In case you haven't seen this one...

[mrph]

Two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes filled with GBU 28 laser-guided bombs landed at Prestwick Airport en-route to Israel from the US

It's no secret that Israel has asked the USA to expedite some weapons shipments, as the current conflict is draining their resources.

On the other hand, it seems that this particular shipment didn't follow the proper procedures. For a start, countries shipping arms via UK airports are supposed to tell the UK government what they're doing.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett stated that "I have already notified the United States that we are not happy about it" and "We have already let the United States know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault, and we will be making a formal protest if it appears that that is what has happened".

Channel 4 news interviewed her this evening. Aside from those quotes, we had a vaguely startled looking State Department spokesman answering questions from C4's man in Washington - and their man in Westminster mentioning that some branches of the UK government would very much like to bury this story...

Comments

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

What's left to say? We're just Airstrip One, now.

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

The interesting (and surprising) thing about this story is that it seems we aren't any more. For so long UK governments have basically (and mysteriously) done just about whatever the USA asked, it is a bit of a shock that the situation seems to have changed. First there were the comments about Israel by Kim Howells, and now this. I wonder if the embarassing 'open mike' incident in which Bush humiliated Blair have had some effect?