WeVigil.org

wevigilo February 23rd, 2010

Lockheed knows who  it is working for. Do you  know?

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest arms manufacturer and the world’s largest arms exporter. Last year it grossed over $42 billion—84% of this from the U.S. government. Its job  is finding and implementing ways of killing massive numbers of people. It produces everything from sophisticated weapons systems such as AEGIS to the Trident missile, one of which one alone carries enough explosive power to obliterate most countries. It is one of the world’s largest makers of cluster munitions, which it sells to 14 countries.[i] This last week it happily announced a  contract for the new AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile.  Lockheed’s web site lists at least 28 countries to whom it sells its products. 13% of its sales are to foreign governments. [ii]  Apparently, it is not too careful about how it obtains its orders; there have been over 50 instances of “civil, criminal or administrative misconduct since 1995.” [iii]

Lockheed’s business is business, and it actively seeks more. Last year it wracked up $10.3 million in lobbying expenses, employing a house staff of 36 as well as 41 contract lobbyists..[iv] Recent campaign contributions include funding to both our U.S. Senators and many of our representatives from both parties.[v] Its PAC for political spending spent $1.5 million. Recipients of its philanthropy include numerous Washington think tanks that help formulate our  national defense agenda.  It sponsors talks in honor of important defense officials and in a recent example of doublespeak that might surprise even Orwell, it has donated $1 million to a United States Institute for Peace. [vi] 

This mostly funded by the taxpayers who are providing at least 84% of Lockheed’s profits.

Lockheed certainly recognizes the source of its revenues: war. Bruce Jackson, the a Lockheed VP, was a prominent member of the Project for a New American Century, a group that advocated war against Iraq as early as 1998. Upon leaving Lockheed, he chaired the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. His efforts were effective. Lockheed’s stock price more than quintupled. Executives have been well-rewarded. Board members each receive over $220,000 in annual compensation. In 2009, Robert Stevens, the CEO, took in $26.5 million. [vii]  The so-called revolving door has definitely been swinging of late. According to a May,2008 report by the General Accountability Office, Lockheed currently was employing 221 former senior and acquisitions officials from the Department of Defense.[viii] Their salaries are not disclosed, but we can bet they earn their keep. 

In short, Lockheed Martin is working for itself.

Endnotes.

[i]              http://www.mineaction.org/downloads/1/netwerk_cluster%20bombs,%20landmines%20and%20banking.pdf

[ii]    http://www.lockheedmartin.com/.  Click on the tab labeled Global.  Another informative document is Lockheed’s 10-K statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  This, and others, may be found through http://www.sec.gov/.

[iii]   http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/contract-oversight/co-fcm-20090421.html

[iv]   “Raptor in dogfight for its future,” http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2009-02-25-lockheed-martin-raptor_N.htm

[v]    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/index.php

[vi]   http://www.usip.org/newsroom/news/lockheed-martin-contributes-1-million-endowment-united-states-institute-peace

[vii]  “Raptor in dogfight for its future,” http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2009-02-25-lockheed-martin-raptor_N.htm;  http://people.forbes.com/profile/robert-j-stevens/49897

[viii] Post-Government Employment of Former DOD Officials Needs Greater Transparency

                  GAO-08-485, May 21, 2008 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08485.pdf

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wevigilo October 6th, 2009

Contact: Mariah @ 505.379.6942

Newlyweds Spend Honeymoon In Jail

for Free Speech At Lockheed-Martin

Trinity Nuclear Abolitionists from New Mexico joined a local demonstration of peace at Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale, CA at noon on Monday October 5th. At 1:30pm Fr. Louis Vitale & a newlywed couple from Albuquerque were arrested for trespassing when the three were not able to finish distributing their fliers on the sidewalk allegedly belonging to Lockheed-Martin (LM). The three peace activists had been distributing fliers to drivers, holding a “Just Married: Love Disarms” banner, and singing prayers at LM for 30 minutes.

The just-married couple are Marcus Page and Chelsea Collonge, who have been working for peace and nuclear abolition through dialog and prayer-actions since 2007, primarily at nuclear weapons sites in New Mexico and Nevada. Yesterday’s peace demonstration included fliers for LM workers, picket signs, and songs from the Raging Grannies. The first week of October is International Keep Space For Peace Week. LM has helped produce and launch communication technology that the U.S. Air Force uses to kill people through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or “drones”) in the Middle-East.

