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Old 10-12-2018, 11:25 AM
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Arrow Trump doubles down: He’s not stopping Saudi arms sales

Trump doubles down: He’s not stopping Saudi arms sales
By: Joe Gould 10-11-18
RE: https://www.defensenews.com/congress...di-arms-sales/

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump signaled for the second time in 24 hours he would oppose stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia even if its government was found to have murdered a Saudi journalist.

Trump said Thursday morning he wants answers amid reports the Saudi government is to blame in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But Trump said he wants to avoid a move that would send Riyadh to the U.S. defense industry’s competitors overseas.

“We don’t like it, not even a little bit. But whether or not we should stop $110 billion in this country knowing [Saudi Arabia has] four or five alternatives — two good alternatives? That would not be acceptable to me,” Trump said.

Thursday on Capitol Hill, lawmakers were discussing various tracks to punish Saudi Arabia if the allegations were founded ― by suspending arms sales, by cutting U.S. military aid to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen or by imposing sanctions — though some lawmakers expressed doubts Trump would follow through.

“Congress will not let this idly go by,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told reporters. “This is something that enrages people, as it should.”

Wary of disrupting ties with a longtime ally, or perhaps hemming in the president, Republicans mostly urged restraint. The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he would reserve judgement until the facts emerge. “This is obviously a very serious matter, and our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important," he said.

During an impromptu Oval Office press conference, Trump panned the idea of curbing arms sales. Doing that would derail the $110 billion package of proposed weapons sales to Riyadh that Trump announced on his first trip abroad as president.

“I would not be in favor stopping of a country spending $110 billion [in the U.S.], which is an all-time record, and letting Russia have that money, and letting China have that money,” Trump said.

“Because all [Riyadh’s] going to do is say, that’s OK, we don’t have to buy it from Boeing, we don’t have to buy it from Lockheed, we don’t have to buy it from Raytheon and all these great companies. We can buy it from Russia and China."

“So what good does that do us? There are other things we can do,” Trump said.

Trump said the U.S. is looking into Khashoggi’s disappearance, but seemed to downplay its significance.

“Again, this took place in Turkey. And to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen,” he said.

To some degree, the arms sales issue is already moot because the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has been holding up U.S. sales to Saudi Arabia for months under the Senate’s informal review process over questions about civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Corker and Menendez acknowledged Thursday that arms sales to Saudi Arabia were already effectively frozen and will not advance while the Khashoggi matter is unresolved.

“My only involvement with this is with one of the defense contractors, and I shared with him before this happened: ‘Please do not push to have any arms sales brought up right now because they will not pass [Congress], OK?'” Corker told reporters. “With this, I can assure you it will not happen for a while.”

Separately, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have vowed to force a votes on any Saudi arms sale the administration advances.

Murphy has said the Khashoggi matter makes the case U.S. military aid to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, which includes aerial refueling of Saudi aircraft. Paul plans to introduce a measure to cut all funding, training, advising, and any other coordination with the Saudi military until Khashoggi is returned alive.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said he plans to reintroduce a resolution invoking Congress’ war powers to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen civil war.

Sen. Lindsey Graham — a confidante of the president’s and chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations, and related programs — said he favors sanctioning Saudi government officials if they’re involved, but not ending military cooperation in Yemen.

“I would release the sanctions from hell,” Graham, R-S.C., told reporters. “These people lead opulent lifestyles, they care about their wallet.”

Sanctions seemed to have the most momentum as a next step. Corker and Menendez on Wednesday led 18 other senators (including Graham) to ask Trump to impose sanctions against anyone found responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance, even if that includes the leaders of Saudi Arabia.

They triggered the Global Magnitsky Act, which gives the president 120 days to decide whether to impose sanctions on any foreign person he determines sponsored or was involved with the journalist’s disappearance.

“If it turns out to be today what we think it is today, but don’t know, there will have to be significant sanctions placed at the highest levels,” Corker said.

Corker said that while there is a tight relationship between Trump and bin Salman, and Corker views bin Salman as an intellect and a visionary, the U.S. must seize the opportunity to send bin Salman a sharp message and do it now.

