No 13 / June 2008
War Profiteers’ News
The email newsletter of WRI's Global Initiative against War Profiteers || español | Index of past issues
Editorial
The financial institutions that invest in weapons producers are major players in the arms trade. Not only do financial institutions directly benefit from the arms trade, but they also reduce the risks that companies take in their deals. Furthermore, because banks and pension funds are "looking after" money from the civilian population, they can be subject to pressure.
In this newsletter we have reported several times about the successes of the campaign in Belgium against financial institutions and their investment in the arms trade. During the last year also groups in Spain have put pressure on a major bank, BBVA. The campaign has had some success in that the bank has publicly declared it is changing its policies - but that still has to be seen.
The Norwegian Pension Fund is one of the world's biggest pension funds.. Its guidelines preclude investment in companies manufacturing "key components" of weapons - that is warheads, rocket motors and guidance systems. They also rule out any company involved in human rights violations according to the international law. These guidelines from the Norwegian Pension Fund are a useful reference for other investors. However, they don't go far enough. This year the guidelines are being reviewed, and the Pension Fund has invited contributions from civil society. Members of the Norwegian Peace Association will be making recommendations for changes to the guidelines, and themselves would like to receive suggestions for guidelines. One clear recommendation should be to analyse the role of financial investments in weapons manufacture and to stop investing in them.
In this edition you will read about the new treaty on cluster munitions. While the treaty is a vital step towards banning cluster bombs, again campaigners have not achieved their goal of prohibiting investment in this type of munition.
Including investors in the arms trade in both the guidelines of the Norwegian Peace Fund and in the Cluster Munitions Treaty would be a big step forward. However, the key to all such changes is the continual process of making the public more aware of the tentacles of war profiteering. .
Javier Gárate
Upcoming events
European Peace Action at the European Social Forum
Malmo: 17 - 21 of September
For more information:
http://europeanpeaceaction.org/
International Day of Action: War starts from Europe
Europe: 14-15 November, European day of action against military globalisation.
For more information contact:
info@wri-irg.org
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War Profiteer of the Month
KBR
KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is an American engineering and construction company, formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton, based in Houston. After Halliburton acquired Dresser Industries in 1998, Dresser's engineering subsidiary, The M. W. Kellogg Co., was merged with Halliburton's construction subsidiary, Brown & Root, to form Kellogg Brown & Root. KBR and its predecessors have won many contracts with the U.S. military during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as during World War II and the Vietnam War.
On April 15, 2006, Halliburton filed a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to 20 percent of its KBR stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). On November 16, 2006, KBR shares were offered for the public in an Initial Public Offering with shares priced at $17. The shares closed on the first day up more than 22 percent to $20.75 a share. Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007 that it had finally broken ties with KBR, which has been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years.[3]
KBR and the war machinery
Kosovo
In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Brown & Root a contract to support U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops as part of the SFOR operation in the Balkan region. This contract was extended to also include KFOR operations in Kosovo starting in 1999. Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo was constructed by the 94th Engineer Construction Battalion together with the private Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers. KBR is also the prime contractor for the operation of the camp.
Afghanistan
KBR was awarded a $100 million contract in 2002 to build a new U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, from the State Department.
KBR has also been awarded 15 Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) task orders worth more than $216 million for work under Operation Enduring Freedom, the military name for operations in Afghanistan. These include establishing base camps at Kandahar and Bagram Air Base and training foreign troops from the Republic of Georgia.
Iraq
KBR employs more American private contractors and holds a larger contract with the U.S. government than does any other firm in Iraq. The company's roughly 14,000 U.S. employees in Iraq provide logistical support to the U.S. armed forces.
The United States Army hired KBR to provide housing for approximately 100,000 soldiers in Iraq in a contract worth $200 million, based on a long-term contract signed in December 2001 under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP). Other LOGCAP orders have included a pre-invasion order to repair oil facilities in Iraq; $28.2 million to build POW camps; and $40.8 million to accommodate the Iraqi Survey Group, which was deployed after the invasion to find weapons of mass destruction.