Leading up to the October 5th prayer-action at Sunnyvale, two of the Trinity Nuclear Abolitionists (TNA) had been holding vigils at other locations in California during the prior two weeks. These activities helped prepare Chelsea Collonge and Marcus Page for their wedding vows. They were married on Saint Francis’ Day (October 4th) in Berkeley. Yesterday’s peace vigil and prayer-action at LM included a dozen other participants. During negotiations with LM security personnel, Chelsea said, “My grandfathers worked here for 30 years, that’s why I care about the current employees here. I wish to speak with them about the weapons work they do here.”

Aware of the large number of corporate and military offenders breaking international laws throughout California, newlyweds Chelsea & Marcus have joined local people in peace vigils as listed at tna.lovarchy.org.

The three TNA activists were cited and released by 3:00, so as not to disrupt the honeymoon of two of the activists. Their arraignment is scheduled for November 16^th. Monthly vigils at LM organized by the Pacific Life Community of Northern California (www.wevigil.org), don’t usually include employees of LM. “That’s what makes October 5^th special,” says Marcus Page. “we had a chance to offer some information and questions for Lockheed’s employees regarding the potential for nonviolence. Most of the Lockheed security team were patient with us, even though their agenda is at odds with the point of our marriage—working for peace.”

More info is available from Mariah @ 505.379.6942. Fliers for the prayer-action can be downloaded via http://tna.lovarchy.org

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wevigilo February 14th, 2009

By Anabel Dwyer for the Pacific Life Community, February 26 – March 1, 2009

A. Threat or use of Trident II/SLBM is unlawful (illegal and criminal) because the obligations to conform to the intransgressible rules and principles of humanitarian law cannot be reconciled with Trident’s known and understood indiscriminate and uncontrollable effects.

1. The Trident II nuclear weapons systems are designed and intended to unleash vast heat, blast and radiation; the radiation will cause immediately lethal and long-term carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic effects on human beings and other life forms that cannot be controlled in space or time. No one can deny the heat, blast and radiation-induced death, injury and illness caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and nuclear tests. The 14 US UGM-133ATrident II submarines, based mostly at Bangor, WA are currently armed with 288 D5 missiles carrying 1,344 active W76 warheads each 100 KT  (at least 8 times the Hiroshima bomb) and 384 active W88 warheads each 455 KT (40 times the Hiroshima bomb). [1] Bikini unleashed 15 MTs. 

2. Threat or use of Trident II is categorically and universally prohibited in any circumstance by “intransgressible” rules and principles of humanitarian law. Any such threat or use, whether in offence or defense, is a war crime going far beyond the bounds of lawful war. This body of positive law as applied to threat or use of nuclear weapons is summarized most authoritatively by the International Court of Justice in its 1996 advisory opinion (ICJ Op.).[2] The London Charter and the Nuremberg Tribunals made it clear that those rules and principles preempt contrary domestic law. Particular prohibitions of law are directly incorporated into the US criminal code as war crimes (18 USC 2441) or genocide (18 USC 1091-1093) and binding US treaties that are “the supreme law of the land” (US Constitution, Article VI, clause 2) and universally binding “intransgressible” rules of humanitarian law.

3. The fundamental rules and principles of humanitarian law include: a) “States must never make civilians the object of attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilians and military targets” (ICJ Op., § 78). A corollary is that it is prohibited to use weapons that cause uncontrollable effects [1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, Art. 51(4)]. Use of Trident II system is unlawful per se because if targeted at military objects, the effects still are indiscriminate and uncontrollable. b) “It is prohibited to cause unnecessary suffering to combatants; it is accordingly prohibited to use weapons causing them such harm or uselessly aggravating their suffering” [ICJ Op., § 78; 1907 Hague Convention IV, Art. 23(e)].

