"I'm sick and tired of being ashamed of my own country..."
You spoke too soon, Bob. Donald Trump has just declared "Eternal War"
on Afghanistan. And just to put a bit of frosting on his cake, he's
off to Arizona where, among other proclamations, he is being urged to
grant a pardon to former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Isn't there a message here? Pardon Joe Arpaio, when true American
heroes languish in dungeons? When brave outspoken men and women have
the government's wrath come down on their heads for calling the
government on its underhanded, secrecy.
Are we American working people really going to stand back and allow
our pockets be picked, and our dignity trashed?
Carl Jarvis
On 8/22/17, Bob Hachey <bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wow!
This kind of nonsense raises both corruption and war monguering to a whole
new level.
I'm sick and tired of being ashamed of my own country. Guess it never really
was my own.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 10:20 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Weapons Money Intended For Economic Development
Being Secretly Diverted to Lobbying
© First Look Media. All rights reservedTerms of use U.S. Air Force F-16
Fighting Falcon fighter jets, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., taxi on
the tarmac during the Max Thunder Air Exercise, a bilateral training
exercise between the South Korean and U.S. Air Force, at a U.S. air base in
Gunsan, South Korea, on Thursday, April 20, 2017. U.S. Vice President Mike
Pence issued a fresh warning to North Korea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft
carrier in Japan, hours after reports emerged that the approaching "armada"
that President Donald Trump touted last week was still thousands of miles
away. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photo: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg News/Getty Images
Weapons Money Intended For Economic Development Being Secretly Diverted to
Lobbying
Alex Emmons
August 17 2017, 10:22 a.m.
The United Arab Emirates created a “slush fund” using money meant for
domestic economic development projects and funneled it to a high-profile
think tank in the United States, emails obtained by The Intercept show.
Last week, The Intercept reported that the UAE gave a $20 million grant to
the Middle East Institute, flooding a well-regarded D.C. think tank with a
monetary grant larger than its annual budget. According to an email from
Richard Clarke, MEI’s chairman of the board, the UAE got the money from
offset investments — development investments by international companies that
are made as part of trade agreements.
The idea behind offset agreements is simple: When a country buys weapons
from a firm overseas, it pumps a large amount of money out of its economy,
instead of investing in its own defense industry or in other domestic
projects. So to make large weapons deals more attractive, arms companies
offer programs to “offset” that effect. As part of a weapons package, they
often sign an agreement to invest in the country’s economy, either in
defense or civilian sectors.
Offsets provide a way to sell weapons at inflated prices, when companies
offer juicier offset packages. Critics say the lack of transparency in how
offset investments are carried out leaves a window open for a form of
legalized corruption. The emails lift a veil on what has long been an
obscure element of the arms trade.
According to an email from Clarke, the UAE accepted unpaid offset
obligations as cash payments to a large financial firm called Tawazun
Holding. Tawazun sent the $20 million to a UAE think tank called the
Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. ECSSR then began sending
that money to the Middle East Institute, a prestigious D.C. think tank that
has a history of promoting arms sales to Gulf dictatorships.
“He said the funds would come from Tawazun, from a fund they had created
into which companies owing offsets could donate cash in lieu of projects,”
wrote Clarke. “He stressed that he did not want us to contact the
companies.”
re-offset-graphic-final-theintercept-1502979163 Graphic: The Intercept ECSSR
and Tawazun did not respond to a request for comment from The Intercept.
So essentially, in a roundabout way, the UAE took money from international
firms that was meant for economic development and funneled it to a
supportive think tank in the United States.
The UAE practice of accepting offsets as cash payments is itself unusual,
and referenced in a 2011 WikiLeaks cable from the U.S. Embassy at Abu Dhabi.
“There are also reports,” the cable reads, “as well as anecdotal evidence,
indicating that defense contractors can sometimes satisfy their offset
obligations through an up-front, lump-sum payment directly to the UAE
Offsets Group.”
Neither MEI President Wendy Chamberlin nor Chairman Richard Clarke responded
to a request for comment.
Multiple experts in the international arms trade interviewed by The
Intercept expressed shock not only that the UAE accepts offset payments as
cash, but that it funnels them to think tanks overseas.
“I’ve not heard of the practice of offsets being paid in cash before,” said
Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute’s project on military expenditure. “The actual benefit to the
buying country is that it’s a way of laundering money into a slush fund.”
William Hartung, a widely renowned and published expert on the U.S. arms
industry, said in an email to The Intercept that the UAE’s practice
highlighted the vast potential for abuse in the offset practice.
“Offsets are a common practice in the global arms trade, and they are
largely unregulated,” said Hartung. “I’m less familiar with the idea of
using cash payments, which seem at best a form of legalized bribery. And if
the UAE is truly ploughing some of these funds back into lobbying efforts or
funding of think tanks in the U.S., it seems particularly inappropriate — an
egregious case of foreign influence peddling, indirectly financed by U.S.
companies.”
In one notorious example, South Africa was promised that offset investments
would create 65,000 jobs in its economy as part of a 1999 arms deal to buy
jets and naval vessels. Amid widespread accusations of corruption, the
program only created 13,690 jobs — and even that figure was based on
estimates that came from the companies themselves.
Offsets are so rife for abuse that a World Trade Organization agreement bans
them from being used as a selection criterion for trade contracts. But like
many WTO rules, that ban doesn’t apply to the arms industry.
The UAE is a major client of U.S. weapons firms. According to SIPRI, between
2012 and 2016, the country was the second-largest recipient of weapons
exports from the U.S., behind Saudi Arabia.
In 2000, in one of the UAE’s single largest arms purchases ever, it bought
80 F-16 aircraft with advanced missile capabilities, for $8 billion.
Top photo: U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, manufactured by
Lockheed Martin Corp., taxi on a tarmac at a U.S. air base in Gunsan, South
Korea, on April 20, 2017.