Check out the #sidibouzid Twitter hashtag and you'll see real-time updates from a popular coup in Tunisia that'sousted the kleptocratic dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Months of unrest over unemployment and rising food prices – pushed along by WikiLeaked disclosures – forced Ben Ali to flee to Paris. As it turned out, the Obama administration tried last year to give him what would amount to a parting gift: $282 million worth of upgrades to Ben Ali's helicopter fleet.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency – which handles military hardware sales to U.S. allies – informed Congress on June 30 that it wanted to send "equipment, parts, training and logistical support" to Tunisia for 12 SH-60F Sikorsky-made multimission helicopters.

It's a twin-engine 'copter used – as the name suggests – for attacking targets as well as airlift. The Navy uses them as the Seahawk. Tunisia's military supposedly was to use the SH-60s for "over-water search and rescue capabilities."

It's unclear if the deal ever actually went through. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency didn't return a request for clarification. (We'll update if and when representatives do.) But our pals at War Is Business report that since Ben Ali came to power in 1987, U.S. military assistance to him has totaled $349 million – meaning the SH-60 sale represented a massive escalation in aid.

How come? "This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for economic and military progress in North Africa," the agency said in a statement. Not quite Jimmy Carter's "island of stability" speech to the Shah of Iran, but still.

For a good English-language primer on the forces that kicked Ben Ali out of Tunisia, Nick Baumann at Mother Jones is your man. One of the more interesting subplots to the coup is the role that WikiLeaks played by putting out State Department cables highlighting the dictator's corruption.

In one account, a diplomat recounts a second-hand tale of a "very uneducated" Ben Ali demanding "a 50-50 stake" for himself in a government business venture. The Tunileaks site fanned Tunisians' already-existing state of unrest.

WikiLeaks provided a lot of kindling. "Given Ben Ali's reputation as a stalwart U.S. ally, it mattered greatly to many Tunisians – particularly to politically engaged Tunisians who are plugged into social media – that American officials are saying the same things about Ben Ali that they themselves say about him," political scientist Christopher Alexander judged about the WikiLeaks Tunisia revelations. "These revelations contributed to an environment that was ripe for a wave of protest that gathered broad support."

Military sales like the ones represented in the desired helicopter deal are part of a long trend in U.S. foreign policy: betting on dictators to provide an illusory stability. What will the U.S. say to its friends in the Tunisian army, who are essentially in charge (for now)?

The Brookings Institution's Shadi Hamid tweets, "US needs to put pressure on #Tunisia military to plan for free elections & pledge not to hold on to power." The U.S. is "at risk of falling on wrong side of history," he tweeted earlier.

"Time to get on the right side."

Photo: U.S. Navy

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