Ireland does the right thing ..Sahme on Wales

Shame on wales for welcoming Raytheon!
Ireland does the right thing…By mary The new policy is likely to be adopted in the lead-up to a major international diplomatic conference on cluster munitions scheduled for Croke Park on May 19th-30th. The Government has taken a strong stance in favour of a total ban on ...Stop Cluster Bombs - http://www.stopclusterbombs.org.nz/
Same on Rhrodri Morgan
John Smith MP

Attorney Genearal response out of date!!

At a recent meeting of the Penarth CAAT group, one of our members shared a letter from the Attorney General's office which led us to believe that CAAT's court case to have the enquiry re-opened, had failed - that the Government had won. In fact, the two judges have not yet given their decision.

The most recent CAAT email bulleting includes the following:

'1. Attorney General is out-of-date

Those of you who sent CAAT's new Control BAE postcard to the Prime
Minister, have received a response from the Attorney General's Office
which is seriously out-of-date!

The letter talks of the "recent decision" of Mr Justice Andrew
Collins that CAAT's Judicial Review of the Government's decision to
end the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the BAE Systems Al
Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia was "unarguable". Mr Justice Collins
actually made his decision in May 2007 after considering the written
arguments. However, CAAT and the Corner House were granted permission
to proceed to a Judicial Review by Lord Justice Moses after a hearing
on 9th November 2007. He said that the issue 'cries out for a
public hearing' because it involves 'matters of concern
and public importance'. Together with Mr Justice Sullivan, Lord
Justice Moses heard the full case on 14th and 15th February 2008 and
we are currently awaiting the result.

If you have received such a letter, please write back to the Attorney
General pointing this out and calling for the investigation to be
reopened.'

London University Students Vote to Ban Military From Campus

London University Students Vote to Ban Military From Campus
3/7/2008

Open University students - come on!!!

After 50 Years, British Govt Finally Bans Nuclear Protest
3/8/2008

Call for OU to quit St Athan consortium with Raytheon

Call for OU to quit St Athan consortium
ic Wales, United Kingdom - 3 Mar 2008 Peter Collins South Wales Echo
Members of the “No to the Military Academy” campaign have staged a demonstration outside the Cardiff offices of the OU as part of the National Day of Action ...

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/vale-glamorgan-news/2008/03/03/call-for-ou-to-quit-st-athan-consortium-91466-20545572/

OPPONENTS of St Athan’s defence training academy have called on the Open University in Wales to withdraw from the consortium behind the project.

The OU is a member of the Metrix consortium, which also includes multi-national training and research companies like Raytheon and Qinetiq, which made the successful bid for the multi-billion-pound academy to be built at RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Members of the “No to the Military Academy” campaign have staged a demonstration outside the Cardiff offices of the OU as part of the National Day of Action for University Ethical Investment.

Anne Greagsby, spokeswoman for the campaign, said: “The proposed military training academy at St Athan will be built and run by a consortium which includes multinational arms companies. It will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company willing to pay. We call on them the OU to withdraw.”

Rob Humphreys, director of the OU in Wales, met the campaigners outside his offices for a “useful and amicable discussion”.

He added: “As a partner in the consortium, the Open University is committed to delivering the highest quality support to this endeavour.

“The university has helped more than 100,000 services personnel and their families fulfil their potential through education. Participation in the St Athan project will help us to continue that work.”

Protest - OU - Blood on their hands

OU Protest Cardiff

Cynefin y Werin (Common Ground) is an all Wales network of organisations which promotes equality, peace, justice, human rights and co-operation between nations, peoples and communities on the basis of sustainable environmental, economic and social development.

Does your university work for/with the milititary?
The proposed military training academy at St Athan will be built and run by a consortium which includes major multinational arms companies, and will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company that can fork out the ready cash. This consortium includes the Open University and we call on them to withdraw. there will be a Protest today at 1pm at ou office 18 custom house street Cardiff.

This is part of the National Day of Action for University Ethical Investment - Coordinated events held at universities across the UK, in protest against university shareholding in arms companies. Anne Greagsby coordinator of the campaign against the privaitised military academy at St Athan said, "As a graduate from the opne university I am shocked that they could work with and profit from arms dealers such as Raytheon associated with cluster munitions and Serco and Qinetiq.

The Open University
"Our continued dedication to social justice and equality of opportunity is embodied in a set of commitments and principles. Through these commitments, we will strengthen our position as a university of choice."????

Military organisations - including arms companies and

the Ministry of Defence - annually sponsor hundreds of projects at UK universities.

The Study War No More report examines military involvement at 26 UK universities in order to highlight the impact military funding has on university departments. The report provides information about the funding of UK universities by military organisations, both governmental and industrial. It also intends to support students concerned about the impact their institutions have on international peace and conflict; and to encourage debate regarding the democratic deficit within academic institutions and the ends and ethics of research and research funding.

Study War No More: Military Involvement in UK Universities is a joint project between Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The campaign website hosts full details of military involvement at 26 UK universities. You can download the Study War No More report, which exposes the ways in which the military sector is being pushed into UK universities, view in-depth data on each of the 26 universities we researched or find out more information on researching and campaigning in this area.
Read more

CAAT

For more info on national campaign, contact Andy at andy@caat.org.uk

http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/documents/studywarnomore.pdf

Raytheon JSOWs - indiscriminate civilian death

Wesleyan needs to get out of the carnage market of "moral war"
Wesleyan Argus - Middletown, CT, USA
Raytheon, in response to the international outcry against cluster bombs, now creates “JSOWs,” fragmenting missiles designed for soft (human) and hard .....
Weapons contractors manufacture products designed for indiscriminate killing. By indiscriminate, we mean without a specific target or rational goal other than destruction at large. Raytheon, in response to the international outcry against cluster bombs, now creates “JSOWs,” fragmenting missiles designed for soft (human) and hard targets which can be programmed for “blast and fragmentation effects.”

