Sandra Finley

2011-03-18 (Guardian – UK) Lockheed Martin targeted by census protesters

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Mar 182011
 

This article is followed below by:  British Arms Exports Up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/18/lockheed-martin-targeted-census-protesters

Lockheed Martin targeted by census protesters

Activists to swamp US arms giant with Twitter storm and email messages to protest at firm’s £150m census contract

Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk,   Friday 18 March 2011 11.09

Protesters argue that being asked to fill in the census is being asked to co-operate with an arms company.

A growing number of people are planning to boycott this year’s census amid increasing fears about data security and the involvement of arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Many campaigners are angry that the £150m contract to run the census has been awarded to the American arms company while others claim the legal safeguards in place to prevent breaches in data security are “so flimsy as to be useless”.

Chris Browne, from the Count Me Out campaign, said: “The more people who find out about the involvement of the world’s largest arms producer in our census, the more civil dissent we will witness, and the bigger the campaign will get.”

Protesters held a day of e-action today in which people were urged to swamp Lockheed Martin a “Twitter storm” and email messages detailing the minutiae of their day. Hundreds more are expected to take part in protests across the country on Saturday, with many saying they are willing to risk a criminal record and a £1,000 fine by refusing to fill in the 32-page questionnaire.

“I have no objection to the census itself because I recognise that it has served an important purpose historically,” said Emma Draper, an anti-arms trade campaigner from London:. “However, I think it is outrageous that the government can get away with paying a huge arms company millions of pounds in order to process data which is supposed to be of benefit to public services and people’s welfare.”

Lockheed Martin, which makes Trident nuclear missiles and F-16 fighter jets, won the £150m contract in 2008. A spokesman for the Office of National Statistics defended the company’s involvement, stating it was “a major supplier of non-defence-related services for the public sector”.

An ONS spokesman said: “The contract for census processing was awarded to Lockheed Martin UK – not Lockheed Martin US – in August 2008. Lockheed Martin UK offered best value for money in an open procurement under European law and the EU procurement directives were satisfied.”

Symon Hill, writer and associate director of Christian thinktank Ekklesia, said many people remained unhappy about the decision and that he would be among those not be filling out the census. “Lockheed Martin is a company that has armed dictatorships around the world that has played a heavy role in the disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq… I have reflected at great length. I have not taken this decision lightly but I feel that being asked to fill in the census is being asked to co-operate with an arms company and, as a Christian and as a pacifist, that is something that I feel I can not do in conscience.”

Data from the census forms, which need to be completed by 27 March, is sent to a secure plant in Manchester and then to Titchfeld, Hampshire, for analysis. It is owned by ONS and a spokesman said it remains confidential for 100 years.

The government uses the information to award billions of pounds in grants and a boycott would cause widespread policy and funding difficulties. Councils would be hit hardest, potentially missing out on hundreds of millions of pounds if large numbers of people are not counted.

A spokesman for the ONS said: “The census … is a unique snapshot of the population on a single day and is vital for your local community.”

Lockheed Martin does more than 60% of its work for the US defence department and assists more than two dozen American government agencies. It is also reportedly involved in surveillance and data processing for the CIA and the FBI.

Campaigners fear that because it is a US company and therefore subject to the Patriot Act, which allows the US government access to any data in its possession, US authorities could have access to personal data on the UK’s entire population.

The ONS has dismissed this claim, stating: “Under the contractual and operational arrangements we have put in place, no employees of Lockheed Martin UK or of its US parent or of any other US company will be able to access personal census data. The US Patriot Act could not therefore, be used to access such data.” The spokesman added that a recent independent review had declared: “the public can be assured that the information they provide to the 2011 census will be well protected and securely managed”.

Douwe Korff, professor of international law at London Metropolitan University, has questioned the security arrangements, warning that the “legal safeguards against breaches of confidentiality are so flimsy as to be useless”.

“In a democracy under the rule of law, one should not have to rely on blind trust in the authorities; the law should guarantee restraint,” he wrote in a recent paper. “However, the law that applies to the census data shortly to be collected does nothing of the sort. It does not stand in the way of the UK police, or intelligence services, or indeed foreign law enforcement agencies and secret services, seeking access – not just in exceptional cases but for general ‘trawling’ or ‘fishing’.”

Humanist protest

In a separate challenge to the 2011 census, the British Humanist Association says the wording of the only optional question – “What is your religion?” – is biased and will give “a wholly misleading picture of religiosity in the UK”.

Naomi Phillips of the BHA said: “Every other social survey, including the British Social Attitudes survey, asks non-leading questions on religion and has found the number of non-religious people to be at around 30-50%.

