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Editorial

We are happy to present our 2nd edition of War Profiteers' News.

In this edition, we highlight the cancellation of Halliburton's exclusive Iraq deal. At the same time we present what is happening in Cabinda where WRI affiliate Union Pacifiste from France is supporting a local campaign for the respect of human rights in Cabinda and against the pollution of the mouth of the Congo River. In this issue, we also inform about Caterpillar's shareholders meeting in Chicago, where the issue of the use of their equipment for demolishing Palestinians homes was again raised.

We have chosen Lockheed Martin as our war profiteer of the month and with a photo of a F-16 which is a fighter/bomber being used these days to bomb and destroy Lebanon.

As we announced in the first edition of our newsletter, during the last week of July WRI held the International Conference "Globalising Nonviolence". During the week of the conference we had a theme group dedicated to the topic of war profiteering. In this theme group we learned from campaigns like the Campaign Against Arms Trade both from the UK and the Netherlands, the Forum voor Vredesactie and Proyecto Gato from Belgium and War Resisters' League in USA.

The campaign of the month comes from the Campaign Against Arms Trade in the Netherlands with their efforts against the role Export Credit Agencies in the arms trade.

Javier Gárate

Upcoming events

Stopping the merchants of death

A Strategic Conference for Grassroots Activists

Calling all organizations working to expose and stop corporations' war making and war profiteering! Drawing upon the spirit, the experience and success of the Honeywell campaign*, the War Resisters League, in conjunction with Alliant Action, Nukewatch, Veterans for Peace-Twin City Chapter, University of St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies Dept., and the Des Moines Catholic Worker are sponsoring a national networking and strategy conference to build a cohesive local and national anti-corporate movement to develop strategies for stopping corporate merchants of death.

When: Friday, Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 2006
Where: University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
RSVP: Simon Harak, WRL Anti-militarism Coordinator, amc@warresisters.org,
ph: 212-228-0450; Please RSVP by August 15, 2006
(Housing for strategy conference participants available.)

"US Intervention and military expenditure"

A Latin American Conference on antimilitarist initiatives

Organised by Red Juvenil de Medellin Colombia.
24, 25 and 26 of August 2006
For more information redjuvenil@redjuvenil.org

Shut DESO Action Day in the UK

Monday 16 October

The most important day in the Shut the Denfece Export Services Organisation (DESO) campaign calendar. CAAT will be joining other groups for a day of action to shut DESO.

DESO exists to sell arms for companies and to lobby for arms exports within government. It identifies potential opportunities for arms sales then works with the companies and other elements of government to push for deals.

They will encircle the headquarters of DESO, designating it a "global danger zone", and send a clear signal that DESO's place in Government is unacceptable. You'll also have the chance to lobby your MP in the afternoon, as part of our 3-month lobby.

For more information: http://www.caat.org.uk

War Profiteers' News

Email newsletter of War Resisters' International's Global Initiative on War Profiteers

War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, Britain; tel +44-20-7278 4040; fax +44-20-7278 0444; email warprofiteersnews-editor@wri-irg.org

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War Profiteer of the Month

Lockheed Martin

The world's #1 military contractor, responsible for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, F-16, F/A-22 fighter jet, and Javelin missiles. They've also made millions through insider trading, falsifying accounts, and bribing officials.

This Bethesda, Maryland-based company is the world's #1 military contractor as well as the world’s largest arms exporter. Lockheed Martin built the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Today they make F-16, F/A-22 jet fighter, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, as well as designing nuclear weapons. Its F-117 stealth attack fighters were used to “shock and awe” the population of Iraq at the start of the US invasion, while since the start of that war the Air Force has increased production of Lockheed’s PAC-3 Patriot missile – which cost $91 million per copy.

According to the Arms Trade Resource Center, Lockheed Martin gets $105 from each U.S. taxpayer and $228 from each U.S. household. In 2002 the company was effectively taxed at 7.7% compared to an average tax rate for individuals of 21-33%.

