U.S. plans $7 billion missile-defense sale to UAE
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 . . . .
(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)
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