Campaign to oppose a privatised military academy for St Athan - biggest PFI/PPP ever, with arms dealers Raytheon Serco. John Pilger "a British "School of the Americas" is to be built in Wales, where British soldiers will train killers from all corners of the American empire in the name of "global security". Tony Benn “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable”
Missing St Athan CPO inquiry report!! The inquiry took place in Jan 2010 - "The Inspector has submitted his Report to the Welsh Ministers. The Report will be made public, and you will be provided with a copy as you requested, when the Welsh Ministers have considered the matter and reached their decision" was the reply in July 2010 by Manning, Sarah (DE&T- EDG - SE & Infrastructure)
Extension of time Further to my letter of 21 October concerning your request for information regarding the Inspector’s Report on the St Athan CPO, I am writing to advise you that we are dealing with your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and not under the Freedom of Information Act. The Welsh Assembly Government considers that the requested information is “environmental” because the Inspector’s Report is likely to contain information on administrative measures that are likely to affect the state of the elements of the environment. I am writing to advise you that the time limit for responding to your request for information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, which we received on 20 October, needs to be extended. The Regulations allow us 20 working days to respond to your request from the date of its receipt. However, it is occasionally necessary to extend the 20 working-day time limit for issuing a response. In this case, I regret that we must extend the time limit for responding by 20 days because of the complexity of the request. We are currently assessing the Ministry of Defence’s statement that St Athan remains an option for the location of future defence technical training with an announcement expected in Spring 2011; and what this means for the draft CPO.
I hope to let you have a response by 15 December.
Yours sincerely, Hitesh Vadgama South East Region Infrastructure Team
BATTLE lines have been drawn in an increasingly fierce debate on whether a multi-million pound access road to Cardiff International Airport should be built through the Vale of Glamorgan countryside.
The Welsh Assembly Government is expected to announce its preferred route early next year following extensive public consultation which has highlighted starkly differing opinions about the need for such a road and the environmental damage it could cause.
The Vale of Glamorgan-based Plaid AM, Chris Franks, today rejected all three alternative routes put forward by the Welsh Assembly Government, while Vale Labour MP John Smith called for an urgent start to work on the link.
Meanwhile, an action group opposed to what is regarded by many as the most likely option has criticised “deficiencies” in the study into the options and the public consultation on them.
Two of the three options centre on the A4232 from Junction 33 of the M4, while the third promotes a new road link south of J34 of the M4 with an eastern or western bypass at Pendoylan before linking with the A48 at Sycamore Cross.
Mr Franks said all three options should be dropped.
He said: “These options do not stack up economically, environmentally or financially.
“Pumping more than £100m into a scheme would have little benefit for the economy of Barry while causing a huge intrusion as a road is driven through countryside.
“If a scheme is being developed to tie in with the proposed Metrix defence academy scheme at St Athan, then I believe the money would be better put into improving both rail and bus services rather than building a road that is not needed.”
However, Mr Smith called on the Welsh Assembly Government to use some of the £140m provided by the Treasury to build the access road as soon as possible.
Mr Smith said: “The existing airport access road is a brake on the airport’s future growth. If Cardiff International Airport is to continue to be one of the fastest growing airports in the UK and to cope with the extra road traffic generated by the Defence Technical Academy and Aerospace Business Park in St Athan which are on the airport’s doorstep, the road system must be improved.
“I believe the road building will help stimulate the Welsh economy because it will create jobs for local people during the construction phase and inject money into the local economy as workers spend their money locally in our shops and businesses.”
Meanwhile, the NEVAR group (No Ely Valley Airport Road) has petitioned the Welsh Assembly Government on its handling of the consultation into the proposals.
The petition says: “We call upon the Welsh Assembly Government to consider the serious deficiencies in its study and public consultation exercise before making any decision as to road improvements or developments, other than those to reduce congestion at Culverhouse Cross.”
Enquiry Blank
Freedom of infromation link Disclosure log 1396 11/07/07 A member of the has requested information relating to the CardiffAirport link road here
Following the lessons learned from the Make Your Vote Count campaign and recognition of the importance of getting our messages heard by politicians, activists from the MoD instructional officers committee met MEP Jill Evans to discuss ongoing concerns over the defence training review.
As well as being an MEP, Jill is also vice chair of Plaid Cymru so this was an important first for the instructional officers. Representing PCS at the meeting were negotiations officer Paul Bemrose, Roy Weston, chair of the St Athans branch, and H O'Harney, branch secretary at Cosford.
H said: “The purpose of the meeting was to highlight the blatant distortion being expressed by a number of Welsh MPs as to the number of new jobs being created in south Wales as part of this multi billion pounds private finance deal.”
During the two-hour meeting activists explained that the thousands of new high skill jobs promised by Welsh MPs were a fallacy because existing civil servants were already employed in them. This means that only low paid and low skilled jobs would be on offer.
