This Thursday (the 10th of July: 10am to 7pm), at the home of Leeds United football ground, the infamous British manufacturers of torture equipment and weapons arrive in Leeds, hoping to recruit people to their unethical company, the largest arms producer in the UK who attract perpetual criticism for its sale of military equipment to oppressive regimes and human rights abusing dictatorships
Most people who read Indymedia, or have seen the comedian Mark Thomas, know all about BAE Systems, what they have done, and what they stand for. Just in-case you are unaware, I will educate you about the thousands of lives ruined by this British based company, and how governments have collaborated with BAE to torture, maim and kill their own citizens, for the sake of this privatised utilility company.
According to Unicef, 90% of casualties of war are civilians, 2 million children have been killed by war in the last decade and 6 million children seriously injured. The only people that profit are the arms companies.
FUELLING CONFLICT -- BAE has been taking advantage of the USA's 10% increase in weapons spending for equipment used in the illegal war in Iraq. While India and Pakistan were on the brink of nuclear war, BAE tried to sell 66 Hawk Jets worth £1 billion to India. The UK Ministry of Defence has also ordered equipment for use in Iraq including Cluster Bomb shells.
Check out "cluster bombs" on Wikipedia to discover how they massacre innocent civilians in large numbers.
OPPRESSIVE REGIMES -- BAE supplied Hawk Ground Attack aircraft to the Suharto military dictatorship in Indonesia which were used to attack civilians in then illegally-occupied East Timor. BAE also supplied Hawk Jets to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. BAE have sold Radar Equipment to the oppressive regime in Colombia, while a subsidiary of BAE is refurbishing 105-millimetre guns for the armed forces of Morocco, who illegally occupy Western Sahara. These guns are used along the Western Saharan border over which 160,000 Saharawi refugees have fled since 1975. Some F-16 aircraft sold to the US have been passed on to Israel, and used in bombing of civilian areas.
CORRUPTION -- BAE is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for running a slush fund for the Saudi Royal family, and paying more than a million pounds to former Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
FUELLING POVERTY -- BAE is happy to sell weapons systems to African countries such as Tanzania that cannot even afford health or education for their own people. Also, the more weapons are made and supplied to Africa, the worse wars get and the more poverty is fuelled. Weapons can often flow to Africa via 'safe' countries.
ELECTRIC SHOCK TORTURE BATONS -- In 1995 a BAE salesman offered to supply undercover reporters with electroshock weapons. He also claimed that 8,000 electroshock batons had been supplied to Saudi Arabia where systematic torture, including the use of electroshock weapons, has been described by victims of the authorities.
Supplying weapons to a murderer in British law is called aiding and abbetting, but governments including Westminster, have turned a blind eye for decades about such global corporations. A few years ago, thanks to the campaigning pressure of commentators such as the comedian Mark Thomas, the sale of torture weapons and illegal bombs from the UK was prohobited, however, at arms fayres each and every year, buyers and dealers are still able to purchase such items of mass destruction, misery and suffering through third party go-betweens and offshore ordering.
Because of the bad publicity, corporations such as BAE have tried to "change their image", while continuing to trade in misery and terror. 'British' arms companies source their components from all around the world, and increasingly is outsourcing its labour. Indeed many of the companies do not even want to be 'British' preferring to be seen as global companies. Hence British Aerospace changing its name to BAE Systems.
Many human rights and aid development charities have campaigned against the arms trade and in particular, BAE Systems, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and other charities, however the arms trade is wealthy and powerful, and they like to use the argument that job provision comes ahead of ethical concerns. This rightwing pro-British sentiment is in sharp contrast with the also rightwing tabloid hysteria about the humanitarian presence of asylum seekers fleeing with their lives from illegal wars such as Iraq and Afganistan and tryanical regimes such as China (Tibet), Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, tinpot regimes ably supported by conscience-devoid corporations such as BAE Systems.
