31/01/2008

Plans for St Athan Academy are hit

Ministry of Defence | Defence News | Ainsworth: Defence training ...

Mr Ainsworth also told Parliament that the MOD will continue to consider a range of options for the solution to Package 2, which aims to deliver high quality training in the functions of logistics and personnel administration, police and guarding, security, languages, intelligence and photography. To be able to consider all options for procurement fully without legal constraints, it has been decided to remove the 'Provisional Preferred Bidder' status from Metrix.

GNN - Government News Network Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said: ... In a statement to Parliament on the Defence Training Review (DTR), Mr Ainsworth said the Government continued ...

Blow for £15bn St Athan academy PART of a huge £15bn defence training academy ear-marked for St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan is being ditched Read

Base loses some defence training BBC News, Plans to relocate some defence training to St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan have been dropped, the UK Government has announced. Ministers say the private ...

Plans for £15bn St Athan academy are hit ic Wales, PART of a huge £15bn defence training academy ear-marked for St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan is being ditched The two-part project would have seen all UK ...

Villagers Voice their fears Echo Jan 29 Growing concerns about the impact of the multi-million pound Defence Training Academy at St Athan are to be discussed by councillors in Cowbridge. Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks has a greed to meet members of Cowbridge and Llanblethian Town Council to discuss transport schemes in the rural Vale especially those that will be needed to service the new academy .

Raytheon MP Defence Select Committee

Chris Paul: Labour of Love

Manchester - Labour - Original - Modern - CP's Personal Blog - idea@mcr1.poptel.org.uk

Poor old Rabbie Burns looky-likey Willie Rennie has been in very hot water ever since he was elected in astonishing fashion to parliament as Gordon Brown's own MP.

It is hard to see how he will survive any further election after his shameless hypocrisy has been exposed including in The Daily Record, in The Times, who were picking up Guido, who was picking up Fib Dems, and of course the story has since been here, there and everywhere.

Essentially Willie (here seen on his election, possibly after premature and excessive celebration or sorrow drowning) has been campaigning hard in Parliament for cluster bombs to be banned. Few would disagree.

But since his election and appointment to the Defence Select Committee our hero has actually visited a weapons factory owned by cluster bomb makers Raytheon Scotland Limited (RSL). And it turns out that the PR and lobbying firm which organised that trip and which represents bomb makers Raytheon was until recently Willie Rennie's main employer, and indeed part owned (10%) by him.

Today (24th) Fib Dems have tenuously spotted Willie missing an arms export debate yesterday (23rd) and have neatly summarised the back story with links including the McEwan Purvis release on the arms factory visit.

There was one small slip, pointed out in the comments, as the factory Rennie visited is not in his own constituency or even in an adjacent one.
A strange decision to dabble in another MPs territory, particularly given the contentious goods being produced there.

Was Rennie at the back of the queue when the nous was being handed out? Let's hope he pushes to the front for his Haggis, neaps, tatties and whisky. The condemned man is supposed to enjoy a hearty meal after all.

Here at Labour of Love we have been especially interested in this gruesome story since Manchester Withington MP the Lib Dem John Leech stood up beside Willie to metaphorically hold his hand as both asked the exact same question in the House in November.

How could Leech be so stupid when this disgraceful story had already been out for around six months?

Perhaps he thought it was complete bull - just as many of the stories he himself places in the papers are shameless fibs? But it is not. Willie is Bang Bang to rights.

Perhaps Leech thinks it is OK to profit from promoting cluster bombs as part owner and senior employee of a PR and lobbying concern, to knowingly visit their arms factory in a trip organised by that very PR and lobbying firm, yet to still campaign vociferously against their lethal wares? No problem there then.

There is still some uncertainty about Willie Rennie's current involvement with McEwan Purvis and hence with Raytheon. Source Watch lists him as one of four Principals, and Willie's own political CV also says he still works for them.

Labour of Love checked the House of Commons register of members interests and updates dated
9 January 2007, 11 December 2006, 27 November 2006, 6 November 2006, 19 September 2006,
25 July 2006, 21 June 2006, 12 May 2006, and
24 March 2006.

Every single one of these says:
RENNIE, Willie (Dunfermline and West Fife) Nil. ("Queen of the South, Nil" adds anonymous in comments).

As we all sit down for our traditional Burns' Night supper we must accept that Willie Rennie is declaring absolutely no Members Interests, because he has no campaign supporters to acknowledge, has had no trips or entertainment, has no Directorships, has no paid employment apart from his MP's whack and expenses, has no fees, and so on. Willie has "nothing to declare" and is pure as the driven snow even now settling in his constituency.

His own Willie's Fibs website must be incorrect and he must have done no paid PR or lobbying work on behalf of McEwan Purvis since his election. Though obviously he has been to the factory. Which they turned into a PR coup for arms manufacturers everywhere. McEwan Purvis' own website has unfortunately been on hold while this not-isolated Scottish Lib Dem crisis has escalated. Isn't Ming going to be merciless on this one? He missed a chance in a recent reshuffle. Though like most of these Lib Dem Shadow Ministers and Front Bench spokesmen there is a tad of shameless exaggeration and flirting with the truth going on. Could Ming reshuffle a back bencher with some third degree jobbie?

Willie Rennie has certainly transferred his shares (nominally on 10 February 2006), divided equally between the two remaining Principals placing them at 85:15. Until 2003 when a Mr Purvis was elected a Lib Dem MSP there were according to Source Watch five Principals. Mr McEwan now holds 85% of the equity.

