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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Saudis Buying Balkan Arms for Syrian Rebels
2013-02-27
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
has been supplying Syrian rebels battling the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
with arms bought from Croatia, according to The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

Citing unnamed U.S. and western officials, the newspaper reported late Monday that the Saudi-financed "large purchase of infantry weapons" was part of an "undeclared surplus" of arms left over from the Balkan wars in the 1990s and that they began reaching anti-regime fighters via Jordan in December.

That was when many Yugoslav weapons started showing up in YouTube videos posted by rebels, it said.

Since then, The Times added, officials said "multiple planeloads" of weapons have left Croatia, with one quoted as saying the shipments included "thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns," as well as an "unknown quantity of ammunition."

A spokeswoman for the Croatian Foreign Ministry told The Times that, since the start of the Arab Spring, the Balkan country had not sold any weapons to either Saudi Arabia or the Syrian rebels. Saudi and Jordanian officials meanwhile declined to comment, the newspaper added.
Posted by:Fred

#5  Ditto Pappy. I hold ghetto pimps in higher esteem than congressional staffers.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-02-27 20:58  

#4  Syria is not a simple matter; neither was Libya, nor Egypt.

Well, duh. The Sauds are financing weapons purchases for the rebels for a myriad number of reasons (among which may be by encouragement from the current US administration).

Your commentary reflected none of that.

That does not make it untrue that the Saudis have been on both sides of the fence in the WOT.

I never said it was untrue. I said that your commentary was "rote".

Your remarks remind me of dealing with Congressional staffers during my (mercifully) brief stay in DC. For the most part their jobs were to reinforce their boss' and their own political view/position, not necessarily to actually have to receive and evaluate a SITREP that would interfere with their mindset and digestion.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-02-27 18:32  

#3  Syria is not a simple matter; neither was Libya, nor Egypt. That does not make it untrue that the Saudis have been on both sides of the fence in the WOT.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-27 16:56  

#2  A spokeswoman for the Croatian Foreign Ministry told The Times that, since the start of the Arab Spring, the Balkan country had not sold any weapons to either Saudi Arabia or the Syrian rebels

And that's likely (and legally) accurate. There's probably a few arms brokers making bank.

What's new? The Sauds have been bankrollers of terror all along

It's not a simplistic as that with regards to Syria, if one takes the time and the energy to look at things, instead of merely spouting off rote commentary.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-02-27 11:51  

#1  What's new? The Sauds have been bankrollers of terror all along. They are the Pakistainis with oil money. They never put their fat a$$es on the line. U.S. oil and energy independence ASAP.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-27 10:42  

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