Representatives from two major defense contractors whose advanced weaponry is being used in the Saudi Arabia-led bombing campaign that has killed scores of civilians in Yemen were quick to defend the human rights record of the Persian Gulf kingdom in a panel discussion held last week in Washington, D.C.
Ronald L. Perrilloux Jr., an executive with Lockheed Martin, complained of an atmosphere of “hostile media reports” shaping the views of Congress, most of which, he said, are “patently false.”
“Another significant irritant,” Perrilloux said, “is the application of human rights laws” toward U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Perrilloux argued that these countries, despite being “better partners to us than some of our NATO allies,” were being unfairly judged compared to Chinese human rights abuses.
Democrats on Capitol Hill recently blocked arms transfers to Saudi Arabia over concerns regarding the rising civilian death toll caused by the campaign.
Jeffrey Kohler, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who left the military and now work as a vice president at Boeing, declared, “We ought be encouraging that type of cooperation and facilitating and helping them with the gaps instead of just throwing stones.”
Perrilloux added that “the biggest thing we can do to help them finish the job is to provide them with the benefit of our experiences, with training of their forces, and probably replenishment of their forces.”
Listen to the discussion below.
The increased attention to the human rights record of Saudi Arabia is due to several factors. The absolute monarchy has dramatically ramped up executions as well as repressive police actions against minority groups, including Shiite Saudis. Many of the executions are in connection with trivial offenses, such as adultery and acts considered as “sorcery.”
Newly installed U.K. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn made headlines in recent weeks by demanding that Prime Minister David Cameron intervene to stop the planned execution and crucifixion of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a Shiite who was arrested as a teenager for protesting the Saudi government.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin play a pivotal role in the war in Yemen and the Saudi-led air campaign, which has contributed significantly to the civilian death toll. Saudi Arabia’s air force is using Boeing-made F-15 jets to bomb Yemen. The United Arab Emirates’ air force, a major partner in the Sunni Arab and Western coalition to restore Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, uses Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16 jets to strike Yemen.
Other aerial bombs have struck apartment buildings, markets, refugee camps, and at least two wedding parties. A single mission from Amnesty International documented Saudi-led coalition airstrikes that killed around 100 people, over half of them children.
Perrilloux is Lockheed Martin’s director of international business for the Middle East and Africa region, and a former U.S. air attaché and acting defense attaché to Saudi Arabia.
Kohler now serves as the vice president of international sales and marketing for defense, space and security at Boeing.
For both defense contracting giants, the Middle East is still a growing market. The Congressional Research Service notes that between October 2010 and October 2014, the U.S. signed off on more than $90 billion in weapons deals to the Saudi government.
Weapons transfers are actually a foundation for stability, the executives argued. “More often than not, it is the military relationship that will keep the relations and the bonds between countries very strong,” Kohler said. “When you sell somebody a big platform like an F-15, you build a 30-plus year relationship with that air force.”
The conference, organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, was designed to promote the strength of the alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
The list of sponsors was dominated by powerful oil, gas, and defense contracting companies, including Aramco, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips, Raytheon, United Technologies, SAIC, Leidos, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, GE, and Northrop Grumman.
Photo: Smoke billows following an air strike by Saudi-led coalition on May 11, 2015, in the capital Sanaa.
It’s an upside down world.
Lego refused to provide bricks for Ai Weiwei’s latest project because “.. it refrained “from actively engaging in or endorsing the use of Lego bricks in projects or contexts of a political agenda.””
Meanwhile other companies have no problem at all supplying the materials for people to be killed.
At best Ai Weiwei’s work and products will just hurt someone’s or some dictator’s feelings.
YOu can’t make this stuff up; good stuff!
Ronald L. Perrilloux Jr., an executive with Lockheed Martin, complained of an atmosphere of “hostile media reports” shaping the views of Congress, most of which, he said, are “patently false.”
The proverbial pot.
