, said spokeswoman Lynne Weil. Otherwise, Lantos declined to comment.

The arms deal creates a dilemma for lawmakers, especially for Democrats eager to challenge President Bush's handling of foreign policy. At the same time, they see Saudi Arabia's cooperation as crucial to the war on terror and in deterring aggression from Iran.

"We need to be convinced that the sale makes sense militarily and ensure that it in no way harms our security or those of our allies," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We must also make certain that the administration does not just try to use a few arms sales to substitute for the comprehensive, coherent strategy we need for the region."<snip>

http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/general/2008/01/11/US.Saudi.Arms.Sales/

REMEMBER THESE PEOPLE???

The hijackers

Main article: Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks


v • d • e
Attacks by al-Qaeda
1st WTC – PR Flight 434 – 1st Khobar – African embassies – USS Cole – Rizal Day – 2nd WTC/Pentagon/Shanksville – Ghriba – Limburg – Mombasa – Riyadh – Casablanca – Istanbul – Madrid – 2nd Khobar – Sinai – 1st London – 2nd London – Sharm el-Sheikh – Amman – Dahab
Other Al-Qaeda-connected attacks:
Iraq – Algeria

Nineteen men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.<71>

The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. In sharp contrast to the standard profile of suicide bombers, the hijackers were well-educated, mature adults, whose belief systems were fully formed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks

[msongs]

1. wonder how ObamaHillary will vote nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. That should be interesting. If they were smart, they'd both vote NO.

But what do I know?:(

[lovuian]

3. Yes I want to see that vote

it shall be interesting

[pinto]

4. I think it has nothing to do with 9/11. Military support for the Saudi's

has been a given for a long while. We ply the Middle East with money and arms. As does most of the West. "Diplomacy" is an increasingly thin cover for all our gambits.

[blonndee]

5. "unlikely to block" = "unlikely to do what's right" = "unlikely to do their JOBS."

Chickenshits!!!

[greyl]

6. I think there are better reasons than that one to disapprove of the deal.

Every country has at least 15 dangerous assholes in it, don't ya think? ;)

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. For sure, but the reasons given for blowing up the ME and killing millions of people is: 911...911..

911....terrorists...terrorists....terrorists. No? So we're selling them MORE arms? It's INSANE what they're doing and NO ONE is questioning it. It's all so bizarre!

[greyl]

8. That's true.

Maybe someday they'll figure out how to profit by providing health assurance instead.
I'm a Helen Caldicott admirer, and I condemn the whole pathological weapons industry from the ground up.

[HamdenRice]

18. No

There is credible evidence that the elites of Saudi Arabia, including elites within their government, were involved in financing or otherwise supporting the 9/11 attacks.

That means that this is a sale of sophisticated arms to a government that is likely complicit in an act of terrorism and mass murder against Americans, and therefore may be an unfriendly government.

That's different from selling arms to a government whose citizenry just happens to include 15 crazed terrorists or even to a government whose citizenry contains 15 crazed terrorists who committed mass murder and terrorism against Americans.

See the difference?

[Adsos Letter]

9. Hush...hush, now...

...Big Brother knows what is best for you...

[doc03]

10. Just why does Saudi Arabia need $123 million

worth of sophisticated precision-bomb technology? Who the hell are they going to bomb anyway other than maybe Israel? So now we will have to (give) $246 million worth of sophisticated precision-bomb technology to Israel to protect themselves from Saudi Arabia. This is one area where I think Ron Paul is 110% right, this is just insane.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are Bush-friendly. Iraq's oil is now theirs. Iran is next.

They need weapons to maintain control of the oil and the populations around the oil if for some reason the US troops have to come home.

And to defend themselves if Iran turn their weapons against them and/or their allies.

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. It's a vicious circle, isn't it? The poor Military Industrial Complex. However will they

be able make so much weaponry? It's a hardship, I know.

[BeHereNow]

12. STOP THINKING dammit!

Return to your television set immediately!
Take some prozac for heaven's sake!

How dare you think!

BHN

[VotesForWomen]

13. Treason. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I can't remember where I heard just yesterday

that 40% or so of the foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudis. This deal just doesn't make sense.