The Army's actions came under fire from California Congressman Henry Waxman, who, along with Michigan Congressman John Dingell, asked the General Accounting Office to investigate whether the U.S. Agency for International Development and The Pentagon were circumventing government contracting procedures and favoring companies with ties to the Bush administration. They also accused KBR of inflating prices for importing gasoline into Iraq. In June 2003, the Army announced that it would replace KBR's oil-infrastructure contract with two public-bid contracts worth a maximum total of $1 billion, to be awarded in October. However, the Army announced in October it would expand the contract ceiling to $2 billion and the solicitation period to December. As of October 16, 2003, KBR had performed nearly $1.6 billion worth of work. In the meantime, KBR has subcontracted with two companies to work on the project: Boots & Coots, an oil field emergency response firm that Halliburton works in partnership with (CEO Jerry L. Winchester was a former Halliburton manager) and Wild Well Control. Both firms are based in Texas.
KBR's maintenance work in Iraq has been criticized after reports of soldiers electrocuted from faulty wiring.Specifically, KBR has been charged by the Army for improper installation of electrical units (Not Grounded)in bathrooms throughout US bases. CNN reported that Green Beret and Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died by electrocution in his shower stall on January 2, 2008. Army documents showed that KBR inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11 months before his death. KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices." But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards;" It covered repairing items only after they broke down.
Political connections and controversy
Brown and Root had a well-documented relationship with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, which began when he used his position as a Texas congressman to assist them in landing a lucrative dam contract. In return they gave him the funds for his 1948 Senate race against Coke R. Stevenson. The relationship continued for years, with Johnson awarding military construction contracts to B&R.
Following the end of the first Gulf War, the Pentagon, led by then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, paid Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root Services over $8.5 million to study the use of private military forces with American soldiers in combat zones.
Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. He has been accused of providing work to KBR under contingency contracts to financially benefit himself and his business associates.
However, the Army contract which has been so controversial — LOGCAP — has, since its inception, been issued under competitive solicitations; of the three LOGCAP contracts, KBR won the first, DynCorp the second, KBR the third, and also the current one, dubbed "LOGCAP IV". LOGCAP is a contingency-based contract which is invoked at the convenience of the US Army as needed; the Task Orders under the contract are not competitively bid as the overall contract is.
Although DynCorp had won LOGCAP II in 1994, Clinton instead chose KBR, and thus the Balkans Support Contract was created for and awarded to KBR in February 1999. Even though the LOGCAP program is specifically for contingency operations such as the Balkans, there was little media coverage about KBR picking up that contract; the Balkans work is sometimes mistakenly mentioned as being part of LOGCAP, however.
Most media controversy involves the LOGCAP III contract which KBR successfully, and competitively, bid for and won in 2001.[citation needed] While it is by far the most profitable of their contracts, the functions of that contract are often mixed with the RIO contract in which KBR was given in a no-bid process. RIO, or Restore Iraqi Oil, was awarded to KBR when the United States Department of Defense determined that KBR was "the only contractor that could satisfy the requirement for immediate execution of the plan". As of September 2006, hearings are still being conducted into the RIO project over possible billing, management, and procurement violations.
One common theme is to use the term LOGCAP while using the dollar amounts from RIO, which was using LOGCAP funding for the initial staging and startup.
Jamie Leigh Jones, a 23-year-old former employee of KBR, testified at a Congressional hearing in December that she had been gang-raped by up to as many as seven co-workers in Iraq in 2005.
Another prime topic of interest is the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) report on billing-methods for meals. The auditors knew about, but disregarded, the Army's requirement, whereas KBR was directed to have varying amounts of meals prepared at certain locations regardless of how many people actually used the service. Although KBR was paying for the food, the DCAA did not believe they should be able to charge the DoD for meals prepared but not served.
For more information:
http://www.kbr.com/
Campaign of the Month
War on Want Campaign on Corporations and Conflict- Corporate Mercenaries
War on Want is an anti-poverty charity based in London, England, which highlights the needs of poverty-stricken areas around the world, lobbying governments and international agencies to tackle problems, as well as raising public awareness of the concerns of developing nations while supporting organisations throughout the third world. War on Want tends to focus on the root causes of poverty rather than its effects, and places importance on enabling people in poverty to solve their own problems.