Besides, according to the governments own figures, there are about 90,000 people employed, directly and indirectly, by the arms trade. Given that the subsidy is around £760m to £1bn per year, this works out at about £9,000 - £11,000 per job! This is an enormous amount of money which would in fact create far more jobs in other, less capital intensive (and risky) sectors such as health, education, environmental technology or transport. A MoD/York University report stated that if subsidies were cut by 50%, 49,000 job losses would be offset by 67,000 jobs created in the civil sector, so their is NO net benefit to the employent sector to make weapons and totalitarian law enforcement aids.
European companies like BAE are moving production lines overseas. In January 2002 for instance, just a few months after BAE Systems announced 1,000 job cuts at its factory in Glasgow, it 'created' 1,000 jobs at a new facility in America, as discovered by CAAT (Campaign Against the Arms Trade) who have provided much of the research on the global role of BAE Systems on the world's oppression and instability.
And yet, the British government shockingly still continues to subsidise the arms trade at the expence of the UK taxpayer.
Don't our arms exports help to defray the cost of supplying our own armed forces with military equipment? This is the argument that is most often used by the arms companies to justify their subsidies. The reality is that export orders tend to come after the initial investment and often after any orders for the MoD have been filled. This means that any benefits go to the company and do not bring the cost of weapons for our own armed forces down. The government implicitly recognises this by trying to charge a levy to the arms manufacturers on exporters. They have tried to set this levy at 30% but currently only get around 1%.
Surely arms exports are a useful tool of foreign policy -- we can have some control over other nations if they rely on us for weaponry and spare parts. Doesn't that make £760m well spent?
A relatively recent example again shows that the reality is a little different. The UK has been one of the most outspoken critics of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. As well as the rigged elections, brutality and totalitarianism, criticism has also focused on Zimbabwe's involvement in the deadly war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and also the almost casual abuses of human rights in Zimbabwe itself. When Zimbabwe wanted to buy spare parts for its Hawk aircraft -- which have been used in the DRC conflict -- it seemed a perfect opportunity to show our displeasure and to use this foreign policy 'tool' by refusing to export the spares. However, in the teeth of opposition from human rights campaigners and even some members of the Cabinet, the licences were granted in order to protect the reputation of the arms companies as reliable suppliers. In other words rather than being a foreign policy 'tool', arms exports are given such priority that other policy objectives, such as the infamous 'ethical' foreign policy, come a distant second.
Indeed on many occasions in the past, UK made arms have been used against us, the Belgrano for instance. And let us not forget who it was that sold Saddam Hussein many of his weapons!
Through the Defence Export Services Organisation, the Ministry of Defence unit that for 40 years has helped UK companies sell their military equipment and services overseas, British taxpayers subsidise the export of arms into areas of conflict and to governments that abuse human rights.
The Al-Yamamah arms deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi Arabia, sponsored by the UK government was worth £43 billion, and the UK government sought to halt the official arms probe.
FASCIST-FRIENDLY BAE SYSTEMS ARE IN LEEDS THIS THURSDAY!
It's true, the fascist-friendly, pro-bush/blair torturers are in Leeds this Thursday the 10th of July at Elland Road, the home of Leeds United Football Ground, hoping to recruit young professionals to come and work for them. BAE were the company that supply torture equipment to the world's worst regimes who abuse human rights (including the Saudi and American governments, Burma and Tibet) and they were exposed in 2005 for giving £1 million to Pinochet in Chile, after he took power with his nazi coup, allowing him to torture and kill his opponents.
It's only right that any possible applicants arriving at the Jobs Fair are made aware what the company's about. BAE make Nestle and McDonalds seem pleasant, so if you've time on your hands this Thursday, between 10am and 7pm, get your asses down to Elland Road. Not to witness another losing football match ending in tears, but hopefully to convince the jobseekers that working for BAE will help people be tortured and killed around the world through wars, dictatorships and "dentention without trial".
If you are able to get near the BAE stand, ask the staff if they are aware of the misery and suffering caused by BAE.