What I find interesting is that in the US, there are fights to defund Planned Parenthood and yet the defense industry is going about making arms deals that kill real living civilians by the thousands. Is the GOP now just an arm of the defense and energy industries? I hear of all kinds of civil rights issues(in the media) but behind closed doors the dealers of death and destruction are “business as usual” and are complaining about how to speed things up. Jeez, there really is no justice in the middle east just a lot of death and destruction and of course, good business, even if’s a bit slow for real fast growth.
Still amazed people who work at these companies can sleep at night. They promote so much death around the World. It seems like every town in the nation has a defense contractor there doing something. Chopping off heads in daylight, with cameras on, is more moral than the webs of duplicity we create, so that neighbor Bill can build tomahawks, and still believe he isn’t Satan’s minion.
They would argue that they provide jobs and security. Flimsy argument but that’s what probably helps them to sleep.
“Many of the executions are in connection with trivial offenses, such as adultery and acts considered as “sorcery.””
Firstly, Drug trafficking is not considered “Trivial” offense in the West (which is cited as the main attributor of executions in Saudi; 70% to be exact). Albeit, passing down the death sentence to drug traffickers can be seen as harsh, but personally I will not call it trivial. Secondly, I can’t recall one case in which I heard the death sentenced being passed to someone charged with adultery. You know why? because four sane minded male witnesses have to come forward and testify to seeing the act, and to complicate things even further they actually have to see the act of penetration for it be considered a worthy testimony, which isn’t the many. Although I did find it hysterical that a bunch of executives from Lockheed & Boeing defending Saudi.
Things aren’t as black or white as you out them. Learn to sell facts not a narrative.
I think I agree with your sentiment (if I’ve understood correctly) but you’ve not cited any sources which makes it a bit difficult to distinguish between facts and narrative in your own contribution. I tried to verify that 70% of executions in Saudi are drug related (Also: “attributor”? 70% over what period? That’s at best half a fact) but according to the Amnesty report indirectly referenced in Lee’s article, the figure is 28% since 1991. Am I missing something?
There really isn’t any difference between executing people for drugs and executing people for sorcery – typically speaking, “sorcery” is just a misunderstood or debased practice of medicine, after all. The U.S. cannot participate in such anti-libertarian and brutal crusades and say that it is unsullied by the same brush, but that doesn’t make the Saudis justified.
People who make their business in making weapons that kill are the least likely to be concerned with the morality and increasingly, legality of killing.
Yeah, none of that stuff is an accident. It’s all done to make people kill people over in the rear-end. Weapons are cheap. Making threats are cheaper. Governments are great at making things look like they’re something they’re not while innocent people get turned into mincemeat. Such a grand world.
I don’t think they even work on a bidding system. I think someone’s making that bidding system up to look like a bidding system when in reality, it’s all rigged. Isn’t it, Lockheed? If it weren’t, then I’m sure those bids would be public. People are capitalizing on war crimes — humanitarianism is a myth that such contractors wave around like pictures with smiling children — the real money goes to the warlords. The kids are the ones getting blown away with shrapnel. Who’s benefitting from wars, again? I forget.
The record claims my dad was to blame when his men failed to contact and direct four Starfighters as they left an adjacent base…four downed jets. So, if his command was to blame, why did they move him UP the ladder? Another round of bids, Prince Charming? You betcha. And that’s how the FCPA came to slay these bastards, Little Dragons. Now, they’ve pulled most of its teeth and he only belches smoke, but you can bet they are the same old skull fuckers, right Dad?
Oh my, did Wild Weasel drop a hot one in Lockheed’s trash collector? Why no show at WaPo, sugar skulls, too much icing?
NPR just told me Lockheed “wasted” mucho dinero on a government data management project that has achieved bupkis. Billions. So does this explain why WaPo has them prominently featured in their lead stories segment? How Lockheed uses their Cloak of Invisibility to rob us blind?