Mercencaries
For most people war means pain, suffering and poverty. Yet not everyone is made poorer by war. For some companies, war means profit. Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) are making a killing out of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in conflicts around the globe.
PMSCs are now the second largest occupying force in Iraq behind the US. Yet they remain unregulated and unaccountable, leaving open the potential for human rights violations.
These companies reap huge profits from war. Iraqi contracts boosted the annual revenue of British PMSCs alone from £320 million in 2003 to more than £1.8 billion in 2004. In the same year income for the private military and security industry worldwide reached $100 billion.
There are hundreds of reports of human rights abuses by PMSC employees, including incidents of contractors firing indiscriminately at civilians. In one incident in September 2007, 17 Iraqi civilians were killed by American PMSC Blackwater. Just weeks later employees of British security company Erinys International opened fire on a taxi near Kirkuk in Iraq, wounding three civilians, including two women.
A 'trophy video' shows employees of British company Aegis Defence Services randomly shooting automatic weapons at civilian cars in Baghdad. Aegis coordinates the operations of all PMSCs working in Iraq. At Abu Ghraib prison, employees of two PMSCs were implicated in the abuse-of-prisoners scandal including allegedly raping a male juvenile detainee and directing the use of dogs and other forms of torture during interrogations.
Despite these cases and many more, no private military contractor has been prosecuted for actions in Iraq. The pattern is similar in conflicts around the world.
There is a pressing need for the UK government to take forward legislation that will regulate these companies and hold them to account.
War on Want resources on PMSCs
- Download Corporate Mercenaries: War on Want's report on PMSCs - Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies. Download here
- Mercenary Trophy Videos: Download videos of Aegis and Blackwater mercenaries at work in Iraq. Download here
- UK Government response: Official response from UK Government to the email action War on Want supporters sent to the Foreign Secretary. Download here
- Read Erinys' response to War on Want's reports. Download here
Action that the campaign is calling for
War on Want calls on the UK government to move towards legislation to control the PMSC sector as an urgent priority. Self-regulation by the industry is not an option. Legislation must outlaw PMSC involvement in all forms of direct combat and combat support, as understood in their widest possible senses.
Letter action: Send a letter to your Member of Parliament urging them to call on the Foreign Secretary to introduce legislation regulating private military and security companies as a matter of urgency. You can fin the letter here
For more information:
http://www.waronwant.org/
Over 100 countries adopt treaty to ban cluster bombs
Cluster bomb survivors and campaigners welcomed the formal adoption of the Cluster Munitions Convention by over 100 countries. This historic treaty bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of all existing and future cluster bombs. To keep pressure on governments and to ensure that the treaty enters into force, campaigners today launched the People’s Treaty.
“The adoption of this treaty has intensified the stigma attached to cluster bombs. It’s up to the countries to turn the text into reality,” said Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munition Coalition.
After the formal adoption of the treaty text in Dublin, the signing of the treaty will take place in Oslo in early December 2008. For the treaty to enter into force it must be ratified by 30 countries. Survivors and campaigners will be following up on a national level with the People’s Treaty launched today.
The work to ban cluster munitions is far from complete:
Six of the biggest producers of cluster munitions have not adopted the treaty. United States, Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan and Indian did not attend the meeting and made it very clear that they will not sign the treaty. Three of those countries - US, Russia and China together they stockpile more than a billion cluster munitions, which is more than what all the other countries together have.
The treaty also comes short as a number of cluster munition were not included in the treaty, like the super intelligent cluster bombs that contain less than 10 sub-munitions , for example the German model Smart 155.
The treaty allows military cooperation with no signing countries, which permits to sell these weapons "on requests" by these countries.
Other steps into banning all cluster munitions, should be to prohibit the investment on the production of these weapons.
The treaty is an important step but much more work and pressure needs to happen.