4. “If an envisaged use of weapons would not meet the requirements of humanitarian law, a threat to engage in such use would also be contrary to that law” (ICJ Op., § 78). Since any use of a nuclear weapon would cause indiscriminate harm and unnecessary suffering, the threat of such use is illegal.  Reprisal/retaliation is not a justification for use of any nuclear weapon system; humanitarian law applies in that circumstance as others. Thus the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia stated: “No circumstances would legitimize an attack against civilians even if it were a response proportionate to a similar violation perpetrated by the other party.”[3]

5. Any use of any nuclear weapon system would also violate the international law of armed conflict by causing widespread, long-term and severe damage to our common environment and contaminating neutral states, and violate the right to life and other non-derogable human rights.

6. Citizens have exercised their rights, duties, privileges to “bear witness, to speak truth to power” regarding the per se unlawfulness of particular weapons or tactics based on the principle of individual responsibility established at Nuremberg as well as the Martens Clause which states: “In cases not covered by this protocol or other international agreements civilians and combatants remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of the public conscience” (ICJ Op., § 78, Hague Convention II  1899; Additional Protocol I, 1977) . 

7. We consciously act as lawyers and citizens in the continuing struggle over “a vision of central guidance that is built around the values of human dignity and oriented toward the possibility of a planetary community joined together by contractual bonds rather than regimented by hegemonical bondage.”[4]  However, military-industrial institutions continue to claim ultimate (if not quite unlimited) elite/state power in matters of national and international security. Justifications for nuclear weapons the center-piece (apex) of the war/state system are increasingly disconnected to factual, moral, legal, economic and environmental realities which demand essential changes for human continuance.

8. The law (still considered effective primarily if enforced rather than implemented by agreement) tends to be rigid because methods and practice are institutionalized. The SESP II case is a glaring example of our failure to move courts which presume our nuclear weapons are legal because Congress and the President decided they are necessary to deter our enemies, the “evil” other. Thus, States possessing nuclear weapons feel the need to “justify” threat or use of nuclear weapons, as not necessarily unlawful for “defensive” purposes. The US argued before the ICJ: “If these weapons could not lawfully be used in individual or collective self-defense under any circumstances, there would be no credible threat of such use in response to aggression and deterrent policies would be futile and meaningless”[5] The recent UK White Paper (WP)[6] claims that the ICJ “rejected the argument that such use would necessarily be unlawful.” However, the ICJ held that the requirements of necessity, proportionality, and humanitarian law must be met in all circumstances. Thus “a use of force that is proportionate under the law of self-defense, must in order to be lawful, also meet the requirements of the applicable law in armed conflict which comprise in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law” (ICJ Op., § 42).

B. Under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) all states are legally obligated “to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control” (ICJ Op., § 105(2)F; NPT Art. VI). The unequivocal undertaking to eliminate nuclear arsenals in compliance with NPT Article VI requires implementation of the practical steps agreed upon at the 2000 NPT Review Conference and cancelling upgrades or replacements of current nuclear weapons systems.

1. State parties to the 2000 NPT Review Conference unanimously agreed to practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to implement Article VI of the NPT including an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon states (NWS) to accomplish total elimination of their nuclear arsenals. Other practical steps for disarmament, affirmed in subsequent UN General Assembly resolutions, include implementing the principles of verification, transparency, and irreversibility in reducing and eliminating nuclear arsenals; the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; the Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty; a diminishing role of nuclear weapons in security policies; and reduced operational status of nuclear forces.

2. Failure to implement the disarmament obligation and the 2000 commitments, or attempting to deny their continued application, undermines the object and purpose of the NPT. In particular, upgrade or replacement of nuclear weapons systems by such means as the US Reliable Replacement Warhead program or upgrades in targeting capability are material breaches of obligations under Article VI of the NPT.[7] and of the general disarmament obligation stated by the Court applying to all states. In projecting the maintenance of nuclear forces for decades to come, they assume the indefinite postponement of conclusion of negotiations on nuclear disarmament and fulfillment of the unequivocal undertaking to eliminate nuclear arsenals. They further run contrary to the commitment to a diminishing role of nuclear weapons in security policies, particularly if they result in enhanced military capabilities. No country can at once adhere to its obligations under international customary and conventional law outlined above and rely on a lawless security policy employing a “credible” nuclear deterrent (WP 4-1) posing “a uniquely terrible threat” (WP 3-3) to “deter threats anywhere in the world” (WP 4-4).