I’m sorry, but all this money was not wasted, it was funneled to the very tunnels we pretend to interdict, Chapo. Organization is one of their greatest grifts. Did ya’ll know a future Merck CEO and a former NY Gov ran the Sicilian Invasion and Vito interpreted for them? Genovese, it’s more than a beer, Steins!
quote” The list of sponsors was dominated by powerful oil, gas, and defense contracting companies,…” who are in reality…the actual policy makers attending the
“24th Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference”
A virtual who’s who of the Lords of War.
Policy: Kill anything that moves using as much US manufactured weapons of death the market will bear.
Unfortunately, eventually, the chickens will come home to roost.
hellfire, what do you mean unfortunately?
Hillary Clinton’s State Department made strides in building a strong relationship between Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the Saudis, using the leverage of State Department being a critical gatekeeper to a flood of new arms sales to the Saudis.
Thank Hillary Clinton for this mess.
while hillary is a horrible person, im curious if you could point to a single administration since the kingdoms founding that did not look the other way towards its behavior.
There is “looking the other way”, then there is “accepting donations to a supposedly philanthropical foundation from Saudi Arabia, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others, and then taking the controversial step as Secretary of State of approving a radical increase in allowed weapons sales to a country allowed only a certain quota for regions allegiance given its record of human rights abuses”.
This (click to open) is a pretty well-written article about the present situation. I hope the conclusion materializes and great friends finally unite.
When I was young I had an imaginary friend because no real person could measure up to the required standard. As I got older, I become more tolerant of the imperfections of others, and made lots of real friends (well, OK at least one or two).
Similarly, the US in its younger days used to boast about how perfect it was, chide everyone else for their shortcomings and was generally hated by every other nation in the world.
So the fact that the US has lowered its standards and is hanging out with the some of the world’s worst dictators is a sign of its newfound maturity. Friendship means pretending not to notice somebody else’s blemishes, and they pretend not to notice yours. This isn’t some terrible form of hypocrisy; it’s simply a recognition that it’s nice to have friends, even if they aren’t perfect.
In fact, it’s a relief to drop all the pretenses – the due process, the democracy and the rule of law – and just act normally. Once you accept both yourself and others as they really are, you find that people everywhere are much the same, and the Mubaraks of the world become good friends of the family.
Napoleon’s family had no problemo binding twigs with the Giuntas! Fascists, Mafiosi and Imperialdickheads all sound alike to me, too. You need to find better people to make like, Benito. Maybe see a shrink, Soprano?
Francesco, he and you were tight like that, right?
Are you asking him about Cuccia, who caused the Duce to declare war on the mafia, or Giunta, who (near as I can tell) didn’t have much of a personal relationship with the Duce at all save for a brief affair with his offices? I’m not really a buff, I may have my facts wrong, but question stands anyway.
A step away from the conversation, but not really — but more in line with the article topic: isn’t the whole mil-industrial-gov-spy apparatus quite similar to the mafia? I think that’s what Moose was getting at, personally, just a bit more subtly.
Subtle was never my forte, Forty. I see it, I say something, no beating up the Bushes for me. That’s too easy, swiping at their card holding carriers.
Yup, criminal enterprise is now so well assimilated you can’t tell which ethnicity was there at their foundation, Bored With Walking Their Empires.
I’m talking about this Francesco…
http://translate.google.com/translate?&u=http%3A%2F%2Fit.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFrancesco+Giunta&sl=it&tl=en
Pretending not to notice? Who doesn’t notice their “friends'” “flaws”? What makes a real person a friend is when you find their “flaws” interesting. So there’s friends, and there’s friends — and then there’s acquaintances, people you tolerate, and people you make promises to, sorta like omerta but maybe without the blood-in-blood-out. Too much shooting up in diners in the latter anyway.
No such thing as perfect people, but I’d like to think that the people you wanna be with aren’t people with flaws you tolerate, they’re the people who have flaws you see as compatible with your own. But I have a low tolerance for people who get on my nerves. It’s in the blood — I’m sure you get it, Moose. You probably have a better track record than me at finding people you’d want to be friends with.
