Canada selling Arms to Africa in Boko Whatshisface fight

[Masato]

So, is this about peacekeeping/human rights/fighting Islamic Extremism? Or is it just big business?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/wor ... sf_globefb

With global arms sales surging, Canadian companies have joined the booming business by selling armoured vehicles to Nigeria and Cameroon for their fight against Boko Haram, a new study says.

Canada is among a growing group of countries selling arms to the West African nations for the military campaign to recapture territory from the radical Islamist militia, according to the report on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Most Western governments have been reluctant to sell weapons to Nigeria because of widespread concerns about well-documented atrocities by the Nigerian military, including the mass murder of civilians and detainees. The United States, for example, cancelled the proposed sale of Cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria last year. But those restrictions don’t seem to apply to private companies.

Nigeria and Cameroon, seeking weapons to fight Boko Haram, have in the past year purchased helicopters from China and Russia and armoured vehicles from China, South Africa, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, along with armoured vehicles from Canadian-owned production lines in Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, the report said.

With a close-fought election looming on March 28 and the Boko Haram rebellion becoming a huge election issue, Nigeria has spent large sums on major weapons purchases in recent months. Its political leaders say the government went to the black market to buy weapons because the United States and other countries would not sell to Nigeria. Hundreds of foreign mercenaries have also reportedly been hired to fight Boko Haram for $400 (U.S.) in cash per day.

The Nigerian deals are part of a worldwide boom in weapons sales. Global arms sales have jumped by 16 per cent over the past five years, compared with the previous five-year period, the SIPRI report said.

The report showed that China is now the world’s third-biggest weapons exporter. China’s arms exports have soared by a stunning 143 per cent over the past five years, allowing it to overtake Germany, France and Britain in global sales, although it still remains far behind the two biggest exporters, the United States and Russia, which together account for 58 per cent of arms exports. In the past five years, U.S. exports have increased by 23 per cent, while Russian exports have risen by 37 per cent, compared with the previous five-year period.

Canada was the world’s 13th-biggest arms exporter over the past five years, according to the SIPRI report. In the previous five-year period, it was the 14th-biggest weapons exporter.

The SIPRI database identifies the sale of 40 armoured vehicles to Nigeria from Canadian companies in 2013 and 2014. Streit Group, founded in Canada in 1992, has publicly confirmed that it has recently sold its Spartan armoured vehicles to Nigeria. The company says it has sold 12,000 armoured vehicles worldwide since its foundation.

Peter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stcokholm institute, said another Canadian-based company, INKAS, has sold light armoured patrol vehicles to Nigeria from a production plant in Nigeria. Retired Canadian general David Fraser, who commanded Canadian troops in Afghanistan, is a director of INKAS.

In a press release last year, INKAS said one of its armoured vehicles came under attack in a bombing in July, 2014, in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna while it was transporting a former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, who was unharmed in the attack. Mr. Buhari is now the main opposition candidate against President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 election.

Mr. Wezeman, in an e-mailed answer to questions from The Globe and Mail on Monday, said Canada should ensure it “understands the risks involved in arms exports” and should try to help Nigeria to deal with Boko Haram “in a way that involves the minimum amount of violence needed.” He added: “Just allowing the supply of weapons is not enough.” He said he was speaking in his personal capacity, not on behalf of the institute.

[Masato]

lol @ the last paragraph

[Masato]

Here is some info on our weapons sales to Saudi Arabia (another country steeped in violence and dictatorship rule).

$10 BILLION, folks:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/general ... -1.2537934

General Dynamics Canada wins $10B deal with Saudi Arabia



The federal government has helped secure a $10-billion US deal for a Canadian company to sell armoured vehicles to Saudia Arabia, a country widely condemned for its human rights abuses.

The deal was announced today by International Trade Minister Ed Fast at the London, Ont., plant of General Dynamics Land Systems.

The Canadian Commercial Corporation, the government's international contracting agency, helped secure the deal. The organization said the Saudi government wouldn't consent to disclose the number of heavy armoured fighting vehicles, ancilliary equipment, training and support services included.

The company, known by its acronym GDLS, is the manufacturer of the LAV III armoured vehicle Canada used in Afghanistan. It also makes similar Stryker armoured vehicles for the United States and bid with a larger, heavier model in the recently cancelled Canadian procurement of heavy armoured personnel carriers that would have been worth $2 billion for 108 vehicles, plus training and maintenance.

