Raytheon 'war profiteers'?

UVM anti-war group pushes divestment BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT - 13 May 2008

Halliburton, General Dynamics and Raytheon were asked last week to respond to their characterization as "war profiteers." Raytheon did not reply. ...

why is the OU so willing to get in to bed with War profiteers?

open university spin

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Brenda Gourley - Blood on her hands

Vice Chancellor of the OU Brenda Gourley loves Metrix - Raytheon arms dealers...

Metrix - The consortium includes a subsidiary of the US company Raytheon(‘customer success is our mission’) which makes cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions, supplies electronic guidance equipment for the British nuclear weapons system Trident and is a favoured US government supplier of arms to Israel.

The St Athan military academy will train armed forces from anywhere willing to pay for the privilege.

Brenda Gourley OU Vice Chancellor "More recently, we are proud to have contributed to Wales’ latest success, one of the biggest ever investments it has attracted. Earlier this year the UK Government announced their decision to site a new defence training academy at St Athan here in the Vale of Glamorgan. As a long-term partner in the successful Metrix consortium, we are already hard at work with our partners to turn the MoD’s vision into the reality of a military training centre of excellence. The initiative is expected to create around 5,000 jobs and bring around £58m to the economy annually -
a massive boost for Wales and a perfect example of what partnership working can deliver."
What would Jenny Lee have supported this? NO NO NO...

Jennie Lee played a key role in the formation of the Open University
She was a left-winger, and this brought her sometimes into opposition with even her own husband, left-wing Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan with whom she usually agreed politically. Lee was critical of Bevan for his support of the UK acquiring a nuclear deterrent, something she did not support.

Note now half the package has been abandoned and the number of jobs that Metrix claims that will be created is now 3,ooo according to John Smith MP who has spent his time primarily promoting the academy but much less if you take away the transfered in jobs - training forces jobs that required specialist knowledge -then you are left with the low pay jobs ..cleaning, working in the self contained mega barracks shops and cafes, laundry, .......

Rob Humphries Director of the OU in Cardiff is also happy to work with Metrix

More info
No to St Athan Military Academy on Facebook
http://www.no2militaryacademy.com/
Metrix McMercenaries
or http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/
http://www.no2metrix.com/2008/02/ou-partnership-with-arms-dealers.html
Facebook No2 O.U. workng with arms companies

Food for thought
Using Public Procurement to Stimulate Innovation
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLProfessor Caroline Gipps • Professor Brenda Gourley • Olivia Grant • Sir Anthony ..... in particular from the insights offered by the Raytheon Corporation. ...www.cihe-uk.com/docs/PUBS/0711Publicpro.pdf -

Fit to study? The consequences of war

Iraq veterans are denied help for combat trauma
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 3 feb 2008
Despite ministerial pledges to improve support for British soldiers suffering mental health problems, veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder ...

Iraq veterans are denied help for combat trauma
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 3rd feb
Hundreds of veterans, including many who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied vital help by the government to cope with the psychological ...

The debate comes as the University of Manchester undertakes a study into how many Iraq war and Afghanistan veterans have killed themselves. It expects to publish the results this spring. Official figures show that at least 23 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had committed suicide from 2003 to the end of 2006. Numbers for reservists are not known. Two members of the Territorial Army who had fought in Iraq, Private Dave Forshaw and Private Peter Mahoney, are known to have killed themselves.

There are fears that the number of suicides could eclipse the 33 British troops killed in the Iraq war itself. Falklands veterans' groups estimate that 300 men committed suicide due to the 1982 conflict compared with the 258 killed in action.

In the US, the suicide rate among soldiers has reached its highest level since records began almost 30 years ago. Last year, 121 active members of the army took their own lives, up 20 per cent on the previous year

Military Suicides Are Unacceptable Casualties of An Unjustifiable War
Common Dreams (press release), ME - 1 Feb 2008
Our sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters wouldn't have killed themselves without the sadness and trauma stemming from this unjust war.

Record Number of Army Suicides
OpEdNews, PA - 31 Jan 2008 by Aaron Glantz Page 1 of 1 page(s) At least 121 members of the US Army committed suicide last year. A new Army study found more than a quarter of those ...

