Pentagon Has No Money to Build Next-Gen Tank Rivaling Russian Armata

The US Department of Defense has struggled to readjust to major budget cuts on military spending imposed in recent years, which among other things has apparently led to the US Army lacking the funds to develop and produce next-generation armored vehicles to the M1A2 Abrams and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV).

“I’d love to have replacement programs today for the Abrams and Bradley and lay in plans to go do that,” Major General David Bassett, the US Army’s program executive officer for ground combat systems, told reporters at the Association of the US Army (AUSA) annual conference. “But it doesn’t fit in this portfolio in this budget environment.”

Developed in the 1970s, the M1 Abrams third-generation main battle tank has been in services with the US military since 1980. The current version of the Abrams, the M1A2, was rolled out in 1992. The Pentagon is currently working on the M1A3 upgrade that will include a lighter 120 mm gun, more durable track, lighter armor, long-range precision armaments, etc.

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) has also been in service for decades, since 1981. The US Army planned to replace the platform as part of the Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicles program, which was launched in 1999 and canceled a decade later. In 2010, the US Army launched the Ground Combat Vehicle program, which was also meant to replace the Bradley, but pulled the plug on the initiative three years later.

“Instead, the Army is incrementally improving its venerable armored combat vehicles to keep them relevant against a rapidly modernizing threat – the Russian Armata family of combat vehicles for example,” defense analyst Dave Majumdar explained.

Bassett confirmed that there was “room for growth” for both platforms, but admitted that there is a limit on how many more improvements could be made to the existing vehicles.

“Even incremental development and improvement will mean that both the M1A2 SEPv.3 and the Bradley will remain potent machines,” Majumdar wrote for the National Interest. “Whether the Army’s incremental approach will be sufficient to keep pace with Russian and Chinese developments is yet to be seen – but in the current budgetary environment, it’s the best the Army can do.”

In late 2015, the Pentagon made it clear that the agency would have to slow down modernization programs and cut research and development budget to meet requirements set in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

Threatening ‘Body Bags’: Is All-Out War Between Russia and the US on its Way?

US State Department spokesman John Kirby has made strong statements of late regarding Russia’s involvement in Syria, claiming that if Russia will not cooperate with the US, Moscow will keep sending troops home in “body bags.”

Radio Sputnik’s Brian Becker discussed the implications of Kirby’s remarks with political analyst Marwa Osman and Loud & Clear producer Walter Smolarek.

At the daily media briefing on Wednesday, former Pentagon Press Secretary and current State Department spokesperson John Kirby said: “The consequences are that the civil war will continue in Syria, that extremists and extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations, which will include, no question, attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities, and Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags, and they will continue to lose resources — even, perhaps, more aircraft,” he said.

That statement has been widely perceived as a veiled threat. In particular, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova asked on her Facebook page, “Don’t you think that such ventriloquism about ‘body bags,’ ‘terrorist attacks in Russian cities’ and ‘loss of aircraft’ sounds more like a ‘get ’em’ command, rather than a diplomatic comment?”

Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov responded to Kirby’s statements, saying, “Concerning Kirby’s threat about the possible loss of Russian aircraft, and sending Russian soldiers home ‘in body bags,’ I will say that we are well informed on where in Syria, including in Aleppo Province, and exactly how many ‘unadvertised’ specialists are engaged in operational planning and commanding the militants.”

“Naturally, one can continue to keep telling us they are stubbornly but ineffectually trying to separate Jabhat al-Nusra from the ‘opposition.’ However, if there are attempts to make good on these threats, it is far from being a fact that the militants will have either body bags or time to save their skins,” he added.

Kirby’s statements coincide with the release of an interview with Abu Al Ezz, a field commander of the former Nusra Front, a terrorist organization that now brands itself under the title “Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.”

“Yes, the US supports the opposition [in Syria], but not directly. They support the countries that support us. But we are not yet satisfied with this support,” Abu Al Ezz told the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.

Marwa Osman told Radio Sputnik’s Brian Becker that the White House rhetoric indicates that there remains a very high risk for all-out war between Russia and the US.