..............any old missile will do for causing indiscriminate civilian death, such as a Raytheon missile that killed 62 civilians in a Baghdad market in September 2003. Mytheos Holt ’10 argued in a letter to the board, that Raytheon and General Dynamics also manufacture “life-saving” or non-destructive products. This utilitarian logic of weighing GPSes against a body count is ruthless, disgusting and dangerous. If a murderer volunteers at a soup kitchen, s/he is still a murderer. The logic of massive weapons supply is such that weapons linger in society for generations, fueling conflict and violence far beyond their original purpose. The more weapons are dispersed, the more demand there is for better technology, bigger guns.

Norway may ditch Israel electric Bonds

Why can we not have an ethical Wales?
Welsh politicians, even Plaid Cymru is prepared to welcome Raytheon, Serco to St Athan Wales and they have both been rejected by the Norwegian fund because of their connections to Cluster bombs and nuclear weapon. John Smith MP is one of the most obsequious lackey of the Arms Companies even prepared to use our children and schools to promote them.

Norway may ditch Israel Electric bonds
Jerusalem Post - Israel
The government has banned the 2.08 trillion-krone fund from investing in companies involved in nuclear weapons or cluster munitions, and companies that it ...

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's ethical council is considering whether to recommend the fund sell its 107 million kroner ($20 million) of bonds in Israel Electric Corp. because of an alleged participation in a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Kristin Halvorsten wants an ethics council to investigate Israel Electric over its role in cutting back electricity supplies to Gazans.

"Information that the Israeli government is using this company to cut electricity supplies to Gaza, and thereby worsening the situation for civilians there, has made Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen ask the ethics council to investigate the company," ministry spokeswoman Kaja Haldorsen said by e-mail Thursday. Israel Electric wasn't immediately available for comment.

The government has banned the 2.08 trillion-krone fund from investing in companies involved in nuclear weapons or cluster munitions, and companies that it says are guilty of human rights or environmental abuses. An ethics council investigates companies alleged to be breaking the investment guidelines.

Israel Electric is a state-owned monopoly power supplier.

Norway, the world's fifth-largest exporter of crude oil, places most of its petroleum revenue in the fund. The pension plan is the world's second-largest so-called sovereign wealth fund after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. It is forecast to double in size to more than 4 trillion kroner by 2014.

The Church of Norway asked the government in January 2006 to review its investments and possibly withdraw from companies that "are active in the construction of the wall and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank."

The ethics council concluded that there were no grounds for excluding companies active in Israel "or in areas under Israeli occupation," Finance Ministry senior advisor Aslak Skancke wrote at the time. "However, the possibility is not ruled out that information may be revealed in the future leading to closer examination and possible recommendations."

Companies that have been dropped previously by the fund include Poongsan Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co., European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to the Finance Ministry.

The Norwegian fund was established 11 years ago and is one of the world's oldest sovereign wealth funds. Yngve Slyngstad took over as head last month, succeeding Knut Kjaer, who managed the fund since its inception.

Tal Barak in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

National Day of Action for Ethical Investment at Universities

National Day of Action for Ethical Investment at Universities

Wednesday 27th February
Coordinated actions will take place throughout the day at
universities across the UK. Students will be dressing up as arms
dealers and selling (fake!) university-branded guns to raise
awareness about their Universities' shareholdings in arms companies.

Universities currently taking part include University College London
(UCL), Warwick, Manchester and Newcastle.

Students at all universities are welcome to participate. It just
needs a small group (5+) to set aside an hour or so on the day for
the action and alert the local student press.

There is still time to plan an action for the day! By forming a
united front, students can show they no longer tolerate their
universities' arms trade investments and demand change!

For further information, please contact Andy on
andy@caat.org.uk
[/URLTEXT]mailto:andy@caat.org.uk [/LINK]
This event is being coordinated with People and Planet.

_________

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London

Spectre of 'another 7/7' led Blair to block bribes inquiry, high court told --BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince 15 Feb 2008 Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London, unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday. Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Raytheon & cluster bomb in the news from Gwynedd to New Zealand

North Wales pension funds linked to weapons trade Daily Post - Llandudno Junction,UK Examples will be given from the campaign against the planned St Athan Military Academy in south Wales, and to persuade Gwynedd council to dis-invest from ...See all stories on this topic

Greens call on Super to quit funding cluster-bomb makers
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
... from $15.8 million to $21.9 million and Raytheon from $1.5 million to $2.3 million. He said both were involved in the manufacture of cluster bombs. ...

Time to stop loving the money from the bomb Scoop.co.nz - New Zealand
"It is blatant hypocrisy for the New Zealand Government on the one hand to take dividends from the manufacture of cluster bombs while on the other hand to ...
See all stories on this topic

The Frog Roars By Bomber(Bomber) Co-leader Russel Norman said the fund had increased its investments in Lockheed from $15.8 million to $21.9 million and Raytheon from $1.5 million to $2.3 million. He said both were involved in the manufacture of cluster bombs. ...
- http://tumeke.blogspot.com/

BAE enquiry

There was an interesting piece on Newsnight yesterday about the BAE inquiry which you may like to watch. it is available on the web at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
look under 'Watch latest programme' in the upper right of the page ("Court to study BAE decision"). enjoy!