Raytheon

‘Contempt citation’ served on Raytheon

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From Merchantsofdeath.org
February 14, 2023

A “contempt citation” was served today, Valentine’s Day, on Raytheon and a “subpoena to appear” on Secretary of “Defense” Lloyd Austin for war crimes.

Organizers of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal and their supporters served a “Citation for Contempt” on the corporate offices of Raytheon in Arlington, Virginia for failing to comply with a “Subpoena” previously served on them on November 10, 2022. Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Atomics have all been served and “Indicted” for their complicity in aiding and abetting the United States government in committing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Bribery, and Theft. This action on Valentine’s Day is called “Melt Your Cold, Cold Heart.”

Simultaneous actions were planned in San Diego, CA; New York City; Asheville, NC; and Syracuse, NY.

On the same day the Tribunal also serveed Secretary of “Defense,” Lloyd Austin, with a “Subpoena” compelling him to testify before this public Tribunal answering questions involving his previous employment with Raytheon and the role these weapons manufacturers play in fomenting needless war for corporate profit.

These Subpoenas and Citations are issued by the Tribunal on behalf of victims of deadly attacks by the United States since 9/11 in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Lebanon, enabled by weapons produced by the above-named defendants. The People of the World are delivering these subpoenas in preparation for
the upcoming Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal, which will be held November 10, 2023.

The Tribunal is unusual in holding private actors accountable for enabling war crimes and promoting militarism and war. The Tribunal’s work is inspired by the U.S. Senate’s Nye Committee after World War I; the 1945 Nuremberg trials of German industrialists at the close of World War II; the 1966 Russell Tribunal on the Viet Nam War; and the filing this year of a
case against three French arms makers for complicity in attacks by Saudi Arabia against Yemeni civilians.

The four defendants generate billions of dollars in profits each year by knowingly manufacturing, marketing, and selling products that kill not only combatants but noncombatant civilians as well.


By funding the political campaigns of members of Congress charged with oversight of the military, as well as other members of Congress, these defendants are alleged to have bribed public officials to approve billion-dollar contracts funded by taxpayer money. Defendants are also alleged to have directly influenced U.S. war-making policy to increase their profits.

The Tribunal itself will hear direct testimony from victims of war crimes, military analysts, and legal authorities during the Tribunal hearings in November of 2023. Those testimonies are currently being collected. Additional evidence is also being gathered.

Support and participation in this Tribunal include Dr. Cornel West, Marjorie Cohn, Bill Quigley, Col. Ann Wright, Ajamu Baraka, Marie Dennis, Col Lawrence Wilkerson, Marie Dennis, Medea Benjamin, John Pilger, Richard Falk, Matthew Hoh, among others. The public viewing of the Tribunal will educate the citizens of the world on the direct role weapons manufacturers are alleged to play in fomenting needless war and suffering across the planet, violating numerous national and international laws, and engaging in war profiteering.

The Tribunal encourages victims of these crimes, employees of these corporations, and government employees to come forward if they have information pertinent to the work of the Tribunal.

‘An intangible lift’: Defense contractors assure investors of Middle Eastern wars’ profitability

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From RT, December 8, 2015

A U.S. Air Force version of the F-35 Lightning II. © Lockheed Martin
A U.S. Air Force version of the F-35 Lightning II. © Lockheed Martin / Reuters

Top defense contractors reassured investors at a conference in Florida that they are poised to benefit financially from the escalating conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, according to a leaked tape.

Last week, Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner gave a speech at a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach where he praised the “indirect benefits” that defense contractors and their shareholders would see as the result of the escalation of the conflicts in Syria, such as Turkey’s recent shooting down of a Russian jet. The Intercept obtained a recording of the speech.

That incident would lead to a greater potential for US involvement and would cause “an intangible lift because of the dynamics of that environment and our products in theater,” Tanner told investors. He also said that the Russian activities against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) with the US would stimulate demand for Lockheed Martin’s F-22 and new F-35 jets.

He added that the demand for “expendable” products like rockets has increased from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because of the involvement of those countries in Yemen’s civil war.

The Intercept reported that Oshkosh president Wilson Jones, in another speech at the conference, said that with the threat of IS growing, “there are more countries interested in buying Oshkosh-made M-ATV armored vehicles.” He said that a recent business trip to the Middle East showed that many countries had expressed an interest in mechanizing their infantry forces.

Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy added his voice to the chorus, saying that his company was seeing a significant uptick in demands for “defense solutions” from several countries in the Middle East.