This has been Burns Night (a fantastic BBC site this, including recipes) which comes but once a year. Sadly, thanks to Mr Rennie's friends at Raytheon, promoted by his old friends at McEwan Purvis, any night can and will be burns night in danger zones throughout the world. As the BBC might put in their side bar it is Burns, Daily Burns, ..., Burns Supper, Burns on the Web, Your Burns, Burns Country.

Thank goodness for the arms industry and those who promote them! For Auld Lang Syne indeed.

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy ...

Thursday, November 23, 2006 Wee Willie Rennie : Cluster F****r

He was a spin-merchant at McEwan Purvis who had the merchants of death Raytheon - the weapons ..... Murkier and Murkier · Steve Morgan Sleaze Investigation ...
www.order-order.com/2006/11/wee-willie-rennie-cluster-fr.html - 168k -

30/01/2008

QinetiQ - EDS - We rage at Hain and Conway but miss the real profligacy

We rage at Hain and Conway but miss the real profligacy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2248847,00.html

(you can put your comment on the Guardian website or here !)

MPs' much-publicised transgressions are as nothing against the gross waste of public money on PFIs and consultancy

Jenni Russell Wednesday January 30, 2008 The Guardian

Just for a change, it was a Tory MP's embarrassment over the possible misuse of money that was leading the news bulletins yesterday. A Commons committee found Derek Conway had overpaid his teenage student son when he employed him as a part-time researcher. In three years the son earned £45,000, but the committee could find no official record of his work. In its judgment this was, at least, an improper use of parliamentary allowances and, at worst, a serious diversion of public funds. Conway was ordered to repay almost a third of his son's salary and suspended from the Commons for 10 days. An inquiry into his elder son's employment on a similar basis may follow.

I don't doubt that this is an important story. MPs are given public money to fund their offices and have a lot of latitude in how to spend it. It's right that they should be censured when they break the rules. But coming after weeks of headlines about the problems Labour MPs have had with keeping to the rules about funding their election campaigns, it has made me wonder about the ease with which we focus on simple stories about individual politicians misusing relatively trivial sums for their own ends, rather than looking at what really matters to us all - the way in which these politicians are spending, and risking, vast amounts of money on our behalf.

Just at this moment, the Northern Rock debacle is at the forefront of our minds because its collapse has been so public and the immediate consequences so severe. There are myriad other cases, though, where politicians are taking wasteful and sometimes disastrous decisions, and yet these barely break the surface of our consciousness. They certainly don't generate the righteous outrage and column inches that, say, Peter Hain's forgotten £100,000 has done.

Some of these wasteful decisions look like sheer political cowardice. We are now committed to spending £20bn on Trident missiles, and yet senior figures in Labour and the Tories have told me that they can't see the point in the system. Their parties voted for it for fear of seeming soft on defence. Other misjudgments, like many of the PFI contracts, or Brown's decision in 2003 to sell a stake in the MoD's research arm, QinetiQ, demonstrate the government's continued tendency to be shockingly naive when it negotiates with the private sector. Within three years, that company had been floated for £1.3bn, giving its directors a return of 20,000% on their investment. The government got an annual return of 14% on its stake, while the private company got 112%. But perhaps more important than either of these is the series of poor decisions which stem from the government's lack of managerial ability and its consequent blind faith in the two false gods of IT and management consultancy. A Labour government has chosen to pour unprecedented billions on the private companies providing both, and much of that money is simply being squandered.

The collapse of the Child Support Agency, and the years of misery its incompetence brought to mothers and children, was due in large part to the fact that its half-billion-pound computer system, designed by EDS, never worked properly. An internal company memo admitted the system was "badly designed, badly delivered, badly tested and badly implemented". The disastrous implementation of the tax credits system, where a third of the 6 million families involved were over- or underpaid and a billion pounds was lost in the first year, was made infinitely worse because the computer system built to run it repeatedly crashed. The insanely overambitious NHS computer scheme is more than two years behind schedule, while the estimated cost has tripled to £20bn. This month a senior civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions, Joe Healey, told a seminar that the government is spending £14bn a year on IT, and yet only 30% of the projects or programmes were successful. He concluded: "It is not sustainable for us as a government to continue to spend at this level."

Even less visible is the money lost as poor managers resort to consultants, using them as either a cure or a figleaf for their own failings. The government won't reveal what it spends in this area, but former consultant David Craig estimates it at £10bn in Labour's first seven years, and rising. The public-sector consultancy business is booming.

A civil servant who arrived at one part of Defra a couple of years ago was stunned to discover that very few of the department's internal business mangers had any financial training, which meant they could neither control costs nor run the finance system. Money was a dirty word. Instead, expensive agency accountants or outside consultants were doing the job. Consultants were also employed whenever difficult or unpopular decisions had to be made. "Managers didn't want to tackle vested interests themselves; it was too uncomfortable. But they didn't listen to us, because we were nobodies. So instead we had teams of people, some on £5,000 a day, repeating our views back to management, and getting hundreds of thousands of pounds for it."

A consultant who earns more than half a million a year, much of it from public-sector work, confirms that very often what his teams do is quite unnecessary. "We're brought in to knock heads together, as in the merger of prisons and probation services. And it makes anxious bosses feel better to say, look, we spent a few million on consulting and reporting, so the conclusions must be right. But this is really a huge tax. They should be able to do it themselves."