Keeping one’s word though doesn’t require friendship. Neither does loyalty. Runs in the blood too, I think.
I don’t think Benito needs a shrink, I think he needs someone who appreciates what society may see as flaws as gifts to be valued, not things to be tiptoed around. But by my accounting, most people don’t get to have friends, certainly not friends like that; when you find them, you want to keep them. Sometimes you want to keep other people around too.
Either way noone should be judging your friendships, methinks, oh dictatorial one, since you’re already dead.
I’m not pleased with the puzzle piece way that the flaws are fitting together on the national stage though.
I disagree that people everywhere are much the same. I do agree that a lot are, though. In your example, though, I wouldn’t call it a matter of accepting the Mubaraks as good friends — there’s a difference between common goals and a good match. The Mubaraks will eventually wind up on the other side of things at some point, like most political arrangements. That’s not friendship. That’s an alliance.
Friendships are far rarer. Alliances are temporary.
And Yes, I AM suggesting there is a VERY strong cultural component to all of this — I’m not sure how much for many of the politicos, but for average people — well, if they have GOOD taste in friends, yes; sadly most people pick bad friends and even worse mates (because they choose companionship over compatibility if they can’t find the latter; awful choice). For politicos, and in general, some cultures value their word more than others — honor and so forth.
“Ronald L. Perrilloux Jr., an executive with Lockheed Martin, complained of an atmosphere of “hostile media reports” shaping the views of Congress…”
Now he has to go and spend his valuable time reminding the Congress who really runs things.
here we see the real reason why there is no peace and no justice either at home or abroad.
[between October 2010 and October 2014, the U.S. signed off on more than $90 billion in weapons deals to the Saudi government.]
As Madcow Albright once famously mooed: “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”
That one, she always did have a way with words, didn’t she…
“Weapons transfers are actually a foundation for stability, the executives argued. “More often than not, it is the military relationship that will keep the relations and the bonds between countries very strong,” Kohler said. “When you sell somebody a big platform like an F-15, you build a 30-plus year relationship with that air force.”
If Boeing tweaks that strategy a bit they could help create some strong bonds between countries having trouble right now.
To start off, they could sell an F-15 to Israel and say its a present from Iran.
The civil war could be over with in Syria if Boeing sold Assad an f-15 and said it was from Saudi Arabia
And then (to whomever sells these things)
the big one: sell Iran a nuclear weapon and say that it’s from U.S , Israel AND Saudi Arabia!
some celebration music
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/rayborn-rihla?song=4
Thanks for that.
Cheers.
jimmy.
An idea worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Very well said Candace, I totally agree.
The road to hell is paved with crass intentions.
This is how global corporate imperialism operates. It’s gotten to the point where corporate spokespeople are defending some of the worst regimes on Earth, so long as they help advance the corporate-imperialist project.
Isn’t Saudi Arabia an ally of the US?
Are the Saudis and Turks not helping the US liberate the Syrian people from Assad and the evil Putin’s reign of red gulag fanaticism and authoritarian terror?
Yes, the Saudis are the moderate, freedom loving friends of the US.
Why The Intercept would dare impung our allies in the fight against the strongman dictator Assad and his master, the KGB thug, wouldbe Tsar, wannabe king of the Universe (Satan willing), killer of the weak, annexer in chief, enemy of puppies, freedom fries, democracy, free markets, gay-folk, Disney movies, and world peace (wheew!)…
Vlad the Mad, the Bad Putin…
Well, the short of it is that the Saudis support the liberation of the Syrian people that have been recently invaded by these squalid Russian imperialists.
They deserve kind words and support, as do our moderate-Fanatical, fundamentalist brethren fighting forces on the ground in Syria.
Question: why have Greenwald and his intrepid writers on the Intercept team been avoiding engaging with the unfolding drama in Syria (and Ukraine, and Libya, Yemen, etc) with the vigor they display in covering dogs and their human friends in Brazil?