“It’s all the turmoil they have going on, whether the turmoil’s occurring in Yemen, whether it’s with the Houthis, whether it’s occurring in Syria or Iraq, with ISIS,” Kennedy said, noting that he had met with King Salman of Saudi Arabia.

While terrorist attacks usually lead to bad results for the stock market, defense contractors’ share prices soared following the November terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. On the Monday after the attacks, Lockheed Martin traded 3.5 percent higher, Northrop Grumman was up 4.4 percent, and Raytheon saw a 4 percent boost.

Read more

A Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet © Gary Cameron ISIS dividend: Defense stocks soar after Paris attacks

https://www.rt.com/usa/325045-defense-contractors-war-profit/

China a Military Threat? No Wonder China is Nervous as Obama Pivots

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/no-wonder-china-is-nervous-as-obama-pivots/5312523

By F. William Engdahl, November 21, 2012
Posted on Global Research

To read the mainstream Western media, one would conclude that China has become an economic giant now intent on flexing its military muscle and making a massive arms buildup to do so. China’s designated new President, Xi Jinping, has just won both the top Communist party post from predecessor Hu Jintao as well as the head of the powerful Central Military Commission, giving Xi a full takeover of party and armed forces.

A recent BBC analysis, in an article titled “China extending military reach,” is typical of Western media coverage of China’s military program: “China‘s first aircraft carrier will begin sea trials later this year. Late last year, the first pictures were leaked of the prototype of Beijing‘s new “stealth” fighter. And US military experts believe that China has begun to deploy the world’s first long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting a moving ship at sea.“ [1]

In Japan, nationalist politicians like politically ambitious Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka, are gaining popularity with anti-China rhetoric and by claiming Japan must develop capacities to oppose Chinese military ascendency. In May the authoritative New York Times ran an alarming story to the effect that China announced a “double-digit increase” in military spending. In the actual text of the article they report an 11% increase over the previous budget, far less than even the rate of inflation.

However, when we examine in detail the actual redeployment and military moves of US Armed Forces in the Asia region following President Obama’s announcement of a new “Asia Pivot” refocus of US military capacities from Western Europe to the Asia region, it becomes clear China is re-acting, in order to attempt to deal with quite real threats to its future sovereignty rather than acting in an aggressive posture.

The mere fact that a standing President, Obama, during nationally televised Presidential debates labeled China as an “adversary” is indicative of the US military posture change. The depth and nature of the US pivot to China is crystal clear when one takes a closer look at the recent developments in an Asian US Missile Defense deployment, clearly aimed at China and no other.

China officially spent barely 10% of what the US does on its defense, some $90 billion, or if certain defense-related arms import and other costs are included, perhaps $111 billion a year. Even if the Chinese authorities do not publish complete data on such sensitive areas, it’s clear China spends a mere fraction of the USA and is starting from a military-technology base far behind the USA.

The US defense budget is not just by far the world’s largest. It dominates everyone else, completely independent of any perceived threat. In the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy built the size of its fleet according to the fleets of Britain’s two most powerful potential enemies; America’s defense budget strategists declare it will be “doomsday” if the United States builds its navy to anything less than five times that of China and Russia combined.[2]

If we include the spending by Russia, China’s strongest ally within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, their combined total annual defense spending is barely $142 billion. The world’s ten top defense spending nations in addition to the USA as largest, and China as second largest, include the UK, France, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Indiaand Brazil. In 2011 the military spending of the United States totaled a staggering 46% of total spending by the world’s 171 governments and territories, almost half the entire world. [3]

Clearly, for all its rhetoric about peace-keeping missions and “democracy” promotion, the Pentagon is pursuing what its planners refer to as “Full Spectrum Dominance,” the total control of all global air, land, ocean, space, outer-space and now cyberspace.[4] It is clearly determined to use its military might to secure global domination or hegemony. No other interpretation is possible.

China today, because of its dynamic economic growth and its determination to pursue sovereign Chinese national interests, merely because China exists, is becoming the Pentagon new “enemy image,” or adversary, now replacing the no longer useful “enemy image” of Islam used after September 2001 by the Bush-Cheney Administration to justify the Pentagon’s global power pursuit.

After almost two decades of neglect of its interests in East Asia, in 2011, the Obama Administration announced that the US would make “a strategic pivot” in its foreign policy to focus its military and political attention on the Asia-Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia, that is, China. Continue reading →