ANTI-METRIX: Tony Ben "Privatising training for the Armed Forces morally abominable"

24/10/2008

Tony Ben "Privatising training for the Armed Forces morally abominable"

TONY BENN GIVES HIS SUPPORT TO PCS CAMPAIGNS

On Thursday 23^rd October 2008 Tony Benn, who was an MP for 51years and still a much venerated figure of the Labour Party, spoke at a public meeting in the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton. Branch members from DCAE Cosford took the opportunity to meet with Tony to gain his support for their on –going campaigns against the DTR privatisation and pay dispute.

On DTR, Tony Benn said “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable” and he made reference to the disgraceful mercenary company Blackwater in the USA.

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Crucial to write to the papers so email for example Shropshire Star covers Cosford
StarMail – Letters to the Editor: starmail@shropshirestar.co.uk

Express and Star
Letters to the Editor for publication: letters@expressandstar.co.uk

Western Mail max 150 words
readers@walesonliine.co.uk

NEW ACTION WEBSITE Sain Tathan Action Group (S.T.A.G.)

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.

Under the deal, taxpayers will underwrite a further £32m of risk in order to push through the Defence Training Review, the UK’s biggest private finance initiative.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/774cdea6-02ca-11de-b58b-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

credit crisis derails 12bn mod project
How much will the academy cost?

Credit crisis squeezes defence training
Potential risk to front line here

Private armies will train at St Athan
do you want Blackwater here

Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing
implications of theMinistry of Defence's
new multi-billion pound training academy.

Private Armies
whatdotheyknow for freedom of Information information
Campaign goes to Open University @ Milton Keynes here

See the Private Eye articles ...AMs in danger of making total fools of themselves!
here. The price is frightful
here. Metrix reloaded
how PFI deals such as the DTR used to hide roughly £200bn of future spending in order to balance the books. here.
Top brassed off
Minstry of Defence’s concerns over it’s own plans to privatise defence training at an academy in South Wales
Potential Risk to the Front Line miscalulation
Defence Training Review Over Budget
Potential Risk to the Front Line miscalulation
Defence Training Review Over Budget

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.here Plaid chief opposes St Athan Academy 6-Sep-08 here Wales must not be a cog in the war machine - Daily Post..here  ‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’ here

Propaganda

The new Defence Technical Academy

 Building the Defence Technical Academy
 pdf  or here

WAG and Metrix sham consultation here

PFI The crunch has come, credibility has gone and the cupboard is bare guardian - 26 Jul 2008

Raytheon want to use training as a means of expansion and arms sales. here

Ban cluster bombs here
Close the US Army School of the Americas

MORE about the campaign

facebook or www.cynefinywerin.org.uk and see also

instructional officers website
No2military academy
No2 O.U. workng with arms companies
Open University loves Arms Dealers
The Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales,

War is Just a Racket: Take a Stand; Dismantle the War Machine; Demilitarize the World! here
EDO's Campaign - EDO have contracts with the UK Ministry of 'Defence' and US arms giant Raytheon relating to the release mechanisms of the Paveway bomb system
Lobbying transparency
Fit watch
Give evidence on lack of human rights & OTT policing here
WAR PROFITEERS
The Five Secret Billion-Dollar Companies Sucking Obscene Amounts of Taxpayer Money By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com

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

What is Metrix? News

Metrix Consortium - arms dealers - unethical - unenvironmentral -
Metrix is a consortium provided by a private consortium of arms companies and educational bodies is made up of AgustaWestland, City andGuilds, Dalkia, EDS, Laing O'Rourke, Land Securities Trillium, Nord Anglia Education, The Open University, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Serco & Sodexho.
Metrix chief exec says: ‘Please be patient about defence academy details’ Cowbridge Today

Metrix spin May 2008

EDS coporate incompetance
EDS contract slammed by union chief Mark Serwotka PCS

Land Securities

Tech Info on Lockheed-Martin's Cluster Bombs

Raytheon in Derry
Support the Raytheon 9
Raytheon by Corp Watch The threat of private military companies...Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Warrior Training Alliance
Raytheon: http://www.landmine.de/en.titel/en.search.output/index.html?entry=en.news.06fd93b824420000 Military contractor Raytheon deleting information on them spying on their competitors and the U.S. Air Force;