In late 2001 the company was awarded the world's largest weapons contract ever, a $200 billion deal to build the Joint Strike Fighter, a "next-generation" combat jet that eventually will replace aircraft used by the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. In the last few years the SEC has investigated Lockheed for insider trading and falsifying their accounts.

Lockheed Martin did not win the contract on force of personality alone, or fighter plane design. During the calendar year 2000, Lockheed Martin spent more than $9.8 million lobbying members of Congress and the Clinton administration, more than double the $4.2 million the company spent during 1999. Among the company's newest lobbyists: Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. During the 1999-2000 election cycle, Lockheed Martin contributed just over $2.7 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions to federal candidates and parties. More than two-thirds of that money went to Republicans. Lockheed Martin spends more on lobbying Congress than any of its competitors, spending a whopping $9.7 million in 2002. Only General Electric and Philip Morris reported more lobbying expenses. And in the 2004 election cycle, Lockheed contributed more than $1.9 million.

Lockheed has also been able to exercise its influence in a larger way – in support of the invasion of Iraq. The company’s former vice-president Bruce Jackson chaired the Coalition for the Liberation of Iraq, a bipartisan group formed to promote Bush’s plan for war in Iraq. Bruce Jackson was also involved in corralling the support for the war from Eastern European countries, going so far as helping to write their letter of endorsement for military intervention. Not surprisingly, Lockheed also has business relations with these countries. In 2003 Poland shelled out $3.5 billion for 48 F-16 fighter planes, which it was able to buy with a $3.8 billion loan from the US.

In 1976 Lockheed paid millions of dollars to Japanese government officials to smooth the way for the sale of Lockheed's airplanes to a Japanese airline corporation, All Nippon Airways. They paid Japanese gangster and yakuza chief Kodama Yoshio $2.1 million in payoffs to help them sell their new wide-bodied passenger airplane, the TriStar L1011, against stiff competition from Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas. Kodama relied on familiar yakuza techniques to force the resignation of Tetsuo Oba, president of All Nippon Airways. At a stockholders' meeting, Kodama packed the room with "sokaiya" -- financial specialists -- who leaked information about an illegal $1 million loan which had been paid to Oba. In disgrace, ANA's president stepped down to be replaced by a candidate favorable to Kodama's interests.

The former prime minister, the former minister of transportation, and the former parliamentary vice-minister of transportation were arrested and prosecuted. The former prime minister was sentenced to four years imprisonment with forced labor but he died while the case was in the Supreme Court.

For more information:
http://www.corpwatch.org
http://www.lockheedmartin.com

Campaign of the Month

Campaign against ECAs by Campaign Against Arms Trade in the Netherlands

Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) – are publicly backed government or semi-government agencies which give financial guarantees to companies operating abroad – they are the single largest source of taxpayer support for private sector companies seeking to off-load on to the public the financial risks of their business projects in the South and Eastern Europe.

In 1999, it became clear that the Dutch export credit agency was involved in the financing of arms to Indonesia. Arms exports to Indonesia had been our focus since the mid nineties, so this involvement triggered the interest for the issue. The importance of the issue soon became clear enough. Defence News cited an American official stating that: “arms sales to Indonesia are not possible without a flexible financing program en low interest loans”. A British research concluded that without ECA guarantee, there would very often be no financing; so no arms deal.

Moreover, an executive of a British bank in charge of arms deals stated: “You see, before we advance monies to a Company, we always insist on any funds being covered by the Government’s Export Credits Guarantee Department… We can’t lose. … It’s beautiful.” The companies he aimed at, in that time exported arms to Iraq.

The general aim of our campaign is to end ECA support for arms exports; since this would make the export of large, expensive weapon systems to developing countries almost impossible.

