The U.S. government sold Hawk surface-to-air missiles and support equipment to Saudi Arabia, armored cars to Lebanon, and cargo planes to Saudi Arabia and Lybia after Col. Muammar Qaddafi came to power, Rep. Clarence D. Long (D.Md.) has told the Congress.
In a speech in the House, Long said that the data the State Department has “finally declassified” after four months of prodding on U.S. commercial shipments to Arab nations between 1966 and 1972 “are one more part of the puzzle surrounding the stance of the U.S. in the Middle East during the arms buildup that preceded the attack on Israel” on Oct. 6. Long made this disclosure Thursday.
The Department’s disclosure, he also said, “is but one more illustration of the fact that U.S. policy in the Middle East has been the opposite of what it has appeared to be–namely to favor the Arab countries, not Israel.”
Long previously had told the Congress “the little-appreciated fact” that total U.S. economic and military assistance to the Arabs between 1967 and 1973 was almost 2 1/2 times the total Soviet aid to the Arabs in the same period. In those six years, he said, U.S. assistance to the Arabs was $8.952 billion compared to $3.807 billion in U.S. economic military and private assistance to Israel.
In seeking information on U.S. arms sales to the Arabs, Long asked for a report on Nov. 14 on exports to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon. In his response dated March 18, former Virginia Governor Lindwood Holton, now Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, reported on sales totaling $47.6 million to Saudi Arabia, Libya and Lebanon.
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