The fact that Britain should sell ANY WEAPONS whatever to Gadaffi and Assad is a crime against humanity - they were/are both repressive thugs and were known to be such.
In 2001 MI6 planned to assassinate Gadaffi http://cryptome.org/shayler-gaddafi.htm - yet right up to the uprising in Libya the British Government were issuing licenses to sell him arms - guns, armoured cars, tear gas that could be used to 'keep order' - and providing trainining in riot control - this is ******* insanity.
Russia and China are supporting Assad and selling him arms - the whole pivot of this discussion is the wisdom of selling weapons to repressive regimes - it is exactly as I described elsewhere - you are screaming 'thread drift' because it has moved out of your comfort zone - as is a constant tactic of yours.
Perhaps you'd like a look at the effect of these "harmless" sniper bullets - possibly supplied by the British.
You have yet to comment on the morality of Britain selling to dictators - from which I think we can gather that you support it.
Jim Carroll

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-28/middleeast/world_meast_syria-homs-scene_1_snipers-syrian-city-arab-league?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST
Snipers rule the streets in the besieged Syrian city of Homs
ARAB LEAGUE
December 28, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff
Exclusive: Government snipers prowl HomsFor months, the Syrian city of Homs has been the focus of opposition to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with almost daily protests since the summer.
More recently, defectors from the military have begun organizing armed resistance. Meanwhile, government forces have tightened their siege of rebellious neighborhoods that are now under the control of the opposition.
A freelance journalist and filmmaker -- who is not named for his own security -- has just left Homs, and over the next few days CNN will be showcasing his remarkable stories from the front lines of a city at war.
Among the bullet-scarred walls of neighborhoods under siege, he encountered the government snipers who prowl the city picking off their victims apparently indiscriminately and at will.
He found snipers stationed on almost every main street, manning checkpoints on both sides and firing at anybody crossing the street between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next day -- imposing a kind of unofficial curfew.
He spoke to one woman whose daughter was seven months pregnant when she was shot in the head as she tried to venture out of the house to do some shopping. The snipers kept shooting as relatives tried to reach the pregnant woman where she lay dead in the street, before finally they were able to bring her body back to her mother's home.
To film what was going on, the journalist too had to risk his life on the streets of Homs, with about 1 million inhabitants the country's third-largest city.
View his images in hi-res
"I had to cross several times exactly the same streets where people got shot several minutes before. And you arrive at a scene where half an hour ago someone got shot and 30 minutes later people are crossing the street normally," he said.
"Me crossing the street, I was feeling literally that the sniper is aiming at me and it is up to him if he is going to pull the trigger or not."
Residents describe the daily struggle of life in the cross-hairs, some telling how they throw bread and other supplies across the street to others who cannot safely traverse to reach a shop.
A monitoring mission from the Arab League arrived in the city Tuesday but opposition activists fear they will not see the full extent of a brutal government crackdown that the United Nations says has claimed more than 5,000 lives nationwide.
Despite the days-long military siege, thousands turned out for anti-government demonstrations as the Arab League team entered the city.