FINALLY: -
We must thank capitalistic radio station Galaxy 105 for allerting the Yorkshire public to BAE's major role in Thursday's elland Road Jobs Fayre. Entry is free, and fancy dress in a "secret policeman's ball" stylie would be extremely appreciated, complete with YouTube hidden video cameras.
HOW TO REACH THE ELLAND ROAD JOBS FAYRE: -
http://www.leedsunited.com/page/ClubDirections/0,,10273,00.html
By bus, catch the First Leeds services: -
Buses
From Leeds City Centre: (courtesy of Metro)
Along Elland Road:-
services 51, 51A (from stop M7 on Vicar Lane), 55 (from Leeds City Bus Station and stop M7 Vicar Lane)
Along Beeston Road (10 mins walk from the Co-op, at the top of Wesley Street)
services 1, 46, 74, 74A
Along Ring Road Beeston (15 mins walk from the Drysalters pub)
services 9, 38, 711
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHECK OUT THESE LINKS FOR SOME BACKGROUND INFO ON BAE SYSTEMS: -
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/15/bae.freedomofinformation
http://www.newstatesman.com/200412060018
http://pandp.eusa.ed.ac.uk/2006/?article=2007-01-24-BAE.txt
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/washington/22intel.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1215274199-1rlygXXrpjnyd5sAdCU5Ig
LATEST NEWS: - The arms for oil scandal which broke in May of this year: -
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/23/the-bae-bribes-funded-covert-ops/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bae+content/video
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I firmly believe that Corporate Responsibility is part of the everyday management of a responsible business and I expect all our employees to make it an integral part of all that they do", said the Mike Turner, CEO of BAE (lol)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The picture of a torture weapon is for illustration purposes, Mister and Mrs Lawyer. It no way necessarily represents the hideous brutal equipment manufactured by the despicable BAE Systems corporation)
According to Unicef, 90% of casualties of war are civilians, 2 million children have been killed by war in the last decade and 6 million children seriously injured. The only people that profit are the arms companies.
FUELLING CONFLICT -- BAE has been taking advantage of the USA's 10% increase in weapons spending for equipment used in the illegal war in Iraq. While India and Pakistan were on the brink of nuclear war, BAE tried to sell 66 Hawk Jets worth £1 billion to India. The UK Ministry of Defence has also ordered equipment for use in Iraq including Cluster Bomb shells.
Check out "cluster bombs" on Wikipedia to discover how they massacre innocent civilians in large numbers.
OPPRESSIVE REGIMES -- BAE supplied Hawk Ground Attack aircraft to the Suharto military dictatorship in Indonesia which were used to attack civilians in then illegally-occupied East Timor. BAE also supplied Hawk Jets to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. BAE have sold Radar Equipment to the oppressive regime in Colombia, while a subsidiary of BAE is refurbishing 105-millimetre guns for the armed forces of Morocco, who illegally occupy Western Sahara. These guns are used along the Western Saharan border over which 160,000 Saharawi refugees have fled since 1975. Some F-16 aircraft sold to the US have been passed on to Israel, and used in bombing of civilian areas.
CORRUPTION -- BAE is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for running a slush fund for the Saudi Royal family, and paying more than a million pounds to former Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
FUELLING POVERTY -- BAE is happy to sell weapons systems to African countries such as Tanzania that cannot even afford health or education for their own people. Also, the more weapons are made and supplied to Africa, the worse wars get and the more poverty is fuelled. Weapons can often flow to Africa via 'safe' countries.
ELECTRIC SHOCK TORTURE BATONS -- In 1995 a BAE salesman offered to supply undercover reporters with electroshock weapons. He also claimed that 8,000 electroshock batons had been supplied to Saudi Arabia where systematic torture, including the use of electroshock weapons, has been described by victims of the authorities.
