How Obama Changed Definition Of ‘Civilian’ In Secret Drone Wars

By Chris Woods,
May 29, 2012
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

Two US reports published today provide significant insights into President Obama’s personal and controversial role in the escalating covert US drone war in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

In a major extract from Daniel Klaidman’s forthcoming book Kill Or Capture, the author reveals extensive details of how secret US drone strikes have evolved under Obama – and how the president knew of civilian casualties from his earliest days in office.

The New York Times has also published a key investigation exploring how the Obama Administration runs its secret ‘Kill List’ – the names of those chosen for execution by CIA and Pentagon drones outside the conventional battlefield.

The Times’ report also reveals that President Obama personally authorised a broadening of the term ‘civilian’, helping to limit any public controversy over ‘non-combatant’ deaths.

Civilian Deaths From Day Three

As the Bureau’s own data on Pakistan makes clear, the very first covert drone strikes of the Obama presidency, just three days after he took office, resulted in civilian deaths in Pakistan. As many as 19 civilians – including four children – died in two error-filled attacks.

Until now it had been thought that Obama was initially unaware of the civilian deaths. Bob Woodward has reported that the president was only told by CIA chief Michael Hayden that the strikes had missed their High Value Target but had killed ‘five al Qaeda militants.’

Now Newsweek correspondent Daniel Klaidman reveals that Obama knew about the civilian deaths within hours. He reports an anonymous participant at a subsequent meeting with the President: ‘You could tell from his body language that he was not a happy man.’ Obama is described aggressively questioning the tactics used.

Yet despite the errors, the president ultimately chose to keep in place the CIA’s controversial policy of using ‘signature strikes’ against unknown militants.That tactic has just been extended to Yemen.

On another notorious occasion, the article reveals that US officials were aware at the earliest stage that civilians – including ‘dozens of women and children’ – had died in Obama’s first ordered strike in Yemen in December 2009. The Bureau recently named all 44 civilians killed in that attack by cruise missiles.

No US officials have ever spoken publicly about the strike, although secret diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks proved that the US was responsible. Now Klaidman reveals that Jeh Johnson, one of the State Department’s senior lawyers, watched the strike take place with others on a video screen:

Johnson returned to his Georgetown home around midnight that evening, drained and exhausted. Later there were reports from human-rights groups that dozens of women and children had been killed in the attacks, reports that a military source involved in the operation termed “persuasive.” Johnson would confide to others, “If I were Catholic, I’d have to go to confession.”

Aggressive Tactics

Klaidman describes a world in which the CIA and Pentagon constantly push for significant attacks on the US’s enemies. In March 2009, for example. then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen reportedly called for the bombing of an entire training camp in southern Somalia in order to kill one militant leader.

One dissenter at the meeting is said to have described the tactic as ‘carpet-bombing a country.’ The attack did not go ahead.

Obama is generally described as attempting to rein back both the CIA and the Pentagon. But in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki – ‘Obama’s Threat Number One’ – different rules applied.

According to Klaidman Obama let it be known that he would consider allowing civilian deaths if it meant killing the US-Yemeni cleric. ‘Bring it to me and let me decide in the reality of the moment rather than in the abstract,’ an aide recalls him saying. No civilians died that day, as it turned out.

Redefining ‘Civilian’

In its own major investigation, the New York Times examines the secret US ‘Kill List’ – the names of those chosen for death at the hands of US drones. The report is based on interviews with more than 36 key individuals with knowledge of the scheme.

The newspaper also accuses Obama of  ‘presidential acquiescence in a formula for counting civilian deaths that some officials think is skewed to produce low numbers,’ and of having a ‘Whack-A-Mole approach to counter-terrorism,’ according to one former senior official.

It is often been reported that President Obama has urged officials to avoid wherever possible the deaths of civilians in covert US actions in Pakistan and elsewhere. But reporters Jo Becker and Scott Shane reveal that Obama inserted a loophole.

Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.

So concerned have some officials been by this ‘false accounting’ that they have taken their concerns direct to the White House, according to the New York Times.

The revelation helps explain the wide variation betweencredible reports of civilian deaths in Pakistan by the Bureau and others, and the CIA’s claims that it had killed no ‘non-combatants’ between May 2010 and September 2011 – and possibly later.

