A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Some are doing very well with this endless war post 9/11

Posted: 10 Sep 2011

The Los Angeles Times reports:

It wasn’t long after the World Trade Center twin towers fell that U.S. Army special forces units were dispatched to the desolate outcroppings of Afghanistan to stalk and eradicate the Taliban.

The commandos were outfitted with radios, night vision goggles and automatic rifles. But a select few carried a new high-tech tool to hunt down the enemy.

It was a tiny robotic spy plane, so small it would fit in a backpack. Soldiers would throw the drone into the sky, where it would fly up to 400 feet, shoot video of what’s ahead and transmit those images back to the soldiers. The technology enabled them to avoid ambushes and pinpoint the location of enemy positions.

The small drones, made by Monrovia-based AeroVironment Inc., quickly became a staple of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and fueled the growth of the once-tiny company into a publicly traded defense contractor with thousands of drones at work in the war zone.

After the Cold War, the nation’s defense industry saw a devastating drop in business. But after Sept. 11, 2001, all that changed as money once again began to flow to big-name defense contractors, such as Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. andNorthrop Grumman Corp.

But far more dramatic was the abrupt change in fortunes for smaller Southern California companies such as AeroVironment. The company’s annual sales over the last 10 years went from $29.4 million to $292.5 million.

Owners of small military firms that never had much of a chance at winning major government contracts during the Cold War were thrown in the spotlight for their smaller, cheaper but powerful high-tech weapons — vital to waging guerrilla-type warfare. And they remain in the limelight today.

“The threat changed after 9/11, as did the way the military addressed the threat,” said Timothy E. Conver, AeroVironment’s chief executive. “By using smaller, efficient systems, it coincided to what we do best.”

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon budget more than doubled overnight, flooding defense contractors — big and small — with billions of dollars to build and develop hardware. It was a conflict that has bolstered Southern California’s fading defense industry.

“California’s aerospace industry has been one of the unsung heroes of the war on terrorism,” said John Noonan, aide to Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “They were able to quickly adapt to new battlefield requirements, most notably in their swift supply of badly needed reconnaissance, intelligence and communications platforms.”

Voices rising against Serco’s power

Posted: 09 Sep 2011

Very few journalists in the corporate press seem interested in the ever-expanding role of unaccountable Serco, the British multinational. Privatisation is accepted as gospel by both major sides of politics and the mainstream media.

To its credit, Green Left Weekly publishes today the following important part of the story:

British-based multinational corporation Serco Group is bidding for more contracts with Australian federal and state governments. Worth £4.3 billion ($6.6 billion), Serco markets itself as a “solution to government”, which takes over government services and runs them for profit.

It has run Australia’s disastrous and increasingly unstable refugee detention centres since 2009, owns two Australian super-prisons and took over Western Australia’s court security and custodial services in June.

The $210 million WA contract was handed to Serco after private prison operator Global Services Limited — or G4S — was found to have been responsible for the death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward, who died of heatstroke in the back of a prison van in 2008.

This month, Serco began training new workers to transport prisoners between jails and courts.

Robert Bell, a former senior officer in Britain’s public prison service, was in the first group hired by Serco to begin the training. But he told Green Left Weekly that, after only one week of training, he decided it would be a mistake.

“Serco are now carrying on the contract with the same G4S workers, and it was their colleagues who contributed to Mr Ward’s death,” he said.

Two workers formerly employed by G4S, and overseen by supervisors transferred from Britain on temporary work junkets, ran his training.

“The contract [for ex-G4S workers] never stopped. All they did was a series of weekend inductions for the G4S workers and gave them a new uniform.

“I did the first week of the Serco training period. It was a week of spin, not training. The head of human resources from Sydney came on the first day and told us what a fantastic company Serco was.”

Bell said there was a culture of silence about Serco’s working conditions even on that first day. After saying he was not impressed with Serco in Britain, a supervisor told him “some things are better left unsaid” and training staff had been told to “look out for troublemakers”.

Health and safety was emphasised in induction lectures, but not put into practice. “The trainer told us you’d wait to see physical injuries before saying anything,” Bell said.