And that is the heart of the problem. Our indignation at Conway's misuse of £13,000 or £45,000 is as nothing compared to spending on this scale. This is harder to grasp or to assess. But it is deeply politically destructive. People who support left-of-centre parties have a sense of idealism about tax, believing governments will spend money to create a better, fairer, kinder society. Waste on this scale eats away at that conviction and produces cynicism instead.

jenni.russell@guardian.co.uk

28/01/2008

Sodexho = Low Paid Low Skill Jobs




Sodexho Coporate Crimes ...A change in name is launched from Sodexho to Sodexo as part of the global brand evolution. Find out more about Sodexo's name change .
Sodexo history
Sodexos senior manager - Simon Scrivens Managing Director of Tillery Valley Foods (TVF) Joined Sodexo 2007 -Responsible for Tillery Valley Foods - the leading supplier of chilled and frozen prepared meals to the healthcare sector.
What Sodexho say ...Sodexho Defence Services investing in its unique HUB brand, specifically designed to offer high street facilities that meet the needs of both service personnel and their families within the barracks. It brings eating, drinking, shopping and leisure together in one place at lower than high street prices. Not likely to provide much work for local farmers then?
A change in name is launched from Sodexho to Sodexo as part of the global brand evolution.

Sodexo is committed to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and in developing Public Private Partnerships (PPP), both as an FM services provider and as an equity investor.

Tony Leech Managing Director of Kalyx Joined Sodexo 2003 Responsible for the Corrections Business in the UK & Ireland.

they do 'cleaning' too ..they call it .....Our cleaning offer is called “essence” and is tailored to specific client needs in different environments within both the public and private sectors....

SODEXHO - LOW PAY - PAY DISPUTES - LOW SKILL JOBS

workers low pay

Scottish Socialist Party - News - Support Sodexho Workers

A Message from North Glasgow Hospitals Branch, Unison. To all friends and supporters, 300 staff employed by private contractor Sodexho at Glasgow Royal ...
www.scottishsocialistparty.org/news/hospitals.html - 6k -

SODEXHO What do unison have to say? Basically that they are rubbish.
Wiltshire County Council is scrapping its Sodexho meals-on-wheels service and replacing it with a new and different type of service. The council is terminating the contract ten months early and introducing a service based on bulk deliveries of frozen food which the clients would have to heat themselves. Thirty Sodexho staff face redundancy.
Employees of Sodexho, working on a meals-on-wheels contract with Cheshire County Council, are battling bosses who are trying to cut their working hours by one hour each day, or by 20%. Cheshire County Council said: "The company has assured us that the service it provides on our behalf, delivering 20,000 hot meals every month to 1000 older people across Cheshire, would be unaffected by any changes."

[PDF] Who is Sodexho?
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
problems with the contractor and brought management of food services back in house. Recently, B.C.’s Northern Health Authority hired Sodexho to consult on ...
www.labournet.net/world/0209/sodprofile.pdf -
[PDF]

BSG template

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
UNISON has a national agreement with Sodexho Ltd, but the problems of health ... SODEXHO PROBLEM CONTRACTS. Cleaning contract at South Glasgow University ...
www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B828.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

Students upset with Sodexho - News

He can relate to every problem he has heard dealing with Sodexho. "The selection is pretty bad, ... "Yep, the RHC has real big problems with Sodexho." ...
www.unews.com/news/2005/04/25/News/Students.Upset.With.Sodexho-936998.shtml - 37k
If only this employee would have responded in a positive way, in which the Sodexho mission exemplifies, there would be no problem. But there is a problem. ...
www.morris.umn.edu/register/article.php?volume=16&issue=9&section=opinion&index=1 - 12k -

http://www.eyeonsodexho.org/index.html

26/01/2008

The threat of private military companies...Raytheon


Download Corporate Mercenaries [pdf]: War on Want's report on PMSCs - Private Military and Security Companies - Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies…..Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are major arms contractors also selling PMSC services.

Halliburton specialises in energy exploration and construction, but also provides logistical support to the US military. While conflicts such as the Iraq War have brought companies enormous profits, their gain has come at the expense of the victims of war.

Raytheon busy selling missiles

Spinwatch - Právo: US company, embassy lobbying among Czech MPs Raytheon representatives are currently attending a seminar for Czech and U.S. arms producers that ... Právo: US company, embassy lobbying among Czech MPs ...
www.spinwatch.org/content/view/4567/9/ - 27k

US's Raytheon Delivers 24 Missiles To Czech Army - AFP
CNNMoney.com – USA PRAGUE (AFP)--US defense firm Raytheon Co. (RNT) has delivered 24 air-to-air missiles to the Czech Republic which will be used to equip combat planes, ...

25/01/2008

Raytheon - cluster munitions?

Rhodri Morgan frst minister is one of the few people in Wales who love Raytheon!

The mysterious case of the disappearing cluster bombs
(News/Arms Industry) ...t Industries, MBDA, Rhienmetall, RUAG, SAAB, Denel, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Textron) to discreetly flog you the whole thing. A journalist from The Independ...