The investigation also reveals that more than 100 US officials take part in a weekly ‘death list’ video conference run by the Pentagon, at which it is decided who will be added to the US military’s kill/ capture lists. ‘A parallel, more cloistered selection process at the CIA focuses largely on Pakistan, where that agency conducts strikes,’ the paper reports.

But according to at least one former senior administration official, Obama’s obsession with targeted killings is ‘dangerously seductive.’ Retired admiral Dennis Blair, the former US Director of National Intelligence, told the paper that the campaign was:

The politically advantageous thing to do — low cost, no US casualties, gives the appearance of toughness. It plays well domestically, and it is unpopular only in other countries. Any damage it does to the national interest only shows up over the long term.

Reprinted with permission from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Israel Hints At Role In New ‘Super Virus’

Surveillance Virus 'Flame' Already Cropping Up Region-Wide

By Jason Ditz,
May 29, 2012
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

The new “Flame” surveillance virus that has been hitting computers across the Middle East appears to have come from Israel in an attempt to attack computers related to Iran’s nuclear program.

Russian-based Kaspersky Lab was the first to tap Israel as a likely source, and Vice PM Moshe Yaalon did nothing to deny it when asked, saying that Israel is “blessed as being a country rich with high-tech” and that Israel takes pride in the “opportunities” this has given them.

Though the outbreak appears to have hit Iran first, it very quickly spread across the region, with computers as far away as Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Egypt showing up infected, including those in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The virus appears initially targeted at data theft, and reportedly can even turn on a user’s microphone so Israel can record conversations remotely. Experts say it has a remarkable level of complexity for a piece of malware.

It is not the first attempt at destructive software targeted at Iran, as the US and Israel unleashed the Stuxnet virus, damaging industrial equipment across Iran, in 2009-2010.

Such attacks can have unforeseen side effects, however, as a number of other hackers released altered versions, using the government designed worm as a template, and it continues to cause problems to this day. Given Flame’s more advanced nature, it too is a likely candidate for copy-cats, and could cause havoc for years to come.

Stuxnet Was Work Of U.S. and Israeli Experts

By Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick,
Published: June 1, 2012
Courtesy Of "The Washington Post"

A damaging cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program was the work of U.S. and Israeli experts and proceeded under the secret orders of President Obama, who was eager to slow that nation’s apparent progress toward building an atomic bomb without launching a traditional military attack, say current and former U.S. officials.

The origins of the cyberweapon, which outside analysts dubbed Stuxnet after it was inadvertently discovered in 2010, have long been debated, with most experts concluding that the United States and Israel probably collaborated on the effort. The current and former U.S. officials confirmed that long-standing suspicion Friday, after a New York Times report on the program.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the classified effort code-named Olympic Games, said it was first developed during the George W. Bush administration and was geared toward damaging Iran’s nuclear capabilitygradually while sowing confusion among Iranian scientists about the cause of mishaps at a nuclear plant.

The use of the cyberweapon — malware designed to infiltrate and damage systems run by computers — was supposed to make the Iranians think that their engineers were incapable of running an enrichment facility.

“The idea was to string it out as long as possible,” said one participant in the operation. “If you had wholesale destruction right away, then they generally can figure out what happened, and it doesn’t look like incompetence.”

Even after software security companies discovered Stuxnet loose on the Internet in 2010, causing concern among U.S. officials, Obama secretly ordered the operation continued and authorized the use of several variations of the computer virus.

Overall, the attack destroyed nearly 1,000 of Iran’s 6,000 centrifuges — fast-spinning machines that enrich uranium, an essential step toward building an atomic bomb. TheNational Security Agency developed the cyberweapon with help of Israel.

Several senior Iranian officials on Friday referred obliquely to the cyberattack in reaffirming Iran’s intention to expand its nuclear program.

“Despite all plots and mischievous behavior of the Western countries . . . Iran did not withdrawal one iota from its rights,” Kazem Seddiqi, a senior Iranian cleric, said during services at a Tehran University mosque, according to news reports from Iran.

Iran previously has blamed U.S. and Israeli officials and has said its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity.

White House officials declined to comment on the new details about Stuxnet, and an administration spokesman denied that the material had been leaked for political advantage.

“It’s our view, as it is the view of everybody who handles classified information, that information is classified for a reason: that it is kept secret,” deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “It is intended not to be publicized because publicizing it would pose a threat to our national security.”

