Sandra Finley

2013-02-08 Lockheed Martin establishes Canadian HQ in Ottawa, Ottawa Business Journal

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Jan 042015
 

The government’s planned purchase of 65 F-35 fighter jets . . .  

 

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  • A copy of the Government of Canada registration of Lockheed Martin is at bottom.

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Lockheed Martin establishes Canadian HQ in Ottawa, Ottawa Business Journal

http://www.obj.ca/Local/Defence-and-security/2013-02-08/article-3173350/Lockheed-Martin-establishes-Canadian-HQ-in-Ottawa/1

Courtney Symons

Published on February 08, 2013

Defence firm Lockheed Martin Canada is opening a new corporate headquarters office in downtown Ottawa to provide a single point of contact for all clients within the country, the company announced Thursday.

© File photo

The World Exchange Plaza

The new office is within the TD tower in the World Exchange Plaza on O’Connor Street and will hold two to three employees responsible for responding to questions from customers and being the go-to contact for subcontractors in Canada.

“The (Canadian) government needs to have somewhere to turn to when they have questions,” said Lockheed Martin Canada spokesperson Michael Barton. “Lockheed Martin has 120,000 employees worldwide and sometimes it’s a little confusing (for customers) to find out who they should be talking to.”

The new office, which opened on Thursday, is in addition to the firm’s previous Canadian headquarters in Kanata where about 150 employees work for Lockheed Martin Canada. That office primarily deals with navy contracts, Mr. Barton said, and integrating technology into warships.

A chief executive will soon be named to lead the corporate office and its small team that will seek to further strengthen the corporation’s position in Canada. The CEO position will likely be filled within the next couple of months, Mr. Barton said.

“In most countries where we have this much activity, we have a corporate office,” he said.

Maryland-headquartered Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Kanata office will continue its daily operations, including manufacturing, IT and training functions as well as human resources, finances and contract management for the Canadian division of the company.

The global security and aerospace firm brought in net sales of $47.2 billion in 2012, according to the company.

Lockheed Martin Canada has been awarded many contracts from the federal government including the Canadian Navy. The government’s planned purchase of 65 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin is currently under review after a KPMG report warning that the planes will cost much more than initially announced.

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 GOVERNMENT OF CANADA REGISTRATION

http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/ccc/srch/nvgt.do?lang=eng&prtl=1&sbPrtl=&estblmntNo=234567042574&profile=cmpltPrfl&profileId=1921&app=sold

Last Updated: 2013-10-17

Lockheed Martin Canada

Company information
Legal Name:   Lockheed Martin Canada Inc.
Operating Name:   Lockheed Martin Canada
Mailing Address 3001 Solandt Rd KANATA, Ontario K2K 2M8 Location Address 3001 Solandt Rd KANATA, Ontario K2K 2M8
Telephone: (613) 599-3270
Fax: (613) 599-3282
Email: michael.barton@lmco.com
Website URL: http://www.lockheedmartin.ca/

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Contact information

Ian Baird
Telephone:   (514) 340-8310
Fax:   (514) 340-8313
Email:   ian.baird@lmco.com
Don McClure
Title:   Vice President
Telephone:   (613) 599-3280
Fax:   (613) 599-3282
Gary Hones
Title:   Manager, Industrial & Regional Benefits
Telephone:   (514) 340-8310
Ext:   8345
Fax:   (514) 340-8315
Email:   gary.homes@lmco.com
Michael Barton
Title:   Manager
Telephone:   (613) 599-3270
Fax:   (613) 599-3282
Email:   michael.barton@lmco.com

 

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Company description

Lockheed Martin Canada is a highly diversified global enterprise principally engaged in the design, development, production, integration and life cycle support of advanced technology products and systems. A division of Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors (MST), Lockheed Martin Canada is the combat systems integrator for the Royal Canadian Navy. Today, it is the prime contractor for the mid-life upgrade for the combat systems on-board the HALIFAX Class frigate and has been selected to provide surveillance and command systems for the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship. Employing more that 700 people across the country, Lockheed Martin Canada is headquartered in Kanata, Ontario and has supporting operations in Montreal, Calgary, Halifax and Victoria. A recognized leader in management and integration of complex, large scale military systems including shipborne command and control systems, airborne sensor and data management systems, electronic warfare and command and analysis systems. LM Canada has also established itself as a provider of high quality, highly effective and affordable computer based, synthetic maintenance training and simulation systems for defence and commercial applications as well as a provider of full scale tactical trainer systems, weapon effects training systems and live fire training systems. The company specializes in manufacturing, assembly, R&O, product support and Integrated Logistics Support for airborne, naval and land-based platforms and serves as the in-country production house for several foreign prime contractors seeking off-set partners. Lockheed Martin is engaged in the renewable energy sector and is involved in several Canadian projects including solar and tidal energy technologies. Other divisions of LM located in Canada include, Lockheed Martin Kelly Aviation (Montreal) Centre, a world leader in engine MRO for commercial companies around the globe as well as for U.S. and international air forces and Lockheed Martin CDL Systems who specialize in the development and licensing of vehicle control station software for unmanned systems.
Country of Ownership: Canada
Exporting: Yes
Primary Industry (NAICS): 334511 – Navigational and Guidance Instruments Manufacturing
Primary Business Activity: Manufacturer / Processor / Producer