Until recently our campaigning focussed on a government agency, using tax payers money to finance (or with other words subsidize) controversial arms deals and on the fact that in this way the government, which is supposed to be an independent guardian of the European cod of conduct on arms exports, becomes financially involved in arms exports.

This year our focus has broadened to the issue coherence with development policies: debts and the millennium development goals, aiming to involve debt campaigners and development organisations with the issue. Almost 35% of the global debt burden is ECA debt, which makes ECAs the single largest source of developing countries debt. Since between 20 to 30 percent of ECA backed deals are arms deals, this means that at least almost 10% of the global debt is military debt.

More information:
http://www.stoparmstrade.org
http://www.eca-watch.org

The Pentagon halts Halliburton's exclusive Iraq deal

The Pentagon has taken an important first step by canceling the contract for Halliburton 's military logistics contract in Iraq and putting it up for open bid. Halliburton has only itself to blame for shoddy management, over-charging and thumbing its nose at military investigators.

U.S. taxpayers have paid Halliburton some $20 billion for such work supporting the administration's "war on terrorism" over the last five years. At the end of the day, they have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in unsupported costs and overcharges that the military auditors have disputed, but that the Pentagon has paid anyway. If the administration's sudden change of heart is really about fiscal responsibility, it should demand that money back.

Today Halliburton has completed the major tasks for which it was hired, primarily building of five major military bases in Iraq. Its other duties (aside from oil field contracts) consist mainly of being butler and maid to the occupation forces, including feeding the troops, keeping the bases clean, and providing everything from haircuts to well-stocked PXs. But this latter responsibility offers only a three percent rate of return. Halliburton itself was already questioning whether it wanted the job anymore. At the company's last annual meeting in May, Halliburton 's chief financial officer, Christopher Gaut, showed shareholders a PowerPoint which illustrated that the oil and gas business was far more profitable, and booming to boot.

Halliburton 's real role was not making money in Iraq, it was overseeing a vast army of minimum-wage Third World labor from countries such as India and the Philippines, who did the jobs that no American wanted to do, including digging latrines and cleaning them, doing soldiers' laundry in an active war zone. The real question for the Pentagon today is whether these practices will continue under new management? Halliburton created the system by which the war is maintained in Iraq, collected its cut, and made a (not-so-graceful) exit. It would be foolish to hope that the companies (and they will be several) who take over can hope to be any more competent, ethical or efficient, although perhaps it is enough to hope that they might be slightly less corrupt.
Now that Halliburton is gone, what do we tell the Iraqis, who had been promised that Halliburton would fix their oil fields so that they could earn a living? Army estimates suggest that Halliburton did such a poor job that the resulting mess will cost Iraq $8 billion a year in lost production. To the credit of the military, Halliburton 's role in the Restore Iraqi Oil project in the northern part of Iraq , was canceled also, but only after the Iraqi people paid billions for the botched job.

There is another project that Halliburton has failed to complete: the installation of metering systems at ports in southern Iraq to make sure that crude oil is no longer being smuggled out of the country. Will they complete that simple job, now years overdue, before they skip town?

The United States could prove its resolve to help the people of Iraq by going beyond canceling obviously bad contracts and demanding the money back. With that money, we might provide the Iraqi people the real means to self-sufficiency and peace: working schools, hospitals and functioning oil fields which would provide the country much-needed revenue.

For more information go to:
http://www.corpwatch.org
http://www.halliburton.com

The civil community against the pollution and the militarization of Cabinda

The Union pacifiste de France and the Angolan antimilitarist Initiative for Human Rights have decided to launch together an urgent action calling for an international mobilization for the respect of human rights in Cabinda and against the pollution of the mouth of the river Congo, downstream from the oil-bearing exploitations directed by the American multinational Chevron Texaco, under the "protection" of its paramilitary militia and the Angolan army. This company created its own city, Malongo, called "America in miniature", provided with a fence protected and surrounded by a belt of anti-personnel mines. Around Malongo, the local population lives in dire poverty, subjected to the exactions of the Angolan armed Forces (FAA). The number of troops present has risen to 30 000 men, so that now one person in ten inhabitants in Cabinda is a soldier!

