Rep. Barney Frank (D. Mass.) has asked Secretary of State George Shultz to explain how U.S. M-16 rifles sold to Saudi Arabia were transferred to the PLO in violation of an American arms sale agreement with the Saudis.
Frank, in a letter to Shultz, supplied the Secretary with the serial numbers of M-16 rifles captured from the PLO by Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. The weapons were in their original crates from the Colt Co. and had been shipped to Saudi Arabia.
Noting that the action of the Saudis “greatly undermines the American policy” in the Middle East, Frank said he wants the State Department to “tell the American people what assurances we can have that there will be no further examples of American arms being sent by the Saudis–or any other nation in the Middle East–to be used by the PLO in their campaign against the existence of Israel and against the interests of the United States.”
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