The US has confirmed that it will sell 60 billion US dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that the US will provide the Middle Eastern country with a weapons package tailored to Saudi needs including 84 F-15 advanced fighter planes, military helicopters, anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles as well as guided bombs.
The US government said the arms deal which is the largest in US history is aimed at helping Saudi Arabia defend itself from potential threats to its oil facilities and protect its security from regional terrorism.

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=108215&code=Ne2&category=2

The US announced a $2bn (£1.3bn) arms sales deal with Pakistan today to help boost the fight against Taliban and al-Qaida groups using the country as a safe haven for attacks inside Afghanistan.

The deal, to be spread out over the next five years, amounts to about a 30% increase in US funding for weapons sales to Pakistan.

US-Pakistan relations are turbulent, constantly switching between Washington criticising Pakistan for a lack of commitment to fighting extremism to insisting it is one of its most important allies.

The planned increase in spending was announced by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, at the end of a three-day US-Pakistan summit in Washington attended by senior military, diplomatic and political representatives of both countries.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/us-offers-pakistan-arms-deal

MERCHANTS OF DEATH 

A Study of the International Armament Industry

a book by H.C. ENGELBRECHT, Ph.D.  1934

Complete and unabridged version as published
by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1934
FOREWORD
by
HARRY ELMER BARNES

IT is an unmitigated pleasure for me to commend this study of the international armament industry to the civilized reading public. In several important ways this book is an outstanding contribution to the literature of history and the social sciences.

In the first place, it points out a great gap in our knowledge of a branch of technology and industry and makes a valiant beginning at filling it. The evolution of firearms has played a very important part in the destiny of modern nations. Yet, for no generation or country is there a thoroughly satisfactory monographic treatment of the evolution of the firearms industry therein. There has been no end of writing on the wars which have been fought, but little or nothing is told us about the reason why soldiers in the Spanish-American war were more effectively armed than those of General George Washington, and even less is told about the source of armament supplies in the various wars. Histories tell us that the Prussians were armed with the “needle gun” in the War of 1866, but not one history professor in a dozen could explain what the “needle gun” actually was or indicate the transition from the muzzle loading to the breech loading muskets.

In the second place, this study reveals illuminating information with respect to the organization and sales methods of a very considerable industry. The propaganda and high pressure salesmanship which has characterized contemporary business finds its prototype in the activities of armament manufacturers long before our generation.

There is no denying the importance of wars, particularly wars waged with contemporary methods of devastation. Wars may be a menace to the race, but their increasing ravages only make them more significant in at least a negative sense. If wars can no longer make any considerable constructive contribution to human life, they have become increasingly potent in their capacity to dislocate society and to destroy civilization. In his latest book, Mr. H.G. Wells has given us a vivid and appalling forecast of the horrors of the next world war. The technology of armaments controls the material sinews of war. As the effectiveness and deadliness of armaments has increased, war has become more devastating and demoralizing. Nothing could be more helpful than a systematic history of the armament industry in enabling us to understand why mankind needs to busy itself particularly today in bringing the material technique of mass murder under control if we wish to preserve the semblance of modern civilization. This is the third out standing merit of this book.

A fourth characteristic of this volume will commend itself to thoughtful readers, namely the comprehensive and complete character of the treatment given to the armament industry. Here is a satisfactory history of its development, an outline of its achievements, a delineation of the methods which have been followed by leading armament firms, an exposure of the degradation of ethics which has accompanied the efforts of the armament moguls to market their products, and an indication of the bearing of the whole historical study upon the outlook for world peace.

Not less impressive than the comprehensiveness of the work is the sane and reasonable tone which pervades the whole study. Most accounts of the armament industry have been written by men and women who possess all the fervor of the valiant crusader against war. It is no disparagement of the usefulness and courage of the ardent pacifist to point out that this crusading psychology does not always supply the best background for a sane perspective on the causes of war. When a professional pacifist cuts loose on the armament industry, he frequently gives the impression that the armament makers constitute the chief menace to peace. By thus obscuring much more powerful factors which make for war, such writers render at least an indirect disservice to the cause of peace.

Dr. Engelbrecht and Mr. Hanighen do not fall victim to this temptation. They thoroughly expose all the evils of the armament industry, but they remain at all times conscious that broader forces, such as patriotism, imperialism, nationalistic education, and capitalistic competition, play a larger part than the armament industry in keeping alive the war system.

In another respect also is their reasonableness conspicuously apparent. They expose the corruption, graft and disloyalty of the armament makers with a thoroughness sufficient to gratify the most determined pacifist. At the same time, they make no effort to portray these armament pirates, their lobbyists and salesmen, as peculiarly depraved members of the human race. They recognize that they are no more corrupt than, for instance, our own great investment bankers. If British tank-masters hastened to sell Russia tanks while their government was about to break off diplomatic relations with Russia, so did Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Wiggin sell short the stock of their own banks. If British airplane companies were ready to sell aircraft to the Hitler government, so did Mr. Sinclair and his associates make vast profits at the expense of their own stockholders.

read more:

http://www.whale.to/c/merchants_of_death_b.html

This is a basic introduction to the issue of small arms/light weapons trafficking and national and international efforts to control it.