The US appears to have lost interest in sustaining the ceasefire, according to Loud & Clear producer Walter Smolarek, joining Becker and Osman in the discussion. Smolarek suggested that the recent US air strike on Assad’s forces, that resulted in a Daesh advance, was intentional.

“The Pentagon effectively vetoed the decision from the political leadership, the State Department,” he said.

According to Smolarek, disrupting the Syrian ceasefire was necessary, because if peace had continued, a joint US-Russia cooperation center would be mandated, requiring intelligence sharing. In light of this possibility, the US and Russia would be perceived as military allies. That end result, in Smolarek’s eyes, is not what the Pentagon wants, as the US military repeatedly paints Russia as its primary and ongoing military threat, and, using Moscow as its excuse, consistently demands an “enormously expanded budget” and more “extremely expensive weapons.”

But the Pentagon is playing with fire, according to Osman. US Navy ships in the vicinity of Russian territory are a direct threat, she says, and these provocations have become the Pentagon’s favorite game, considering its support for unreliable violent religious fundamentalists in Syria.

And throughout this military gamesmanship, the ongoing Syrian civil war worsens, spinning out of control, Osman said. The so-called moderate extremists cannot be controlled, as evidenced by how they “make promises and don’t stand up to them.”

Islamic terrorists in Syria, including Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham — the latter another name for the internationally-recognized terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra — are driven by the religious doctrine of Wahhabism, which depends on fatwas, an opinion issued by a mufti, or religious leader, that becomes a demand or law to his followers.

“Any fatwa can be issued, and they just can do whatever they want,” Osman stated.

US Congress Exposes CENTCOM Propaganda Scheme: Cooking Intel on Syria Fight

A joint task force has determined that defense intelligence appraisals provided by US Central Command systematically provided a distorted “rosy” picture, in stark contrast to battlefield realities, in order to create the false appearance that the US strategy in Syria and Iraq was succeeding.

On Thursday, a congressional joint task force (JTF) investigating allegations of intelligence manipulation at US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a report highlighting systematic failures since 2015 with CENTCOM reporting and analysis of efforts to train Iraqi Security Forces and combat the Daesh extremist network in Iraq and Syria.

Notably, the report found that the intelligence products approved by senior CENTCOM leaders routinely provided a more rosy depiction of US anti-terrorism efforts than on-the-ground realities indicated, including appraisals that were consistently more positive than those produced by other agencies and departments within the US intelligence establishment.

The Joint Task Force, established by the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense,  determined that there were intentional efforts to manipulate and propagandize battlefield realities, possibly for the purpose of scoring political points in a heated election season. The committee was led by Congressmen Ken Calvert (R-CA), Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH).

The allegations laid out by the JTF are likely to be dismissed as a “partisan witch hunt” against the White House, but initial findings that electoral politics have resulted in the manipulation of America’s defense imperative is not an uncommon theme for US presidential administrations, and that of President Barack Obama is no exception.

Representative Pompeo, in a statement, took the Defense Department to task, observing that “the United States Central Command’s most senior intelligence leaders manipulated the command’s intelligence products to downplay the threat from [Daesh] in Iraq,” and argued that the fraudulently “rosy” claims of operational success “may well have resulted in putting American troops at risk as policymakers relied on this intelligence when formulating policy and allocating resources for the fight.”

Alexander Mercouris, editor of The Duran and an expert on the Syrian civil war and the battle against Daesh, expressed his concern to Sputnik over the congressional findings.

“I think the point was to give the impression that the policy of supporting so-called moderate rebels in Iraq and Syria who were fighting [Daesh], was more successful than it actually was,” Mercouris said.

“The Obama Administration announced this great policy that it would take on Daesh and defeat Daesh by bombing the terrorist group and supporting ‘moderate’ groups in Syria and Iraq to fight Daesh, but without supporting the Syrian government which was actually fighting Daesh. The result of that policy was a complete failure.”

“Daesh actually increased its areas of control,” he added, “capturing Palmyra, and there were reports that they would have captured Damascus last autumn if the Russians had not intervened.”