 

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Product / Service / Licensing

Product Name: AIRCRAFT, FIXED WING
Product Name: AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR SHOP SPECIALIZED E
Product Name: AIRCRAFT ROTARY WING
Product Name: COMBAT SHIPS AND LANDING VESSELS
Product Name: COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY EQUIPMENT AND COMPONENTS
Product Name: FIRE CONTROL MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR SHOP SPECIALIZ
Product Name: FIRE CONTROL RADAR EQUIPMENT, EXCEPT AIRBORNE
Product Name: FIRE CONTROL SONAR EQUIPMENT
Product Name: GUIDED MISSILE MAINTENANCE, REPAIR, AND CHECKOUT S
Product Name: RADAR EQUIPMENT, AIRBORNE
Product Name: RADAR EQUIPMENT, EXCEPT AIRBORNE
Product Name: RADAR SET SUBASSEMBLY
Product Name: RADIO AND TELEVISION COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT, AIRB
Product Name: SPACE VEHICLE COMPONENTS
Product Name: TRAINING AIDS
Service Name: DEFENSE – OTHER
Service Name: DEFENSE SYSTEMS
FSC Code: 1285-Fire Control Radar Equipment, Except Airborne 1287-Fire Control Sonar Equipment 1351-Underwater Mine Explosive Components 1386-Underwater Use Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Swimmer Weapons Systems, Systems Tools and Equipment 1510-Aircraft, Fixed Wing 1520-Aircraft Rotary Wing 1820-Space Vehicle Components 1905-Combat Ships and Landing Vessels 4920-Aircraft Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment 4931-Fire Control Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment 4935-Guided Missile Maintenance, Repair, and Checkout Specialized Equipment 5810-Communications Security Equipment and Components 5821-Radio and Television Communication Equipment, Airborne 5840-Radar Equipment, Except Airborne 5841-Radar Equipment, Airborne 5845-Underwater Sound Equipment 5940-Lugs, Terminals, and Terminal Strips 6910-Training Aids 6920-Armament Training Devices AC00-Defense Systems AD00-Defense – Other

 

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Market profile

Industry sector market interests:

  • Information Technology and Telecommunications
  • Aerospace
  • Defence

 

Note: This document is presented in the language provided by the author/source. Most of the information contained in Canadian Company Capabilities (CCC) has been provided by sources external to Industry Canada. The accuracy, currency and reliability of the information contained in CCC are the sole responsibility of the registered companies and related organizations. Industry Canada assumes no responsibility in this respect. The registered businesses shall ensure the continued monitoring of the information contained in CCC and ask that it be modified when necessary.

 

2015-01-02 Torture: Collaborators and Vengeance. Savage Continent, Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe.

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Take back the University  1 Response »
Jan 022015
 

At what point do we become collaborators?

And what are the consequences of collaboration?

In The Dalai Lama laughed and laughed I invited you to pass along laughter at the idea that there are no consequences of our actions.

What’s even funnier … they are these INTELLIGENT fellows, but they believe they can kill and torture and no one is going to turn around and do the same thing back to them! They think (believe?!) ISIS is not a product they helped create!

 

Lockheed Martin is responsible for a lot of the torture (documented in Request to University to end the relationship with Lockheed Martin Corporation).

Citizens fund Lockheed Martin through Government contracts, the same in Canada as in the U.S.  and in countries to which the munitions, surveillance services, etc.  are exported.

The Universities choose “collaboration topics” for funding by Lockheed with their (our) money.

At what point do we become collaborators?

And what are the consequences of collaboration?

Keith Lowe does a magnificent job of documenting and providing examples of the vengeance put upon collaborators in his book  Savage Continent, Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (2012).   I found the book captivating and hope to elaborate on the unimaginable violence, the abyss into which society falls when we become pawns in the game.    In the meantime, scroll down to the Washington Post book review.   There are definitely consequences of our actions!

 

BTW:   Reply from the University Board of Governors  was received January 2, to   Request to end the relationship with Lockheed Martin Corporation.

 

WASHINGTON POST,  SAVAGED CONTINENT

By Jonathan Yardley July 7, 2012

There is nothing hyperbolic about the title of this remarkable book. As Keith Lowe makes painfully plain, Europe in the months and years after the end of World War II was as much a cauldron of hate, murder and despair as it had been during the reign of Nazi Germany. “From the distance of the twenty-first century,” he writes, “we tend to look back on the end of the war as a time of celebration. We have seen images of sailors kissing girls in New York’s Times Square, and smiling troops of all nationalities linking arms along Paris’s Champs Elysees. However, for all the celebration that took place at the end of the war, Europe was actually a place in mourning. The sense of loss was both personal and communal. Just as the continent’s towns and cities had been replaced by a landscape of crumbling ruins, so too had families and communities been replaced by a series of gaping holes.”The end of the war was not really an end at all, Lowe argues, not only because violence continued long after peace had been declared, but because hidden behind the big conflict between the Allies and the Axis were “dozens of other, more local wars, which had different flavours and different motivations in each country and each region. In some cases they were conflicts over class or other political differences. In other cases . . . they were conflicts over race or nationalism.” Certainly the defeat of Nazi Germany was and still is cause for gratitude and even elation, but achieving that defeat left virtually all of Europe so devastated that “it is difficult to convey in meaningful terms the scale of the wreckage caused by the Second World War,” wreckage not merely physical but psychological and moral as well. The great journalist Alan Moorehead, in Naples immediately after its liberation, witnessed “the whole list of sordid human vices” and wrote, “What we were witnessing in fact was the moral collapse of a people.”

