World Beyond War
Petition is successful with 8,669 signatures
To: Congress
Resume reporting on weapons sales
They published the report.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44320.pdf
Petition Text
Instruct the Congressional Research Service to resume its reporting on the arms trade.
Why is this important?
Since 2011, the United States has sold a great deal of weapons. But the U.S. government has stopped reporting on its own and other nations' arms sales. CRS has its own internal government sources of information. The report it used to produce is not duplicated by any other publication.
The United States is no longer documenting one of its biggest and most deadly businesses. In 2012, Richard Grimmett retired from the Congressional Research Service. He had been the chief author of its reports on international weapons sales and transfers.
It is thanks to those reports that we know, with some reliability, that as of 2011 the United States accounted for 79% of the value of transfer agreements to ship weapons to governments in the Middle East, 79% also to poor nations around the world, and 77% of the value of total agreements to ship weapons to other countries.
We can compare these numbers with earlier years, but not with later ones.
Even if Congress doesn't want to know, it should not get away with denying us that right.
Background:
CRS Report for Congress, Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R42678.pdf
The United States is no longer documenting one of its biggest and most deadly businesses. In 2012, Richard Grimmett retired from the Congressional Research Service. He had been the chief author of its reports on international weapons sales and transfers.
It is thanks to those reports that we know, with some reliability, that as of 2011 the United States accounted for 79% of the value of transfer agreements to ship weapons to governments in the Middle East, 79% also to poor nations around the world, and 77% of the value of total agreements to ship weapons to other countries.
We can compare these numbers with earlier years, but not with later ones.
Even if Congress doesn't want to know, it should not get away with denying us that right.
Background:
CRS Report for Congress, Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R42678.pdf
How it will be delivered
To Congress Members in districts and in Washington, D.C.