Obama’s Offering of Largest Military Aid Package Ever Is Not Enough for Israel

Israeli officials play hardball, demanding that the Obama Administration pony up more than the record $40 billion ten-year offering made by the US — by a cool $10 billion

Last week, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford met with his Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon to discuss the new multi-billion-dollar military assistance package currently in negotiation between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations.

The package, proposed by the White House, calls for an unprecedented $40 billion in military aid over the next ten years, the single largest appropriation of foreign financial aid in world history, and significantly higher than the previous $30-billion agreement signed 10 years ago.

The Netanyahu Administration remains adamant that they will hold out for the best possible deal in light of geopolitical developments in Turkey and Syria that have resulted in a winnowing of America’s regional allies and its subsequent ability to project influence into the Middle East. The Israeli PM expressed unwillingness earlier in the year to accept anything less than $50 billion over the next ten years.

It has been speculated that Israel may be reticent to push the Obama Administration too strongly, for fear that they may not be able to negotiate as large a subsidy from the next president, especially in light of Donald Trump’s railings that the US is giving away too much money to foreign governments for the sake of its own security. However, with a decidedly hawkish Hillary Clinton surging in the polls in recent weeks, the Netanyahu Administration’s negotiating hand has improved.

In prolonged talks last weekend, the US Defense Department said in a statement that General Dunford stressed the closeness of US-Israeli relationships to Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, the chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Eizenkot was awarded the Legion of Merit, an award given to foreign military and political officials for “performance of outstanding services,” by a full honor guard as part of the Obama Administration’s charm offensive.

The influence of Lt. Gen. Eizenkot may be overplayed, however, as he was appointed by the former Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, who broke ranks with the increasingly hardline Netanyahu regime on Iran, and who further vowed to run against the Israeli Prime Minister in the next election.

“At this time and in the foreseeable future, there is [no] existential threat to Israel” from Iran, said Ya’alon, in the midst of negotiations regarding the Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu not only publicly differs on this point, but would lose a major bargaining chip to garner US defense appropriations if the perceived threat from Israel is downplayed.

Marine Corps General Dunford apparently aimed in his meeting to set the Netanyahu regime at ease regarding whether the spigot of military aid would continue, bringing Eizenkot to Utah where the Israeli Lt. Gen. saw F-35 fighter jets, costing a whopping $200 million per aircraft, being prepared for delivery to Israel later this year.

Concurrent to Eizenkot’s visit, acting head of the Israeli National Security Council Yaakov Nagel met with US National Security Adviser Susan Rice on a final draft of a new memorandum of understanding on military assistance to Israel set to come into effect in 2018 when the current memo expires.

Initial reports claim that Israel believes that the offering by the Obama Administration is still unsatisfactory.

Terrorists in Fighter Jets: Israel Warns Obama Stop Gulf Aircraft Sales

A $1 billion fighter jet package to Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait raises a host of concerns that known systematic violators of human rights may turn weapons against their own population or that the weapons may ultimately find their way into the hands of Daesh.

On Sunday, top US Air Force officials urged the US government to speed up its review of long-standing bids by Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain to buy American fighter jets citing growing frustration among key US allies in the Gulf about delays in procurement that threaten to undermine the mission in Syria.Air Force Deputy Undersecretary Heidi Grant expressed that she found herself in a bind attempting to reassure countries that Washington’s refusal to approval billions of dollars in US arms sales was not an indication of a weakening of the bilateral air force-to-air force relationships that exist.

Although Grant expressed that she “would like to see a decision soon” in an interview with Reuters on the eve of the Farnborough Airshow in England, the procurement process to the Gulf states with systematic records of human rights abuses presents a troubling legal and ethical conundrum for the United States.

Bahrain, specifically, has shown a willingness to turn US provided weapons against peaceful Shiite majority demonstrators who demand that the repressive Sunni King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa open the country to democratic reforms. These demonstrators, far from subversive, have proposed the idea that the King remain in the role of a government figurehead while policies are executed by the people.

The government in Manama struck fervently against this opposition routinely attacking, imprisoning, executing and torturing civilian demonstrators while outlawing the leading opposition party prescribed to by the majority of the population and stripping citizenship from opponents rendering people clamoring for self-determination stateless with US approval.

