Just what in hell did the Liberal government think Saudi Arabia was going to do when the upheld a multi-billion dollar sale of lethal weaponry to the radical Sunni state?
Word is that Ottawa is having second thoughts after reports that the Saudis are turning the weaponry on their Shiite population. Well, who'da thunk it? Who? Hell, anybody, it's the Saudis, jeebus. You knew that Saudi Arabia is the real state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and yet you kissed their ass and patted their bums when you were done.
Ottawa, yes Justin Trudeau's government, supported the Saudis while they created a humanitarian crisis in Yemen by destroying Houthi villages. No, it wasn't just supporting the Saudis. We, along with the Americans and the Brits, collaborated with the Saudis. I guess women and children in Yemen are fair game but women and children inside Saudi Arabia are off limits.
Media reports and social media posts from the town of Awamiya, which has been under siege by Saudi security forces since May, show government forces using what appear to be armoured personnel carriers (APCs) produced and exported to the oil-rich kingdom by Terradyne Armored Vehicles Inc., a privately owned company based in Newmarket, Ont.
Global Affairs spokesperson John Babcock says Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland is "deeply concerned about this situation and has asked officials to review it immediately."
"If it is found that Canadian exports have been used to commit serious violations of human rights, the minister will take action."
And while you're checking into that, how about finding out what the Saudis have been doing with those made-in-Canada LAV armoured fighting vehicles? Maybe they're over in Yemen - out of sight, out of mind.
Horse/barn, morals
ReplyDeleteBut grandpa was a good Nazi, a nice Nazi, and I loved him so.
ReplyDelete.. I cannot recall whatsoever, where Canada's 'Diplomacy' standards have fallen to. I think back to Afghanistan.. and the hatchet job Harper & MacKay pulled on Richard Colvin.. Then I leap forward about 5 or 6 years & recall a dickass Harper surrogate casually spewing that our diplomats focus was now more on corporate enterprise. You know. Swinging deals re pipelines and resource exports. Like sniper rifles and armaments. That was all part of the Harper Doctrine.. forget tractors or feeding the world. Canada's future lay ahead as an energy superpower and building our arms manufacturing & exports were 'paramount' ! Arms were to become a KEY DRIVER of our economy!
ReplyDeleteHistorically, embassies were hotbeds of information. Our ears to the ground in foreign lands.. and fact was winnowed and filtered from fiction and bombast or rumour inside the walls.. and carefully heard back in Canada eh ! Well, Harper send his ex bodyguard off to be Ambassador to Kuwait or Jordan.. and rewarded Gordon Campbell's treachery via England.. And now.. when we need calm, reasonable intuitive diplomats in far away lands, to tell us what is really going on.. who do we have in place? Hell, what do we even have in place? Our best bet might be a private contract with someone like Juan Cole.. so we know exactly where the war wagons went, their armament and what they are actually being used for. But as Harper proclaimed 'they're just transports' & as Trudeau blurted 'just jeeps'. ..
I read the story this morning in The Star, and my first reaction was the same as yours, Mound: "Well, what did you expect?" This self-serving rhetoric by Freeland, no doubt to appease those who will be troubled by what the Saudis are doing, will be shown as the hollow gesture it is unless it is followed up by swift and resolute action.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I am not holding my breath for the latter.
The Saudis had a history of using Canadian built fighting vehicles for democracy-suppression within Saudi Arabia and even in Bahrain where they rolled across the causeway to forcefully put down demonstrations. None of this was unknown to the government when first Harper and later Trudeau pushed this deal through "no questions asked."
ReplyDeleteThis. Makes. Me. Sick.
ReplyDeleteProspectus
ReplyDeletePoliSci 100 remedial for those students who took no Civics in high school
Professor Arnolt W Smith PhD et al
Average class score previous 100 semesters: A+
Rule One. When a policy has become controversial and indefensible, acknowledge that fact, say that the position is being studied under a microscope and if action is required promise to do just that. Then forget about it, close the laptop, go home and barbecue. Job done. If questioned much later if at all, feign surprise, and advise the matter was looked into and no action was required, although future policy will be adjusted to reflect changing circumstances. Can't have the rats trying to influence the running of the ship.
This method proven successful in 150 years of dealing with the indigenous peoples.
Rule 2. Blah, blah, blah and blah.
Rule 3. Same as Rules 1 and 2.
BM
Yes, BM, but you left out the constant yammering of "jobs, jobs, jobs".
ReplyDeleteMore than a little truth in this older movie.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej83QvHuiNI
If my memory serves me well , I remember, many years ago, when the Canadian Government under PE Trudeau rolled out a red carpet to welcome this a,hole to Canada.
Khashoggi was one of the rich and famous that were so admired in the early seventies regardless of how they made their fortune.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/adnan-khashoggi-dead-saudi-arms-dealer-playboy-pleasure-wives-billionaire-lifestyle-wealth-profit-a7778031.html
Since then we have had Karl Heinz Schreiber who was protected for years from extradition to Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Schreiber
It's all just a western tradition to sell arms to poor brown people with resources that can be exploited.
TB
Hey TB thanks....
ReplyDeleteKarl Heinz Schreiber
my all time favourite, cherubic purveyor of brown bags of money!
Ah memory lane.... Paying off a former money-grubbing PM that lied to us and then appoint one of his premier white-washers to the a semi-regal potentially important post.
" Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland is deeply concerned about this situation."
ReplyDeleteThis is another example of Freelands over the top blustering when in fact she could care less.She's like someone driving a stolen car and when caught apologizes, but continues driving it.
When Freeland and her side kick Trudeau gush on about how wonderful their neoliberal policy or military decisions will be for the Canadian people, my mind immediately goes to lockdown because I know their lying.
Why is Freeland not concerned with the torture and execution in Mosul by the Iraqi army against those who are accused of being in ISIL. This barbaric brutality is done without judicial process or trial. The Iraqi army is trained and supported by the U.S. And how about the 1 million citizens of Mosul having to flee, because men, woman and children are being killed by the Iraqi army and why are the Iraqi army killing men, women and children? Their answer is because they were ordered to do so.
There are approximately 200 Canadian military personnel in Iraq. They are apparently there to train and support the Iraqi army. Right!! The nightmare that is Mosul continues with the slaughter that is called a liberation by the U.S. military and the MSM and the Iraqi army. Do the Canadian military personnel see this slaughter? Of course they do. They witness everything that is taking place in Mosul and in the whole of Iraq. And what does Freeland have to say about all of this? Nothing, 0, complete silence!
As Canada gets more and more involved in U.S./NATO wars throughout the world, courtesy of our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland expect more silence and when the need arises to communicate with the Canadian people, expect more bluster and lies.
If someone lifted the lid covering the whole of the Middle East, people would find themselves staring straight at Dante's inferno. This is what our government now wants to be part of.
Pamela- noted, and filed. Thanks.
ReplyDelete