You can chuck that very flimsy thin veneer of Swedish “neutrality” out the window, especially when it comes to Swedish-Israel relations vis-a-vis the Arabs’ conflict with Israel. Yes the U.S. is in the tank with the Saudis as well, but the U.S. is a very staunch ally of Israel, regardless of the current Imposter-In-Chief’s hostility towards the Jewish state.
NOTE: The hypocrisy of the supposed “peace loving, humanitarian” Swedes is disgusting.
H/T: Jacob_M
SVD: February 2009. More than 25 years after the first sketches were developed inaugurated the fifth and final facility in which the Saudi regime called SSSP – Saudi Strategic Storage Program. Around the country has huge stocks of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel built below ground for use in war and other national crises.
The client is the Saudi Ministry of Defense, but the Swedish authorities have played a crucial role in the background. Since 1987, the current Fortification – authority with expertise in building military installations such as bunkers and battle management centers – has been an advisor to the Saudi dictatorship in rock caverns project, internally called Sweden project.
-There are huge plants that have been built. Each plant contains a number of tanks and each tank is very large, says Karl-Erik Hagstrom, fastighetsråd on Fortification and former president of Sweden.
For seven weeks, Swedish Radio has revealed that the Defence Research Agency FOI planned to help Saudi Arabia with a facility for refurbishment and modification of anti-tank. Svenska Dagbladet was a few days later to tell you that the Defense Minister Tolgfors known for arrangement with a shell company since 2010 – contrary to what the minister’s staff said.
However, FOI is not the only agency that has helped the Saudi dictatorship. For Fortification has the underground caverns was a prestigious project and SSSP has been described as one of the largest construction sites. Meanwhile, most of the time on the Swedish state’s participation has been a secret – although aid continued for more than 20 years, compared with FOI’s military establishment that never became reality.
Both the Social Democratic governments that the current government have said yes to cooperation. But the accounts to the government, a report each year, has been classified. Also, the final report secret stamped when it was sent to several ministries in the Cabinet Office 2009th
-I would not say that the project is secret, but it’s not something we’ve talked so much about in Sweden. There have been both defense and foreign affairs, said Karl-Erik Hagström.
It was previously known that several Swedish companies had interests in the project. The plants have been built by ABV Rock Group – a company founded jointly by Skanska and ABV in the 1980s. 1988 withdrew the two companies from and ABV Rock Group was taken over by the Saudi businessman Mohammed al-Amoudi, who has business interests in Sweden by including Midroc and Preem.
For the Saudi regime, it was important to get the Swedish authorities. After an initial agreement in 1984 – after great personal commitment from Prime Minister Olof Palme – stressed that “Swedish technology with regard to protection against the effects of weapons by accommodating warehousing in caverns could be used by the Saudis.”Over the years, Fortifications experts reviewed the most about the project – from protective equipment for staff to build technical details and how different weapons can harm plants, show documents SvD read.
On paper, however, was Fortifications personnel in Riyadh never employed by the Authority. Instead there were formerly SRA and current Transport Administration SweRoad company as an employer. Although the staff worked exclusively with great caverns project and had nothing to do with Sweroads or SRA activity to do. Fortification and SweRoad explains the solution that it was practical for “security and tax reasons.”
-Formally, they were employed by us, but it was still staff from the National Fortifications. What they did there, I have no idea, says Gunnar Tunkrans, CEO of SweRoad.
Outwardly, it is a civilian project, showing the wide range of documents relating Swedef project as SvD seen. But the Saudis have also been important to build up fuel stocks to be used in case of war.
-It is clear that there is a dual use. Diesel, you can use both in tanks and trucks, says Karl-Erik Hagström.
Bergrum project ended in 2009 after the fifth plant was completed.Swedish authorities wanted to continue working with the Saudi regime and started to sketch out a monitoring system in Saudi Arabia. In March this year revealed Expressen that they were thousands of cameras connected to the underground command center.
According to the documents SvD read came to the project as a direct result of Swedef. And both Fortification and State Department were pushing for that cooperation would continue. “The Swedish Embassy in Riyadh has been very active and has served as the initiator of the excellent climate of cooperation achieved with the Saudi government agencies,” writes Fortifikationsverket in a request to the National Archives to use the small coat of arms in the marketing of the project – a way of showing that the Saudis had with the State of Sweden to do.Fortifikationsverket explains the interest of the Authority would get expertise through projects you can never carry out in Sweden.
-When the Swedish defense was great, there were sufficient volumes here, but since the 1980s has indeed shrunk, and we’ve had such small volumes in the country that we were unable to maintain the competence state power demand, says Karl-Erik Hagström.
