Procurement: March 29, 2003

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The U.S. is again pressuring Israel not to sell their Phalcon AWACS aircraft to a foreign customer, in this case India. America blocked the sale of Phalcon to China three years ago because it was feared that U.S. pilots might some day be endangered if they faced Chinese warplanes directed by Phalcon. The U.S. is threatening to block some of the three billion dollars a year of aid to Israel if the India sale goes through. The India sale is for a billion dollars and the Israeli arms industries need the money. It is not clear why the US is blocking the sale to India, as the US and India are developing much better relations of late.