For more information:
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org
Venezuela and the arms trade
By Rafael Uzcátegui
In a period of just 10 years between 1998 and 2007, Venezuela rose from 56th to 24th place in the world ranking of buyers of conventional arms. These data were recently published by the International Institute for Peace Studies in Stockholm (SIPRI). For the year 2007, according to SIPRI, Venezuela was the largest buyer of military equipment to Latin America - occupying ninth place worldwide, 40 places above Colombia in the world ranking- and spending only $4 million less than Israel, for a total of $887 million dollars.
Since 1998 the Latin American country has been ruled by President Hugo Chávez, counting for its arms race with the greatest economic boom experienced by the nation in the last 3 decades, proceeds from high oil prices, and an aggressive neo-liberal policy of tax collection. The USA - despite the public display of hostility between the two governments - remains Venezuela's main trading partner, yet spending on arms is justified by updating the military infrastructure against an imminent "imperialist invasion." Paradoxically, 96% of the war equipment come from Russia, whose transfers are promoted by the Bolivarian government as "breaking the blockade imposed by imperialism against Venezuela."
In the last decade, Venezuela has spent US$1,708 million on conventional weapons. To this figure should be added the acquisition of war ships ($300 million for 66 units), assault rifles AK-103 ($ 54 million for 100,000 units) and various contracts of technology transfer. The Russian arms industry's own estimates reveal that total arms transfers to the Caribbean country amount to US$ 4,000 million. However in October 2007 Serguéi Ladiguin, representative of the company Rosoboronexport, said he expected Venezuelan purchases to double or triple. Ladiguin explained that the two countries were preparing new contracts for the supply of ships, warplanes and helicopter, as well as various types of weaponry for the Army. The other countries that Venezuela purchases arms from are China and Spain.
Among the equipment acquired by the Chávez government are SU-30MK and MiG-29, Mi-17 fighter aircraft and Mi35 and Mi-36 helicopters,as well as frigates and troop transport planes. Rosoboronexport, the Russian state exporter, announced the forthcoming installation of three military factories - for rifles, ammunition and for repairing helicopters.
This arms race is part of a growing militarization process experienced by the Venezuelan society, which includes the use of military personnel at different levels of government and the incorporation of civilians as members of the so-called "reserve" for carrying out work of security, defence and intelligence.
Clarion Events purchases three major arms exhibitions from Reed Elsevier
On the 29th of May Clarion Events announced the acquisition of Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), Latin American Aerospace and Defence Exhibition (LAAD) and ITEC.
- DSEi - The largest arms fair in the world takes place in London every two years. The previous owners of DSEi and the other two exhibitions, Reed Elsevier,which is a major publisher of scientific publications, had to sell DSEi after a high profile campaign against it. The campaign included the pressure from academics saying that it was not possible that Reed as a publisher was also involved in the arms industry. The campaign over the years involved also strong pressure from nonviolent activists, carrying direct actions disrupting the fair.
- LAAD - is the most important trade show for the defence industry in Latin America . It takes place every two years bringing together Brazilian and international companies that specialise in supplying equipment and services to all three major branches of the Armed Forces, special forces and security services, as well as consultants and government agencies. In the 12 years since its first edition, LAAD has played a key role for the arms trade in the region enabling participants to network and conduct business. Key military decision-makers, who are Official Delegates from a wide range of countries are able to engage in long-term business ventures.
- ITEC - The only conference and exhibition outside the USA, dedicated to defence training and simulation. ITEC delivers training and simulation to senior officials and procurement officers from the international military and defence industry, showcasing products and services from training and simulation industry. The 2008 edition took place in Stockholm between the 10 – 12 of June.
Clarion Events is owned by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), which makes Clarion Events the largest independent event organiser in the UK. VSS, present itself as a private equity firm specialising in the media, information and education industries. Clarion Events organises more than 80 exhibitions in the UK and in the rest of the world, some of them are:
- The Baby Show in the UK – how paradoxical baby show and arms fair in their same portfolio.
- The European Briefing in Amsterdam.
- Scotland's Fair Trade Autumn
Just to name three and to show the range of areas they cover.