In response to this situation, Mpalabanda, a human rights organization, was created by the local population in 2004. It resulted from an Ad hoc committee of human rights in 2002, that gave itself, as their main goal, the non-violent fight against war, oppression, repression and corruption.

Oil, the «black gold» is a curse for the population of Cabinda. Angola is one of the first oil producers in Africa, after Nigeria, Libya and Algeria; with 1,15 millions barrels per day.
Question: is there any one of these countries not being quoted in the annual report of Amnesty International ?
The American company Chevron Texaco exploits oil without any respect for the environment and with the most total contempt for international laws. The Congo river undergoes a daily genuine oil slick which kills fish. People living downstream are fishermen who are thus condemned to famine or exile, and the international community knows absolutely nothing about their predicament.
For more information contact UPF at: union.pacifiste@wanadoo.fr

Caterpillar resolution fails

Opponents of sales of Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli military failed in a resolution they hoped would move the company toward “greater accountability.” Howard Lenow of Jewish Voice for Peace said a resolution on the 14 of June to separate the positions of CEO and chairman of the board — which opponents of sales to Israel hoped would make company management more amenable to their position — received 27 percent support at a Caterpillar shareholder meeting in Chicago. Caterpillar last year rejected a resolution to stop selling bulldozers to the Israeli military. The machines have been used to demolish Palestinian structures that the Israeli army says house terrorists or conceal the entrances to weapon-smuggling tunnels, and to clear land for Israel’s West Bank security fence. They also are believed to have been used in the destruction of Israel’s Gaza Strip settlements last summer.

Activists scold Caterpillar for Middle East sales

Middle East peace activists stepped up their criticism of Caterpillar Inc.'s sales of bulldozers and other equipment that they say are used by the Israeli military to destroy the homes of Palestinians. About two dozen people with signs picketed outside the Northern Trust Bank in Chicago where the Peoria-based equipment maker conducted its annual shareholder meeting in Chicago.

Inside the meeting, several shareholders took turns urging Cat CEO and Chairman James Owens to cease equipment sales to the government of Israel. You have choices. When we find that our equipment is being used to destroy human rights and somebody's home you can say,No, we don't need to do that, said Craig Corrie, the father of Rachel Corrie, who was struck and killed by a Cat-built bulldozer in 2003 while attempting to block the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza by the Israeli military. In the aftermath of Ms. Corrie's death, a coalition of religious groupsand Middle East peace organization took its fight to Caterpillar,arguing that the company's equipment enables Israel to carry out its brutal occupation the Palestinians.

Members of the coalition that own shares of Cat stock, who were more vociferous and organized than in past years, offered a proposal at the meeting to require the CEO and chairman's titles be held by separate board members. Supporters said separating the two titles would allow the chairman to focus more on ethical and corporate policy issues, like equipment sales to Israel. Cat's board urged shareholders to reject the proposal, which was turned down by 62% of the shareholders voting on it. Mr. Owens repeatedly stressed that he and other board members are aware that strife and human suffering occurring in the Middle East, but maintained Cat cannot end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It's a terrible conflict. As parents and grandparents we hate to see the carnage, he said.We don't believe we're capable of resolving the problem.

Mr. Owens explained that the federal government purchases Caterpillar construction equipment and then distributes it to Israel, the Palestinians and Egypt as part of a board aid package to those countries that's been in place for decades. He added that Cat equipment is used widely throughout the Middle East for the civilian construction projects.

The protestors said the company should simply quit participating in aid programs where construction equipment ends up in the hands of the Israeli military. Nobody is asking Caterpillar to solve the Middle East conflict,said Sydney Levy of Jewish Voice for Peace in San Francisco. Just check what's happening with your own equipment.