The great thing about pretending your the “exception to the rulers” is that the more money you have in your bank account, the more you are connected with state power, the more exceptionally moderate the scope of your choices for what is important to focus your pen on becomes.
you just drone on about drones or the nsa, or what ever.
You pretend to focus on something that is earthshaking and in need of scrutiny–while your daddy, the US state and its Saudi and Gulf State clients fight a war for the liberation of the Syrian people that you pretend-journalist would rather keep our attention away from.
Support our moderate-fanatical allies and our CIA and mercenary troops in Syria!
(Now bAck to your regular programming kiddies)
Oh, puh-leeze. Humor has to be a little bit believable to be funny, and nobody believes the U.S. is trying to put Assad out of power. I think they even admit time to time that they’re afraid of what would happen with Assad out. The plan here is just keep Syria a war zone and keep selling arms. But that’s not the U.S.’s plan … it only stands to lose money and get terrorist attacks … it’s the plan of those selling the arms.
Even if we assume the U.S. wants topple Assad, I ‘m not sure how anyone can view handing Damascus to ISIS as a “liberation.” Hunt must work for the government or (redundant, I know) one of the companies mentioned in the article.
The South Pars / North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world’s largest gas field, It is shared between Iran40% and Qatar 60%. The Qatar-Turkey pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline running from the South Pars / North Dome gas field towards Turkey, where it would connect with the Nabucco pipeline to supply European customers. One route to Turkey is via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria.
Bashar al-Assad (the president of Syria) held a press press conference stating he was rejecting the Qatar-Turkey pipeline at the behest of Syria’s ally Russia. Russia made the request so they can maintain market share in Europe, and soon got busy on the South Stream pipeline cutting off any competition from the mid east (we all know EU sections on Russia are preventing that from happening now).
Qatar and Saudi Arabia (the two countries that spend more money than the USSR did on propaganda to promote wahhabism/salafism the ideology that ISIS/al qaeda/Jabhat al-Nusra adhere to around the world) were out hundreds of billions of dollars as a result of Bashar rejecting the pipeline.
In Iraq Nouri al-Maliki (the prime minister of Iraq) was busy trying to get the The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline (called the Friendship Pipeline by the governments involved) set in motion, it’s a proposed natural gas pipeline running from the South Pars / North Dome Gas field towards Europe via Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to supply European customers.
Welcome to the Syria coup, the USA getting rid of Nouri al-Maliki and ISIS.
The biggest threat to USA’s hegemony is a strong Germany/Russia/China economic belt. Decreasing Russia’s clout/market share is a top national security goal.
Saudis and their supper sexy sweet crude is considered a national security asset. Extraction/refinement/access/ is the cheapest in the world IE highest profit margins. The USA gets special privilege in that all Oil the SSA sells must be sold in US dollars, reinforcing the dollar as the world currency reserve. In return for that special privilege we back their geopolitical goals/supply them with weapons at rock bottom prices. Despite the fact that the SSA and Qatar are the biggest sponsors of terrorism in the world. CNN/PBS/NPR/MSNBC/ABC/FOX are all owned by the MIC/state department, hence they keep the names Saudi/Qatar/wahhabism/salafism out their mouths. 14 years since 911 and the average American has no clue what wahhabism/salafism is, or where their adherents live, and what two countries spend billions of dollars promoting it. That’s some damn good propaganda!
As of right now the PTB primary national security concern is a rising Russia, not because they pose any threat militarily, but because a highly highly integrated EurAsia would substantially reduce the USA’s position as the world hegemon. The primary USA geopolitical strategy is to control the Straits of Malacca (hence Obama upgrading Malaysia’s human rights status so they can be included in the TPP), the straits of hormuz, Suez Canal, and Central Asia (Zbigniew Brzezinski the United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981 and father to Mika Brzezinski host of Moring Joe, lays the strategy out in his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives) Controlling those straits and Central Asia allows the USA to act as a toll both between China and the rest of the world.