For more information, contact Matt Schroeder, Manager of the FAS Arms Sales Monitoring Project, at 202-454-4693 or by email at mschroeder@fas.org.

Introduction

Illicit arms trafficking fuels civil wars, contributes to sky-rocketing crime rates and feeds the arsenals of the world's worst terrorists. Particularly troubling is the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SA/LW). SA/LW account for an estimated 60-90% of the 100,000+ conflict deaths each year (Small Arms Survey 2005) and tens of thousands of additional deaths outside of war zones. They are also the weapons of choice for many terrorists. Of the roughly 175 terrorist attacks identified in last year's State Department report on Patterns of Global Terrorism, approximately half were committed with small arms or light weapons.

For these reasons, small arms trafficking is not a problem you solve; it is a problem you manage. By enacting strong export and border controls, safeguarding (or destroying) stockpiles, dismantling trafficking networks, and addressing the root causes of the civil conflicts and soaring urban crime rates, governments can reduce the supply of, and demand for, these weapons.

read more:

https://fas.org/asmp/campaigns/smallarms/IssueBrief3ArmsTrafficking.html

see also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27119

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/32305

An independent arms monitoring group has collected evidence that fighters in the Islamic State (IS) group, labeled a "network of death" by President Obama, are using weapons and ammunition manufactured in at least 21 different countries, including China, Russia, and the United States.

The report, released Oct. 6 by Conflict Armament Research, indicates that the Islamic State’s relatively newly-formed force has had little difficulty tapping into the huge pool of armaments fueling the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, supplied not only by the world’s big powers but also by up-and-coming exporters such as Sudan.

read more:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/06/where-does-the-islamic-state-get-its...

An Amnesty International report has detailed how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group obtained the bulk of their vast arms supply from the Iraqi army.

The rights organisation concluded that a substantial amount of ISIL's arsenal comprises weapons and equipment "looted, captured or illicitly traded from poorly secured Iraqi military stocks".

ISIL, which seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq in recent years, has obtained a significant portion of its weapons from capturing key military bases in both countries.

read more:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/isil-seized-weapons-iraq-military-...

In June 2014, Iraqi forces dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms, and abandoned their posts as ISIS militants stormed into and captured Mosul. More than a year later, the United States began funneling $1.6 billion worth of new weaponry and other support to the beleaguered Iraqi army. The arsenal includedtens of thousands of assault rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles, hundreds of mortar rounds, nearly 200 sniper rifles, and other gear.

What happened to much of it is now a mystery. According to a government audit obtained by Amnesty International, the US Army admits that it failed to accurately track this recent infusion of arms and other military supplies.

The now-declassified Department of Defense audit, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveals that efforts to keep track of weapons being sent to Iraq have been plagued by sloppy, fragmented, and inaccurate record keeping. The audit concluded that the Army unit in charge of transferring materiel to the Iraqi government “could not provide complete data for the quantity and dollar value of equipment on hand”—including large items such as vehicles.

This is not a new development. “If you do look back at previous audits, almost word for word, you get the same recommendations about the fact that they can’t centralize records, they’ve got records spread across different spreadsheets, it’s very difficult for them to locate weapons as they pass down the chain,” says Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s arms control and human rights researcher. He notes that some Iraqi supply records are hand-written paper receipts.

The problem predates the current conflict by more than a decade. In 2007, theGovernment Accountability Office found that the United States could not account for nearly 30 percent of the weapons it had distributed in Iraq since 2004—about 200,000 guns. The situation does not appear to have improved much since then. In 2015, the Pentagon’s inspector general reported that the Iraqi army relies on “a manual, paper-based system for tracking supplies and equipment.” Even US and Iraqi personnel supervising arms depots did not know where specific weapons were supposed to be. Last year, Commander Elissa Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman, told Mother Jones, “The bottom line is that the US military does not have a means to track equipment that has been taken from the government of Iraq by” ISIS.

Read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/us-weapons-iraq-isis-trackin...

The trade in question is in the private sector of so-called “non-military weapons”. There seems little doubt that unleashing an already massive American export trade in private weapons will further fuel “the scourge” of conflicts and terrorism around the world.

What is also telling is the timing of the move by the Trump administration. 

The move to boost exports of private American gun makers also follows an investigative report revealing a $2.2 billion arms pipeline run by the Pentagon and the CIA into Syria. Citing incriminating procurement papers, the explosive report shows how American government agencies are funneling assault rifles and rocket launchers, among other munitions, from Central and Eastern Europe into Syria to arm anti-government militant groups. 

What the latest move by the Trump administration will do is obscure the potential paper trail of the weapons trade. In effect, the proposed change in US export regulations amounts to privatizing arms dealing. 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/404311-us-pentagon-arms-exports-syria/

Meanwhile:

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released aerial images which they say show US Army special forces equipment north of the town of Deir er-Zor, where ISIS militants are deployed.

READ MORE: Russia warns US it will strike back if militia attacks in Syria don’t end

US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, the ministry said in a statement.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/404365-us-special-forces-isis/