The situation has in fact become so dire in Bahrain that a group of hawkish US Senators led by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) have called on John Kerry’s State Department to address the political situation in Bahrain and to eliminate arm sales to Manama.

The tiny island kingdom of Bahrain, however, plays host to the Navy’s 5th Fleet which is why the State Department has repeatedly circumvented the Leahy Law, named after US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) which proscribes the sale of weapons to systematic abusers of human rights, by breaking arms sales into hundreds of smaller sales to improperly maneuver under the small-scale weapons sale exclusion.

Yes, the State Department is currently aiming to facilitate acts against humanity by employing the preferred method of money launderers who break transfers into cycles to avoid breaching the threshold required for filling out a currency transaction report.

Despite the patent illegality of this practice, the Obama administration’s Pentagon and State Department have both willfully signed off on the sale of 36 F-15 fighter jets to Qatar, 24 F/A 18E Super Hornets to Kuwait, and 16 F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain in a deal valued at just under $1 billion.

This deal has stalled, despite standing in stark contradiction to the State Department’s own findings that Bahrain continues to suppress democratic practice and is engaged in systematic human rights violations not out of adherence to US law, but rather because of objections raised by Israel that equipment sent to the Gulf states could fall into the wrong hands and be used against the United States.

The legacy of the Obama administration may ultimately be Daesh terrorists flying around in Super Hornets and F-16 fighter jets if the deal is allowed to move forward and it is for that reason that the Air Force Deputy Undersecretary Heidi Grant should not hold her breath waiting for approval.

US Cries Foul After Russian Warship refuses to be Bullied on the High Sea

The US military released a stinging statement accusing a Russian warship of violating international standards, but disregards its own act of hostility against the same ship only two weeks ago.

On Saturday, the US military accused a Russian warship of carrying out aggressive and erratic maneuvers close to a US Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the second such Cold War-style brush between the two forces on the high seas in a matter of weeks.

US European Command (EUCOM) said the Russian frigate, Yaroslav Mudry, tracked unnecessarily close to the USS Jacinto on June 30 and tailed the ship in a hostile manner.

EUCOM acknowledged that the US ship was never threatened and was allowed to maintain its course and speed without interruption, “but the closing distance by the Yaroslav Mudry before the ship turned away from San Jacinto is considered a high risk maneuver, highly unprofessional, and contrary to international regulations.”

“These actions can unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in dangerous miscalculations or accidents,” EUCOM said in a statement about the “aggressive, erratic maneuvers” of the Russian warship.

After a close approach the Russian ship is said to “have taken station in the San Jacinto’s wake about 3,000 yards astern of the cruiser” and to have broadcasted “do not cross my bow” which US officials claims is an act “inconsistent with the [Incidents at Sea] agreement.

The incident comes only two weeks after an exclusive Sputnik News video shows that US Naval forces engaged in a dangerous distance along the bow of the Yaroslav Mudry at a distance of less than 230 feet (70 meters) which Moscow decried as a “gross violation” of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

The Yaroslav Mudry followed its course and did not violate any international standards in this previous instance of American military hostility. The actions taken by the Yaroslav Mudry could be understood as a necessary precaution to prevent a similar incident of risky US intimidation tactics on the high seas.

Obama Releases ‘File 17’: Teaser of Secret Report Saudi Links 9/11

The White House released a document this week that gives the names and background of Saudi officials connected with the September 11 hijackers.

This week, the Obama administration declassified “File 17,” a secret document that lists more than three dozen Saudi nationals with connections to the 9/11 terror attack in what is considered to be a sneak peek to the still-secret 28 pages of congressional inquiry into the September 11 hijackings.

The document offers clues on what might be in the missing pages of the bipartisan report and is likely to renew calls by legislators to pass a law providing the family members of the 9/11 victims the right to sue the Saudi government.

The lead advocate in the push to hold Saudi Arabia accountable and to declassify the 9/11 commission report, former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), said “much of the information upon which File 17 was written was based on what’s in the 28 pages” which he believes establishes that the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while in the United States.

“File 17 said, ‘Here are some additional unanswered questions and here is how we think the 9/11 Commission, the FBI and the CIA should go about finding them,'” said Graham.