C. Practical and lawful solutions:

1. The Model Nuclear Weapons Convention developed by civil society and circulated as a UN document provides a template for the global prohibition and verified elimination of nuclear weapons.

2. Existing Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (NWFZs) provide models for new NWFZs in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere. The “Peoples Charter for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific” can also be used as a model of transition illustrating methods for and necessity of “minimization of violence, maximization of social and economic well being, maximization of social and political justice, maximization of environmental balance” Falk, 

3. All debate on nuclear disarmament and weapon system replacement or upgrade must acknowledge the undeniable harms and real costs and dangers of the nuclear cycle to human life, to life itself and our ecosystem. Such evidence is well documented by civil society groups including the Hibakusha, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, participants in the Indigenous World Uranium Summit, Navajo Nation, 30 Nov-2 Dec. 2006, and others. Non-violent/symbolic citizen action to insist that states uphold existing law can be supplemented by claims of breach of health, safety, welfare, and fiduciary duties of local and regional governments and corporate responsibility for costs from mining, testing, contamination, and waste.

[1] Nuclear Notebook, US nuclear forces, 2008, Rbt. S Morris & Hans M Kristensen, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (Vol.64, No.1, p 50-53).

[2] Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, July 8, 1996, ICJ Reports (1996) 226.

[3] Prosecutor v. Martic, Case No IT-95-11-1 (8 Mar. 1996).

[4] “A New Paradigm for International Legal Studies: Prospects and Proposals,” Richard Falk, International Law: A Contemporary Perspective, Sudies inon a Just World Order, No.2 Richard Falk and Saul H. Mendlovitz, Eds., 1982.

[5] ICJ Hearing for the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion, November 15, 1995, at 78 <http://www.icj-cij.org/>

[6] “The Future of the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Deterrent,” Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (December 2006).

[7] . “Peacerights The Maintenance and Possible Replacement of the Trident Nuclear Missile System”

UK’s Nuclear Deterrent, Current and Future Issues of Legality”, Rabinder Singh, QC, and Professor Christine Chinkin, Matrix Gray’s Inn London WC1R 5LN 19 December 2005; Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation, LCNP Statement on Replacement of the UK Trident, March 2007.

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wevigilo January 15th, 2009

NO MORE TAX DOLLARS

FOR LOCKHEED WEAPONS

With many of us thinking about year- end taxes that must be paid by April 15^th, we might consider where some of this money goes.  Our tax dollars pay for the missiles manufactured at the Lockheed plant on 5^th & Mathilda, where we vigil every fourth Friday of the month.  A large portion goes into the military budget that we, as US citizens, pay without question.

According to the War Resisters League-

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes for the Federal US Budget 2009 Fiscal Year:

Total Outlays (Federal Funds) is $2,650 billion

Military budget is 54% with the total of $1,449 billion

Non-Military is 46% with $1,210 billion

Current military includes the Dept. of Defense ($653 billion), the military portion from other departments ($150 billion), and an additional $162 billion to supplement the Budget’s misleading and vast underestimate of only $38 billion for the “war on terror.”  Past military represents veterans benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.

The current Military spending includes an estimated $200
billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These figures are from an analysis of detailed tables in the
“Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government,
Fiscal Year 2009. 

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wevigilo September 22nd, 2008

LOCKHEED LOBBIED

FOR A WAR

NOW ITS STOCK

EARNS 6 TIMES MORE

www.WeVigil.org

Most people don’t want war with all its death, destruction, and suffering.  There is a small but powerful minority, however, that not only welcomes war but actively promotes it – the war profiteers that come in two breeds.  First are the weapons merchants who siphon off billions in taxpayer dollars to build devices that destroy.  Then when cities and infrastructure lay in shambles, the “reconstruction” contractors step in to sap billions more in taxpayer dollars – frequently without competitive bid and with no oversight to prevent fraud.  War profiteers put their own gain above people’s lives and human rights.

Lockheed Martin tops the list of global military contractors.  In 2002, before the Iraq war, it took in $17 billion in prime military contracts.  That figure swelled to $27.9 billion in fiscal year 2007.  That is just prime contracts and does not include many more billions received from subcontracts to other weapons merchants.  However, even that 64% jump in military sales is not the entire picture.