What is nearly as remarkable as the story itself is that it has taken nearly seven decades for it to be properly told. Why this is so is a mystery, although Lowe suspects that it is connected to the “tendency by some Western historians and politicians to look back at the aftermath of the Second World War through rose-tinted spectacles,” focusing in particular on the Marshall Plan as evidence of Europe’s speedy rebirth. Lowe — a British writer who has published two novels and the well-regarded “Inferno: The Fiery Destruction of Hamburg 1943” — will have none of that, and “Savage Continent” leaves no doubt that he is right:

“The immediate postwar period is one of the most important times in our recent history. If the Second World War destroyed the old continent, then its immediate aftermath was the protean chaos out of which the new Europe was formed. It was during this violent, vengeful time that many of our hopes, aspirations, prejudices and resentments first took shape. Anyone who truly wants to understand Europe as it is today must first have an understanding of what occurred here during this crucial formative period. There is no value in shying away from difficult or sensitive themes, since these are the very building blocks upon which the modern Europe has been built.”


’Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II’ by Keith Lowe (St. Martin’s Press)

Lowe divides his study into three broad areas: vengeance, ethnic and racial cleansing, and civil wars. Of these, vengeance “is perhaps the most universal,” emerging as “a thread in virtually every event that took place, from the arrest of Nazis and their collaborators to the wording of the postwar treaties that shaped Europe for the decades to come,” and: “Leaders from Roosevelt to Tito happily indulged the vengeful fantasies of their subordinates, and sought to harness the popular desire for vengeance to further their own political causes. Commanders in all the Allied armies turned a blind eye to the excesses of their men; and civilians took advantage of the chaos to redress years of impotence and victimization by dictators and petty tyrants alike.”

It is important to emphasize that much of the vengeance was rooted in legitimate grievances and that “it served several purposes, not all of which were entirely negative,” including restoring “a sense of the moral equilibrium, even if it did so at the expense of relinquishing some of the moral high ground.” Nonetheless, the violence committed in vengeances’s name was appalling and widespread. Women and children were victimized over and over again; the most famous instances involved French women whose heads were shaved by angry mobs because they had slept with Germans or otherwise collaborated, but uncountable thousands of women and children were maimed or killed simply because somebody had the inclination, for whatever reason, to do so.

Lowe doesn’t flatly say it, but in at least one important sense the Nazis won the war: Their notions of racial identity and superiority became commonplace among various groups who had coexisted before the war, however uneasily, and now were motivated to expel others from their countries or territories “purely on the basis of what was written on their wartime identity cards.” Anti-Semitism “would increase after the war,” and “by 1948 much of [Eastern Europe] had become, even more than in Hitler’s time, Judenfrei.” But if Jews were perhaps the most mercilessly persecuted, they were scarcely alone. Poland, “easily the most dangerous country for Jews after the war,” was also dangerous for ethnic Ukrainians and Germans. Indeed, the “statistics associated with the expulsion of the Germans between 1945 and 1949 defy imagination.” Most of these, about 7 million, occurred in “the lands east of the Oder and Neisse that had been incorporated into the new Poland,” but many other countries indulged in the orgy of expulsion, leaving “a cleansed landscape” in which “eastern Europe became far less multicultural than it had been at any time in modern history.” That process has continued to the present, as the terrible warfare in Bosnia during the 1990s made all too obvious.

“Unsurprisingly,” Lowe writes, in the wake of World War II many people believed that “the entire political system was at fault” and a “radical wind had begun to blow, that would bring with it some of the most violent and tragic episodes of the postwar period.” He describes the violent conflict between left and right in France and Italy, but focuses in particular on Greece, where bitter internecine warfare “was the first and bloodiest clash in what was soon to become a new, Cold War between East and West, left and right, communism and capitalism.” What happened in Greece, Lowe argues, “drew the southern boundary of the Iron Curtain,” “drew the Americans back into Europe by forcing them to understand that isolationism was no longer an option,” and provoked the Soviets “to formalize their control over the other Communist parties of Europe.” The “Greek civil war was therefore not merely a local tragedy, but an event of truly international significance,” the repercussions of which are felt to this day.

It was a time and place in which nobody won: “It was virtually impossible to emerge from the Second World War without enemies. There can hardly be a better demonstration than this of the moral and human legacy of the war. After the desolation of entire regions; after the butchery of over 35 million people; after countless massacres in the name of nationality, race, religion, class or personal prejudice, virtually every person on the continent had suffered some kind of loss or injustice. . . . In fact, the traditional view that the war came to an end when Germany finally surrendered in May 1945 is entirely misleading: in reality, their capitulation only brought an end to one aspect of the fighting.” It raged on, in different places, in different ways and for different reasons, for months and years to come, and the remarkable recovery that Europe eventually achieved must not blind us to this inescapable reality.