Supplying weapons to a murderer in British law is called aiding and abbetting, but governments including Westminster, have turned a blind eye for decades about such global corporations. A few years ago, thanks to the campaigning pressure of commentators such as the comedian Mark Thomas, the sale of torture weapons and illegal bombs from the UK was prohobited, however, at arms fayres each and every year, buyers and dealers are still able to purchase such items of mass destruction, misery and suffering through third party go-betweens and offshore ordering.
Because of the bad publicity, corporations such as BAE have tried to "change their image", while continuing to trade in misery and terror. 'British' arms companies source their components from all around the world, and increasingly is outsourcing its labour. Indeed many of the companies do not even want to be 'British' preferring to be seen as global companies. Hence British Aerospace changing its name to BAE Systems.
Many human rights and aid development charities have campaigned against the arms trade and in particular, BAE Systems, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and other charities, however the arms trade is wealthy and powerful, and they like to use the argument that job provision comes ahead of ethical concerns. This rightwing pro-British sentiment is in sharp contrast with the also rightwing tabloid hysteria about the humanitarian presence of asylum seekers fleeing with their lives from illegal wars such as Iraq and Afganistan and tryanical regimes such as China (Tibet), Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, tinpot regimes ably supported by conscience-devoid corporations such as BAE Systems.
Besides, according to the governments own figures, there are about 90,000 people employed, directly and indirectly, by the arms trade. Given that the subsidy is around £760m to £1bn per year, this works out at about £9,000 - £11,000 per job! This is an enormous amount of money which would in fact create far more jobs in other, less capital intensive (and risky) sectors such as health, education, environmental technology or transport. A MoD/York University report stated that if subsidies were cut by 50%, 49,000 job losses would be offset by 67,000 jobs created in the civil sector, so their is NO net benefit to the employent sector to make weapons and totalitarian law enforcement aids.
European companies like BAE are moving production lines overseas. In January 2002 for instance, just a few months after BAE Systems announced 1,000 job cuts at its factory in Glasgow, it 'created' 1,000 jobs at a new facility in America, as discovered by CAAT (Campaign Against the Arms Trade) who have provided much of the research on the global role of BAE Systems on the world's oppression and instability.
And yet, the British government shockingly still continues to subsidise the arms trade at the expence of the UK taxpayer.
Don't our arms exports help to defray the cost of supplying our own armed forces with military equipment? This is the argument that is most often used by the arms companies to justify their subsidies. The reality is that export orders tend to come after the initial investment and often after any orders for the MoD have been filled. This means that any benefits go to the company and do not bring the cost of weapons for our own armed forces down. The government implicitly recognises this by trying to charge a levy to the arms manufacturers on exporters. They have tried to set this levy at 30% but currently only get around 1%.
Surely arms exports are a useful tool of foreign policy -- we can have some control over other nations if they rely on us for weaponry and spare parts. Doesn't that make £760m well spent?
A relatively recent example again shows that the reality is a little different. The UK has been one of the most outspoken critics of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. As well as the rigged elections, brutality and totalitarianism, criticism has also focused on Zimbabwe's involvement in the deadly war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and also the almost casual abuses of human rights in Zimbabwe itself. When Zimbabwe wanted to buy spare parts for its Hawk aircraft -- which have been used in the DRC conflict -- it seemed a perfect opportunity to show our displeasure and to use this foreign policy 'tool' by refusing to export the spares. However, in the teeth of opposition from human rights campaigners and even some members of the Cabinet, the licences were granted in order to protect the reputation of the arms companies as reliable suppliers. In other words rather than being a foreign policy 'tool', arms exports are given such priority that other policy objectives, such as the infamous 'ethical' foreign policy, come a distant second.
Indeed on many occasions in the past, UK made arms have been used against us, the Belgrano for instance. And let us not forget who it was that sold Saddam Hussein many of his weapons!
Through the Defence Export Services Organisation, the Ministry of Defence unit that for 40 years has helped UK companies sell their military equipment and services overseas, British taxpayers subsidise the export of arms into areas of conflict and to governments that abuse human rights.