The revelations come at a particularly sensitive time, as the United States and five other world powers are engaged in talks with Iran on proposed cuts to its nuclear program. Iran has refused to agree to concessions on what it says is its rightful pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for this month in Moscow.

“Effectively the United States has gone to war with Iran and has chosen to do so in this manner because the effects can justify this means,” said Rafal Rohozinski, a cyber-expert and principal of the SecDev Group, referring to the slowing of Iran’s nuclear program.

“This officially signals the beginning of the cyber arms race in practice and not in theory,” Rohozinski said.

In 2006, senior Bush administration officials developed the idea of using a computer worm, with Israeli assistance, to damage Iranian centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. The concept originated with Gen. James E. Cartwright,who was then head of U.S. Strategic Command, which handles nuclear deterrence, and had a reputation as a cyber-strategist.

“Cartwright’s role was describing the art of the possible, having a view or vision,” said a former senior official familiar with the program. But “the heavy lifting” was done by NSA Director Keith Alexander, who had “the technical know-how and carried out the actual activity,” said the former official.

Olympic Games became a collaborative effort among NSA, the CIA and Israel, current and former officials said. The CIA, under then-Director Michael V. Hayden, lent its covert operation authority to the program.

The CIA and Israelis oversaw the development of plans to gain physical access to the plant. Installing the worm in plant equipment not connected to the Internet depended on spies and unwitting accomplices — engineers, plant technicians — who might connect an infected device to one of the systems, officials said.

The cyberweapon took months of testing and development. It began to show effects in 2008, when centrifuges began spinning at faster-than-normal speeds until sensitive components began to warp and break, participants said.

U.S. officials were concerned when security companies began reporting on the existence of the worm in June 2010.

“It took us a little while to figure out” that the virus had spread, although it was not damaging machines other than those at Natanz, an official said.

Iran replaced the damaged machines and has continued to enrich uranium. Officials said the country’s leadership has always assumed that any action destabilizing its government or nuclear program is the work of the United States, Israel or Britain, or some combination, officials said.

“This will certainly play into their fears about what else is out there,” said one former intelligence official. “It certainly won’t make them eager to get back to the negotiating table.”

Egyptian Student Invents New Propulsion Method

Aisha Mustafa patented her invention last February in ASRT.


By Islam Mitsraym
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 00:00
Courtesy Of "On Islam"

An Egyptian physics student has successfully created a new propulsion device that could accelerate space probes and artificial satellites through quantum physics and chemical reactions instead of the current radioactive-based jets and ordinary rocket engines.

Aisha Mustafa, who has entered the active research area of spacecraft propulsion by her newly invented device, told the governmental EGYNews agency that she patented her invention last February in the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT).

Mustafa’s propelling device is based upon a scientific mix between quantum physics, space technology, chemical reactions and electrical sciences. Current space probes, artificial satellites, spacecrafts and space vehicles use rocket gas engines that depend on forcing a gas to the outside of the vehicle at a supersonic speed or the chemical reactions rockets which propel by solid or liquid fuels such as radionuclide or petroleum, or the electrically-propelled probes which depend on thrusting force via accelerating ions.

On the contrary, Mustafa’s invention powers space vehicles by benefiting from the electric energy formed by Casimir-polder force which occurs between separate surfaces and objects in a vacuum and by the zero-point energy which is considered to be the lowest state of energy. Mustafa added that she used reflective panels for additional force which looks like photovoltaic solar cells. The invention is related to a hypothetical concept of a jet propulsion called “Differential Sail”, which was theoretically created by NASA’s retired professor Marc G. Millis who led NASA breakthrough propulsion physics project.

In a televised interview with the famous Egyptian morning programme “Sabah El Kheir Ya Masr” (Good Morning Egypt), Mustafa, who studies physics in Sohag University, expressed her appreciation to her faculty and university staff for their efforts in helping and providing her with the materials and resources needed. Yet, at the same time she expressed her depression and sadness for the lack of a space sciences department in the Egyptian universities.

“Departments of astronomy and physics are only available. Although they are related to space sciences but unfortunately they aren’t into the specific field of my invention and they can’t practically test or implement it.”

The 19-year old girl said that lacking of a department for space sciences prevents further national research in this important field and acts as an obstacle for her to continue conducting her studies in this specific area.