 

2015-01-02 Reply from Board of Governors, U pf S, request to disassociate from Lockheed Martin

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Take back the University  No Responses »
Jan 022015
 

THIRD  IN A SET OF FIVE POSTINGS re LOCKHEED MARTIN AT THE UNIVERSITY:

(U of S because I am most familiar. Lockheed Martin is also at (Canadian) Dalousie Univ, Univ New Brunswick, Royal Military College, of which I am aware. At American universities, goes without saying.)

1. 2014-08-19 Request to Board of Governors, University of Saskatchewan: END the relationship with Lockheed Martin Corporation

2.  2014-12-11 U.S. Torture: ADDENDUM, Letter to University, end relationship with Lockheed Martin, ‘contract interrogators’

3. (This posting, scroll down)  2015-01-02 Reply from Board of Governors, request to disassociate from Lockheed Martin

4. The Minerva Initiative. from Bill C-51, Elephant in the Room, the U.S.A.

The goal of the Minerva Initiative is to improve DoD’s (U.S. Dept of Defence’s) basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S.The research program will:

5. The very successful Disinvest – Invest Student movement (University Endowment funds): http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/11/17/why-movement-disinvest-fossil-fuels

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(Note:  the reply is a form letter received by other people, too.)

Reply from the University Board of Governors to

2014-12-11   U.S. Torture: ADDENDUM, Letter to University, end relationship with Lockheed Martin, ‘contract interrogators’ 

 

January 2, 2015

Dear Ms. Finley,

Thank you for your communications to the Board of Governors. Your communication of December 11, 2014 was provided to the Board for its meeting of December 16, 2014 and the Board had an opportunity to discuss your concerns regarding Lockheed Martin Corporation. We appreciate both hearing your interest in this matter, and your continued engagement with the University of Saskatchewan.

Sincerely,

Greg Smith, Chair

Board of Governors.

2014-12-09 Five revelations about the CIA’s interrogation techniques, NY Times News Service

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Dec 202014
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/five-revelations-about-the-cias-interrogation-techniques/article22017072/

NOTE:

1.   The article (below) does not name “the company” that took over the CIA torture program:

Two former military psychologists who had not conducted a single real interrogation were hired – at a daily rate of $1,800 (U.S.) each – to waterboard detainees. They later started a company that took over and ran the CIA program from 2005 until it was closed in 2009. The CIA paid the company $81-million.

2.   The New York Times article below is integrated with other information at:

2015-03-24   (U.S. Torture)  Lockheed Martin, Consolidated documentation, “Contract Interrogators”. Sytex. CIA Torture out-sourced. The disaster explained in U.S. Senate Committee Report on Torture, 2015.

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Five revelations about the CIA’s interrogation techniques,  NY Times News Service

 

For four years, according to CIA records, no one from the CIA ever came to the Oval Office to give President George W. Bush a full briefing on what was happening in the dungeons of Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.

Brutal

The CIA’s interrogation techniques were “far more brutal” and employed more extensively than the agency portrayed.

AP Video Dec. 09 2014, 1:40 PM EST

Video: CIA Torture Report: Treatment of detainees far more brutal than thought

The report describes extensive waterboarding as a “series of near drownings” and suggests that more prisoners were subjected to waterboarding than the three prisoners the CIA has acknowledged in the past.

The committee obtained a photograph of a waterboard surrounded by buckets of water at the prison in Afghanistan commonly known as the Salt Pit – a facility where the CIA had claimed that waterboarding was never used. One clandestine officer described the prison as a “dungeon,” and another said that some prisoners there “literally looked like a dog that had been kenneled.”

Detainees were deprived of sleep for as long as a week, and were sometimes told that they would be killed while in U.S. custody.

With the approval of the CIA’s medical staff, some CIA prisoners were subjected to medically unnecessary “rectal feeding” or “rectal hydration” – a technique that the CIA’s chief of interrogations described as a way to exert “total control over the detainee.”

The harsh techniques were described as leading to “psychological and behavioural issues, including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation.”

Deceptive

For four years, according to CIA records, no one from the CIA ever came to the Oval Office to give President George W. Bush a full briefing on what was happening in the dungeons of Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.

By the time the CIA director came in April, 2006, to give Mr. Bush the agency’s first briefing about the interrogation techniques it had been using since 2002, more than three dozen prisoners had already been subjected to them. And when told about one detainee being chained to the ceiling of his cell, clothed in a diaper and forced to urinate and defecate on himself, even a president known for his dead-or-alive swagger “expressed discomfort,” according to the report.

The report portrays a White House that approved the brutal questioning of suspects, but was kept in the dark about many aspects of the program.

“The CIA repeatedly provided incomplete and inaccurate information” to the White House, the report concludes.

Even to the extent that the president and his advisers understood the program, they kept other top administration figures out of the loop, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. An internal CIA e-mail from July, 2003, noted that the White House “is extremely concerned Powell would blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what’s been going on.”

