US Agrees to Record $60B Weapons Deal with Saudi Arabia
The Obama administration has reportedly finalized a $60 billion deal to sell advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia. It would be the largest-ever single arms deal in US history. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley declined to confirm the plans until the White House submits the deal for congressional approval.
P.J. Crowley: "There is a process involved in this, which includes congressional notification, so I’ll reserve comment at this point. You know, suffice it to say that at the core of our policy is making sure that there is stability in the region."
Under the agreement, Saudi Arabia could buy or upgrade over 150 F-15 fighters and purchase nearly 200 new helicopters.
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US Asks Arab States to Withdraw Israel Measure at IAEA
The Obama administration is asking Arab states to withdraw a measure calling on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The proposal would build on the non-binding measure approved at an assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, but the country has never officially acknowledged its program. By shunning the forty-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel has not had to reject atomic arms or allow the IAEA to probe all of its nuclear sites. On Monday, the US ambassador to the IAEA, Glyn Davies, defended Israel’s rejection of the NPT.
Glyn Davies: "Israel, remember, was an original member of the IAEA. They’ve always been in compliance with their obligations to the agency. So I think the challenge, the problem, that’s posed by the arguments that are being made by the Arab side is that they’re trying to expand the IAEA’s mandate in a way that would take it beyond its core functions. Issues of whether or not a sovereign state has chosen to associate itself with a treaty is outside the scope of the IAEA."
Davies also went on to criticize Iran in light of a recent IAEA report accusing Iran of hindering nuclear inspections. The IAEA says it’s been unable to confirm whether all of Iran’s nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes. Davies called Iran’s barring of two inspectors an "escalation."
Glyn Davies: "We believe a country has rejected inspectors based on the report that was issued by the IAEA, and that is very troubling, very concerning. It’s a real escalation, I think, in the effort by Iran to stonewall and stiff-arm the IAEA’s activities."
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Prominent Civil Rights-Era Photographer Was FBI Informant
And newly disclosed records show that one of the most prominent photographers of the civil rights era, Ernest Withers, was also a paid informant for the FBI. According to the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Withers worked closely with the FBI to monitor civil rights activists during the 1960s. Withers is said to have provided photographs, background information and scheduling details to two agents in FBI’s Memphis spying office. Withers photographed Dr. Martin Luther King at several marches and was the only photographer to cover the entire trial of those accused in the murder of the black teenager Emmett Till. In January 2007, months before his death, Amy Goodman interviewed Ernest Withers at his studio in Memphis, Tennessee. He talked about one of his most famous pictures: a mass of striking sanitation workers holding signs reading "I am a man" at what would turn out to be the last march led by Dr. King.
Ernest Withers: "The last march of his, of Martin King, they were lined up there at [inaudible] and Hernando outside of Cleveland Temple Church, and they were there with all those ’I’m a Man’ signs. And I thought it was dramatic and historic in what it was, but I didn’t know it was ending up to be as popular. But it was the last march of Martin King."
Withers’s alleged involvement was revealed because the FBI forgot to redact his name in declassified records discussing his collaboration.
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Israeli Military Accused of Sexually Abusing Palestinian Youth
The Israeli military, meanwhile, is facing new allegations around the sexual abuse of jailed Palestinian children. In an interview with CNN, an unidentified Palestinian youth said a group of Israeli soldiers had tried to sodomize him with an object while he was in custody.
Unidentified youth: "I was handcuffed and holding onto the chair with my hands. They tried to insert a plastic stick inside me. They tried to sodomize me with it. I fell forward and tried to move away."
Reporter: "He claims a dozen officers were laughing at him, only stopping when their boss walked in. He says they did not manage to insert the stick."
Earlier this year, the group Defense of Children International said it had gathered affidavits from fourteen Palestinian children claiming Israeli soldiers had either sexually abused them or threatened sexual abuse. The alleged victims were between the ages of thirteen to sixteen years. Defense of Children International has submitted their testimony to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
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