Reducing the USA’s position as the world hegemon would directly impact the USA’s plutocrats market share/clout.
Because the USA’s primary national security concern is a rising Russia, they have since bucked the Gulf Cooperation Council and are going with Iran to brake in to the EU market. A pipeline through Levant is too risky. That joker would be offline at least 3 times a year do to some kind of nuttyness, not to mention Levant is taking way to long to stabilize.
Genghis Khan aint got shit on the USA. Merchants of death. Hell on earth for them what live in Honduras, Syria, and Donetsk Oblast . No way I’m voting for Hillary.
The South Pars / North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world’s largest gas field, It is shared between Iran40% and Qatar 60%. The Qatar-Turkey pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline running from the South Pars / North Dome gas field towards Turkey, where it would connect with the Nabucco pipeline to supply European customers. One route to Turkey is via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria.
Bashar al-Assad (the president of Syria) held a press press conference stating he was rejecting the Qatar-Turkey pipeline at the behest of Syria’s ally Russia. Russia made the request so they can maintain market share in Europe, and soon got busy on the South Stream pipeline cutting off any competition from the mid east (we all know EU sections on Russia are preventing that from happening now).
Qatar and Saudi Arabia (the two countries that spend more money than the USSR did on propaganda to promote wahhabism/salafism the ideology that ISIS/al qaeda/Jabhat al-Nusra adhere to around the world) were out hundreds of billions of dollars as a result of Bashar rejecting the pipeline.
In Iraq Nouri al-Maliki (the prime minister of Iraq) was busy trying to get the The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline (called the Friendship Pipeline by the governments involved) set in motion, it’s a proposed natural gas pipeline running from the South Pars / North Dome Gas field towards Europe via Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to supply European customers.
Welcome to the Syria coup, the USA getting rid of Nouri al-Maliki and ISIS.
The biggest threat to USA’s hegemony is a strong Germany/Russia/China economic belt. Decreasing Russia’s clout/market share is a top national security goal.
Saudis and their supper sexy sweet crude is considered a national security asset. Extraction/refinement/access/ is the cheapest in the world IE highest profit margins. The USA gets special privilege in that all Oil the SSA sells must be sold in US dollars, reinforcing the dollar as the world currency reserve. In return for that special privilege we back their geopolitical goals/supply them with weapons at rock bottom prices. Despite the fact that the SSA and Qatar are the biggest sponsors of terrorism in the world. CNN/PBS/NPR/MSNBC/ABC/FOX are all owned by the MIC/state department, hence they keep the names Saudi/Qatar/wahhabism/salafism out their mouths. 14 years since 911 and the average American has no clue what wahhabism/salafism is, or where their adherents live, and what two countries spend billions of dollars promoting it. That’s some damn good propaganda!
As of right now the PTB primary national security concern is a rising Russia, not because they pose any threat militarily, but because a highly highly integrated EurAsia would substantially reduce the USA’s position as the world hegemon. The primary USA geopolitical strategy is to control the Straits of Malacca (hence Obama upgrading Malaysia’s human rights status so they can be included in the TPP), the straits of hormuz, Suez Canal, and Central Asia (Zbigniew Brzezinski the United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981 and father to Mika Brzezinski host of Moring Joe, lays the strategy out in his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives) Controlling those straits and Central Asia allows the USA to act as a toll both between China and the rest of the world.
Reducing the USA’s position as the world hegemon would directly impact the USA’s plutocrats market share/clout.
Because the USA’s primary national security concern is a rising Russia, they have since bucked the Gulf Cooperation Council and are going with Iran to brake in to the EU market. A pipeline through Levant is too risky. That joker would be offline at least 3 times a year do to some kind of nuttyness, not to mention Levant is taking way to long to stabilize.
Genghis Khan aint got shit on the USA. Merchants of death. Hell on earth for them what live in Honduras, Syria, and Donetsk Oblast .
