how important is the Middle East to your
business it's a good question obviously
but this is a kind of question which our
press services prefer to answer directly
we all know the answer but uh I don't
want to get in trouble because obviously
the answer is obvious that yeah I'm just
trying to think if I should just shut
the up
you
American diplomacy in the Middle East is
currently focused on nuclear weapons at
the same time a conventional arms race
is taking place
the demand is largely filled by US
weapons manufacturers though other
countries like Russia are trying to
increase their own exports the IBEX
defense Expo is the largest in the
Middle East it's held biannually and in
the last 20 years it's grown to include
more than 80 countries 1,200 exhibitors
and this year they're expecting 80,000
visitors the United States is the
largest exporter of defense and weapons
technology in the world
it sends more exhibitors to idec's than
any other country so why is Boeing here
at this show what's the goal yeah so
idec's is a very important show for us
here in the Middle East region it gives
us an opportunity to meet with many of
the country delegations that are here at
the show it gives us an opportunity to
showcase a number of our products and
services for defence security and
humanitarian efforts as far as foreign
sales go what does the Middle East
represent overall in the scheme of
Boeing about 10 billion dollars a year
we don't break it down by region but you
can imagine the Middle East region
Southeast Asia are very important
markets for us Oshkosh defense has been
providing armored vehicles and other
heavy equipment to the region for more
than 20 years its clients include Iraq
when Kalamata me dr. Phil motto surfing
were estimate and what that infill
Jannetty mohammed bin Saud to Riyadh how
important is this region to your
business it's a very important region to
our business and this event is important
not just for the region but for our
global business UAE is an important
customer for us and there's a reason
Akash has established its headquarters
here in Abu Dhabi to be forward presence
and close to our customer and both here
from the customer what their
requirements in our and provide Akash
products to meet those solutions
I kind of couldn't help but think the
instability is good for business well we
would certainly never wish for
instability for any of our partners but
we have to recognize that we do the in a
world of challenges and we have
challenges in the Western Hemisphere and
they certainly have their share of
challenges in this hemisphere Middle
East has been a lucrative market for US
defense companies since the 1970s but
the last 10 years have been especially
good in 2013 u.s. companies exported
more than 6 billion dollars worth of
defense equipment to the region that
rose to more than 8 billion in 2014 as
Saudi Arabia became the world's largest
importer of arms as the u.s. breaks
records for its own arms sales to the
Middle East Russia the world's second
largest weapons exporter is trying to
grab larger market share this is the
display for uralvagonzavod which makes a
number of weapon systems that the
Russian government exports to other
countries in the last few years we've
seen Russian arms exporters increase
their exports so pradilla trainer mr.
Marcel receive nourishes the destination
stay human brothers erosion dictates
you know politics is a classy Reznik ago
kashmira the other most were
considerable slogan at the NATO
coalition he was talk at the most
underrated
Yogesh nausea severe a freak you what
that's not a nursery cocoa poisoning how
important is the Middle East through
your business it's a good question
obviously but this is the kind of
question which our press services prefer
to answer directly we all know the
answer but uh I don't want to get in
trouble because obviously the answer is
obvious you just do this region or
everywhere everywhere everywhere we work
in Russia and work in other regions oh
that yeah I'm just trying to think if I
should just shut the up sometimes
US and Russian companies compete for
clients in other cases political
considerations give manufacturers an
edge Kalashnikovs and Russian weapons
exporters in general are making a new
push to get into the region I do know
there are a lot of open markets here
that the State Department does not allow
Coulter and American product to be sold
into so there are certain regions within
the north and African region Middle
Eastern region that other Russian
exporters can't have access to versus an
American exporter those markets include
Iran and Syria and Libya the Russian
government has been eager to court new
clients like Egypt as questions over
human rights abuses by the Egyptian
government put US support on hold last
year but Russia has an uphill battle if
it wants to beat the u.s. in the arms
trade the US government has been
positioning American companies to
dominate the market for years with
concerns for human rights often trumped
by business Peter Van Buren's been 24
years working overseas for the State
Department his final assignment was to
aid in reconstruction efforts in Iraq in
2009 and 2010 he said that in the case
of Iraq the groundwork was being laid
for weapons exports even before the u.s.
