U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tonnes of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.

The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.

A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given.

"Shipping 3,000-odd tonnes of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L9736369.htm

[ShortnFiery]

1. When are we going to unilaterally blame IRAN instead of HAMAS for all Gaza violence?

Welcome to the gearing up for WWIII.

[Hydra]

2. Obama already talked about "The Threat of Iran" today

I was hoping never to hear those words again.

[Baby Snooks]

4. It's his table talking....

Nothing is going to change. Too much money is made off war. It's good for the economy. Good for the economy of those at Barack Obama's table anyway. The only ones who matter are the ones at the table.

[Hydra]

7. "Follow the money"

We liberals need to be rich so we can put a stop to these things.

[msfiddlestix]

27. For a minute I thought you were serious..

i looked for the coda, (it was apparently forgotten) it's often times difficult to hear the tone of a poster in cyberspace text format.

[Ani Yun Wiya]

35. Let's see now...

The U.S. ships six million pounds of ammunition to Israel.
And this is about Iran being responsible for the violence in Gaza ?

Exactly HTF does that work ?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pavulon]

5. No, you are mixing up the b61mod11 and a conventional

weapon. The conventional weapon is designed to penetrate many feet through concrete and then explode, destroying structures.

The b61mod11 is a thermonuclear weapon with a dialed down yield designed to penetrate a few feet and then use a sub kilo ton (still a massive explosion) to destroy structures. However this would pull ton of dirt into the explosion creating a massive radioactive event.

Much more so than a traditional air burst of a large nuclear weapon at a few thousand feet.

[Hydra]

6. Bunker busters don't have to be nukes

But perhaps they could be fitted with a warhead?

Regardless, the estimated nuclear stockpile of Israel is around 400, so not all of those would be fitted as such if that is possible.

Still, the idea of even half of those(200) fitted to these missiles and used as a first-strike gives me the willies!

[Pavulon]

8. They have had them for decades

why use them as first strike now. Nuclear weapons are not a tactical weapon. Even "tactical" nukes would be used when you want to limit the death just a minor horrific event.

[iamthebandfanman]

9. yeah, those terrorists hate us for our freedoms

not the fact we supply their enemy with weapons.

[Pavulon]

10. They have money and we sell the best.

if we cut them off they will buy from france or russia. Or just make them themselves. Lots of nations deal arms, we just have a better product.

[roody]

23. From where did they get the money?

Oh yeah, from the US taxpayer.

[Hardrada]

24. Good point. Some folks are weapons smart and policy challenged.

[Pavulon]

25. French and Russia loan money

we loan to South Korea and Egypt or buy our shit. So do they. Not like it is a new idea in the history of business.

[Hardrada]

34. My point is that we need more diplomats and fewer Daddy Warbucks.

[Pavulon]

37. Agree time for a two stae solution. Egypt

could play a bog part here. Since they accept Israel and are not theocratic nutjobs it could work.

[Pavulon]

26. Same as dassault and bae

the game is what it is. It is not unique to the US or Israel.

[Hardrada]

33. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard

or else just toss our so-called civilization into the dumpster.

[santamargarita]

11. I got one, real cheap

[classysassy]

16. Another

ship of fools,cpt bush,ist mate chaney,cabin girl rice,and the rest of the neocon crew.

[OwnedByFerrets]

12. Partners in crime

[Jefferson23]

13. Sickening.

[PFunk]

14. And you wonder why the mideast distrusts the US

It also proves that the Isreal can't engage in a prolonged war without US help (Hamas can-and it knows it).

Also Obama, and the US will have lost the rest of the mideast totally if stupid enough to actually attack Iran. Besides getting into a prolonged ME conflict that will make Iraq look 'nice'. It would also drive the rest of the mideast countries into Russia and China's arms. And see an overthrow of the few ME nations goverments. That is if it doesn't set off WWIII (as Iran has good contacts with both Russia and China).

And lets not forget how much trouble domesticly it will cause back in the US.

I hate to say this but it's time to cut isreal (and the whole ME) lose.