Neither the Canadian government nor GDLS has been so far willing to say how many of the sophisticated weapons systems will be built for the government of Saudi Arabia, but a $10-billion US deal could buy many hundreds of vehicles.
Women's rights violations

Human Rights Watch in its 2014 report alleged the government of Saudi Arabia remains a serial abuser of human rights.

"Saudi Arabia stepped up arrests, trials, and convictions of peaceful dissidents, and forcibly dispersed peaceful demonstrations by citizens in 2013," the report said.

"Authorities continued to violate the rights of nine million Saudi women and girls and nine million foreign workers ... As in past years, authorities subjected thousands of people to unfair trials and arbitrary detention."

Saudi Arabia permits beheading and stoning as forms of criminal punishment for murder and rape, alongside social crimes such as adultery. Homosexual acts are also punishable by death, flogging and imprisonment, as is drug use. Saudi Arabia is also regularly condemned for its treatment of women, who will earn the right to vote in 2015, but who will still be disallowed from driving cars — or armoured vehicles, for that matter.

In a statement today, London, Ont., Conservative MP Susan Truppe praised the deal. Truppe, who is also the parliamentary secretary for the Status of Women, said the deal proved the Conservative government was acting on job creation and not just spouting empty rhetoric.

"I am thrilled that our government has announced that London will be the primary beneficiary of the largest advanced manufacturing export win in our nation’s history," she said.

The government and GDLS say the Saudi deal will create and sustain more than 3,000 jobs a year for 14 years and will benefit 500 Canadian companies. Its value could climb to nearly $14 billion if all options are exercised.

Delivery of the first vehicles is expected in 2016.
'Important partner'

In a statement, Trade Minister Ed Fast's spokesman Rudy Husny defended the deal with Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Arabia is an important partner for Canada. It has significant regional and global influence, and plays a leadership role among Arab countries on key regional issues, including Syria and Iran," Husny wrote.

"We will continue to engage with Saudi Arabia on a range of issues including regional security and human rights."

Husny said Canada has strict rules governing arms exports and all deals are rigorously assessed against those standards.

"Further, Canada won these jobs over rival bids from our western allies Germany and France. We supported this agreement to bring these jobs to Canada."

Canada's arms export laws prevent the sale of weapons to countries that "pose a threat to Canada and its allies, that are involved in or under imminent threat of hostilities, that are under United Nations Security Council sanctions; or whose governments have a persistent record of serious violations of the human rights of their citizens."

The last provision includes an exemption for countries where "it can be demonstrated that there is no reasonable risk that the goods might be used against the civilian population."

The contract with the Saudis follows an agreement last year that saw General Dynamics win a $65.3-million US contract with the Colombian government.

The Colombian Ministry of National Defence signed a deal to buy 24 light armoured vehicles from General Dynamics.

The company also signed a $24-million US deal last year to produce 13 light armoured vehicles for the U.S. Marine Corps.

[Masato]

My accountant has a client who made millions selling rubber bullets to police in Egypt and Greece during the rioting days

[Edge Guerrero]

- 10 billion is so manny money.
But they don't have any use besides shooting people.

[Som-Pong]

And weapons don't disappear. Always someone willing to lend a killing hand :(

[greenseed]

Fuck this Canada.... I remember as a kid thinking Canada was a peacekeeping country but i even then it was probably a facade. Our 'leaders' claim to be all about human rights yet support Israel, Saudis and others with horrible hr records. What a joke.

[greenseed]

And weapons don't disappear. Always someone willing to lend a killing hand :(

That's a huge problem. We see in so many conflicts the Freedom Fighters get weapons from the west & then when that conflict has passed the weapons funnel to 'AQ' and other 'terrorists'. Then the west arms another group or sends in their plebs sons to fight that group. And on and on and on.

[Masato]

Wars have become mostly privatized, un-related to what 'nations' say they do or don't do.

When was the last time a Blackwater operation was discussed in the mainstream?

Politician's wars are only a charade, the real fighting is done subtly behind the scenes and on Wall st etc

[Luigi]

Fuck this Canada.... I remember as a kid thinking Canada was a peacekeeping country but i even then it was probably a facade. Our 'leaders' claim to be all about human rights yet support Israel, Saudis and others with horrible hr records. What a joke.

I love my country and my Canadian brothers and sisters, but I have noticed a ridiculous trend to take the American stereotype of the day and then take pride in being the antithesis of that, regardless of if it or the stereotype in question have any truth. I felt quite vindicated when I was reading up on some Freud and found what he describes as "the narcissism of small differences" and it fits the phenomenon to a T.