“He’s going to be around for 40 or 50 years,” Corker said of the 33-year-old crown prince. “If you let him get away with killing journalists in his thirties, it’s only going to get worse. It’s got to be nipped in the bud. It’s got to be severe, if they’ve done this.”

Menendez said similarly the sanctions must go as high as the evidence shows and that the U.S. must not sell out its values to maintain the status quo, even if it benefits the U.S. in other ways.

“It’s important to send a global message that this is not permitted,” Menendez said, adding: “Unless [Saudi Arabia] understands that you can’t have carte blanche and you have to be held to international standards, it may continue down that path."

Personal note 1: Can someone tell me why we sell our Weapons to other Countries? In many cases these weapons can end being resold by them to others - who in turn use our own weapons to fight against our people? Is it just the money we are after or?

Personal note 2: How about them Saudi's butchering one of their own - great custom why not just shoot him rather then torture him? I guess what goes around come around eventually - one of them could be next - ya never know?

Boats
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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  #2  
Old 10-12-2018, 11:32 AM
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Arrow Trump warns halting Saudi arms sales would hurt economy

Trump warns halting Saudi arms sales would hurt economy
By: Joe Gould 10-11-18
RE: https://www.defensenews.com/congress...-hurt-economy/

Personal note: The US Arms Dealers are making the money keeping our folks working hard on American made weapons that are then resold to 3rd world countries. Some of which are then used against our own troops! Is it just the money we're after or the fact that some of these may be used against our troops later by the buyer's in turn reselling our products later to others? Boats

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed reservations about halting U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist, warning such a move “would be hurting us.”

The Trump administration has strengthened U.S. relations with Riyadh, touting a $110 billion package of proposed weapons sales as a key economic achievement, but reports the Saudi government plotted the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Turkey has added pressure.

In a Wednesday night interview on Fox News, Trump said he would want to know what happened before committing to a response and expressed reluctance to halt arms sales to Riyadh, citing economic concerns.

“Well, I think that would be hurting us. We have jobs. We have a lot of things happening in this country. We have a country that's doing probably better economically than it's ever done before,” Trump said.

“Part of that is what we are doing with our defense systems, and everybody is wanting them, and frankly I think that would be a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country. I mean, you’re affecting us.”

On Trump’s first trip abroad as president, he visited Saudi Arabia and announced the massive arms sales package. U.S. ties have long been anchored by energy interests, counterterror cooperation and more recently U.S.-Saudi military cooperation in the Yemen civil war.

Since 2009, the executive branch has notified Congress of proposed foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia of major defense articles and services with a potential aggregate value of nearly $139 billion, according to a Congressional Research Service report. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia concluded arms sale agreements worth more than $65 billion, from fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2016.

Earlier Wednesday, Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and reviewed U.S. intelligence on the case, said it was likely that Khashoggi was killed the day he walked into the consulate. Whatever took place, Corker said, “there was Saudi involvement” and “everything points to them.”

More than 20 Republicans and Democratic senators on Wednesday instructed Trump to order a probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance under legislation that authorizes imposition of sanctions for perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross human rights violations.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy on Thursday called for the administration to cease military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, citing reports that Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Murphy is part of a growing call in Congress to check U.S. support — which includes aerial refueling and arms sales — amid reports Saudi airstrikes have killed civilians.

“The United States cannot be in a military partnership with a country that has this little concern for human life,” said Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The Saudis continue to claim that they aren’t targeting civilians inside Yemen, but how can we believe them when they apparently just hunted down and murdered an American resident whose only offense was writing critical articles about the Saudi royal family? This is the right time to suspend our military support for the disastrous bombing campaign in Yemen.”

Earlier in the week, Sen. Rand Paul, another member of the committee, called for a halt on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia until Khashoggi is found alive.

“To me, this is just one more reason why we should be very suspect about selling arms to the Saudis,” Paul, R-Ky., said in a Fox News interview. “If they have the ability and also the audacity to go into another country and kill a journalist, these aren’t the kind of people maybe that we want to be selling arms to.”

Paul also cited Saudi Arabia’s intervention in neighboring Yemen’s civil war.

“What you do have evidence of is that the Saudis have been bombing civilians in Yemen for over a year now,” he said. “I think [there’s] growing opposition to what the Saudis are doing in Yemen, and this just adds to it.”

About the writer of this article: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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