Dysfunctional

In January, 2003, 10 months into the CIA’s secret prison program, the agency’s chief of interrogations sent an e-mail to colleagues saying that the relentlessly brutal treatment of prisoners was a train wreck “waiting to happen and I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens.” He said he had told his bosses he had “serious reservations” about the program and no longer wanted to be associated with it “in any way.”

The infighting in the CIA interrogation program was only one symptom of the dysfunction. The Senate report said interrogation teams included people with “notable derogatory information” in their records, including one with “workplace anger management issues” and another who “had reportedly admitted to sexual assault.”

The chief of interrogations, who is not named in the report, was given the job in the fall of 2002 even though the agency’s inspector general had recommended that he be “orally admonished for inappropriate use of interrogation techniques” in a training program in Latin America in the 1980s.

Two former military psychologists who had not conducted a single real interrogation were hired – at a daily rate of $1,800 (U.S.) each – to waterboard detainees. They later started a company that took over and ran the CIA program from 2005 until it was closed in 2009. The CIA paid the company $81-million.

Ineffective

The Senate committee report spends little time condemning torture on moral or legal grounds. Instead, it addresses mainly a practical question: Did torture accomplish anything of value? Looking at case after case, the report answers with an unqualified no. In fact, it says, “CIA officers regularly called into question whether the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques were effective, assessing that the use of the techniques failed to elicit detainee co-operation or produce accurate intelligence.”

A case in point was the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. Starting the day after the raid, agency officials in classified briefings to Congress stressed that information gathered from its disputed interrogation program had played a critical role in the hunt. But in page after page of previously classified evidence, the report discredits the notion that the agency would not have found Mr. bin Laden if it had not tortured detainees.

“The vast majority of the intelligence” about the al-Qaeda courier who led the agency to Mr. bin Laden, it said, “was originally acquired from sources unrelated to the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, and the most accurate information acquired from a CIA detainee was provided prior to the CIA subjecting the detainee to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Dishonest

The report says that the CIA provided false and misleading information to members of Congress, the White House and the director of national intelligence about the extent and effectiveness of its brutal interrogation program.

The report also said that the CIA’s leadership for years gave false information about the total number of prisoners held by the CIA, saying there had been 98 prisoners when its records showed that 119 men had been held. In late 2008, according to one internal e-mail, a CIA official giving a briefing expressed concern about the discrepancy and was told by Michael Hayden, then the agency’s director, “to keep the number at 98” and not to count any additional detainees.

The committee’s report concluded that of the 119 detainees, “at least 26 were wrongfully held.”

The report found that the CIA provided classified information to journalists but that the agency did not push to prosecute or investigate many of the leaks. CIA officials asked officers to “compile information on the success” of the program to be shared with the news media in order to shape public opinion. It also mischaracterized events and provided false or incomplete information to the news media in an effort to gain public support.

2014-12-19 Feds Pay $1.25M For ‘News’ Handouts To Media Editors, Blacklock’s Reporter

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Propaganda  No Responses »
Dec 202014
 

http://www.blacklocks.ca/feds-pay-1-25m-for-news-handouts-to-media-editors/

by

Feds Pay $1.25M For ‘News’ Handouts To Media Editors

Public Works Canada is awarding a $1.25 million contract to a publicist to distribute government-vetted “news” to publishers and radio and TV stations. The budget for handout “news” increased 25 percent from a previous contract. The department said it wanted to “inform and educate Canadians on public issues”.

The publicist, News Canada Ltd., said it gives editors handout stories free of charge bearing a “News Canada” credit – “just like Canadian Press,” said president Shelley Middlebrook. “We help distribute content,” Middlebrook said. “Journalists either pick it up or they don’t”; “Nobody pays to publish this. We follow Canadian Press-style rules of writing, and articles have to be marked as ‘News Canada’ just like CP.”

Handouts include standard 400-word newspaper stories for dailies and weeklies, and prepackaged broadcast items downloaded from the company’s website. Recent articles scripted for the Government of Canada and other clients include, “Supersize Your Tax Refund”; “Farmers Are Interested In The Environment”; “Food & Beverage Industry Raises the Bar On Nutrition”; and “Hey New Graduate, Check Out The Insurance Industry!”

The client list for News Canada handouts is not known, though the Department of Public Works said it expects audits of actual publication and broadcast of “news” items. “This is educational, informational, lifestyle news,” said Middlebrook. “It’s not breaking news.” The profile of media users is “a real mix”, she added: “With daily newspapers we get 71 or 72 percent of dailies; in community newspapers, there have been a lot of closures but we average 60 percent.”

Middlebrook said handout stories are also carried by some 350 radio stations nationwide. “TV is smaller,” she added. “It used to be a bigger portion of our business.” Public Works said television clients were unnamed cable news broadcasters.

“It Has To Be Balanced”

Samples of pro-government TV handouts including one item lauding the Canadian Space Agency, including “interviews” with two officials; and another celebrating cabinet’s record on Aboriginal land claim settlements. The script reads: “How do you right a past wrong? Well, the Government of Canada has been working towards finding solutions to do just that.” The report continues, “Canada has made a commitment to reconciling relationships with First Nations people”; “The future looks bright. More win-win solutions are in the works to bring closure and justice for all.”