According to an Egyptian TV channel, “Egypt 25”, Mustafa’s supervisor, Dr. Ahmed Fikry, who heads the physics department in Sohag University, has shown great interest in his student’s invention and helped her patent it in the ASRT. “I expect this invention to be highly beneficial in several fields and areas of industries,” he assured.

On his behalf, the President of Sohag University, Dr. Nabil Nour Eldin Abdellah, said that the university facilitates what he called “Science Clubs” for intelligent and creative students who have the will and capabilities to come up with innovative scientific ideas.

“Once we knew about her (Mustafa’s) invention, we encouraged her and provided her with the budget needed through the Science Club for innovative students in the university. This is the case with any other creative student,” Abdellah explained.

Future of Space Travel

The scientific field of space vehicles propulsion is astonishingly rocketing and it gains a wider attention worldwide, thanks to its vital importance for other sciences like engineering, astronomy, geology, industry and others. This is in addition to the vast areas of researches it covers and the high probability of brainstorming new creations, methods and creative tools.

Events like the retirement of NASA’s vehicle of space shuttle programme and the need for new methods for space travel at a faster, safer, cheaper and easier means pushes forwards conducting more and more researches in the field of space vehicles propulsion.

Currently, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ideas for innovative propulsion systems which are either presently in use or in progress, or which are still eras or even a millennium-far away from our modern technologies.

One of these methods for interplanetary and interstellar travels is the “solar sail” which depends on stellar radiation pressure or laser upon ultra-thin mirrors which work like ship sails. Other accelerating methods make use of the fourth state of matter, “plasma” by thrusting and pulsing.

An Electromagnetic Catapult in a Lunar settlement

Some other ideas of innovation include “space elevators”, “space launch loops”, “space fountains”, “electromagnetic catapults”, “space chemical guns”, in addition to numerous hypothetical and theoretically-possible methods which need practical confirmations.

Mustafa nowadays aims at testing her invention at major scientific research organisations, hence the possibility of applying it in upcoming space missions.

In the next coming decades, space travel would be easier, safer, faster and cheaper, thanks to the mind of an Egyptian girl.

References

Breakthrough Propulsion Physics. NASA. 19^th of November 2008.

Glen A. Robertson, P.A. Murad & Eric Davis. New frontiers in space propulsion sciences. 3 December 2007.

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The Export Of Weapons: Past, Present & Future

By Renee Parsons
Posted: 05/24/2012 2:20 pm
Courtesy Of "The Huffington Post"

As long overdue negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) begin in early July under UN auspices, central to that discussion, by virtue of its international supremacy, will be the US export of arms that has facilitated the extensive sale of weapons around the planet. With only 19 out of 195 sovereign nations of the world with no military budget, the ATT conference will attempt to establish international standards for the $55 billion a year industry for the import, export and transfer of all conventional (small arms) weapons.

Even a widespread global recession and callous austerity budgets have done little to dampen an insatiable demand for weapons by industrialized nations, undemocratic nations and still developing or unstable nations with an estimated $1.7 trillion devoted to annual military expenditures in 2011, a 50 per cent increase in global military budgets since 2001 -- at the expense of providing a safe, secure world for all its citizens.

More than a year after the revolt in Syria against President Bashar al Assad's regime began, international leaders continue to 'deplore' the violence as they are 'disappointed' that both sides refuse to honor UN mediator Kofi Annan's proposed ceasefire while the fighting spirals into an orgy of death, devastation and carnage. As the conflict spills over into Lebanon, the world's political leaders wring their hands in hopeless despair. What is to be done they ask -- as if they were powerless to stop the slaughter.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported a 580 per cent increase in military hardware to Syria between 2007 and 2011 with Russia importing 78 per cent of its weapons. According to SIPRI, the top five exporters of weapons worldwide between 2007-2011 responsible for 75% of all conventional weapon transfers were the US and Russia, at 40% and 24% respectively; followed by Germany, France and the UK in single digits -- all permanent members of the UN Security Council (with the exception of Germany). 