The acquisition of these three arms exhibitions by Clarion Events brings us a new opportunity to escalate the campaigns against arms trade. Clarion Events has many events for the general public, events that should be the target of campaigns to expose the connection between Clarion Events and the arms trade and demand the immediately withdrawal from all arms trade business.
For more information:
http://www.clarionevents.com/
Action against Eurostaroy
Photo: Benjamin Lemaire
By Tikiri
Between Monday (16 June 16) and Friday (20), during a huge supermaket of death in Paris named Eurosatory, nonviolent activists tried to bring attention to this war profiteering business. Some went for silent vigils all along the week close to the exhibition centre targeting locals and commuters as well as showing the arm traders that pacifists are still there. On 17 June, war profiteers (dealers, buyers and co) were having a good time in the Louvres museum. Then called by the French WRI section Union Pacifiste, as well as Sud Culture (Louvre workers trade union), a few dozen activists held a noisy assembly next to the museum. On the other side, marching towards the Pyramid, the Paris brigade of the clown army was nearly reaching its aim: sharing a cannibal's banquet with these nice food providers. "Please come and taste this nice 'Iraqi en sauce' hunted with your products". But the clowns were pushed away. Anyone taking pictures or shouting too much and showing their support risked police aggression. In the end, clowns escaped in a laugh but one supporter was arrested for shouting in a megaphone against arm traders...
Disarm08- action camp against Swedish arms industry
From the 12th to19th of June the peace action camp Disarm08 took place in Kalskoga, the heart of the Swedish weapons indsutry. Karlskoga is the home of the two big companies BAE Systems Bofors and Saab Bofors Dynamics (together known as "Bofors"). Weapons produced in Karlskoga is used in wars all around the world and Sweden is today the 9th biggest seller of weapons in the world.
During the camp discussions and lectures where held and people from Sweden, Finland, Canada, Colombia and Germany met and exchanged experiences. The overall theme for the manifestations and actions during the camp was to perform a crime scene investigation. Weapons produced in the factories are not only morally wrong but also used in wars breaking international law and sold to countries not respecting human rights, even though the Swedish laws prohibits this.
During the week a total of 12 activists went into the special security area surrounding the weapons factories to perform civil weapons inspections. With the demand that production should be closed until proven unharmful and that the selling of armaments should be open to public debate, the activists searched buildings for illegal activities. A manifestation with speeches, music, street theatre and performances from the clown army, was held outside of the main office of Bofors. On the last day of the camp 3 activist occupied the same office refusing to leave, claiming that production of weapons can not go on undisturbed. A few hours later, two activists entered the security area to decorate a tank with a peace message, writing "you can change" and painting a weapon broken in half on the tank.
In total 14 activists were arrested during the camp and will probably await trials. During the whole camp the dialogue with the police was good and a public meeting on the main square in Karlskoga returned many interesting meetings with the people living and working in Karlskoga.
For more information:
http://ofog.org
Actions at Annual General Meetings
BBVA
14 of March: The campaign “BBVA without arms” has denounced at the annual share holders meeting of BBVA, that part of the benefits of BBVA come from investments in the arms industry, especially in companies that produce cluster munitions. Members of Cetre Delas from Justicia I Pau in Barcelona, Alejandro Pozo and Jordi Calvo, focused their interventions at the AGM meeting on the investment of BBVA in the arms industry, while Victor Maeso from Setem made an intervention about the investment of this bank on investment on companies that contaminate the environment and that also don't respect the Human Rights in Latin America.
The president of BBVA, Francisco González agreed with the intervention from Alejandro, Jordi and Victor. He said that the policy of the bank is to reduce the amount of investment on arms producers, this subordinated that the rest of the financial institutions adopt the same position. The president committed himself that BBVA will motivate the rest of the financial sector to move in that direction. He was only referring to the investment on cluster munition and not their investment and ownership in these companies. This give a good point to put more pressure on the bank highlighting their connections with the arms industry and other unethical ones.
For more information:
http://www.bbvasinarmas.org/
Shell
Hands Off Iraqi Oil activists made their way to the Shell AGM in London on the 20th of May to warn the company against its attempts to gain access to Iraq's oil reserves. Campaigners dresses as 'corporate pirates' distributed alternative shareholder briefings outside the Barbican Centre, while activist shareholders made their way inside the meeting to question Shell's board of directors.
