Oh, Goodie! More Money for the Defen$e Indu$try . . . .

From Reuters yesterday:

U.S. plans $7 billion missile-defense sale to UAE

Mon Sep 8, 2008 7:47pm EDT - By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is planning to sell the United Arab Emirates an advanced U.S. missile defense system valued at up to $7 billion that could be used to defend against Iran, people who have attended briefings on the matter said on Monday.

The Pentagon is set to notify the U.S. Congress of the proposed sale, which would be the first of the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, several people familiar with the matter said.

Something about this latest development in the ever-increasing oil for arms for money saga brings to mind the segment of Syriana between Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) and Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) in which Nasir is explaining how power plays out in the Middle-east:

Prince Nasir: "I studied at Oxford. I have a PHD from Georgetown. I want to create a parliament. I want to give women the right to vote. I want to create an independent Judiciary. I want to create a new petroleum exchange in the Middle-east and cut the speculators out of the business. Why are the major oil exchanges in New York and London anyway? I'll put all of our energy up for competitve bidding, I'll pipe through Iran to Europe like you proposed, I'll ship to China, anything that achieves efficiency and maximizes profits to my people, profits which I'll then use to rebuild my country."

Bryan: "That's great, that's exactly what you should do."

Prince Nasir: "Exactly, except your President calls my father, says, 'I've got unemployment in Texas, Kansas, Washington State.' One phone call later, we're stealing out of our social programs to buy overpriced airplanes. We owed the Americans, but we've repaid that debt."

Check out the DVD to see how the Prince makes out.

Hint: It's not a happy ending . . . .

Yup. He Did It . . . .

Looks like the decider-in-chief is going through with his increased militarization of the Mideast.

Compliments of Reuters:

Bush administration tells Congress of arms sale to Saudis
Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:07pm EST


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Monday it had notified Congress of plans to sell Saudi Arabia bomb-guidance kits as part of a multi-billion-dollar package of advanced arms to Gulf Arab states that officials see as countering growing Iranian military clout.

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The value of the JDAMs is about $120 million, he said. This is part of an overall package of arms proposed to be sold to Gulf states. The deals announced so far amount to about $11.5 billion, said McCormack.

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The official announcement kicks off a 30-day review period during which U.S. lawmakers could move to block the sale. A number of lawmakers have vowed to try and stop it.

The bomb-guidance kits proposed to be sold to Saudi Arabia are built by Boeing Co and turn unguided bombs into precision munitions with built-in satellite and motion-sensing navigation systems.

As discussed earlier, our Israeli buddies are not too happy with this decision.

Why do I have the feeling that our wonderful Congress will not do a damn thing to put this on ice? Way too much $$$ involved which translates into political contributions, don't you think?

The more things change . . . .

UPDATE #1: PBS' Newshour reported tonight that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated the Saudis deserved the equipment as they had been a great ally in the "war on terror" and were making excellent strides against terrorism.

So.

Just how in hell are bomb-dropping aircraft supposed to be used against the average terrorist?

Update #2: Here's a perk georgie got out of the deal. Must be great to be him, eh?

Unf'ingbelievable . . . .