military withdrew at the end of 2011
foreign military sales were very much on
everyone's mind particularly the years
that I was there 2009 and 2010 we saw
the end of the war coming and one of the
things the United States was doing to
position itself for the end of the war
was to set up the pipeline of arms sales
into Iraq
so that the money would continue to flow
back and forth Beach
our two countries but when we talk about
doing things because of American
interests foreign military sales are
certainly high on that list of interests
the government would define foreign
military sales as a significant American
interest
they'll brag about it this is a way
we're helping American business we've
created X number of jobs in Seattle
building this this aircraft we have kept
a production line in Lima Ohio that
makes the m1 tank and the Bradley open
when it was going to close the American
military said we can't absorb any more
tanks stop and we found a place to sell
them and we preserve those jobs and kept
that industry alive this is not
something the government works very hard
to hide we traveled from Abu Dhabi to
Baghdad to visit Iraq's defense Expo and
to talk to people about the competition
to arm Iraq and the rest of the region
Iraq became Russia's second largest
client for weapons after the u.s.
withdrew troops in 2011 and US
government officials stalled weapons
sales to the country because of concerns
about how the weapons might be used most
importantly Russia provided helicopters
and fighter jets when the US wouldn't as
well as heavy ground to ground and
ground to air missile systems it's a
little less flashy than the show in Abu
Dhabi but Iraq is also having its own
defense and weapons expo American
companies are also represented here
including Lockheed Martin an AM General
which makes Humvees
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as a demonstration of how important
American defense companies are to Iraq
that's a special serenade by an Iraqi
military van for the company that makes
Humvees
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how are you at the show
we met Lockheed's representative in Iraq
Lockheed is set to deliver f-16s to the
Iraqi Air Force but delays prompted the
Iraqi government to purchase Russian
fighter jets as well
what kind of business does Lockheed do
here in Iraq they have air defense and
other subjects I mean they have a big
footprint in the country and they have
the transporters c-130 didn't disappoint
you a little bit when you saw so play is
being delivered in my country I know I
have no problem because there's a big
country and we require a lot of
equipment and we need some of this
equipment very soon so we can fight the
terrorists that we have in Europe
so what locking products that we see
here being used by the Iraqi military
the Hellfire and the hell fires have
been integral in the defense and the
fighting against the Islamic state I
don't call them Islamic state
I gave us that the terrorists terrorists
although we sever tremendously as a
country from them
the defense Expos painted a sanitized
picture of what these weapons do so we
traveled to the headquarters of the
Iraqi Army's 17th division to see if
some of these weapons were in use and
weather controls on arms exports we're
as tight as manufacturers claimed the
17th division is fighting on the front
lines of on Barre province the first
Iraqi province to fall largely under
Islamic state control more than one year
ago even as is is using captured Iraqi
army equipment to fight the Iraqi
government the US government has spent
more to the country and manufacturers
are hoping to replace what was captured
US government support for the Iraqi army
and militias that are fighting here is
evident everywhere most of what we've
seen have been Humvees the US government
is continuing to send this kind of
support despite the obvious presence of
militiamen here the presence of militia
amongst the Iraqi army has been another
issue for US lawmakers opposed to
weapons sales to Iraq the militiamen who
call themselves the Hacha del shabby or
popular mobilization I've been accused
of war crimes including indiscriminate
attacks and extrajudicial killings US
officials who claimed that the
militiamen have pulled back from the
front lines we went to see ourselves if
that was true
[Applause]
a bunch of animal shelter
miss - it will it be a chili ambassador
they'll accept about Earth on the genome
of the focus barrage Hawaii when did you
become anywhere we traveled on the front
lines it was readily apparent that the
militia and Iraqi army were working
together one of the militias commanders
explained to us how his men coordinate
with the Iraqi army and that weapons
sent to the Iraqi government were also
used by the militia what mr. lecoeur but
could - would hide the shoddy I mean
bill Messiah I didn't really know him I
doubt it I see our advocacy ratnamma I
have a novela indigestion
Rafi well for what Allah meeya
Messiah they had the shoddy work here
oh well I had there where they said a
lot of the Iraqi army wasn't trying to
hide the militias presence on the front
lines even if the US government claimed
to be unaware of their role
meanwhile the allegations against them
haven't stopped are there rules in place
to prevent
US companies from selling weapons to
governments that might use them to
engage in human rights violations
there are rules and some sets of rules