Soldier Suicides Soaring in Iraq Jackson Free Press, MS -
Actually, research tells us that returning soldiers have greater risks for suicide, depression, anxiety, intimate partner violence, and so forth. ...

My fear is for our young soldiers after the battle
Guardian Unlimited, UK -
... while we were facing the daily suicide bomb threat in Iraq. It is all about prioritising in a way that the average UK manager does not have to consider. ...

For the front-line infantry there is now a one-in-four chance of death or serious injury, a 'hit rate' rarely seen since Iwo Jima or D-Day.

Open University collusion with Arms Dealers

The Open university is a key partner in the Metrix Consortium.

What is the Metrix Consortium doing?

Creating a proposed military training academy at St Athan which 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. The whole St Athan project has a bitter cold heart. It addresses a future where international conflict can only be solved by violence, accepts the widespread death and maiming, misery and suffering caused to innocent people by militarism and ignores the permanent environmental damage caused by wars and conflict. It does nothing to deliver the Wales that people in this country want – a Wales that honestly addresses global warming and other environmental problems, champions human rights, teaches our children that violence solves nothing, does not invest in the arms trade, encourages valuable, long term employment and delivers decent public services.

Raytheon is one of the world’s largest producers and dealers of weapons of mass destruction. Raytheon produces cluster bombs, bunker buster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, nuclear missiles, thermobaric weapons, and the Silent Guardian Heat Ray, criticised by Amnesty International and the UN Rapporteur on torture for its “potential to be used for torture and ill treatment” Raytheon is a major arms exporter, selling weapons to countries such as Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia. Raytheon Cluster Bomb Boast In fact, Raytheon itself says that it is a manufacturer of cluster bombs. To this very day, Raytheon continues to advertise its cluster bombs on its corporate website.

UNETHICAL INVESTMENT

Recently we learnt that the Norwegian Government pension fund has dropped a further three companies involved in producing nuclear weapons or cluster munitions in addition to Raytheon, Serco, another Metrix partner, is dropped. I call on the Welsh Assembly government to have a full investigation of Raytheon's role in producing cluster bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. I challenge Rhodri Morgan to tell us why he was so keen to work with Raytheon.”

Other Metrix partners include EDS and QinetiQ. EDS is the company responsible for messing up the Child Support Agency and the Inland Revenue's Tax Credits systems and for the disastrous unworkable MOD new computerised payroll system. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "It is astounding that the MoD is prepared to reward failure by handing over billions more pounds of taxpayers' money to a consortium that has failed to deliver what it said it would.”

QinetiQ, the privatised and research and development wing of the MOD, one of Britain’s most blatant war profiteers, was recently heavily criticised by the National Audit Office.

Already half the St Athan White Elephant (package 2) has been has been dumped by the government as too expensive. Politicians have been promising thousands of jobs – for which there is no firm basis in truth. PCS - the union that represents many MOD staff who also oppose the privatisation of military training - says the predicted number of jobs in package one has fallen from 1500 to 1100.

What did Raytheon actually have to say on the subject?

“Raytheon has never manufactured cluster bombs, but in the past we have been associated with their manufacture because of our contract to produce a missile that can carry different types of munition payloads, determined by the customer. One configuration allowed it to carry cluster bomb payloads, which were not produced by Raytheon. But in any case, Raytheon has completed its contracted production run for this particular missile, and we have no plans to resume production.”

In other words - yes, we made the delivery system for cluster bombs. Of course we knew the delivery system would be used for this purpose. But we’re not making any more at present because the US and Israeli air forces have enough to continue maiming civilians for the foreseeable future.

Norwegian government pension fund & Serco

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/01/07/daily56.html

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/news/article_1386050.php/State_pension_fund_sells_shares_in_munitions_companies

SERCO http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/gen/company.html?gcode=CA7E1AC425FD42A2A539900C67B6705D

Norwegian government on Raytheon

Recommendation on Exclusion of Cluster Weapons from the Government Petroleum Fund Oslo, 16 June 2005

...Corp, L3 Communications Holdings Inc, Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Alliant Techsystems...from the Government Petroleum Fund. Raytheon Company produces, according to its own web-site, 3 http://www.raytheon.com/products/stellent/groups/public..

PCS DEFENCE INSTRUCTIONAL OFFICERS

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9629850934

EDS http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/2007/12/eds-coporate-incompetance.html