US insists cluster bombs not bad if used right
(News/Arms Industry)
Robert Evans, January 16, 2008, Reuters GENEVA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Cluster bombs, which nearly 100 countries are seeking to ban, should not be considered bad as long as states involved in con

24/01/2008

Raytheon - JSOW - cluster munitions - video


<------Rhodri Morgan first minster of Wales "The reference to cluster bombs and Raytheon by campaigners is a simple guilt by association argument with absolutely no supporting evidence. They should be ashamed of themselves for using such a smear as a subsitiute for intelligent argument" ------>

BLU-108/B Submunition


Cluster munitions: the stigma grows

Recommendation of June 16, 2005 on the exclusion of companies that are involved in production of cluster munitions

Recommendation of June 16, 2005 on the exclusion of companies that are involved in production of cluster munitions (pdf)

Raytheon Company produces, according to its own web-site, 3 JSOW (Joint Stand Off Weapon), and cluster munitions to these: “JSOW integrates the BLU-97 combined effects bomblets and the BLU-108 sensor fused weapon submunitions for area targets or armoured vehicles”. These are considered as cluster weapons. This information is confirmed by Jane’s Information Group. The company has not replied to the communication from Norges Bank. The Advisory Council recommends that Raytheon Company should be excluded from the Government Petroleum Fund

Javelin contain flechettes -----> -----> ---->

The French word flechette means "little arrow" or dart projectile of steel that is sharp and pointed with a vaned tail for stable flight. means "little arrow" or dart projectile of steel that is sharp and pointed with a vaned tail for stable flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette

Landmine action Weapons firm’s role in St Athan academy condemned (UK) CAMPAIGNERS have condemned the Assembly Government for backing a huge military training project, despite the involvement of a weapons company previously linked to cluster bombs. http://www.landmine.de/en.titel/en.search.output/index.html?entry=en.news.0f39d5c459040000

News: Financial minefield of moral decisions…..a report by Belgian non-government organisation Network Vlaanderen, titled Explosive Investments, exposed ANZ as being part of credit arrangements to cluster munition manufacturers Raytheon and Thales. A credit agreement dated March 24, 2005, showed that ANZ extended $US35 million to Raytheon, maker of the AGM-154 joint standoff weapon. The weapon is an air-delivered bomb with several variants that contain cluster munitions. The AGM-154A contains 145 BLU 97/B submunitions. US forces have used the BLU 97/B submunitions extensively in several conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. It has been shown to leave behind unexploded "duds" that have killed and maimed thousands of civilians, after conflicts have passed.

News: Local authorities investing over £700m in arms trade General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all produce cluster munitions or their components, according to Human Rights Watch.

News: Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades Battlefield commanders have reported failure rates as high as 40 percent. Washington - Hundreds and possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or maimed by outdated, defective U.S. cluster weapons that lack a safety feature other countries have added, according to observers, news reports and officials……… Britain, which joined the United States in the fight to oust Saddam Hussein, fired 2,000 artillery cluster weapons in the war. All were equipped with Israeli-made grenades with secondary fuses and a 2 percent dud rate, the British Defense Ministry said…….. "The funding for R and D [research and development] in the Army was minimal, and fusing was the last on the list," said Bruce Mueller, a former Army lieutenant colonel who managed the fuse program for defense contractor Raytheon. "They develop weapons, then they develop munitions, and after they develop munitions, the last thing they worry about is how to fuse them."

News: Oil-rich Norway hires philosopher as moral compass
News: W. E. Gutman: Land mines and morals ... fail to the Chief!
News: Norway divests shares in arms manufacturers (NORWAY)
News: Norway divests shares in arms manufacturers (NORWAY)
News: A Further Eight Companies Excluded from the Petroleum Fund
News: ING disinvests (partly) from controversial weapons

QinetiQ - 394 University Projects


QinetiQ - 394 university projects
QuinetiQ is a leading international defence and security technology company. It acts as the leading supplier of defence research to the British government which provides half its turnover. It also provides technological and security solutions to clients from both the civil and public sectors. The government recently sold a majority stake in the firm to a US private equity firm

23/01/2008

Blackwater - seven dead

Blackwater is a busy little bee: Bodies of seven family members found in Iraq orchard 22 Jan 2008 Iraqi security forces found the bodies of seven family members on Tuesday, all bearing signs of torture and shot execution-style, as they hunted al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] fighters outside Iraq's volatile city of Baquba, police said.

Private Military and security contractors could be getting away with murder - rape and torture - in Iraq

Private military and security contractors like Blackwater and Halliburton could be getting away with murder - and rape and torture - in Iraq - Keep them out of St Athan - no to private military

Imagine you're a security contractor dispatched to Iraq - a place where your greatest fear is being hit by a roadside bomb. But mere days after you arrive, you are gang raped by co-workers... and then pressured by company management to "get over it" or lose your job.

This is the story of 23-year-old American Jamie Leigh Jones, who recently recounted her personal horror in Iraq two years ago as an employee of KBR, Halliburton's former subsidiary, before a House subcommittee.

There are an estimated 180,000 private contractors working in Iraq, yet they seem to operate above the law both in Iraq and the U.S. This culture of impunity allows abuse and killings to thrive - with little recourse for the victims. Amnesty International is working to stop this - and we need your help to succeed.

It's been more than 4 years since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Even though the Army's internal reports indicated contractor involvement in the abuses and the Department of Justice (DOJ) established a "Detainee Abuse Task Force" in 2004, it has not prosecuted a single contractor for abuses in Iraq to date. When pressed for answers, DOJ has simply said these cases remain "open" and that investigations are continuing.