At the time of the 9/11 Commission, former President George W. Bush moved to classify the 28-page tome of Saudi terror secrets claiming it was necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. Two years ago, after years of outcry by the families of those killed or injured in the September 11 terror attacks, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the 28 pages.

It remains unclear when or if the complete congressional committee report will be made available to the public. The Obama administration has been forced to walk a tightrope with Saudi Arabia whose foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir recently threatened that Riyadh would pull its entire $750 billion holding in US Treasury bonds if the report saw the light of day and if the 9/11 victims were allowed to sue the Kingdom.

Quoting Bill Clinton in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Adel al-Jubeir recently said that “there is no there there” and that there was no concerted scheme by the Saudi royal family to bring about the most deadly attack on the US mainland in the country’s history.

File 17 is available on the public advocacy website 28pages.org where it names people the hijackers were in contact with in the United States before the attack, many of whom were top Saudi diplomats raising questions about whether Riyadh knew about the plot all along.

Although the 9/11 Commission’s final report found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [al Qaida],” the report also said that “this conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida.”

US Mayors Blast Obama: War Games on Russia’s Border Endanger Humanity

The leaders of America’s towns and cities issued a resolution warning the Obama administration and NATO that continued anti-Russian provocations place humanity at greater risk of nuclear annihilation.

The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), the official non-partisan organization for city leaders administering populations greater than 30,000, moved to condemn NATO’s Anaconda War Games on Russia’s border as increasing the threat of nuclear conflict.

“The largest NATO war games in decades, involving 14,000 US troops, and activation of US missile defenses in Eastern Europe are fueling growing tensions between nuclear-armed giants,” said the USCM warning in the lead up to the military alliance’s summit on July 8-9 in Warsaw, Poland.

The resolution adopted at the USCM’s 84th Annual Conference from June 24-27 in Indianapolis stated: “More than 15,000 nuclear weapons, most orders of magnitude more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, 94% held by the United States and Russia, continue to pose an intolerable threat to cities and humanity.”

The US Conference of Mayors went on to criticize President Obama for capitulating to the defense establishment and “laying the groundwork for the United States to spend one trillion dollars over the next three decades” on the so-called nuclear modernization effort that will result in a net increase in America’s atomic stockpile in contravention to the spirit of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“The Obama administration has not only reduced the US nuclear stockpile less than any post-Cold War presidency, but also decided to spend on trillion dollars to maintain and modernize its nuclear bombs and warheads, production facilities, delivery systems, and command and control,” read the resolution.

America’s mayors called into the question the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons with yields in excess of 1 megaton, or 75 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb that killed nearly 150,000 people, at a time when “federal funds are desperately needed in our communities to build affordable housing, create jobs with livable wages, improve public transit, and develop sustainable energy sources.”

To underscore the resolution, the USCM acknowledged and apologized for America’s genocidal acts against Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of World War II stating that the “US atomic bombings indiscriminately incinerated tens of thousands of ordinary people, and by the end of 1945 more than 210,000 people – mainly civilians, were dead, and the surviving hibakusha, their children and grandchildren continue to suffer from physical, psychological and sociological effects.”

The country’s mayors continue to be a voice of peace and reason in the face of mounting influence by the foreign policy establishment and defense lobbyists having rendered similar resolutions calling for the United States to pursue a less threatening foreign policy for 11 consecutive years.

NATO’s Collapse: Turkey May Exist Over Refugee Blockage, Arming of Kurds

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan envisioned himself the Sultan of a new Ottoman Empire, but now faces the bleak reality that he is the annoying little brother of the US and Europe who will never get his way.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced this week that NATO will expand its presence in the Mediterranean in order to stem the tide of Syrian refugees flowing from Turkey into Europe. Ankara has objected, feeling the alliance’s resources could be put to better use elsewhere.

Turkish officials argue that NATO’s limited resources should instead be directed towards combatting ‘Russian aggression’ in a bid to hamstring the alliance’s efforts to prevent human smuggling in the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.

There are currently over six million refugees of the Syrian Civil War, with 2.75 million seeking shelter in neighboring Turkey. The country has become the single largest host nation of migrants fleeing the horrors of war and the threat of enslavement at the hands of Daesh extremists.