The Al-Yamamah arms deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi Arabia, sponsored by the UK government was worth £43 billion, and the UK government sought to halt the official arms probe.
FASCIST-FRIENDLY BAE SYSTEMS ARE IN LEEDS THIS THURSDAY!
It's true, the fascist-friendly, pro-bush/blair torturers are in Leeds this Thursday the 10th of July at Elland Road, the home of Leeds United Football Ground, hoping to recruit young professionals to come and work for them. BAE were the company that supply torture equipment to the world's worst regimes who abuse human rights (including the Saudi and American governments, Burma and Tibet) and they were exposed in 2005 for giving £1 million to Pinochet in Chile, after he took power with his nazi coup, allowing him to torture and kill his opponents.
It's only right that any possible applicants arriving at the Jobs Fair are made aware what the company's about. BAE make Nestle and McDonalds seem pleasant, so if you've time on your hands this Thursday, between 10am and 7pm, get your asses down to Elland Road. Not to witness another losing football match ending in tears, but hopefully to convince the jobseekers that working for BAE will help people be tortured and killed around the world through wars, dictatorships and "dentention without trial".
If you are able to get near the BAE stand, ask the staff if they are aware of the misery and suffering caused by BAE.
FINALLY: -
We must thank capitalistic radio station Galaxy 105 for allerting the Yorkshire public to BAE's major role in Thursday's elland Road Jobs Fayre. Entry is free, and fancy dress in a "secret policeman's ball" stylie would be extremely appreciated, complete with YouTube hidden video cameras.
HOW TO REACH THE ELLAND ROAD JOBS FAYRE: -
http://www.leedsunited.com/page/ClubDirections/0,,10273,00.html By bus, catch the First Leeds services: -
Buses
From Leeds City Centre: (courtesy of Metro)
Along Elland Road:-
services 51, 51A (from stop M7 on Vicar Lane), 55 (from Leeds City Bus Station and stop M7 Vicar Lane)
Along Beeston Road (10 mins walk from the Co-op, at the top of Wesley Street)
services 1, 46, 74, 74A
Along Ring Road Beeston (15 mins walk from the Drysalters pub)
services 9, 38, 711
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHECK OUT THESE LINKS FOR SOME BACKGROUND INFO ON BAE SYSTEMS: -
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/15/bae.freedomofinformation http://www.newstatesman.com/200412060018 http://pandp.eusa.ed.ac.uk/2006/?article=2007-01-24-BAE.txt http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/washington/22intel.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1215274199-1rlygXXrpjnyd5sAdCU5Ig LATEST NEWS: - The arms for oil scandal which broke in May of this year: -
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/23/the-bae-bribes-funded-covert-ops/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bae+content/video -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I firmly believe that Corporate Responsibility is part of the everyday management of a responsible business and I expect all our employees to make it an integral part of all that they do", said the Mike Turner, CEO of BAE (lol)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The picture of a torture weapon is for illustration purposes, Mister and Mrs Lawyer. It no way necessarily represents the hideous brutal equipment manufactured by the despicable BAE Systems corporation)
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
Other dates?
06.07.2008 13:14
Anti-militarist
UNCARING BASTARDS!
06.07.2008 14:28
--------------------------------------
Shouldn't corporate responsibility be a matter for the company directors not the employees, Mister Turner?
Or is Turner's interpretation of "corporate responsibility" merely concerned with salespeople being polite on the telephone, and has sod all to do with sparing a thought for the victims of BAE-induced state brutality, aerial warfare and detention camps like Guantanamo Bay?
THE BASTARDS!!!
JB
Remember Pinochet Victims
06.07.2008 15:41
Thanks to BAE, Pinochet was able to fund the murders of hundreds more innocent political victims of Pinochet's fascist junta.
REMEMBER THE CHILEAN DEAD - PICKET THE BAE JOBS EVENTS!!!
Chile
Above The Law!
06.07.2008 21:19
At the House of Lords, lawyers for the SFO will ask the Law Lords to overrule the High Court's decision that the SFO's move to drop the probe into bribes allegedly paid by BAE to Saudi Arabian officials was illegal.