Through our new "Counter Terror with Justice" campaign, Amnesty is working to reverse these injustices that further denigrate our nation's reputation around the world. All companies and contractors have an obligation to respect human rights at home and abroad. And the business community as a whole has a wider responsibility - moral and legal - to use its influence to promote respect for human rights.

With the stakes growing higher every day, we must move quickly to stop these egregious abuses in the "war on terror." Please consider making a gift today to help Amnesty to:
  • Pressure the Justice Department to expedite investigations and prosecute cases of clear human rights violations by contractors.
  • Pressure the Senate to pass a loophole-free version of the Security Contractor Accountability Act, a bill that would ensure that private military and security contractors are not above the law. A similar bill has already passed in the House, but we need your help to keep up the momentum!
  • Drive increased media and public attention to the U.S.'s illegal practices in the war on terror. Our protests on January 11th generated huge TV and print media coverage around the world!
Help support Amnesty's work to hold private contractors accountable for the human rights abuses they commit by making a tax-deductible gift today.

Thank you for your commitment to creating a more just and peaceful world.

Sincerely,

Larry Cox
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

22/01/2008

St Athan the Future -the new colorado springs military industrial complex


COS military-industrial complex HQ

Almost all of the defense industry giants earning the largest profits in this war on terror have offices in Colorado Springs.

Here’s a cluster at the intersection of Academy and Fountain Blvds:
Lockheed Martin, 1150 Academy Park Loop #1
Boeing, 1330 Inverness #2
Northrop Grumman, 1330 Inverness #3
General Dynamics, 1330 Inverness #4
Raytheon, 1330 Inverness #5
Mitre, 1155 Academy Park Loop
Intecon, 1050 South Academy Boulevard
and the ill-reported Iraq War opportunists:
Alliant Techsystems, 1250 Academy Park Loop (depleted uranium)
BAE Systems, 1150 Academy Park Loop (armor)
CACI International, 1250 Academy Park Loop (Abu Ghraib)
L-3 Communications TITAN Group, 1150 Academy Park Loop (Abu Ghraib)




How reliable is Raytheon - List of misconduct

About POGO's Contractor Misconduct Database

The USA government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. They believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services.

Raytheon Company

http://www.contractormisconduct.org/index.cfm/1,73,221,html?ContractorID=46

Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

Federal Contract $: $9218.2m

Total Number of Instances: 16

Total Misconduct dollar amount: $ 475.6m

Instances of Misconduct

1. Aircraft Maintenance Overcharge

“Raytheon Aerospace Company has paid the government more than $400,000 to settle claims that it overcharged the government under a settlement reached on January 8…The government claimed that a Raytheon subsidiary, Beech Aerospace Systems, Inc., double-billed the Department of Defense for certain parts under a 1991 aircraft maintenance contract”, violating the False Claims Act, 31 USC § 3729 et seq.... more»

2. Contractor Kickbacks

According to a GAO report cited by Senator Harkin and Representative DeFazio, Raytheon paid $115,310 to settle allegations related to “contractor/subcontractor kickbacks.”... more»

3. Defective Pricing

According to a GAO report cited by Senator Harkin and Representative DeFazio, Raytheon paid $2,099,042 to settle allegations of “Defective Pricing.”... more»

4. F-14 and F-15 Aircraft Contract False Claims Act Violations

Hughes Aircraft Company, a Raytheon subsidiary, paid $2,113,000 to settle alleged violations of the False Claims Act, 31 USC § 3729 et seq. According to the government, "contract specifications required Hughes Aircraft Company to perform performance and acceptance tests on traveling wave tubes, components used in radar systems on F-14 and F-15 aircraft. Such testing was not accomplished on three different models of the tubes, and investigation also determined Hughes inflated labor hours billed to the Government.”... more»

5. Improper Classification of Costs

Raytheon paid $2.7 million to settle allegations that the company “charged the Government for costs incurred in marketing products to foreign governments. Since 1986, Raytheon’s cost accounting procedures have provided for separate accounting treatment of foreign and domestic marketing costs. These procedures, and the Cost Accounting Standards of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, require the allocation of Raytheon’s foreign marketing costs to contracts between Raytheon and its foreign customers, and allocation of its domestic marketing costs to U.S. Government contracts. The Government asserted that most of the activities of the Raytheon international development function were foreign marketing activities and that Raytheon improperly classified the costs as ‘division administration’ costs allocable to Government contracts.”... more»

6. Improper Communications Equipment Export

Raytheon settled charges that the company had improperly attempted to export troposcatter communications equipment to Pakistan between 1992 and 1997 in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.... more»

7. Improper Export of Defense Articles and Technical Data

Raytheon Company entered into a Consent Agreement to settle allegations that it violated the Arms Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2778(e), by exporting defense articles and technical data covered by the U.S. Munitions List to Canada without the required approvals from the Department of State, and in other circumstances, violated the terms and conditions of approvals that were provided by the State Department. Under the agreement, Raytheon will pay a civil penalty of $500,000 and a suspended penalty of $50,000 to be applied to the cost of an independent compliance audit.... more»

8. Electronic Equipment Testing False Claims Act Violations

“Hughes Aircraft Company [paid] the United States $4,050,000 to settle claims the company failed to perform certain tests on components used in advanced electronic equipment such as radar units for military aircraft, missile guidance units and delicate tracking equipment.” Allegedly, “Hughes supervisors instructed employees in the Environmental Test Area… to omit tests, to shorten required procedures,” in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 USC § 3729 et seq.... more»