The bottom line for corporations is profit.   Profit is reflected in stock earnings.  In 2002, Lockheed Martin stock earned $1.17 per share.  In 2007 the per-share earnings jumped to $7.10.  In five years, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq boosted shareholders’ annual earnings by a factor of six.  On top of that, the value of each Lockheed Martin share increased 261% in those five years – from $44.29 in 2002 to $115.77 in 2007.

These profits weren’t just a lucky windfall.  They were actively planned and promoted through what is called the “revolving door” syndrome.  It works like this: individuals holding a position in government resign or retire and go to work for a corporation that benefits from their government expertise.  Or it may start with a corporation and move to government.  It does not necessarily stop with one cycle but can continue to revolve.  Every time a switch is made the individual gains financially as he or she promotes government or corporate interests.

There were many revolving door players beating the war drums for Lockheed Martin’s interests, but two will suffice for illustration.  Those two are Bruce Jackson and Stephen J. Hadley.

As a military intelligence officer in the 1980s, Bruce Jackson worked in the Pentagon with prominent neoconservatives Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney.  Jackson also was executive director of the Project for a New American Century, the neoconservative think tank that provided the framework for Bush’s national security strategy of preemptive war.  He joined Martin Marietta in 1993 as director of strategic planning and corporate development projects which involved the 1995 merger with Lockheed.  He stayed on with the newly-named Lockheed Martin and in 1997 became director in charge of finding new international markets.  In 1999 he was promoted to vice president for strategy and planning, a position he held until 2002.

Stephen J. Hadley was on the White House National Security Staff from 1974-1977 during the Ford administration.  In 1977 he joined the law firm Shea & Gardner which had Lockheed as a client.  He took a leave of absence in 1986 to serve as counsel to the Tower Commission investigating arms sales to Iraq; and another in 1989 to serve four years as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy for the Bush Sr. administration.  In 2001 Hadley left the law firm to join the George W. Bush administration, first as deputy national security advisor and later as national security advisor.  In that position he was the point man in selling Bush’s war on Iraq.

In 1996 Jackson started the nongovernmental US Committee to Expand NATO to provide pressure for bringing some former Soviet bloc countries into NATO.  Hadley was also involved.  Their success in that effort (while Jackson was working for Lockheed Martin and Hadley was with a firm representing Lockheed Martin) provided leverage in 2003 for getting new NATO members to support and join the “coalition of the willing” in Bush’s war on Iraq – a war which was very profitable for the weapons builder.

In November 2002, Hadley as deputy national security advisor called Jackson – then a vice president at Lockheed Martin – to the White House to help develop a rationale to attack Iraq.   He asked Jackson to do for Iraq what he did for NATO in 1996.  Jackson came up with the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq whose mission statement was “to promote regional peace, political freedom and international security by replacing the Saddam Hussein regime with a democratic government that respects the rights of the Iraqi people and ceases to threaten the community of nations.” [Richard Cummins, “US: Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” Playboy.com, 16 January 2007]  This nongovernmental group pressed hard for regime change in Iraq.  It spent money from special interest groups – war profiteers? – to lobby congress, feed press releases to the media, and propagandize the public that Saddam was a monster who violates human rights and threatened stability in the Middle East.  Jackson also helped start the neoconservative Weekly Standard which advocated force to effect regime change in Iraq.  By implying it would make their admission into NATO easier, Jackson persuaded ten former Soviet bloc countries to draft a unified declaration that the tyranny of Saddam Hussein must be confronted now.

Meanwhile Stephen Hadley, “referred to by The New York Times as one of the more significant Lockheed operatives in the Bush White House,” pursued the claim that Iraq was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction that threatened US and global security. [Richard Cummins, op.cit.]  He promoted a story that Iraq tried to buy uranium yellowcake from Nigeria.  That story was later proved to be a fake but, nevertheless, Hadley’s “mistake” provided the needed justification to attack Iraq.  For that he was promoted to national security advisor.

“Shock and Awe” struck at night on 20 March 2003 when Lockheed Martin Stealth F-117 fighters launched bunker-buster bombs on Baghdad.  From that date on, Lockheed Martin profits soared.