Serco & Labour Lord Filkin, labour Baroness Margaret Ford Serco can't even run a play sch eme

Sodexho = Low Paid Low Skill Jobs

QinetiQ Expenses serve up QinetiQ row
Qinetiq PPP & Cluster bombs
Qinetiq US Businesses
Rivals slam £16bn Qinetiq contract This is Money
QinetiQ, the War Profiteer Welsh Politicians Love to Love

Campaign against Cluster Bombs

http://www.landmine.de/en.titel/en.search.output/index.html?entry=en.news.0c661a5b539a0000General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all produce cluster munitions or their components, according to Human Rights Watch.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. Dirty Dozen Cluster Munitions

Tech Info on Lockheed-Martin's Cluster Bombs

Windfalls of war

Corporate Mercenaries

Amnesty International, Private Military and Security Contractors.

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

UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-determination. See here
Top Pentagon Contractors, FY 2006:Major Beneficiaries of the Bush Administration’s Military Buildup

BBC News 24 - Part of Base Training Bid Dropped
BBC News 24 Video Clip - Part of Base Training Bid Axed
BBC News 24 Video Clip - Bases Take Over from Deepcut

Metrix News

20th June Military transfer 'delay' worry 20/06/08
St Athan move ‘may take eight years’ 21/06/08
Metrix spokesman says that St Athan training regi 30/-5/08

Welsh affairs committee welcomes St Athans fiasco!

http://apps.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/councillorSearch/membersByParty.aspx?id=All

Vale of Glamorgan cllrs

The Welsh Affairs Committee Members are:
Dr Hywel Francis MP, (Chairman) Labour, Aberavon
Mr Stephen Crabb MP, Conservative, Preseli Pembrokeshire
David T. C. Davies MP, Conservative, Monmouth
Nia Griffith MP, Labour, Llanelli
Mrs Siân C. James MP, Labour, Swansea East
Mr David Jones MP, Conservative, Clwyd West
Mr Martyn Jones MP, Labour, Clwyd South
Jessica Morden MP, Labour, Newport East
Albert Owen MP, Labour, Ynys Môn
Mark Williams MP, Liberal Democrat, Ceredigion
Hywel Williams MP, Plaid, Caernarfon

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Welsh affairs committee welcomes St Athans fiasco!

Cluster Bombs and Raytheon

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.

Cluster Munition Coalition News Bulletin

48 Nations Gather to Fight Cluster Bombs
Explosive Investments Financial Institutions and Cluster Munitions Briefing Paper by Netwerk Vlaanderen February 2007 “Explosive Investments” by Belgian advocacy group Netwerk Vlaanderen
'Circle of impact', report on cluster submunitions New report calls for ban on cluster munitions and for assistance to civilians May 2007
Cluster Bombs, Landmines,Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium WeaponsA report on the financial links between banks and the producers of controversial weapon systems april 2004
The Cluster bomb feeling documentary on investment of Dutch pension fund in arms industry
Banking Secretsdocumentary on investments of Dutch banks in arms industry and other dodgy projects.

Cluster bombs – Skeet warhead - The BLU-108 is capable of integration into a number of weapon systems:

BQM-109 Tomahawk, Raytheon Systems
SM-2 Land Attack STANDARD Missile, Raytheon Systems
MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). Lockheed Martin
AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response (SLAMER), Boeing
AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Lockheed Martin

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.
Who calls the shots?

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 cluster bombs, 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 -

Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children - World Notes - civilian .. AMMAN, Jordan -- The Asia Times reported the first description of the cluster bomb attack in the Iraq town of Hilla on April 2 and 3, but as the Times ...
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_7_27/ai_111026129 - 27k -.

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 -

Hilla Cluster Bombs

ANTI-METRIX

24/10/2008

Tony Ben "Privatising training for the Armed Forces morally abominable"

On DTR, Tony Benn said “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable” and he made reference to the disgraceful mercenary company Blackwater in the USA.

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