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The $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia isn't real, it's fake news

T

Tovarisc

Member
Last month, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia and his administration announced that he had concluded a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom. Only problem is that there is no deal. It’s fake news.

I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them “intended sales.” None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.

An example is a proposal for sale of four frigates (called multi-mission surface combatant vessels) to the Royal Saudi navy. This proposal was first reported by the State Department in 2015. No contract has followed. The type of frigate is a derivative of a vessel that the U.S. Navy uses but the derivative doesn’t actually exist yet. Another piece is the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system (THAAD) which was recently deployed in South Korea. The Saudis have expressed interest in the system for several years but no contracts have been finalized. Obama approved the sale in principle at a summit at Camp David in 2015. Also on the wish list are 150 Black Hawk helicopters. Again, this is old news repackaged. What the Saudis and the administration did is put together a notional package of the Saudi wish list of possible deals and portray that as a deal. Even then the numbers don’t add up. It’s fake news.

Moreover, it’s unlikely that the Saudis could pay for a $110 billion deal any longer, due to low oil prices and the two-plus years old war in Yemen. President Obama sold the kingdom $112 billion in weapons over eight years, most of which was a single, huge deal in 2012 negotiated by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates. To get that deal through Congressional approval, Gates also negotiated a deal with Israel to compensate the Israelis and preserve their qualitative edge over their Arab neighbors. With the fall in oil prices, the Saudis have struggled to meet their payments since.

You will know the Trump deal is real when Israel begins to ask for a package to keep the Israeli Defense Forces’ qualitative edge preserved. What is coming soon is a billion-dollars deal for more munitions for the war in Yemen. The Royal Saudi Air Force needs more munitions to continue the air bombardment of the Arab world’s poorest country.
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Source: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/mark...llion-arms-deal-to-saudi-arabia-is-fake-news/
 
finowns

finowns

Member
Fake news is something else. If this is true isn't it just Trump lying? Holy crap I've never seen this emoji 🤥
 
J

jaekeem

Member
so this guy made up a historic arms deal to a country that he castigated hillary for having connections to

ugh
 
K

Kurdel

Banned
darkwing said:
wait, wasn't the $110B deal reported by CNN and others?
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Yes

CharmingDeafeningBeetle-size_restricted.gif
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Moreover, it’s unlikely that the Saudis could pay for a $110 billion deal any longer, due to low oil prices and the two-plus years old war in Yemen. President Obama sold the kingdom $112 billion in weapons over eight years, most of which was a single, huge deal in 2012 negotiated by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates.​
Disappointed in Obama.

Poor Yemen.
 
B

Beartruck

Member
So, same as most everything he does: Claim he's done something when in reality he's only suggested the idea of doing something.
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
Messofanego said:
Moreover, it’s unlikely that the Saudis could pay for a $110 billion deal any longer, due to low oil prices and the two-plus years old war in Yemen. President Obama sold the kingdom $112 billion in weapons over eight years, most of which was a single, huge deal in 2012 negotiated by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates.​
Disappointed in Obama.

Poor Yemen.
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So either Trump is straight up lying and making things up, or he's trying to take credit for something Obama did.
 
R

ReplacementPelican

Member
Isn't this precisely the same way Ms. America calculates their scholarships? Just say 'potentially, they could all win, so its [entrants]x[value of scholarship' even though only one takes it, if anything?

Its hilariously dumb.
 
T

Tacitus_

Member
... what

2mbe2Z8.gif


Wait, if Obama did a 112 billion deal, was he trying to sell that as his? Sounds like something that slimy bastard would do.
 
K

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Tovarisc said:
US and Trump administration are in new kinda shit if media goes "Nah, not reporting anything what you are saying without waiting few weeks and doing quad fact check" on their official statements and releases.
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Unfortunately they won't. At least US media. Just watch how CNN reports on any terrorist attack in Europe despite jumping the gun so many times and a lot of early info proving to be shit. They are always after that breaking news title no matter if it's true or not or morala or not as long as there is someone (a reliable source) to blame for it.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
Kurdel said:
Yes

CharmingDeafeningBeetle-size_restricted.gif
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He keeps doing shit like this!

In the fall of 1996, a charity called the Association to Benefit Children held a ribbon-cutting in Manhattan for a new nursery school serving children with AIDS. The bold-faced names took seats up front.

There was then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) and former mayor David Dinkins (D). TV stars Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, who were major donors. And there was a seat saved for Steven Fisher, a developer who had given generously to build the nursery.

Then, all of a sudden, there was Donald Trump.

“Nobody knew he was coming,” said Abigail Disney, another donor sitting on the dais. “There’s this kind of ruckus at the door, and I don’t know what was going on, and in comes Donald Trump. [He] just gets up on the podium and sits down.”

Trump was not a major donor. He was not a donor, period. He’d never given a dollar to the nursery or the Association to Benefit Children, according to Gretchen Buchenholz, the charity’s executive director then and now.

But now he was sitting in Fisher’s seat, next to Giuliani.

“Frank Gifford turned to me and said, ‘Why is he here?’ ” Buchenholz recalled recently. By then, the ceremony had begun. There was nothing to do.

“Just sing past it,” she recalled Gifford telling her.

So they warbled into the first song on the program, “This Little Light of Mine,” alongside Trump and a chorus of children — with a photographer snapping photos, and Trump looking for all the world like an honored donor to the cause.
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Trump just likes pretending to give people money in order to sing/dance awkwardly in front of cameras.

We made the court jester the king.
 
A

AcademicSaucer

Member
The Royal Saudi Air Force needs more munitions to continue the air bombardment of the Arab world’s poorest country.
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There is a Vice video where you can see the US munitions all over houses, schools, hospitals, etc. in Yemen.
 
L

lush

Member
Nordicus said:
Crossposting from PoliGAF:

Afaik, this is where you would see the deal if it was finalized.
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WASHINGTON, Jun. 5, 2017 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for AN/TPQ-53(V) radar systems and related support. The estimated cost is $662 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.
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WASHINGTON, Jun. 5, 2017 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a blanket order training program for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and other Saudi forces. The estimated cost is $750 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on June 2, 2017.
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WASHINGTON, May 23, 2017 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a Navy blanket order training program. The estimated cost is $250 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on May 22, 2017.
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2017 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 74K Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS) Aerostats and related equipment, support, and training. The estimated cost is $525 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.
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2.187 billion from the 4 relevant approvals. What am I missing?

edit: 1.662 billion minus "74k Persistent Threat Detection System Aerostats" deal which is from January and likely fell under previous adminstration.
 
L

lush

Member
Nordicus said:
Whoops, mixed in UAE missiles there.

Also, the 74K Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS) Aerostats deal is like 4 months old
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Yeah, assumed that'd fall under the previous admin but I know that hasn't stopped this admin before.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
cameron said:
Beyond $109b in military sales, @potus deal w US & Saudi Arabia incs another $250b commercial investment creating hundreds of 1000s US jobs

— Sean Spicer‏ (@PressSec) May 20, 2017​

Ayy...
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You really think someone would do that? Just go in front of the press and tell lies?

What is wrong with this administration? Why is everything, even the "good" news, a spin, exaggeration, or fabrication?
 
V

vonStirlitz

Unconfirmed Member
As there are no real financial levers in place, does this now finlly give us licence to bomb them for financing extremist terrorists then?
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Lord Frieza said:
Yeah, the title and premise is weird. It's not really fake news, it's just the Trump administration lying about something.
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Isnt that what fake news is, lying about stuff?
 
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