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wevigilo July 21st, 2008

WEAPONS, BLOODSHED,

DEATH AND PAIN.

ALL TO INCREASE

LOCKHEED’S GAIN.

www.WeVigil.org

Shock and Awe struck Baghdad on March 19, 2003, delivered by stealth fighters bearing the Lockheed Martin brand.  Now, in Iraq alone, over 100,000 people have been killed, hundreds of thousands wounded, and some five million refugees made homeless.

Marketing instruments of death is an extremely lucrative business and Lockheed Martin (LM) exploits it to the fullest.  It is this planet’s largest peddler of war-making materials.  The following summary illustrates how LM has penetrated every aspect of modern military might.

In the strategic area, LM is well known for its line of submarine-launched missiles, the latest of which is Trident.  LM also manages the three national laboratories which design, develop, and manufacture America’s nuclear weapons.

Other sea-based systems spring from LM drawing boards.  Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, managed by LM, performs research and development for Navy nuclear propulsion.  LM’s computers are used on submarines and surface ships as is its naval electronics and surveillance systems.  The Integrated Deep Water System Program refurbishes Coast Guard’s ships and aircraft (including helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles) – all with integrated command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.  Meanwhile, the P-3 antisubmarine aircraft patrols the oceans.

Aegis combat systems, including the AN/SPY-1 radar, are provided for guided missile ships by LM.  These, as well as attack submarines, are also equipped with LM’s vertical launch system which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and Standard-2 anti-missile/anti-satellite interceptors.  It was a Standard-2 fired from an Aegis ship that shot down the errant US spy satellite over the Pacific in February 2008.

LM produces the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) for army rocket artillery, the latest version of which is the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).  Shoulder-fired Javelin anti-tank missiles are a joint venture between LM and Raytheon.  (LM has also written software for Raytheon’s “Echelon” global surveillance network.) 

Besides the F-117 stealth fighter, LM supports air war with F-16 and F/A-22 jets.  It is also developing the controversial F-35 joint strike fighter.  To get bombs on-target faster in support of ground troops, fighter jets are equipped with “Sniper” advanced targeting pods furnished by LM, with a downlink allowing ground troops to better defend themselves.  LM has also deployed the Theater Battle Management Core System which is the key to modern air battle command and control.

Helicopters attack ground targets with 15 variants of the “Hellfire” missiles, all supplied by LM.  To assure the “Hellfire” hits its target, the helicopters are equipped with LM’s “Arrowhead” infrared target acquisition system.

PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability 3) interceptor missiles were developed and fielded by LM to hit enemy missiles and aircraft, destroying them with the impact.

LM builds many satellites.  Milstar communications satellites (the sixth of which was put in orbit during April 2003 – just in time to support the Iraq war) allow military commanders to use their deadly tools in the most destructive manner.  “Keyhole” and “Lacrosse” spy satellites show those commanders where to apply that destruction.  LM’s “Desert Hawk” spy plane (weighing seven pounds) patrols areas of concern with no human guidance.   

To extract information from detainees of Arab ancestry, LM has contracted interrogators to the US government, and provides technical support at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, where intelligence personnel learn “enhanced interrogation” techniques.

The foregoing itemization is by no means comprehensive.  It only touches the high points to illustrate the extent of LM’s implacable activities.  This vicious technology is also sold to many, many foreign nations.  The net effect is wholesale slaughter and big bucks for LM shareholders.  Those who sell their talents and labor to help LM make these instruments of destruction are also complicit in this mass extinction.  There is no other way to express it.  There is no way to deny this criminal fact.

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wevigilo May 17th, 2008

BIG BROTHER

IN THE SKY

LOCKHEED SATELLITES

ON US DO SPY

www.WeVigil.org

For over three decades Lockheed, and later Lockheed Martin (LM), has been in the forefront of spy satellite activities. LM’s Keyhole and Lacrosse satellites are continually “imaging” the earth – that is taking pictures or radar images of what is happening on the ground. They are managed by the National Reconnaissance Office.