“Well, the short of it is that the Saudis support the liberation of the Syrian people that have been recently invaded by these squalid Russian imperialists. ”
The truth is America started the civil war in Syria by training militant Sunnis and sending the to Syria to start a rebellion. It looks more like Russia is supporting the legitimate government against foreign funded insurrection.
According to former FM of France, Roland Dumas, it was originally a british project:
“I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me, that they were preparing something in Syria […] Britain was organizing an INVASION OF REBELS into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate. […] This operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned”.
There is someone posting on Real News, Asia times Al Monitor etc saying exactly what were saying in jest as if it is the truth, I shit you not.
Poor soul, you haven’t understood much about the world we live in. Happy to be brainwashed by the US government & its media lackeys, you are totally disoriented when The Intercept shines some light on the realities of life.
The US and its Gulf allies are fighting a war for the liberation of the Syrian people? You really have been living under a stone, because if you had not, or more precisely, if you would have the slightest bit of education, you would know that Sunnis will never liberate Shias, if anything they crush them even faster if they can.
And as for the drama of Libya, and I would add Iraq to that, both are creations of the US and its fantastic strategies. Chasing out the evil dictators but giving nothing to the local populations so they can build a viable state.
Listen pal, you had better return under your stone & observe the world from there. It feels a lot safer & you can keep dreaming you fantasies. But beware, someone might step on your stone.
steven blunt… you forgot to note that most of the money and arms supplied to ISIS come from your friend and ally Saudi Arabia
seems like Uncle Sam teed up a nice n juicy ISIS ball for the Wahabbis to spike
what a clever plan
Isn’t Saudi Arabia an ally of the US?
Are the Saudis and Turks not helping the US liberate the Syrian people from Assad and the evil Putin’s reign of red gulag fanaticism and authoritarian terror?
Yes, the Saudis are the moderate, freedom loving friends of the US.
Why The Intercept would dare impung our allies in the fight against the strongman dictator Assad and his master, the KGB thug, wouldbe Tsar, wannabe king of the Universe (Satan willing), killer of the weak, annexer in chief, enemy of puppies, freedom fries, democracy, free markets, gay-folk, Disney movies, and world peace (wheew!)…
Vlad the Mad, the Bad Putin…
Well, the short of it is that the Saudis support the liberation of the Syrian people that have been recently invaded by these squalid Russian imperialists.
They deserve kind words and support, as do our moderate-Fanatical, fundamentalist brethren fighting forces on the ground in Syria.
Question: why have Greenwald and his intrepid writers on the Intercept team been avoiding engaging with the unfolding drama in Syria (and Ukraine, and Libya, Yemen, etc) with the vigor they display in covering dogs and their human friends in Brazil?
The great thing about pretending your the “exception to the rulers” is that the more money you have in your bank account, the more you are connected with state power, the more exceptionally moderate the scope of your choices for what is important to focus your pen on becomes.
you just drone on about drones or the nsa, or what ever.
You pretend to focus on something that is earthshaking and in need of scrutiny–while your daddy, the US state and its Saudi and Gulf State clients fight a war for the liberation of the Syrian people that you pretend-journalist would rather keep our attention away from.
Support our moderate-fanatical allies and our CIA and mercenary troops in Syria!
(Now bAck to your regular programming kiddies)
-why have Greenwald and his intrepid writers on the Intercept team been avoiding engaging with the unfolding drama in Syria (and Ukraine, and Libya, Yemen, etc) with the vigor they display in covering dogs and their human friends in Brazil?
Because there is no limit to mainstream media attacking regimes that are enemies of the United States. There is no repercussion or backlash and it gets easy clicks (although to assert the intercept ignores nations like Yemen probably indicates that this is the first article of theirs you’ve read). As people like Noam Chomsky point out, journalism’s true role in society is to act as a counterweight to the government. The Intercept focus on the USA’s involvement in shady practices as it is the duty of any free media.