As many Americans go about their daily routine with a mere glance at global headlines, there is little real recognition that the US, with 4.5 per cent of the world population, dominates the market share of armaments with 37% of the $1.7 trillion figure or that the US has more than doubled its military budget since 2001 and currently spends (almost) more than every other nation in the world combined on its military. If it is difficult to relate to the utter devastation of war in a foreign culture on the other side of the planet, the recollection of one isolated World Trade Center attack on a civilian population on a daily basis should serve as a wake-up call.

The bi-partisan Congressional Research Service reports that the US "made $170 billion in arms sales between 2003 and 2010" with Russia not even a close second at $81 billion as the US dominated the international arms market with "$22 billion out of a worldwide total of $40 billion" in 2010. As the US continues to increase its exports, Lexington Institute defense consultant Loren Thompson suggested that "Obama is much more favorably disposed to arms exports than any of the previous Democratic administrations" and Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the Arms Control Association, added "There's an Obama arms bazaar going on."

A flashback to 1934 reveals how US export policy has morphed from some level of accountability to virtually non-existent today as previous and the current Executive branch assume as much power as Congress allows. With adoption of a Joint Resolution, Congress authorized an arms embargo to Paraguay and Bolivia during the Chaco War with President Roosevelt's assurance that the embargo would reestablish peace between those two countries. Curtis Wright Corporation was later convicted of selling weapons to Bolivia in violation of the embargo with the Supreme Court upholding the conviction in 1936 citing the "exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the Federal Government in the field of international relations." (US vs. Curtiss Wright) Through the Vietnam War, it was common for a bipartisan Congress to allow the Executive Branch to wield unfettered authority over international affairs and foreign policy issues.

But after an undeclared war in Korea, the deceits of Presidents Johnson and Nixon in escalating the war in Vietnam, the Watergate break-in, CIA and FBI surveillance abuses and even before the fall of Saigon in 1975 brought a bitter end to that debacle, a festering distrust of an over-reaching Executive emerged as Congress, in an unprecedented resurgence, set out to claim its Constitutional authority. The 1970's were a time when an activist Congress, especially with the 1974 election of a reform-minded class of "Watergate babies" to the 94th Session, expected the checks and balances to function and the media was still a defender of the public's right to know. Prominent among legislative initiatives were the War Powers Act of 1973 requiring Presidential consultation with the Congress prior to military action and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976 required the Executive to inform Congress on proposed weapon sales with an option to deny that sale. 

Since adoption, the WPA has been disregarded by every President as an unconstitutional infringement on executive power as Commander in Chief and an impediment on their ability to conduct foreign policy -- and while the AECA may have altered some weapon sales, it has never stopped an arms sale from occurring. Neither bill has functioned as fully intended and both have been relegated to subordinate status due, in part, to questions regarding the constitutionality of a legislative veto, a key controversial provision in both legislation. If invoked in the WPA, the legislative veto could require the president to withdraw troops and in the AECA, it could disallow the sale of weapons by a one-vote majority.

Also known as a concurrent resolution, the legislative veto allowed a single vote margin to decide rather than require the historic two-thirds necessary to override a Presidential veto. The Legislative veto dates back to the 1930's and was included in the Reorganization Act of 1939 as a credible legislative tool guaranteeing a more democratic parliamentary process. Although it lacked the status of the force of law, few presidents have been willing to risk a Congressional roll call vote in rejection of their policies. Once the legislative veto was incorporated into both the WPA and the AECA, an empowered Congress had the opportunity to rein in Executive overreach or express disapproval of a Presidential decision by a single vote majority. For all of the brilliance of the US Constitution, Congress is limited by a two-thirds vote to restrain a Commander in Chief who has no Constitutional 'enumerated power' to initiate military action.

However, in 1953, the Supreme Court (Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, 462 US 919) dealt a fatal blow to the original intent of both the WPA and the AECA when it declared the legislative veto to be 'unconstitutional' as a violation of the principle of separation of powers alleging that Congress cannot 'require' the executive branch to acquiesce its authority to the legislative branch. Justice Byron White (with Rehnquist) filed dissents to the majority opinion arguing that a legislative veto is essential for a modern government as a "necessary check on the unavoidably expanding power of the ...Executive" suggesting that the legislative and executive branches are co-equal participants in lawmaking.

While Congress provided Presidential authority for weapon sales with the Foreign Military Sales Act of 1961, amended in 1968, et al Nixon's sales to Iran and Saudi Arabia in 1973 without notification of Congress stirred war-weary Members to act in the fear that such sales would generate another military misadventure.

