Transparency International has unveiled a damning report that highlights the hypocrisy of the Western and Russian military industrial complex: These nations have been found guilty of selling enormous quantities of weapons to 17 Middle Eastern and North African nations, fueling rampant corruption in these areas, and in turn has made these conflicts worse while boosting extremist terror.
Most of the 17 nations mentioned in the report are already well-known for their corruption. The countries mentioned are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Yemen, Iran and Lebanon.
Katherine Dixon, head of Transparency International’s Defense and Security Program notes that countries which are selling high-tech weaponry to these nations must be vigilant, or these weapons could make conflicts in the troubled regions worse. That assumes, of course, that this was not the intention of weapons-selling nations to begin with.
“This is one of the most unstable and conflict riven regions in the world,” Dixon said. “Over a quarter of the world’s most secretive defense spending is in the Middle East. Corruption puts international security at risk, as money and weapons can be diverted to fuel conflict.”
Although the military spending of the 17 nations accounts for just 135 billion dollars or 7.6% of total military spending in the world, their spending actually accounts for a whopping quarter of the world’s “opaque defense spending”, which is defined as:
“defense spending that is either not revealed or revealed in only highly aggregated form to a legislative committee.”
Or, in layman’s terms, weapons that get bought for very dodgy purposes that often have more to do with “genocide” than “defense”. This sort of spending is only getting worse: The Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have spent 71% more than they had a decade ago.
Saudi Arabia on its own is the poster child for this sort of activity, growing faster than any other nation in terms of military spending- from 2010 to 2015 it has increased spending by 17 percent.
Of the 17 nations, only Jordan and Tunisia publish their defense budgets, and only Tunisia has a parliamentary defense committee that was capable of questioning and examining defense spending. This lack of transparency to the public means that the arms deals made are more likely to benefit weapon-selling countries.
As expected, the share of arms deals is divided according to alliances. The Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative found that the three largest arms dealers between 2004 and 2014 were the US with 86.4 billion USD Russia with 70.9 billion USD and Germany with 21.5 billion USD; Russia was the main supplier to its major allies Iran and Syria, while also selling the most arms to Algeria and Yemen.
Germany was the main supplier of Tunisia, France supplied Morocco, Canada armed Libya and the US of A was the main supplier for everybody else.
“Seemingly bizarre,” according to the report, characterizes a large number of the purchase decisions made by these countries. Take Saudi Arabia, for example.
Its defense budget accounts for 30% of total government spending, partially explaining why 20% or more of the population lives in “crippling poverty” and the extraordinarily brutal punishments that get meted out for petty crimes like theft and even protest against the government which include removal of limbs, beheading and crucifixion.
One important reason why its defense budget takes up 30% of govt spending? It seems Saudi Arabia needs to buy duplicate weapons systems, such as both British Typhoon jets and American F-15 jets, in order to prop up its alliances with other nations. Running a single system would be more efficient, and less troublesome to maintain.
Another example of this insanity is Kuwait which has purchased too many Patriot missile batteries- it does not even have enough personnel trained in its use to operate all of them.
Iraq has more complicated problems, testament to its own inability to choose between super powers… its American jets can’t seem to cooperate with its Russian radar! This has apparently caused it to be unable to provide sufficient air support against ISIS- despite apparent US training and equipment that had cost the American tax payer 24 billion dollars.
Since 2007, the US has sent Yemen 500 million bucks worth of military aid. These weapons were given to different factions, creating a “perverse incentive” to keep the conflict going so that corrupt officials would get a cut of that US “aid”.
“There’s examples of planes and ships going missing that have been provided by the U.S.,” Dixon told The Intercept. “It feels pretty difficult to lose a ship and a plane.”
“Arms don’t disappear when militaries collapse,” Dixon said. “When the Houthi rebellion arrived in the capital, Sanaa, the armed forces were unable to respond effectively. Some of the weaponry currently in the hands of the Houthis was acquired straight from those elements of the Yemeni army which had received security equipment.”
Saudi Arabia and its allies have since responded to the Yemeni government’s lack of credibility by bombing the Yemeni People to help prop it up. 5000 people have been killed, and a Doctor’s Without Borders hospital struck.
“The Houthis were able to take over as quickly as they were because the population didn’t back the government — because it was a government that they didn’t see as acting in their interests,” Dixon said. “A government that doesn’t serve the public is a dangerous place to pour in weapons or assistance.” Yet pour weapons, and now bombs, into the country they did.
“If they haven’t got strong corruption controls, and they haven’t got strong oversight, then I think it’s hard to be sure what’s going to happen in the future to those weapons,” Dixon said.
Dixon believes that Western governments should examine the corruption in the arms trade if they truly wished to stop radicalization. In my opinion, they don’t, which explains why they won’t.
“Corruption is endemic within the arms trade, and that’s because of the individuals and companies involved,” he said. “As long as governments are profiting from the sales, they’re not likely to do anything.”
Sources: The Intercept, The Atlantic, Time
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The truth is Arabs have some good amount of cash in Arabian Swiss bank which is about 860 Billion dollars , the western world especially America needs this money by all means they only to get this money is to get cause crisis and sell weapons and make money of it
Funny how they left Israel out of the map.