specifically prohibit the United States
from selling weapons that could be used
either by regimes that violate human
rights or in fact would be useful for
violating human rights who weighs around
this sir Meerut one of course is simply
to stipulate that country X is no longer
violating human rights the most recent
example of that is Egypt the United
States supports each
efforts to combat the threat of
terrorism in the Sinai and throughout
the country after the fall of the
government following the Arab Spring the
United States cut off arms sales to
Egypt and we've only recently restarted
those sales I'm not sure too much has
changed in Egypt but America's
definition of who is and who is not
abusing human rights is a fairly
slippery one
we asked similar questions at idec's are
there ever any concerns about sort of
the end use of these weapons like a like
I mentioned a lot of our products and
services are used in multiple ways
defense security humanitarian efforts
and that's we want to be able to provide
value to our customers and provide a
good sense of security for their needs
is it worry you guys at all when you see
some of the leakage in places like Iraq
when you see weapons essentially and and
wraps and other equipment being taken
off the Iraqi army and well certainly
war is a tough business
I spent 29 years in uniform and so we
understand it Oshkosh has many veterans
who have been there and that's one of
the values we bring to our customers
when we understand what they're in it's
not reasonable to expect that they
wouldn't have some losses in some
attrition if it's a new customer we've
contact US State Department to ensure
that hey are we okay we're doing
business with this customer and the
State Department anytime can give us an
improved license to export at any time
they could revoke that license how often
does that happen very rarely in past
three years I've only seen it once
Russian manufacturers gave similar
caveats some of these were sent to Iraq
recently
absolutely I've seen video it's an
impressive system from what I've seen in
videos that it's very effective
I am agree is this very effective is
there ever any concern about the way the
weapons are used once they're sold to
other countries on a certain day you
might tell us about an expert that's
called Cornelius its particular producer
man uses frame technology to spear Perez
water that time over pros can use have
p.m. know what's work that is the money
anyway
rosin born export is the state-owned
company that facilitates Russian arms
exports and decides which countries can
be taken on as clients but Rozsival and
export officials weren't willing to
speak to us the film because this is a
closed presentation by rusev or an
export US officials were more willing to
discuss the process but still avoided
questions of responsibility for how the
weapons were used once sold maybe late
night there's no baseball here it is on
the baseball field to see the dominance
that's the six step process the players
on the field all those different groups
and centers that we pull together to get
a first class execution for you so wrong
track this year I think we're going to
have about fifteen billion dollars worth
of sales get over three billion we got
about ten on offer and works
or out and more importantly as a key
leader engagement they get our countries
together it up build those close
relationships because it's good for
business it's good for our coalition so
it's good for the security of our nation
I'm wondering why we continue to ship
weapons to countries such as Iran with
demonstrated human rights issues and
demonstrate leakage of weapons it's a
great question remember I told you how
the process works and soldiers don't
make those decisions we go execute the
policy our government has so in that
process every weapon every cup of the
cooler still it goes to our State
Department and our State Department
makes those decisions and that's what
they program is appropriate for speaking
directly with some of the
representatives of defense manufacturers
when I ask them about whether they think
about these human rights violations of
the potential for government to misuse
weaponry they all said that's up to the
State Department
nobody wanted to address it and then
when I requested comment from state they
didn't want to talk about it either why
would that the primary movers behind the
military sales are people in the
Department of Defense particularly
through the defense security cooperation
agency which exists within the Pentagon
for no other reason than to sell
American weapons overseas in to enhance
and sell weapons the State Department
however lacks in many ways the details
of these foreign military sales the
military knows that stuff so the State
Department looks at the military and
says well they're the ones who are
really doing it we're just the the good
looking guy standing up front to make it
look official the military people of
course are happy to say well it's the
State Department's job to look into
human rights issues but internationally
it's an open market
Iraq's war against is his years from
over expanding conflicts in Yemen in
Syria will continue to drive arms
imports in the Middle East whether
Russia eclipses the US as the world's
top arms exporter in 2015
companies in both countries stand to
make a killing
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you
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