For more information:
http://www.handsoffiraqioil.org/
BAE
On the 7th of May, BAE Systems failed to halt the sharp decline in its reputation despite trying to focus on ethics at its Annual General Meeting in London. The Board faced a barrage of questions from shareholders about corruption and political influence as they struggled to emphasise the ethics report by Lord Woolf that came out the a day earlier. The report, commissioned and paid for by BAE, was criticised for making very limited ethical recommendations without looking at past deals or wider questions such as the ethics of arming oppressive regimes.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) held a peaceful protest outside the AGM while CAAT campaigners staged a photo stunt showing BAE trying to sweep the reality of their business under the carpet, following the Woolf report
For more information:
http://caat.org.uk
Halliburton
It was another Halliburton AGM at the Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa. It was a quieter AGM than in previous occasions. Most of the questions were related to the opening of a second headquarters in Dubai. Daver Lesar the coroporation CEO said " Halliburton will continue to have many, many employees in Houston" and remain a U.S. company for tax purposes even though it opened a second headquarters last year in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. However, he maintained it was the "right decision" to establish an overseas base for Halliburton as the oil and gas industry continues to grow outside the U.S. Lesar made the comments in response to a question from a stockholder during what otherwise was a quiet and brief annual meeting of the company's shareholders . The stockholder questioned the motives for the move to Dubai, suggesting it was designed to dodge paying U.S. taxes or escape blame for past wrongs, accusations Lesar denied.
Halliburton remains a target for criticism even though it has spun off its KBR unit, which handles military contracts in Iraq and elsewhere. But it was clear Wednesday that the company is not the lightning rod it used to be.
The company, through its former KBR unit, once had a contract valued at more than $20 billion to support the U.S. military in the Middle East. Some Halliburton critics believe Vice President Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton , helped steer the business to his old employer.
Daimler
On the 19th of April members of the Critical Shareholders Daimler and the BUNDjugend were present at the Daimler AGM. Jürgen Grässlin, member of WRI's affiliate DFG-VK presented a counter motion to sto the AGM agenda: "Last year, in many interviews and statements, members of the Board of Management of Daimler AG emphasized that their actions were based on ethics, morals and an awareness of responsibility... Such declarations are not worth the paper they are printed on. In reality, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) - whose biggest shareholder is Daimler AG with a stake of 15% - is one of the eight biggest armaments exporters in the world... Once again last year, the Board of Management failed to make any efforts to discontinue doing business with inhumane weapons systems such as submunitions delivery systems. At this point, I would like to quote the example of the involvement in the MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) and the guided MLRS. MLRS rockets are to be produced in enormous numbers. The guided multiple rocket launcher, GLMRS, is designed to distribute approximately 8000 bomblets over an area of up to one square kilometer".
To read more about the campaign against Daimler:
http://www.wir-kaufen-keinen-mercedes.de/
New resources
Bank Secrets - new web-page
New website with resources on banks and their bad policies. You can find out what your bank is doing. It also comes with good ideas for campaigning.
Bite the Bullet updated web-page
The US network against war profiteering has updated their website, with many good resources on war profiteers in the US.
Good conduct? Ten years of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports
Report by Saferworld
This report takes stock of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports ten years since it was adopted, and assesses the impact of the EU's international transfer control regime.
http://www.saferworld.org.uk/publications.php/318/good_conduct
Outsourcing Intelligence in Iraq: A CorpWatch Report on L-3/Titan
When U.S. troops or embassy officials want to investigate Iraqis - such as interrogating prisoners, the principal intermediary is a Manhattan based-company named L-3. The company has just lost its biggest contract for failing to recruit qualified translators, and is also being investigated for human rights abuses.
You can download to full report at:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15017
SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security
The 2008 report shows global military spending has increased by nearly 50 percent over the last decade, with the United States accounting for half the total rise. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says governments spent more than $1.3 trillion on arms and other military costs last year. US spending also accounted for nearly half, at almost $550 billion
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