In addition to the large initial intake of refugees, Ankara also offered to shelter an additional one million refugees currently residing in Europe in exchange for approximately $7.3 billion. The deal also included concessions that would provide Turkish citizens with visa-free travel within Europe’s Schengen Zone and expedite the country’s European Union membership.

That deal has wavered in recent weeks following the Turkish government’s crackdown on both the media and dissent, including advancing a constitutional amendment that will allow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prosecute all opposition lawmakers from the Kurdish HDP Party under the country’s anti-terrorism laws.

This move toward totalitarianism follows Turkey’s aggressive decision to shoot down a Russian warplane. The Erdogan government has also faced accusations of being engaged in illegal arms and oil trade with Daesh militants, stoking the flames of war.

British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that Turkey may not be ready for inclusion in the European Union, and the EU has soured on the idea of offering visa-free travel to Turkish citizens. Erdogan responded by threatening to unleash a new wave of migrants onto Europe’s mainland.

Now the military alliance of 28 nations is looking to strip Ankara of their greatest bargaining chip by blockading migrant sea smuggling from Turkey.

Additionally, Erdogan’s regime has been forced to endure the US arming of Kurdish YPG forces in the struggle against Daesh extremists in Syria. Ankara has repeatedly denounced Washington’s policy of cooperation with the YPG, labelling the group a terrorist organization and calling the organization an offshoot of the PKK.

The move by US and European officials to push Turkey aside may soon result in fracturing the alliance and, at minimum, looks to undermine the effectiveness of the organization’s efforts in Syria and abroad.

Obama Gets Congress to Back Selling Cluster Bombs to Saudi “Child Killers”

Despite concerns of human rights violations conducted by Riyahd in Yemen, the United States has decided to give the Kingdom weapons that disproportionately threaten children.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted against banning the transfer of cluster bomb munitions to Saudi Arabia. This came only one week after a scandal surfaced about Riyadh’s targeting of children in the US-backed mission in Yemen, which the regime attempted to cover up by extorting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

On June 2, the United Nations added Saudi Arabia to the “child killers blacklist” in their annual Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) report, but only four days later the UN Secretary General announced that the regime was to be removed from the list pending further investigation of the report’s claims by Saudi and United Nations officials.

At the time, Ban Ki-moon attempted to minimize the controversy, implying the redaction was temporary. But Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the United Nations declared that Riyadh’s removal from the infamous list is permanent.

Last Thursday, the UN chief went public about the circumstances surrounding his decision to remove Saudi Arabia from the list.

“The report describes horrors no child should have to face, but at the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund UN programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair,” Ban said.

Reports indicate that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir informed the United Nations that if the truth about Riyadh’s war crimes against children in Yemen was not redacted, the country would move to eliminate as much as $500 million in annual funding for UN programs. He also threatened to coordinate with Arab allies.

This is not the first time that the Saudi Foreign Minister has resorted to extortion to prevent embarrassing truths to come to light. In April, Adel al-Jubeir informed Washington that Riyadh would move to dump $750 billion in US Treasury bonds if legislation was passed that allowed the family members of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.

United Nation’s researchers had previously determined that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen should be included under the “parties that kill or maim children” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals” after uncovering evidence that 60% of the 785 child deaths and 1,168 child injuries in the conflict were attributed to Riyadh’s bombing attacks. Many of these attacks involved weapons provided by the United States.

Despite these concerns, the United States has nonetheless agreed to continue the sale of weapons that international experts say pose a disproportionate threat to young people, who can easily mistake unexploded cluster ordinances for toys.

The decision by the US Congress came in no small part through aggressive lobbying by the Obama administration’s Department of Defense.

“The Department of Defense strongly opposes this amendment,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ). “They advised us that it would stigmatize cluster munitions, which are legitimate weapons with clear military utility.”

Cluster bombs remain banned by an international treaty signed by 119 countries, not including the United States. American officials argue that while cluster munitions should not be used by other countries, the weapons used by the US military include sophisticated fail-safes that prevent unexploded munitions from falling into the hands of children.

However, extensive research by Human Rights Watch indicates that US cluster bombs pose a comparable threat to civilians.