The new workers were expected to carry out six weeks’ training and then start working with inmates. But it would be a year before they were considered fully qualified, with no recognition of prior experience, and be paid only the minimum wage.

“Over here the top pay rate is $25.40 an hour,” Bell said.

When he indicated he was considering resignation, human resources ended Bell’s contract before he even put it in writing. Serco’s employment contract allowed the company to sack workers without notice. “They could sack without reason in the initial training period.”

Serco is well known for running prisons on the cheap in Britain. Bell worked for many years at a British high-security state prison where he saw firsthand how Serco cut corners on its workforce.

“Serco came to deliver prisoners and the staff were just driven to the bone, working long hours. And they were on terrible money.

“A female supervisor bragged about their 28-hour shifts during the recent [British] riots. I said I hope Serco aren’t thinking of introducing 28-hour shifts in Australia. She said, ‘we just need to get the job done’.”

Bell said government prison workers were often sent to intervene when prisoner unrest broke out. “We had to bail out private centres run by Serco, when they lost control, we’ve had to go in.”

Jewish “leaders” happy to accuse BDS backers of anti-Semitism

Posted: 09 Sep 2011

It’s like Nazi Germany in Australia at the moment, in case you hadn’t heard:

Artwork from Gaza threatens Zionist lobby

Posted: 09 Sep 2011

This shows the desperation of a Zionist lobby that simply can’t handle the threat of hearing about Palestinians:

The Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland (MOCHA) has decided to cancel an exhibit of art by Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), which was partnering with MOCHA to present the exhibit, was informed of the decision by the Museum’s board president on Thursday, September 8, 2011. For several months, MECA and the museum had been working together on the exhibit, which is titled “A Child’s View From Gaza.”

MECA has learned that there was a concerted effort by pro-Israel organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to pressure the museum to reverse its decision to display Palestinian children’s art. 

Barbara Lubin, the Executive Director of MECA, expressed her dismay that the museum decided to censor this exhibit in contradiction of its mission “to ensure that the arts are a fundamental part of the lives of all children.”

“We understand all too well the enormous pressure that the museum came under. But who wins? The museum doesn’t win. MECA doesn’t win. The people of the Bay Area don’t win. Our basic constitutional freedom of speech loses. The children in Gaza lose,” she said. 

“The only winners here are those who spend millions of dollars censoring any criticism of Israel and silencing the voices of children who live every day under military siege and occupation.”

Unfortunately, this disturbing incident is just one example of many across the nation in which certain groups have successfully silenced the Palestinian perspective, which includes artistic expression. In fact, some organizations have even earmarked funds for precisely these efforts. Last year, regrettably the Jewish Federation of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs launched a $6 million initiative to effectively silence Palestinian voices even in “cultural institutions.” 

The free exhibit, co-sponsored by nearly twenty local organizations, was scheduled to open on September 24, and featured special activities for children and families, including a cartooning workshop and poetry readings.

The Gaza Strip, which has a population of 1.6 million, has been under siege since Israel imposed a blockade against it in 2006. The United Nations and many human rights organizations across the world have condemned the blockade as an inhumane and cruel form of collective punishment.

…

MECA is disappointed in the museum’s decision to deny Bay Area residents the opportunity to view Palestinian children’s art, and is committed to seeking an alternative venue.  

“We made a promise to the children that their art will be shown and we are going to keep that promise,” said Lubin.

Memo to New York Times; you have no idea about the Middle East

Posted: 09 Sep 2011

Angry Arab:

While watching the scenes in Egypt today [protestors breaking into the Israeli embassy in Cairo], [New York Times columnist] Thomas Friedman, should have tweeted this to himself: I am so clueless.  I have no idea what is going on in the Middle East.  I was sitting in my suite at the Marriott and insisting that the Egyptian uprising has no foreign policy goals.  I feel like a fool, really.  Wait: what if I am.  cc To [Zionist lobbyist] Abraham Foxman.
PS Let me guess.  Friedman will write that extremist radicals exploited by an Iranian conspiracy hijacked the glorious Egyptian uprising.