The hearing will put the spotlight back on the SFO's controversial decision to drop the probe on the grounds of national security and a series of damaging witness statements is expected from the lobby groups on the other side.
The Law Lords are not expected to rule until the autumn, but if the SFO loses there will be political pressure on Alderman not to reopen the investigation. Yet if he doesn't do so, his credibility will immediately be called into question.
Symon Hill, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, one of the two lobby groups which brought the judicial review, says: "Britain's reputation is being damaged because the UK appears to be soft on corruption in its own backyard. "The Serious Fraud Office will become the Comical Fraud Office if it does not become realistic about the need to tackle corporate fraud."
Alderman is predictably coy when talking about BAE. "What I'll have to do then is to look at the evidence in detail, look at the strength of the evidence and look at public interest considerations and take a view on reopening the investigation."
The perception outside the SFO is that BAE will be its last major foreign corruption investigation and that the company will certainly never be charged.
M+
Hiatt and Guantanamo Bay Inmates
06.07.2008 22:41
Because British anti-torture campaigners were raising the ante, gradually pilling on the political heat on BAE over Hiatt, the cowardly, dodgy-dealing BAE have shifted the "restraints" operation to The States, hook line and sinker, hoping that they would slip quietly into obscurity, and continue to operate as a profitable and persersely immoral unit of the BAE corporation.
In the excellent words of Tom Scotney, "News today (here) that Hiatt, the who allegedly made the handcuffs used at Camp X-Ray, are to be packed up and shipped to America at short notice (much like the inmates at GB). "Corporate responsibility… Isn’t that an oxymoron?"
"I say allegedly of course, to be fair. Hiatt owners BAE haven’t formally admitted that their subsidiary firm equipped one of the most horrific human rights abuses of recent years. Why haven’t they admitted it, when it seems pretty obvious, considering former inmate Moazzam Begg said he saw the name stamped on his cuffs".
Gordon Brown and his successors at 10 Downing Street (Cameron maybe) must be thrilled to bits that Hiatt, though part of the large conglomerate that receives huge subsidies from the taxpayer will be operating safely out of sight.
Many people think that companies who tried in death operate merely on the basis of profits coming ahead of human rights, however coming on the back of the revelations that BAE donated (yes, donated???) £1m to the "death camp charity" that was Augusto Pinochet, it's not hard to believe the top-ranking ghouls within BAE were "getting-off" on painstakingly personally inscribing the names of Guantanamo Bay inmates on their hand and leg cuffs with sadistic intent.
If the neo-nazi BNP were ever to be elected at Westminster (thankfully it will never happen), and the Holocaust was reinacted in today's day and age, it's not beyond reason to imagine corrupt modern multinational weapons corporations manufacturing gas chambers.
Exposing Torture
Stop the arms trade
07.07.2008 20:25
I am sure this information shared will interest some people.....and the usual majority will remain silent and totally uninterested.
In a public place. who cares?
Auntie War
Latest - Swiss BAE Corruption Trial
10.07.2008 17:19
-----------------------------------------------------
Three criminal investigations are now underway into possible money laundering linked to the firm, Jeannette Balmer of the federal prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors launched an initial probe in 2007 over allegations that BAE used Swiss bank accounts to pay £60 million (SFr121.8 million) in bribes to officials from Saudi Arabia in return for contracts.
An earlier probe by Britain's Serious Fraud Office was halted in 2006 after the Saudi Arabian government threatened to withhold cooperation on critical issues of anti-terrorism. A London High Court ruling found the move was an "abject surrender" to "blatant threats" and the British House of Lords is currently considering whether the investigation should have continued.
Balmer said Swiss prosecutors were alerted to possible wrongdoing on BAE's part by the Swiss money-laundering authority. She declined to comment on what prompted the authorities to open the two additional investigations.
BAE has always said it acted lawfully.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NewsHound