CIAO DATE: 08/04

Is U.S. Arming Future Adversaries Through Sales, Military Training?

Rachel Stohl

Center for Defense Information

December 2001

As the war on terrorism moves into its next phase, the United States continues to build upon an international coalition. As part of this effort, the administration of President George W. Bush has expressed a willingness to provide weapons to countries that in the past have been criticized for human rights violations, lack of democracy and even support of terrorism.

There are 28 terrorist groups currently operating in 18 countries, according to the U.S. State Department’s biannual list of active foreign terrorist organizations. The United States may not arm these groups directly, but weapon sales and other forms of U.S. military assistance — for example, training, weapons giveaways and construction — freely flow to many of the countries within which these groups conduct their deadly business. In some cases, the United States supplies arms to assist governments such as Spain in the fight against internal terrorist organizations. However, other countries receiving U.S. largesse, including Saudi Arabia, are doing little to stem the activities of terrorist cells within their borders.

Between 1990–99, the United States supplied 16 of the 18 countries on the State Department’s list with arms through Foreign Military Sales or direct commercial sales, or with military assistance. Some of these countries, such as Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, have questionable human rights and security records and, arguably, any weapons provided to them are at high risk of being diverted. Besides providing hardware, the U.S. military and the CIA have trained government forces in some of these countries in U.Sbattle tactics. Some individuals who received such training in the past now are involved in terrorism.

In many of these 18 countries, children are used as soldiers, either in official government armed forces, nonstate groups or terrorist cells. Indeed, many terrorist groups rely on impoverished, desperate children to fill their ranks. Recent evidence indicates both the Taliban and Northern Alliance have used children in their forces for years, while relying on previous and current supplies of U.S. weapons for their efforts. The Stinger antiaircraft missiles that threatened the initial U.S. aerial assault in Afghanistan were supplied by the U.S. government to help the mujahadeen oust the invading Soviet Union from the country in the 1980s.

As the Bush administration seeks to boost arms sales and/or training to countries whose assistance is needed to stamp out terrorism worldwide, policy–makers must be aware of the long–term risks. Today’s coalition partners may not be on the U.S. side tomorrow.

In addition, the U.S. government should immediately move to strengthen end–use monitoring and other controls to ensure that U.S. weapons and know–how remain in the hands of the intended parties. Such end–use monitoring traditionally has not been a strong suit. In 2000, for example the State Department conducted end–use checks on only 0.005 percent of all defense articles licensed by the Office of Defense Trade Controls.

Further, the U.S. government should be wary of ignoring its own export control laws and policies in conducting the campaign against terrorism. U.S. law, through the Foreign Assistance Act and Arms Export Control Act, are intended to ensure that U.S. weapons are transferred only to desirable actors. These regulations were developed to prevent U.S. weapons from undermining regional and global security and stability, weakening democratic movements, supporting military coups, escalating arms races, exacerbating ongoing conflicts, causing regional arms build–ups, or being used to commit human rights abuses. In addition, the United States should eliminate arms sales and training for countries using child soldiers.

Clearly, some recently proposed U.S. sales would undermine at least the spirit of these criteria. At this point, it is imperative that Washington re–examine its export record — especially with respect to the 18 countries where terror groups continue to do business — and take measures to ensure that American soldiers do not, sometime in the near future, find themselves facing down terrorists armed with U.S. weapons.

Rachel Stohl is senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, Washington.