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Some of the weapons form the backbone of the Pentagon's regional missile defense for Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf. The designs included those for the advanced Patriot missile system, known as PAC-3; an Army system for shooting down ballistic missiles, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD; and the Navy's Aegis ballistic-missile defense system.
Also identified in the report are vital combat aircraft and ships, including the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship, which is designed to patrol waters close to shore.
Also on the list is the most expensive weapons system ever built - the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is on track to cost about $1.4 trillion.
"We do justice the American Way. Those other people in other countries just don't get it that our way is the only way."
"The C.I.A. role in facilitating the [weapons] shipments... gave the United States a degree of influence over the process [of weapon distribution]...American officials have confirmed that senior White House officials were regularly briefed on the [weapons] shipments."Where are the guns winding up in this massive arms trafficking operation? An important question to ask is: which rebels in Syria have guns and which ones don't. The Guardian reports:
"The [secular] Free Syrian Army's shortage of weapons and other resources compared with [jihadist] Jabhat al-Nusra is a recurrent theme... 'If you join al-Nusra, there is always a gun for you but many of the FSA brigades can't even provide bullets for their fighters,'...3,000 FSA [Free Syrian Army] men have joined al-Nusra in the last few months, mainly because of a lack of weapons and ammunition...Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition..."
Comment: This article, like so many other mainstream media articles on Iraq, totally fails to point the finger at the real culprits for the so-called "civil war" in Iraq. From the very beginning of the illegal invasion of Iraq by US forces, the US government and military conspired to fracture and divide any Iraqi opposition to the invasion and occupation through the use of US-sponsored death squads who went about their task of indiscriminately murdering Iraqi civilians from both Shia and Sunni communities. See this Sott Focus editorial for further details and the evidence.