Another “news” story promotes Public Works’ own program to have Canadians surrender bank account information to the department for electronic deposit of benefits cheques. “This convenient service can help manage hectic schedules by depositing government payments directly into their bank accounts,” viewers are told; “It’s fast, secure and convenient – so there is more time for families to play together.” A similar item features an “interview” with Lorraine and Roch Beauchamp, identified only as a “retired couple”.

The public works department said, in addition to paying $1.25 million, it would edit all scripts and make officials available in Ottawa, Toronto and Montréal for “in-person interviews or testimonials”. Middlebrook, asked if the handouts were propaganda, replied: “I don’t think so”; “If it is, editors won’t pick it up. It has to be balanced. If it was too propaganda-based, editors wouldn’t use it.”

By Tom Korski

2014-12-18 Rights Groups File Torture Charges against Bush-Era Officials in German Court

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Dec 202014
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g2OoEf9eSI&feature=youtu.be

Case Filed in European Court Against Bush-Era Torture.

Over 100 CIA agents have already been warned by the lawyers for the agency that they should not leave the United States, certainly not go to Europe, because they could be arrested and prosecuted for torture.

2014-12-16 The Dalai Lama laughed and laughed.

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Sustainability, Take back the University  No Responses »
Dec 182014
 

Part fiction, mostly truth.

The Dalai Lama laughed and laughed.

But it was a serious discussion at its beginning.

The U.S. Senate Committee Report on Torture, terrible stuff.

Makes you vomit.

Said to myself:  at least the depravity is  “them and not us”.

Words to eat. . . .

 

I know of the Dalai Lama’s work with Western scientists to understand violence in human kind.

And I get the bit about “With our thoughts, we make the world.”

Hmmm . . .  by all reports the Dalai Lama has a twinkle in his eye and laughs, a happy guy.

 

“Your Holiness”,  I say.

Westerners teach the scientific method.  They are rational.

A smile played on his face.

I continued.

I want power and control of resources.  So!   money and weapons for the local thugs.

Sometimes I have to drop a few cluster bombs to help out.   It gets pretty good when we started using those drones.

But damn that Manning-Assange duo.  We were successful – – no coverage of our chopper guys gunning down those Iraqi kids and their parents along with the Reuters reporter.   Until Manning went to Julian Assange at Wikileaks.

And damn that young Edward Snowden and Greenwald guy.  The spying stuff got us and the NSA into a lot of trouble.  Internationally we took a big hit.

And … and,  Double Damn that Senator Dianne Feinstein and her Report into the Torture everyone knows we’re doing.   Those bleeding hearts that think the U.S. . . .  y’all know those Laws are for others if they’re stupid enough to sign on.  Don’t apply to us.

I started to laugh.  “They think they can get away with it!”.

What’s even funnier  …  they are these INTELLIGENT fellows, but they believe they can kill and torture and no one is going to turn around and do the same thing back to them!   They think (believe?!)  ISIS is not a product they helped create!   They think WE are dumb enough not to understand:  violence begets violence.

How can anyone …?!    My chest heaved in laughter.  It is so preposterous that anyone would think there are no consequences of their actions.  Might be their kids and ours who eventually pay the price, but someday, sometime …   What school did they go to?  . . .  What parents don’t teach their kids the lesson, many times over?   reap what you sow … what goes around comes around.  Ya better watch out, Santa Claus is coming to town.  I’m gettin’ nuttin’ for Christmas cuz I ain’t been nuttin’ but bad.

And then we – –    ha! Ha!  Laughing so hard I could hardly talk – –  entrust decisions to these people who are deluded about reality and their own omnipotence.  HA! Ha!

In that tragi-comedy that life is, I laughed so hard, couldn’t keep my face dry of tears.

The Dalai Lama laughed and laughed.

. . .    Ah Ha!    YOU can laugh, too.   And here’s the fun:

If we all spread it, get everyone rolling in laughter over the absurdity of the thinking  (there are no consequences of our actions)  we can make a big contribution to the (r)evolution.   . . .  I believe it can work.

This is simultaneously the unveiling, in case you did not know:  

  • U.S. TORTURE:   Lockheed Martin Corporation is a “contract interrogator” for the American military.  Links to documentation from 2011 and 2005 are in the ADDENDUM  I sent to the University Board of Governors, again requesting that they end their collaboration with Lockheed Martin.

2011-01-11 (U.S. Torture) Lockheed Martin’s role, supplying Contract Interrogators through subsidiary Sytex

2005-11-04 (U.S. Torture)  Meet the New Interrogators: Lockheed Martin

UNIVERSITIES:  only do what is rational. Their beacon is science and the scientific method.   And they embrace Lockheed Martin.  Lockheed Martin who, along with everything else, is part of the depravity outlawed by International Humanitarian Law, and our own Laws.

The U.S. Senate Committee Report on Torture is immensely valuable IF we do something with it.   I googled Senator Dianne Feinstein.   Her Washington Office and constituency offices in California come right up.   I phoned and expressed my gratitude.

But laugh heartily.   And pass along the laughter.  It will be mightier than any bombs.  Expel Lockheed Martin, the “contract interrogators” from hell, to the American military torture programme.

If everyone knows what is done in the name of “rational”,  it will stop.   Laugh our duplicity with U.S. Torture into non-existence.    Part of the solution.