9. Substitution/Nonconforming Product (1996)

According to a GAO report cited by Senator Harkin and Representative DeFazio, Raytheon paid $82,000 to settle allegations of providing the government with a “Substitution/Nonconforming Product."... more»

10. Substitution/Nonconforming Product (1995)

According to a GAO report cited by Senator Harkin and Representative DeFazio, Raytheon paid $95,000 to settle allegations of providing the government with a “Substitution/Nonconforming Product."... more»

11. United States v. Hughes Aircraft (Department of Defense Contract False Claims Act Violations)

Hughes Aircraft Co. and Hughes Aircraft Mississippi, Inc., subsidiaries of Raytheon, paid “$500,000 to settle allegations that they defrauded the government by not properly testing certain components of torpedoes as required under a military contract and using non-conforming fasteners under several other Department of Defense contracts,” in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 USC § 3729 et seq. “An investigation by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service revealed that Hughes failed to properly test certain electronic components of Advanced Capacity Mark 48 torpedoes sold to the United States Navy. It also concluded that Hughes used flawed fasteners such as stainless steel screws that failed to meet specifications contained in several other military contracts.”... more»

12. Yslava v. Hughes Aircraft (Drinking Water Contamination)

Hughes Aircraft, a subsidiary of Raytheon, allegedly contaminated the drinking water of Tucson, Arizona residents as the result of the dumping of TCE, a toxin. The company agreed to settle two related lawsuits in the matter for approximately $13 million, which included a medical monitoring program for residents.... more»

13. Raytheon Securities Litigation

“In late 1999, the Company and two of its officers were named as defendants in several class action lawsuits. These lawsuits were consolidated into a single complaint in June 2000, when four additional former or present officers were named as defendants in a Consolidated and Amended Class Action Complaint (the “Consolidated Complaint”) with the caption In re: Raytheon Securities Litigation (Civil Action No. 12142-PBS), filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. The Consolidated Complaint principally alleged that the defendants violated federal securities laws by purportedly making misleading statements and by failing to disclose material information concerning the Company’s financial performance during the class period. In May 2004, without admitting any liability or wrongdoing, the Company reached an agreement to settle this class action lawsuit on behalf of the Company and all individual defendants. The terms of the settlement included a cash payment of $210 million and the issuance of warrants for the Company’s stock with a stipulated value of $200 million.”... more»

14. Violations of SEC Rules

In June 2006, Raytheon, its former Chairman and CEO, Daniel P. Burnham, and the former Deputy CFO and Controller of Raytheon Aircraft Company (RAC), Aldo R. Servello, settled with the SEC following an investigation into improper disclosure and accounting practices relating to Raytheon’s commercial aircraft manufacturing subsidiary. Pursuant to the settlement, Raytheon agreed to pay a penalty of $12 million and $1 in disgorgement. Burnham and Servello agreed to pay disgorgement of certain past bonus amounts, pre-judgment interest and penalties in the total amounts of $1,238,344 and $34,628, respectively. In March 2007, the SEC settled enforcement proceedings in the same matter against Franklyn A. Caine, the former CFO of Raytheon, Edward S. Pliner, Raytheon's former Controller and former lead auditor, and James E. Gray, the former CFO of RAC. The SEC charged that they were each involved in or aware of the improper practices. Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations or findings, Caine, Pliner, and Gray agreed to pay a combined total of $1,501,867 to settle the charges.... more»

15. EEOC v. Raytheon Technical Services (Racial Discrimination)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a suit against Raytheon subsidiary Raytheon Technical Services, alleging that the company "failed to hire charging party as a painter when it became the new contractor at the military base because of his race, black." When it became apparent that the painter had more experience than the other painters that were hired, "the parties resolved the case through a consent decree providing $165,000 to charging party."... more»

16. Water Contamination (Tucson, AZ)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force to clean up a migrating plume of contaminated groundwater found near a water treatment plant that serves 50,000 residents of Tucson, Arizona. Groundwater contaminated with excessive amounts of trichloroethylene (TCE) and dioxane (DX), chemical solvents believed to be human carcinogens, was found near the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund Site, where Raytheon and the Air Force share a facility called Air Force Plant 44. The contaminants migrated north of the facility and into the water treatment plant. For more than 50 years, aircraft and electronics facilities (including Raytheon and its predecessor, Hughes Aircraft) and unlined landfills have deposited various chemical contaminants into the site. The EPA's order requires Raytheon and the Air Force to install and operate an advanced oxidation process system to treat the solvents in the plume. If they disobey the order, the EPA will fine the parties up to $32,500 per day, per violation.... more»

20/01/2008

Darth Rumsfelds old stand by QinetiQ up to old tricks!

They're Back...By kelley b.(kelley b.) Ah, yes, Darth Rumsfeld's old stand by, QinetiQ's back up to it's old tricks. QinetiQ, where George Tenet went to play after he got his Preznit service award. QinetiQ, the specialty op the Carlyle Group bought from Her Majesty's Secret ...
Singularity - http://spacetimecurves.blogspot.com/

They're Back...

...and they hadn't even really left yet.



via Noah Shachtman

If you've heard of the Pentagon's Counter-Intelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, at all, it's probably because of a database the agency kept of so-called "suspicious incidents" and "potential terrorist activities." You know: scary, scary stuff like "church service[s] for peace" and "US group[s] exercising Constitutional rights."