In response, Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisc) proposed an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 (FAA), another predecessor of the AECA, which provided Congress with greater oversight, required a Presidential report on a proposed sale to Congress and included an annual $9 billion cap on all weapon exports. Initially for the purpose of providing "legitimate self defense," Nelson's amendment included a Congressional right to deny a weapon sale and reverse a Presidential decision via a legislative veto. 

As the world became a more complex place, the sale of weapons grew to be an integral part of US foreign policy objectives providing an opportunity to establish new diplomatic relationships. Weapon sales became an important political tool as it frequently implied support for American foreign policy or as a quid pro quo, for instance, as the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain has received $299 million worth of American weapons since 2009 in exchange for providing a strategically important base for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

In May, 1976, President Gerald Ford vetoed the FAA including Nelson's amendment citing the usual constitutional arguments with a specific objection to the legislative veto. (Both Presidents Carter and Reagan supported the legislative veto until taking office.) The Congress failed on a two-thirds vote to override the President's veto and the FAA was defeated until several months later when 'compromise' legislation eliminated the $9 billion cap and the legislative veto except as it applied to Congressional ability to reject a proposed Presidential export. What Nelson and the reformers of the 94th Congress had not anticipated was exactly how prescient President Eisenhower's warning regarding the military industrial complex would be.

The majority of US exports are direct government-to-government sales through the Pentagon'sForeign Military Sales (FMS) Program which includes the Foreign Military Financing program providing grants, loans and training for the purchase of US weapons. Prior to 2003, Israel received the majority of FMF assistance with Iraq becoming the largest recipient from 2003 through 2007 replaced by Afghanistan after 2007. Nations preferring a less public relationship with the US military may go through the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) option which facilitates sales directly between a US manufacturer to a foreign country with the Department of Defense acting as a purchasing agent. DCS recipients may apply for FMF assistance although only ten countries are currently authorized to receive such government largesse: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Pakistan, Portugal, Yemen and Greece. The FMS is considered preferable with the expectation of a better deal from the Pentagon, better contract compliance and provides a more politically advantageous opportunity to bond with the US via mutual military efforts. The AECA applies to both FMS and DCS contracts with the latter requiring an export license.

As a backdrop to the upcoming ATT Conference, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed recently that the Obama Administration had eliminated a key provision of the AECA with a lack of notification to Congress of proposed weapon sales. An administration official confirmed that Congress would lose its oversight authority over proposed U.S. weapons deals pointing out that Congress was delaying contracts with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. "In this economy, we can't allow a situation where a major client like Saudi Arabia walks away from us and spends billions of dollars with another supplier," the official said. Last December, the Obama Administration announced a $30 billion sale of 84 new Boeing F 15 fighter jets and the refurbishing of 70 existing jets to Saudi Arabia, a reliable US ally, although also the home of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 September 11th attackers. That sale may be more about preparation for a future attack on Iran rather than Saudi Arabia's history as a repressive monarchy.

In addition, the Administration is drafting a proposed rule to reduce administrative requirements for the export of certain weapons to include rifles and drones as part of the President's Export Control Reform Initiative. Among other changes, the new rules would shift certain high powered weapons from the State Department's munitions list to the Commerce Department with less restrictions.

Initially suggested by a group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates in 2003, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 61/89 to establish an ATT working group with 153 nations in support, 19 nations abstained (including China, Russia and Israel) and one nation voted in opposition -- that one nation was the United States. In 2009, the Obama Administration reversed the US position with the caveat that all decisions at the conference be unanimous thereby providing one country with the ability to veto the Treaty.

As the ATT moves toward multilateral consideration in July, significant opposition to the Treaty has surfaced in the Senate with its 'advise and consent' authority on treaties. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Ks) sent the President a letter of opposition signed by 44 Republican Senators and Sen. Jon Tester (D- Mt) sent a similar letter along with 12 Democrats stating that "the Arms Trade Treaty must not in any way regulate the domestic manufacture, possession or sales of firearms or ammunition."

Clearly, absent Sen. Nelson and the reformers of the 94th Congress, the ATT can expect a hostile reception even before it has been negotiated. As our current leaders, implacable and disconnected, continue on the path of militarism and war, they fail to recognize that peace is not simply a fervent ideal; it is the only path to survival.