[maddezmom]

16. it's all about the OIL

Saudi pledge follows Bush call for oil price action by Laurent Lozano
1 hour, 21 minutes ago



RIYADH (AFP) - US President George W. Bush urged oil producers on Tuesday to take action over near record-high prices, prompting his Saudi hosts to vow to increase output when justified by the market.

Bush, facing recession fears at home after prices surged to a record 100 dollars at the start of the year, raised the sensitive issue on the second day of a visit to OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia -- the world's largest oil producer.

He said he planned to discuss with King Abdullah "the fact that oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy."

"And that I would hope, as OPEC considers different production levels, that they understand that if their -- one of their biggest consumers' economy suffers -- it will mean less purchases, less oil and gas sold."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080115/ts_afp/mideastusdiplomacy_080115132409;_ylt=AtIeDqX_dRA6XeTRCTyrPmiQOrgF

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. Isn't it always about the oil? What will they do when the oil is GONE? I can't wait to see.

:(

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. I do not believe that there has been any evidence tying 9/11 to the Saudi GOVERNMENT

[HamdenRice]

20. Oh no?

Have you been following the CIA interrogation tape destruction scandal?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner/the-cias-destroyed-inter_b_75850.html

Gerald Posner

The CIA's Destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 Connection

...

Hayden did not disclose one of the al Qaeda suspects whose tapes were destroyed. But he did identify the other. It was Abu Zubaydah, the top ranking terror suspect when he was tracked and captured in Pakistan in 2003. In September 2006, at a press conference in which he defended American interrogation techniques, President Bush also mentioned Abu Zubaydah by name. Bush acknowledged that Zubaydah, who was wounded when captured, did not initially cooperate with his interrogators, but that eventually when he did talk, his information was, according to Bush, "quite important."

In my 2003 New York Times bestseller, Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, I discussed Abu Zubaydah at length in Chapter 19, "The Interrogation." There I set forth how Zubaydah initially refused to help his American captors. Also, disclosed was how U.S. intelligence established a so-called "fake flag" operation, in which the wounded Zubaydah was transferred to Afghanistan under the ruse that he had actually been turned over to the Saudis. The Saudis had him on a wanted list, and the Americans believed that Zubaydah, fearful of torture and death at the hands of the Saudis, would start talking when confronted by U.S. agents playing the role of Saudi intelligence officers.

Instead, when confronted by his "Saudi" interrogators, Zubaydah showed no fear. Instead, according to the two U.S. intelligence sources that provided me the details, he seemed relieved. The man who had been reluctant to even confirm his identity to his U.S. captors, suddenly talked animatedly. He was happy to see them, he said, because he feared the Americans would kill him. He then asked his interrogators to call a senior member of the Saudi royal family. And Zubaydah provided a private home number and a cell phone number from memory. "He will tell you what to do," Zubaydah assured them

That man was Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, one of King Fahd's nephews, and the chairman of the largest Saudi publishing empire. Later, American investigators would determine that Prince Ahmed had been in the U.S. on 9/11.

...

It was at that point that some of the secrets of 9/11 came pouring out. In a short monologue, that one investigator told me was the "Rosetta Stone" of 9/11, Zubaydah laid out details of how he and the al Qaeda hierarchy had been supported at high levels inside the Saudi and Pakistan governments.

He named two other Saudi princes, and also the chief of Pakistan's air force, as his major contacts. Moreover, he stunned his interrogators, by charging that two of the men, the King's nephew, and the Pakistani Air Force chief, knew a major terror operation was planned for America on 9/11.

[walldude]

21. Greg Palast's book Armed Madhouse had a section on

How Al-Quaeda had posted on their website that the reason for the 9/11 attack was that they wanted the U.S. troops removed from the "Holy Land" (Saudi Arabia) Bush capitulated to that demand, and now he's going to sell them weapons. Can some freeper come in here and tell me exactly how Republicans are making the world safe from terrorists? Is it by capitulation or by giving them bigger and better weapons? And I'm not even going to bring up the 200 lashes that our wonderful Saudi friends were going to give as punishment to a gang-rape victim yeah these are people who need and deserve our help. Goddammit I'm getting tired of being embarrassed.