But there may be renewed attention paid to the Pentagon office, tasked with monitoring terrorist threats to U.S. military bases. CIFA has just handed a major contract to the new company of Steven Cambone, Donald Rumsfeld's former Undersecretary for Intelligence. Which is a little... odd. Since he's the guy that helped create the agency in the first place, Tim Shorrock writes at CorpWatch...




Ah, yes, Darth Rumsfeld's old stand by, QinetiQ's back up to it's old tricks. QinetiQ, where George Tenet went to play after he got his Preznit service award. QinetiQ, the specialty op the Carlyle Group bought from Her Majesty's Secret Service once it became clear they could do more as private contractors than with any kind of messy oversight, even Top Secret oversight, and it's been growing ever since.


Revolving Doors: Steven Cambone Gets CIFA Contract By Victorian Muse
QinetiQ Goes Kinetic: Top Rumsfeld Aide Wins Contracts From Spy Office He Set Up by Tim Shorrock , Special to CorpWatch January 15th, 2008 A Pentagon office that claims to monitor terrorist threats to US military bases in North America ...
Whistleblower Support - http://whistleblowersupport.blogstream.com

18/01/2008

Fury at Academy's 'arms links'




Protest on Thurs 17th Jan the one year on from the Metrix contract being signed - though it's only half a package now!

See more pictures

17/01/2008

Qinetiq wins contract from Rumsfeld spy office

QinetiQ Goes Kinetic: Top Rumsfeld Aide Wins Contracts From Spy Office He Set Up
by Tim Shorrock , Special to CorpWatch January 15th, 2008

A Pentagon office that was reprimanded by the U.S. Congress for spying on antiwar activists, has just awarded a multi-million dollar contract to QinetiQ, a British company that employs Stephen Cambone. Cambone, a former Rumsfeld aide, helped create the very office that issued the contract.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14898

Other QinetiQ acquisitions

In 2005, QinetiQ made one of its most strategic acquisitions: Apogen Technologies, a McLean, Virginia, maker of optical sensors that was deeply involved in “black” (secret) military operations, including anti-submarine warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. At the time, Apogen’s chairman was Phillip Odeen, a longtime friend of Frank Carlucci, the Carlyle Group’s chairman emeritus. Odeen was a key figure in U.S. intelligence after serving in senior positions at the Pentagon and the National Security Council, where he led the Defense and Arms Control staff under Henry Kissinger. Odeen went on to become CEO of TRW and BDM Inc., two major intelligence contractors that were later acquired by Northrop Grumman.

After QinetiQ bought Apogen, it hired Odeen as CEO of its North American division. In 2006, while Cambone was still at the DoD, Apogen won an $11.3 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps to provide engineering and technical support to Marine intelligence and reconnaissance operations. Other customers include the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Navy.

Other companies in the QinetiQ empire include ITS Corporation, which holds IT and engineering contracts with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, including DARPA, naval intelligence and the NRO; Planning Systems Inc., which calls itself a “leading network-centric technology company,” and includes among its product line ground-penetrating radar for the detection of IEDs; and Westar Aerospace, which specializes in network centric communications and interoperability systems.

WAR PROFITEERING

UK: FBI wants instant access to British identity data
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14896

IRAQ: 2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14888

JAPAN: Yamada gave additional 400,000 dollars to organization
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14890

16/01/2008

Protest against Crooks, War Profiteers,Liars on St Athan Military Academy





no2militaryacademy@inbox.com

Press Release: For Immediate Release

One year on the half of the St Athan project not yet dumped is blasted - Skeptical Citizens question ethics and job numbers!

Jan 17th 2008 There will be a demonstration at the Senedd 13:00 to oppose the St Athan White Elephant. The red choir will be there to add its support in harmony with other concerned citizens. PCS members will join in the protest. ‘Cluster bombs’ will be scattered by the grim reaper to highlight the role of arms company Raytheon.

Thursday 17 Jan marks the anniversary of the announcement that the Metrix consortium had successfully bid for the contract to build a privately run military academy in South Wales.

The announcement was celebrated by Wales First Minister Rhodri Morgan with a champagne-popping photo-opportunity outside the Senedd in Cardiff.

The proposed military training academy at St Athan will be built and run by an international consortium including major multinational arms companies. It will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private company that can fork out the cash.

Anne Greagsby campaigning against the Academy said “What the government didn’t tell the people of Wales was that this project would make the Welsh Assembly Government a business partner of Raytheon - one of the world’s largest producers and dealers of weapons of mass destruction.

Raytheon is a core member of the Metrix Consortium. Today we learn 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.

PCS met with Jill Evans recently and highlighted the blatant distortion being disseminated by a number of Welsh MPs as to the number of new jobs being created in South Wales as part of the St Athan deal. Members explained that the thousands of new high skill jobs promised by welsh MPs were an illusion because existing civil servants were already employed in them.

The St Athan project does not offer the Wales that people want – a nation that addresses honestly the issues of global warming and the environment, champions equity and human rights, teaches our children that violence solves nothing. A nation that does not invest in the arms trade, encourages valuable, long term employment and delivers decent public services.

The champagne sprayed by Assembly Ministers Morgan, Hutt and Davies to welcome the signing of the contract to build the academy, on January 17th year ago has turned sour.