[Indenturedebtor]

18. I think that Israel would be able to acquire bullets etc elsewhere

Or manufacture them itself. The fact is that most of the aid that we send to Israel is meant to be spent on bullets and bombs. It's really aid to our own military industrial complex.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=115919339045...

"In a reference to Israel and other nations, the report says: "While the industrialized countries remain the world's major arms exporters, a growing number of companies in the developing world, backed by their governments, are gaining a significant share of the global arms market."

It also adds five other nations - Brazil, India, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea - to the list of top arms manufacturers, saying: "The number of arms companies in the top 100 based in countries not previously considered as major exporters has more than doubled since 1990."

The local firms on the list are Israel Aircraft Industries, Elbit, Rafael, and Israel Military Industries. According to the study, despite Israel's substantial domestic market, 66 percent of all weapons and weapons components manufactured in Israel are exported."

They export their own weapons and buy ours with the money we give them.

I think that at last count they also had the 5th largest military in the world. The US isn't really propping up Israel, but it's quite the ally. In fact the US wasn't there in 47. Or 67.

[stillcool]

32. I was wondering about that...

this is an article from 1987, and I'm sure they've boosted production since then
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/I...

[okiru109]

15. hmmm... wonder how much they are offering?

don't we already have plenty of ships or would that be bad marketing?

[cloudbase]

20. They probably don't want

the U.S. flag flying anywhere on that ship. They'll probably charter something out on the market.

[Thothmes]

36. Fairly normal procedure

a lot of military cargo is carried by foreign commercial ships chartered by MSCS.

[cal04]

17. US says arms shipment to Israel not linked to Gaza

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09303764.htm

The U.S. military has sought to hire a merchant ship to deliver ammunition to Israel this month, tender documents show, but the Pentagon said the shipment was not linked to the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

A Pentagon spokesman said the ammunition was for a U.S. stockpile in Israel. The U.S. military pre-positions stockpiles in some countries in case it needs supplies at short notice.

In the tender documents, the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.

Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said he would not comment on shipping routes for security reasons but confirmed a shipment of ammunition to Israel was planned.

[JayMusgrove]

19. You believe something like this? "A Pentagon spokesman" n/t

[Baby Snooks]

21. The portent...

Our policy is such that no doubt they expect at some point that Hezbollah will attack from the north and Hamas will attack again from the south and Syria may attack from the east. So we must arm Israel to protect itself. Instead of demanding partition. Which is the only solution. Which everyone knows. But then some would not have a wedge, a weapon, in their "war on terror" which as we all know is really just a "war for oil" in the region.

Israel is wedged between enemies. As are we in Iraq. Something the Bush Boys really never stop to think about. Believing that might makes right.

The Bush Boys really have no place at the table. That they have a place at the table is not a good portent.

[okiru109]

28. they got bigger fish to fry... don't think we can tolerrate Iran anymore

they seem to think that we can't run amok in their neighborhood with impunity anymore

intolerable

[rug]

22. 3,000 tons of ammunition.

[madrchsod]

29. neo liberal and neo conservative wet dreams

dreaming of those big israeli guns spattering blood and guts of the women and children of Palestine they cum in a frenzy of passion...

war is pornography

[peacetalksforall]

30. What the neo-cons of the U.S. and Israel want may not be what they can get.

They want water and oil for Israel and export routes from Israel. Iran stands in the way of the pipelines.

If a movie, this shipment could be the perfect ignition switch - it could even be an empty or nearly empty ship blown up by our own or the Israelis so that Iran could be blamed or a combination of Iran/Hezbollah.

A phony explosion. Sound familiar.

Five years of lies later - no one seems to care, no one cares in Congress, many are silenced. Torture/rendition still a daily activity? Why not now? With Israel the key player. Or vv. Does it matter?

Yes, if a movie.

If anything goes wrong this weekend or with that shipment out of Greece (if the stories are true) - we won't see Obama - we will see Cheney and the military and we will be under military rule.
True colors shown.

If only a movie.

[stillcool]

31. Hello Iran!!!

[JerseygirlCT]

38. That's not good. nt