War Profiteers News

It has a been busy times for the movement against war profiteering as you will read in this edition of WPN. We congratulate the work done by CAAT and The Corner House, with their court victory that ruled that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) acted unlawfully when he stopped a corruption investigation into BAE Systems' arms deals with Saudi Arabia. At the same time the fact that a documentary exposing the arms trade was censored in the UK shows the level of impact that the Smash EDO Campaign has had.

The 16th Annual Space Organizing Conference and Protest was held in Omaha, Nebraska, USA on April 11th to 13 , co-sponsored by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and local hosts Nebraskans for Peace. The weekend began with a protest at Offutt Air Force Base, the home of the U.S. Strategic Command. Known as StratCom, it is considered “The most dangerous place on the face of the earth”.

The High Court the 10th of April ruled that the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) acted unlawfully when he stopped a corruption investigation into BAE Systems' arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

The judgment was handed down by Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan in response to a judicial review brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House.

In the light of this judgment, the Serious Fraud Office must reopen the BAE-Saudi corruption investigation immediately.

From the 31 of March to the 4 of April in Santiago, Chile , there was an arms fair: FIDAE, is a fair that focuses on the aerospace defence

area. FIDAE also welcomes civilian exhibitors but essentially the fair has a military focus. This fair is one of the biggest and most important of its kind in Latin America and is a mayor event for the arms traders to make business in the region. This year's fair hosted

the 11th edition of the meeting of Logistic Commanders of the Air Forces of South America.

Eurosatory is with DSEi in London the biggest arms trade fair in the world. A few figures to show how bit it is. In 2006, there were over one thousand exhibitors from 47 countries displaying military equipments to 48 thousand visitors from 167 countries, amongst them 110 official delegations from 67 countries and nearly 600 journalists.

Police have intervened across the UK to censor 'On the Verge' an independent documentary about the Smash EDO campaign to shut down the Brighton's weapons manufacturer EDO MBM. So far establishments in Southampton, Chichester, Bath and Oxford as well as Brighton have come under police pressure to cancel film showings.

On 10 th March 2008, the Court of Appeal in The Hague cleared Guus Van Kouwenhoven, a " member of [Charles] Taylor's Inner Circle, " of breaking the United Nations arms embargo enforced against Liberia.

" The barbaric regime of Charles Taylor was financed and maintained by the revenues generated from the timber trade, in which Guus Van Kouwenhoven was the biggest player.

World Without War in South Korea and other peace activists are working on a war profiteers study group. They have started to study the related books to gain information about Korean war profiteers(and enterprises) and weapons Korea produces for now, hoping to plan any kind of active non violent peace action some day soon.

For more information contact: peace@withoutwat.org

Online poll by Corporate Accountability International's for their annual Corporate Hall of Shame!

This year's nominees made headlines for breaking the law, influencing elected officials, undermining democratic decision-making and outright endangering the environment and public health. They include Blackwater Worldwide, Archer Daniels Midland, Countrywide, Mattel, Nestlé, Toyota, Wal-Mart and Wendy's.

For the full list of nominees:

Exxon Mobil o ExxonMobil Corporation es una corporación multinacional estadounidense y heredera directa de la empresa Standard Oil de John D. Rockefeller. Creada el 30 de noviembre de 1999, gracias a la fusión de Exxon y Mobil, hoy es la empresa más grande del mundo en términos de ingresos, habiendo generado U$ 377.6 billones durante el año fiscal 2006.

The campaign with more than 10 years of existence started from the need to demand a bigger, better and equitable Social Investment with the aim for the State to better distribute their resources.

European Network Against Arms Trade(ENAAT) annual meeting

Oslo: 7 - 8 of July

For more information:

http://enaat.org

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.