As to your ‘point’ that the brave Saudi regime and it’s U.S ally are freeing the Syrian people- how does killing children at a wedding in Yemen accomplish that? I love how you call Saudi Arabia ‘moderate’- there is nothing moderate about that regime’s actions. They are very ‘freedom loving’, just ask the citizens they behead for protesting the regime. Land of the free indeed.
It truly is unfair to criticize the Saudi human rights record. They have none. How do you criticize something that does not even exist?
It is impossible for me to fathom that they even understand the concept. The culture does not accommodate such notions as we associate with human rights. And the concepts are not an integral part of their traditions.
So maybe this is what their money-milkers were trying to say by defending them.
In know that every thirty- plus year relationship I’ve ever built has been based on big platforms, and also napalm, tons and tons of napalm.
China has 6-7 times the population we have in the US and we have more people incarcerated than they do? Perrilloux’s argument falls apart at that point…….
China looks good to me when compared to us.
Are we teaching the Saudi’s human rights abuses, maybe?
Below is a nice list of the soulless war mongering parasites on the body politic that are going to have to be rooted out before the world will ever get better.
And if it never does, and the wheels really come off, I hope the little people remember and compile a list of the names of the executives and boards of directors of the above for proper “accountability” when the time comes to mete that out. I’m thinking defenestration from their corporate towers or guillotines in the public square. And I’m not someone who generally believes in the death penalty except for state sanctioned mass murderers. And even then I’m highly conflicted as a moral matter.
You kill one man you are a social pariah and murderer. You kill thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions and you are a “statesman” or a respected member of the “business elite”.
It’s like living in a bizarro world living in America. Up is down, war is peace, greed is good, . . . .
So if the media would be more critical of China’s human rights it would be OK for them to mention public beheadings and such of our “better partner” Saudi Arabia? This is what we have become. Scary s**t.
To these guys the Problem ist not Chinas human rights records but the fact that China is a major competitor in the arms market. And now that Russia is running a global ad campaign and demonstration of their superior products in Syria (and possibly soon in Iraq) they will rely even more on loyal customers like the Saudis.
Wonderful piece, Lee. You do a nice job of highlighting the boldness of these relationships between business and war. Chilling. Thank you.
Of course those entities of evil and greed would defend one of their big clients.
There is a reckoning coming for them all real soon!
robertsrevolution.net
BAE and Lockheed aren’t hiding behind their desks — they’re hiding behind YOUR desk. David Cameron and his ilk have spent something like a decade expanding their plans for “black boxes” to do internet censorship of “extremist” material throughout the UK. Well who do you think makes those boxes – WAS making them, was paying the dues to fund the “Internet Watch Foundation” from the days when credulous idiots thought that ‘voluntarily blocking child porn’ was a community ethics gesture? Love to see The Intercept dig into THAT – it’s a big topic.
http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/masters-war
Is it the foreign policy of the USA that drives the production of war weapons, or the production of war weapons that drives the USA foreign policy?
Or are they the one and the same?
But you see how much things have changed? The are not hiding behind walls and desks anymore. They are out in the open saying how much good they do by making and selling weapons of destruction because the countries that buy them are the good guys. In other words, they are willing to tell lies in a conference designed to spread lies in order to increase defense business.
True that.
Yes what was once hidden is now plain to see.
What was whispered is shouted out.
Join us or die.
One and the same.
“When you sell somebody a big platform like an F-15, you build a 30-plus year relationship with that air force.”
How about building relationships with something else like new energy technology, you war mongering parasite? These people honestly believe giving other countries the means to wage war is the BEST way to foster friendship. How do we change the laws so that we can charge them all with war crimes and lock them up forever?
Governments are the problem. They are the only ones with enough big guns to force others to pay tribute (taxes) or accept devalued script (inflated currency) to finance and use more of these machines to kill and control more people, money, resources, and terrority. Hate the state, less so the evil players like Boeing who take advantage. If there was no government market, Boeing and Lockheed would do just find producing peaceful and productive airliners and helicopters, rather than winged machines of death.