Keyhole spy satellites are like giant orbiting digital cameras with monstrous lenses. They have been compared to Hubble Telescopes pointed toward earth taking pictures from 200 miles high to support military missions. Several are overhead at any given time. Three-dimensional images of the terrain and buildings can be constructed from these photographs. But visible light and infrared photography can’t see through clouds and dust so that is supplemented by 15-ton Lacrosse radar-imaging spy satellites.

Lacrosse satellites orbit 400-450 miles high. Their radars can see through clouds, dust, and even have some soil penetration capabilities. This imaging beam is the equivalent of 1,500 flash pictures per second and can function day or night. They probably view specific areas with high resolution and scan larger areas with lower quality. Newer Lacrosse satellites are also called Onyx.

Lockheed-Martin is also in the forefront of new spy satellite development. LM was designing photo-imaging satellites for the Future Imagery Architecture when it was canceled in 2005. A secret “stealth” satellite known as Misty was launched in 1990 and was quickly spotted by amateur space observers. This $9-plus billion program, with cost overruns topping $4 billion in 2005, was cancelled in June 2007. An experimental L-21 spy satellite costing hundreds of millions of dollars was launched on 14 December 2006. Contact was immediately lost and it is slowly dropping out of orbit. The bidding stage is now beginning for a new photo-reconnaissance system known as BASIC.

On 25 May 2007 Keyhole and Lacrosse satellites, along with eavesdropping satellites were made available to spy on Americans. Department of Homeland Security established a National Applications Office in October to distribute information to the government agencies requesting it. Ostensibly to monitor natural disasters and patrol the borders, this new spying capability will do much more – the public doesn’t even know how much more but it opens a whole new ballgame on invasions of privacy. Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology said: “You are talking about enormous power. Not only is the surveillance … intrusive and omnipresent, it’s also invisible. And that’s what makes this so dangerous.” Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists called it potentially “a transformation of the American political structure toward a surveillance state in which the entire public domain is subject to official monitoring.” Orwell’s Big Brother has arrived.

* * * * *

References.

“What is a Keyhole Satellite and what can it Really Spy On?” HowStuffWorks at http://science.howstuffworks.com/question529.htm

“Lacrosse/Onyx,” Federation of American Scientists at http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/lacrosse.htm

Jehl, Douglas; “Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs,” The New York Times, 30 September 2005.

Shachtman, Noah; “Head Spook Kills Off Lame Spy Sat,” Wired News, 22 June 2007.

Shalal-Esa, Andrea; “US Spy Satellite Declared Loss, to Drop Out of Orbit,” Reuters, 2 August 2007.

CBS News; “US Pursuing New Spy Satellite Program,” 30 November 2007.

Block, Robert; “US to Expand Domestic Use of Spy Satellites,” The Wall Street Journal, 15 August 2007.

Schmitt, Eric; “Liberties Advocates Fear Abuse of Satellite Images,” The New York Times, 17 August, 2007.

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wevigilo April 15th, 2008

DEADLY WARSHIPS

PROWL THE SEAS

WITH NUCLEAR ENGINES

LOCKHEED OVERSEES

www.WeVigil.org

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) is owned by the US Department of Energy (DoE). Its operation is contracted to KAPL, Inc., which is a wholly-owned company of Lockheed Martin.

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory performs research and development for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a joint energy program of the Navy and the DoE, charged with researching, designing, construction, operation, and maintenance of the reactors in America’s nuclear-powered fleet. The Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has been producing shipboard nuclear reactors for submarine and surface ship propulsion for over 50 years.

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory is one of two DoE laboratories supporting the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. It is their task to develop cutting edge nuclear propulsion technology. KAPL has two main sites in upstate New York – one at Niskayona, and the other at West Milton. It also has small contingents to support nuclear-powered warships at shipyards located in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Virginia, and Washington State.

Niskayona is the main site where research, design, and development takes place. West Milton is the site of four prototypes of shipboard pressurized-water reactors. This is where KAPL trains officers and enlisted personnel to operate the shipboard powerplants.

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory began with the Manhattan Project. On 15 May 1946 a contract began with General Electric (GE) to operate KAPL which at that time was conducting research and development for the nuclear powerplant project. In 1950 that project was converted to a naval nuclear propulsion project, still operated by GE. The first nuclear-powered submarine – the USS Nautilus, was launched on 21 January 1954.