As told to the University Secretary, my Christmas wish for all of us is that we discard the empty rhetoric of “Peace on Earth”.  We can replace the commercialization of spiritual celebrations with deeds of meaning.   And so I wish you and your family a peaceful and joyous Christmas.   I wish the same for people in other countries, throughout the year.   We all have a role to play in making that happen.

Cheers!

Sandra

2014-12-11 U.S. Torture: ADDENDUM, Letter to University, end relationship with Lockheed Martin, ‘contract interrogators’

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Take back the University  No Responses »
Dec 152014
 

SECOND IN A SET OF FIVE POSTINGS re LOCKHEED MARTIN AT THE UNIVERSITIES:

(I am most familiar with the U of Saskatchewan, hence its use.  Lockheed Martin is also at (Canadian) Dalousie Univ, Univ New Brunswick, Royal Military College, of which I am aware.  At American universities, goes without saying.)

1. 2014-08-19 Request to Board of Governors, University of Saskatchewan: END the relationship with Lockheed Martin Corporation

2. (This posting, scroll down)   2014-12-11 U.S. Torture: ADDENDUM, Letter to University, end relationship with Lockheed Martin, ‘contract interrogators’

3. 2015-01-02 Reply from Board of Governors, request to disassociate from Lockheed Martin,

4. The Minerva Initiative. from Bill C-51, Elephant in the Room, the U.S.A.

The goal of the Minerva Initiative is to improve DoD’s (U.S. Dept of Defence’s) basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S.The research program will:

5. The very successful Disinvest – Invest Student movement (University Endowment funds): http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/11/17/why-movement-disinvest-fossil-fuels

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In the wake of U.S. Senate Committee Report on Torture (Senator Dianne Feinstein Chair),

I sent following ADDENDUM  to  the August 19th  request Board of Gorvernors to end the collaboration with Lockheed Martin .

The August 19th submission and this Addendem together document why the collaboration with Lockheed Martin needs to end.

 

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December 11, 2014

To the Board of Governors, University of Saskatchewan

The release on Tuesday, December 9th of the Report on Torture from the U.S. Senate Committee is critical to a decision about collaboration with Lockheed Martin.

Please find below documentation of Lockheed Martin’s role – – “contract interrogators”.

Thank-you.

Sandra Finley

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ADDENDUM, December 11, 2014

 

(SUBMISSION TO THE U OF S BOARD OF GOVERNORS (August 19)

 

REQUEST TO END THE RELATIONSHIP WITH LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP)

 

1.   The Board of Governors may not know the connection between the December 9th  U.S. Senate intelligence committee’s report on CIA torture  and Lockheed Martin. 

Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday released her committee’s findings on CIA torture, which found the agency’s post-9/11 embrace of torture to be brutal and ineffective.  

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal   Rectal rehydration and standing on broken limbs: the CIA torture report’s grisliest findings . . .

Parts of the CIA interrogation programme were known, but the catalogue of abuse is nightmarish, especially knowing much more will never be revealed . . .

So, the whole world now knows about the illegal and depraved torture done in the name of American citizens.

There is long-standing documentation of Lockheed Martin’s role.  A couple examples:

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

2.   UPDATE  

Lockheed Martin has launched a green-washing campaign since I wrote to you on August 19th:

 

3.   BRAVE SOULS

Not only Romeo Dallaire.  Just a small sampling of some others:

 

 

 

 

 

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

4. BACKGROUND YOU MAY WANT TO SKIM

o   2007-01-16 The Iraq War, Brought to You by Your Friends at Lockheed Martin

 

o   2004-11-28 Lockheed Martin and the Future of Warfare, NY Times, “Lockheed Martin doesn’t run the United States. But it does help run a breathtakingly big part of it.”

 

o   1997-12-03 Lockheed Martin: Antipersonnel Weapons (land mines), Baltimore Chronicle

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 

5. LOCKHEED MARTIN, MODUS OPERANDI

a.   2006-09-13   Maclean’s Magazine interview, President of the Americas for Lockheed Martin

a Lockheed Martin president lays out part of the modus operandi.   He was speaking on behalf of the large corporations in the SPP.    They will run things from inside the Government.   They cannot get what they want through normal democratic means and so they will use the “agencies” of Government and the bureaucracy.

Stunningly brazen and stupid (arrogant) for the man, Ron Covais, to have laid it out so clearly to a journalist for a national magazine (Maclean’s).

b.   2002-05-13 Lockheed Martin, US: Wages Of Sin – Why Lawbreakers Still Win Government Contracts, US News & World Report

It is important for Canadians to remember that in Saskatchewan and most other provinces, there is no law against corporate or union contributions to political parties.