As part of the programme, some 1,100 civil servants have been identified as being likely to be transferred across to a private consortium called Metrix. Yet the Welsh Assembly had frequently gone on record as stating that somewhere in the region of 6,000 new jobs were being created.
The involvement of companies whose motives are to generate profits for shareholders was also discussed, as was the issue of privatisation. Mrs Evans pointed out that Plaid Cymru had concerns about the DTR programme but wanted an honest and open debate about the key issues.
It was agreed that we would maintain contact and a meeting be arranged between Plaid Cymru MPs and PCS reps to discuss the issues raised in more detail.
H added: “Campaigning now needs to be multi-faceted. Yes it is important to get members and the public on your side but equally important is getting your message heard by all the political parties who are involved.
“They are usually keen to meet you since many of them will have only heard one side of the story from the department or management. We expect to get many more such meetings in the months ahead."
For more about the campaign visit the instructional officers website, and sign up to the No to St Athan Military Academy group on the social networking website facebook
In Planet magazine there is an email exchange between Stephen Thomas (Director of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs) and Sara Koopman, an academic who is an activist with the School of the Americas Watch, they exchange their experiences of campaigning against St Athan and School of the Amer...icas.
Campaign Objections to defence technical college here
State underwrites UK defence’s PFI project By Alex Barker, Political Correspondent
Published: February 25 2009 02:19 | Last updated: February 25 2009 02:19
Ministers have quietly offered contractors bigger state guarantees as a means of rescuing the £12bn ($17bn) private finance project to centralise the military’s training, the Financial Times has learnt.
See OU society matters article here Metrix shambles and OU here Should the OU be involved in the ARMS TRADE? here OU OU partnerships with armed forces? here Daily Mail - controversial £11bn contract to provide training to
Britain's armed forces is in danger of collapsing as a result of the credit crunch.herePlaid chief opposes St Athan Academy 6-Sep-08 hereWales must not be a cog in the war machine - Daily Post..here‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’ here
Meet the mystery defense contractors that are raking in billions in taxpayer dollars without notice. Read more » "We recommend that people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war” - 7th Recommendation of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 2005; http://www.worldtribunal.org/
What are the 'benefits' to the MOD of transferring risk to the private sector?
Derek Twigg MP, Under Secretary of State for Defence, talks to PSCA International's Matthew D'Arcy about what lies ahead in bringing a new flexible approach to learning through the Defence Training Review. “Partnership with the private sector does give us flexibility, and this is the key point here, to decrease or increase student throughput. The partner will be able to generate third party income from spare capacity and also dispose of surplus capacity. It also allows for a very important part of the role for industry to bring private sector management expertise and the ability to include significant capital investment at this stage. It is really about delivering a modern and flexible learning environment that will be fit for our service personnel of the future.” Facilities key to defence trainingThe PPP Journal Issue 56 - Thursday, April 12, 2007
Raytheon News
Raytheon Raytheon Tucson is a pretty awful place to work. If you're thinking about working there, you should think long and hard before you accept the offer. ... Raytheon Says 12 Private Wells Are Polluted Raytheon: Plume Is No ThreatTampa Tribune - USA.. environmental experts from Raytheon told a crowd of about 700 people in St. Petersburg on Friday that a toxic plume of chemicals that ...
Rhodri Morgan should be ashamed of himself for supporting raytheon with no supporting evidence
Ending Contractor Impunity see here The Center for Public Integrity, The Windfalls of War. Global Policy Forum. “State Sovereignty and Private Security Companies” webpage with documents, analyses, articles and links. Available here Human Rights Watch, Private Military Contractors and the Law. See here International Committee of the Red Cross, Privatisation of War section. See here Private Military Companies. See here War on Want, Getting Away with Murder. See here Sourcewatch. See here
News: Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades ..failure rates as high as 40 percent. 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 USA 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."
Raytheon. The company makes the guidance systems for many of the missiles that are sold to Israel and that caused so much civilian death in the conflict, including the 51 people crushed to death in a bunker in Qana.
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.
Clusterbombs - On April 1st an undetermined number of BLU-97/B submunitions hit Hilla, with reports claiming that at least 33 civilians were dead and around 300 injured.
America Cluster Bombs Iraq - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum The missile is described by the Navy, its primary developer, and Raytheon Systems, its manufacturer, as a long-range glide bomb. Acting Pentagon spokesman ... www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/2001/0226cstr.htm - 14k -
Dozens of Iraqi dead after cluster bomb attack in Hilla Amnesty International has condemned the Hilla bombing and the US use of clusterbombs, saying that the use of cluster bombs against a civilian area of Hilla... www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/040403_dozens_of_iraqi_dead_after_clust.htm - 14k -
The use of cluster bombs Human Rights Watch "U.S. Use of Clusters in Baghdad Condemned" 16 April 2003) The cluster bombs that were used in Hilla were identified by Landmine Action, ... www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3463.htm - 31k -
For more about the campaign visit the 