In April 1993 the subsidiary of GE that operated KAPL merged with Martin Marietta, which then took over KAPL operation. When Martin Marietta merged with Lockheed two years later, Lockheed Martin became the operator of KAPL.

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REFERENCES

Global Security Website: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/knolls_s.htm

KAPL, Inc. website: http://www.kaplinc.com

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory website: http://www.kapl.gov

Wikipedia; “Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knolls_Atomic_Power_Laboratory

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wevigilo February 6th, 2008

Lockheed Martin

and

The Way God Wants Things Done

The Lenten Season is a good time to evaluate how our life fits into the way God wants things done. The picture today is bleak. Poverty and violence abound and people suffer horribly. The gap between rich and poor seems unbridgeable. The global economy is floundering. Yet the merchants of death prosper. Lockheed Martin, the world’s top military contractor, had a 10% rise in profits during the last three months of 2007. That’s not 10% profit – that is a 10% rise in its already outrageous earnings. LM cleared a scandalous $0.8 billion in just those three months, over and above all material and personnel expenses. That gravy goes to stockholders who are already rich enough to invest in LM shares. LM prospers so well because America is investing hundreds of billions of dollars to forcefully pursue a foreign policy that dominates the world’s resources and ensures a cheap labor supply. Yes, it is time to evaluate.

I faced a similar evaluation 35 years ago while working at Lockheed’s Sunnyvale plant. The Trident missile program was just starting and I was a group engineer tasked with developing the Mark-500 MaRV – that’s a maneuvering warhead designed to evade enemy interceptors and deliver a hydrogen bomb on-target. I had to decide if this was really how God wants things done.

Today things are worse. LM still keeps Trident missiles on-station while managing the laboratories developing a new nuclear bomb – one that can be more readily used in regional wars such as with Iran. LM also builds the satellites to spy and navigate and communicate. It builds fighter planes and RPVs and whatever else the War Department needs. LM literally has its profit finger in every economic pie.

Evaluation of my work on Trident was scary back then. I could see what I should do – Trident was obviously an aggressive first-strike weapon — but Janet and I still had six children at home to support. Nevertheless, we worked and prayed together on our “escape plan” and then put it into action. We found life without Lockheed wasn’t as bad as expected. The real fear was anticipation. Tangible events can be dealt with.

That was 35 years ago and I’ve never regretted parting from Lockheed. I now have the freedom to do and say what I please. Working together put new excitement and romance into our marriage. I can now hold my head up and say I’m really trying to work in the way God wants things done. I highly recommend the change to anyone feeling snared in the Pentagon’s economic trap.

May peace be with you,

Bob Aldridge

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wevigilo July 18th, 2007

DID YOU KNOW LOCKHEED MARTIN BUILT TRIDENT MISSILES WHICH CAN INSTANTLY DELIVER EXPLOSIVE POWER EQUAL TO 19,200 HIROSHIMA BOMBS? [or 13,440 NAGASAKI BOMBS]

Lockheed Martin is the program manager in charge of producing and maintaining Trident D5 missiles.

Trident D5 missiles are deployed on 14 Trident submarines which conceivably, in an emergency, could launch their missiles even while the submarines are in port.

There are 24 missiles on each submarine which means 336 missiles are deployed.
[24 missiles/submarine x 14 submarines = 336 missiles.]

Each missile can carry 8 warheads which means 2,688 nuclear bombs deployed.
[8 warheads/missile x 336 missiles = 2,688 warheads.]

Each nuclear bomb has an explosive power equal to at least 100,000 tons (100 kilotons) of conventional explosives. (Some missiles carry 475-kiloton bombs.) That means at least 268,800 kilotons of explosive power are deployed on Trident submarines.
[100 kilotons/warhead x 2,688 warheads = 268,800 kilotons.]

The Hiroshima bomb is estimated to have been 14 kilotons. Hence, the explosive power deployed on Trident submarines equals 19,200 Hiroshima bombs.
[268,800 ÷ 14 = 19,200.]

The Nagasaki bomb is estimated to have been 20 kilotons. Hence, the explosive power deployed on Trident submarines equals 13,440 Nagasaki bombs.
[268,800 ÷ 20 = 13,440.]

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