It is no surprise to see Lockheed Martin and the Government of Saskatchewan partnered on a solar project in Swift Current. (item f. below)

c.   2012-07-26 Key Senate Staffer on Military Issues Got Big Payout From Lockheed Martin

 

d.   2011-10-31 (Lockheed Martin) Arms Industry Gave $1.1 Million to Super Committee Members

 

e.   2010-06-26: Aerospace Giant Lockheed Martin Donating $3.5 Million Training Package to the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology (SIIT) in Saskatoon (Drones)

 

f.   2014-10-20 Lockheed Martin Participation in Solar Energy Project in Swift Current(First Nations partnership)

 

g.   2014-09-01 Lockheed Martin green-washing. Platinum sponsor of NYC Climate Week

 

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6.   LOCKHEED MARTIN AND THE NSA (Edward Snowden leaks)

The issue of surveillance, a specialty of Lockheed Martin’s,  is of increasing worry.   We are moving toward a police state.

Documentation of Lockheed Martin’s role in the NSA is scattered in many places.   One example from Lockheed Martin’s own website:

http://www.lockheedmartin.ca/us/news/press-releases/2013/april/isgs-nsa-cdx-0415.html

Lockheed Martin Hosts Cyber Defense Exercise Supporting NSA for 11th Year

April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

CONCLUSION:

Lockheed Martin’s role in

  • torture, illegal under International and Canadian Law,
  • their production of land mines and then cluster munitions, illegal
  • their production of drones for dropping bombs (Yemen, Afghanistan, a growing list)
  • their use of bribery,
  • their long record of court convictions for such things as breaking arms export control laws,

all point to the need to disassociate. Utilitarian arguments to support collaboration with Lockheed Martin will, in the end, torpedo the University.

Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Committee (Torture), spoke of the stain on America and the consequences of the loss of moral authority.   I hate to be repetitive but the loss of moral authority leaves you with scorn and no leg to stand on.

For your consideration,

Sandra Finley

2014-12-11 U.S. Torture, Cover Letter, ADDENDUM, Letter to University of Saskatchewan, Lockheed Martin largest of ‘contract interrogators’

 Culture and Ethics, Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Sustainability, Take back the University  No Responses »
Dec 152014
 

December 11, 2014

 

TO:  Elizabeth Williamson, University Secretary

 

Dear Elizabeth,

 

I will appreciate if the attached Addendum to my August 19th submission is forwarded to members of the Board of Governors, in time for the next Board Meetings, Dec 15-16.

 

Tuesday’s release of the Report on Torture  from the U.S. Senate Committee is critical to a decision about collaboration with Lockheed Martin.    The Addendum has two links that document Lockheed’s role of “contract interrogators”.

 

My Christmas wish for all of us is that we discard the empty rhetoric of “Peace of Earth”.  We can replace the commercialization of spiritual celebrations with deeds of meaning.   And so I wish you and your family a peaceful and joyous Christmas.   I wish the same for people in other countries, throughout the year.   We all have a role to play in making that happen.

 

Thanks, Elizabeth.

 

/Sandra Finley

2014-12-15 The intelligent approach to violent behaviour. Book review, Destructive Emotions.

 Culture and Ethics, Empowerment, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Health, Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Solidarity with the Warriors, Sustainability, Take back the University, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Dec 152014
 

In the wake of the U.S. Senate Report on Torture (Dec 9, 2014,  chair Dianne Feinstein),  I am reminded of the good work being done to understand and address violence in human behaviour.   One powerful example,  on-going meetings:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/destructive_emotions_how_can_we_overcome_them_a_scientific_dialogue_with_th

Book Review: Destructive Emotions

By Elizabeth Cushing Payne | March 1, 2004 | 0 Comments

by Daniel Goleman
Bantam Books, 2003, 432 pages

 

“Buddhism and science are not conflicting perspectives on the world, but rather differing approaches to the same end: seeking the truth.” It was on this premise of his that the Dalai Lama invited 12 renowned scientists and philosophers to Dharamasala, India for a five-day conference in March, 2000—the eighth meeting of its kind since 1987. Their conversations spanned the neuroscience of emotions, the nature of consciousness, and some of the latest scientific findings on how to master negative emotions and encourage compassion.

In Destructive Emotions, Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence and coordinator of the Dharamasala meeting, chronicles these occasionally technical and esoteric discussions with clarity and humor. From Goleman’s eloquent summary emerge several intriguing glimpses into how humans might improve their emotional balance. In one session, Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, presents startling research about how the brain acts before, during, and after emotional states. His research has indicated that certain environments and repeated emotional experiences can actually physically alter the brain. Furthermore, he has found distinct connections between cognitive and emotional processes in the same areas of the brain—a neurological link between what we think and what we feel. His hypothesis: humans can use reason and intellect to improve their emotional balance, permanently changing the way their brain functions in the process.

Davidson’s conversation with the Dalai Lama resonated in the presentation by Mark Greenberg, who has extensive experience teaching emotional skills to children. Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, describes his emotional education curriculum, called PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies). Children in the program learn to understand and manage their emotions better by calming themselves, discussing their feelings, and anticipating and preparing for emotional experiences. The program’s results are extremely encouraging. Greenberg feels strongly that evaluations of PATHS show it is “laying down pathways in the brain” that create critical emotional habits just at that moment in development when children are most open to learning about their own emotional life.

Perhaps the most enlightening implication of Destructive Emotions is that rigorous scientific study of emotions, positive and negative, is making exciting progress. These scholars, with the Dalai Lama’s participation and support, are continuing to discover more about how we experience and can alter our emotional responses—all in an effort to foster global peace and well-being.

 

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