ENDS

Notes to editors

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

More information on our blogs

http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/

http://stathanmilitaryacademypoliticians.blogspot.com/

Contacts

Anne Greagsby mobile 07817513610

Temple of peace 02920 821058

no2militaryacademy@inbox.com

Website: http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk


CND Cymru campaign for nuclear disarmament
yr ymgyrch dros ddiarfogi niwclear
 press release
 January 16th 2008
 From Jill Gough t:01495 773 180 m: 07704 67 57 87 heddwch@cndcymru.org
 Campaign Against St Athan Military Academy
 Protest at Y Senedd, Cardiff Bay
 Thursday January 17th1pm
 
Protestors will gather at the steps of the Welsh Assembly building at lunch
time tomorrow to mark the first anniversary of the WAG 'celebration' and
announcement of plans to build a military academy at St Athan.
 
On January 17th 2007, Assembly Ministers Rhodri Morgan, Andrew Davies and Jane Hutt welcomed the signing of the public private finance initiative contract to build the academy, by spraying champagne over the steps of the Senedd. A year on, opposers of the project will be pointing out where their enthusiasm was misguided.
 
CND Cymru Chair Jill Evans MEP said today:
 
"This demonstration is a reflection of the opposition to the privatisation of military training and to making Wales the base for that training for Britain and other countries. Coming in the wake of the disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq, the celebrations a year ago rang hollow to many people in Wales. We in the peace movement want Wales to continue to be recognised internationally for its traditions of peace and reconciliation and not for its contribution to war. We want a full and open debate about the implications of this development for Wales."
 While our elected representatives have so far welcomed the project,
campaigners are suggesting to them that it would be sign of strength, not weakness for them to 'think again' and will be asking them:
 
Do you really want to put Wales at the forefront of the global arms trade?The developer of the St Athan Academy, the Metrix Consortium, aims for the academy to be a centre of military training for armies from all over the world -not just the British military.
Do you really want Wales to promote the privatisation of war?
We are well aware of the disaster that comes with the privatisation of
warfare, we only need to point to the Blackwater affair. St Athan Academy would represent the largest privatisation of the military in British history.

Do you really want Wales to become a business partner with one of the
world's largest manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction?
A core member of the Metrix Consortium is Raytheon, a company that produces and sells bombs and missiles to any country with the money to pay. Cluster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, thermobaric bombs, bunker buster bombs - all these and more are Raytheon products.
Do you really want Wales to become a business partner with a company that the National Audit Office has criticized for 'unethical business practices'?
Another member of the Metrix Consortium is Qinetiq, a company that has been mired in ethical controversy since its very beginning, and has been accused of taxpayer rip-offs, profit-gouging, 'sweetheart contracts' and conflicts of interest. The National Audit Office has condemned the company for the "excessive profits" earned by senior managers and investors.
Do you really want Wales to sell its own youth on the business of war?
Since 2003, more than ten young Welshmen have lost their lives in the
illegal and unjust war in Iraq. Why are Welsh politicians embracing the St
Athan Academy, a project designed explicitly to do a better job of selling more of our youth on military work instead of speaking out against this utterly unnecessary and immoral loss of Welsh life?
 
Do you really want Wales to embrace an industry that is inherently
destructive of sustainable development?
If a cigarette company were to claim it was in a healthy line of business  because the factory where it made cigarettes was a clean work environment,we would laugh - the relevant issue is what the cigarettes made in thefactory do to people in the rest of the world. The Metrix Consortium claims it is environmentally friendly because the Academy will practice energy conservation, recycling and waste reduction. Yet this will be an institution in the business of training armies to wage wars all over the planet. The Rio Declaration from the 1992 Earth Summit explicitly states that "warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development" (Principle 24). "All major wars of the 20th century," the US Center for Defense Information notes, "have had a hidden casualty: the environment. Unexploded weapons,polluted rivers, contaminated soil, and damaged landscapes have all harmed human health, local economies, and ecosystems." Would this be something for
Wales to be proud of?
 
Do you really want to commit the future of Wales to the culture and economy of militarism?
Should Wales seek to become a country tied closely to the business of making war, the global arms trade, the production of weapons of mass destruction or one committed to sustainable development, responsible international citizenship, and the creation of green and ethical jobs?
 
Jill Gough National Secretary of CND Cymru commented:
"Many people in Wales are in a serious mind to examine other sustainable non-violent avenues in dealing with social and international conflict,ideological and environmental dangers. We owe it to our children and our
children's children to build the foundations of a safer, tolerant, just and healthy world in the best way we know how."
 
ENDS
 
*       Interviews are available: please contact Jill Gough CND Cymru 01495
773 180 m:07704 67 57 87 HYPERLINK
"mailto:heddwch@cndcymru.org"heddwch@cndcymru.org or Ray Davies (CND Cymru
Vice Chair - and who will be singing with Côr Cochion tomorrow) 
for no2militaryacademy campaign contact Anne Greagsby co-ordinator:
02920 626 287 m: 078175 13610 HYPERLINK
"mailto:annegre@aol.com"annegre@aol.com or no2militrayacademy@inbox.com
 *       More about the campaign to stop St Athan : HYPERLINK
"http://www.cynefinywerin.org"www.cynefinywerin.org
 *       For Bilingual interviews with Jill Evans please contact David
Bradley 
 *       Protestors will gather at the Senedd for 1pm tomorrow. Cor Cochion
will be singing. 
*       PICTURE EDITORS note: large banners will be a feature of the protest