Blackhawk Helicopters Are Part Of The Deal

The Pentagon is ready to notify the U.S. Congress of a $60 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia.

The deal to sell advanced military aircraft to the Saudi’s is aimed at countering the country against Iran.

The notification will set off a process and review where lawmakers could push for changes, impose conditions or block the trade altogether. It is thought that the administration is unlikely to encounter much opposition to the sale as it is to a longtime allie.

No details have been released but it is thought the proposed sale includes dozens of aircraft including F15 fighter jets and Apache, Blackhawk and Little Bird helicopters.

Saudi Arabia would reportedly purchase about $30 billion worth of aircraft initially but could buy more later.

Lawmakers could try to block the deal but with support for an estimated 75,000 jobs in the US defence industry it is quite likely to be approved.

In the 1980s the UK sold combat aircraft to Saudi Arabia when the US choose not to. The Saudi’s are one of the top buyers of weapons in the developing world, purchasing an estimated $36 billion worth of weapons between 2001 and 2008.

Two Arabian Gulf states have announced bans on some functions of the Blackberry mobile phone. They are claiming that they have security concerns and will restrict the use of the best selling phones.

Saudi Arabia is to prevent the use of the Blackberry to Blackberry instant messaging service and the United Arab Emirates is to block sending e-mails, accessing the Internet and delivering instant messages to other Blackberry handsets.

Both nations are unhappy that they are unable to monitor these communications via the handsets. This is because the Blackberry handsets automatically send the encrypted data to computer servers outside of these two countries. The Saudi ban will begin later this month and the UAE ban is to start early October.

Saudi officials have admitted that the decision is intended to put pressure on Blackberry’s owners to release data from the user’s communications when needed. The UEA’s telecom’s regulator, TRA, said the lack of compliance with local laws raised “judicial, social and national security concerns”

Blackberry’s Canadian owner, Research In Motion (RIM) has yet to comment on either case. There are almost 1,000,000 Blackberry users in the two countries.

TRA has stated “Censorship has got nothing to do with this. What we are talking about is a suspension due to the lack of compliance with UAE telecommunications regulations close”.

In 2007 RIM refused TRA access to the code for RIMs encrypted networks so that it could monitor e-mail and other data. TRA allegedly attempted to install spyware on Blackberry handsets. last year.

It seems that the two governments concerned with their repressive laws and a trend towards increased surveillance are not happy that they cannot monitor information sent and received via Blackberry users.

Given the popularity of the Blackberry in the two states an outright ban will be controversial.. This is seen as a power-play from the authorities, especially the UAE, to force RIM to hand over security codes or face losing a lucrative market. Whilst indeed this area is a lucrative and wealthy market it is also a small one compared to Blackberry’s global sales.