“But this wording is hugely biased, assuming people have a religion. In the 2001 census the same wording was used and it found more than 70% of people identified as Christian. This cut the number of non-religious people, according to other surveys, in half.”

She said the question was placed in the section on culture and ethnicity in the census and so encouraged people to “think of themselves as ‘white, British, Christian’ or whatever, which merges ideas of culture, ethnicity and race”.

The BHA has run an advertising campaign urging people to tick the “no religion” box on the census, initially with the slogan: “If you are not religious for god’s sake say so.”

The original posters were refused on buses and at railway stations after the Committee of Advertising Practice advised they had the potential to cause “widespread and serious” offence, and the slogan was changed, on all but two billboards, to: “Not religious? In this year’s census say so.”

The campaign has 6,500 followers on Facebook and more than 3,000 pledges of support on its website.

= = = = = = = = = = == =

BRITISH ARMS EXPORTS UP 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/14/british-arms-exports-up-70pc

Excerpt:

” . . . The coalition is lending strong political support to British arms exports, the institute notes, as the Ministry of Defence becomes increasingly reliant on exports to reduce its costs. It is trying to sell Typhoons to Oman, and other weapons systems to Brazil.

“There is intense competition between suppliers for big-ticket deals in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America,” said Paul Holtom, the institute’s director for arms transfers programme. The states of the Middle East and North Africa are regarded as potentially lucrative markets for arms exporters, the report says.

Over the past four years, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, and Algeria, imported significantly more arms, with the US supplying Egypt and Israel with most of the weapons.

However, the four largest importers of conventional weapons in the same period were all Asian countries – India, China, South Korea, and Pakistan.

Over the past four years Britain was the fifth largest arms supplier, after the US, Russia, Germany, and France.”

2011-03-18 NEWS: The Businessman, the Girlfriend, the Water Deal and the PMO PLUS Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper’s Oil Sands Agenda, Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Take back the University, Water  No Responses »
Mar 182011
 

NOTE:   Closely related:  Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper’s Oil Sands Agenda,  Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary.  27 Apr 2011, http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/27/CarsonOilSands/   (use of universities to funnel money to corporate interests).

– – – – – – – – – – – —

“The name of Michele McPherson, 22, appears on a secret contract witnessed by Bruce Carson (advisor to Government) that guaranteed her 20 per cent of all gross revenues from sales related to water contracts on First Nations reserves, according to a copy of the contract obtained by an APTN investigative team”

Just click on the VIDEO by APTN @ link:
http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/03/17/former-harper-advisor-had-deal-with-escort-on-first-nations-water-deals-document/

BUT NOTE:  There’s another connection in the story, explained by Sheila (Carson is on the Tar Sands Water Review panel): 

With thanks to Sheila who writes, “Wow – what a scandal! . . .

Water board adviser caught lobbying for private water service providers in First Nation communities. Bruce Carson, former policy adviser to Harper, has been caught lobbying for Indian Affairs to book contracts with H20 Global Group (a company 20% owned by an intimate friend)  to provide water treatment systems in FN communities. He ” believed the company was on the “cusp” of making a breakthrough into the on-reserve water market.”

Wouldn’t doubt he was aware of Bill S-11 and potentials it would open up for private water companies?!

Well this was written in the Globe & Mail article: “First nations leaders were allegedly being warned by the promoters of the H2O Pro system that new legislation before the Senate will require them to meet stringent drinking water standards but will provide no resources to do so. The communities were allegedly told that government connections could be used to find money for the equipment and training if they purchased the systems. “

Carson is also on the board of the Alberta oilsands water review panel that is supposed to provide recommendations in June for a world class monitoring system for the tar sands. Ha!

~sm

Former Harper advisor had deal with escort for First Nations water contracts: document

National News | 17. Mar, 2011 by Jorge Barrera | 4 Comments

News that not only informs, but inspires.

(Photo: Michele McPherson. www.ottawaescorts.me)

By Kenneth Jackson and Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
A former senior advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was lobbying Indian Affairs to land water contracts potentially worth millions of dollars for an Ottawa-based water company that employed his fiance who was an escort.

The name of Michele McPherson, 22, appears on a secret contract witnessed by Bruce Carson that guaranteed her 20 per cent of all gross revenues from sales related to water contracts on First Nations reserves, according to a copy of the contract obtained by an APTN investigative team.

APTN unearthed the contract as part of its investigation into Carson’s involvement with H2O Pros and its attempts to sell water filtration systems to First Nations with the poorest water quality.

Carson, who was one of Harper’s longest serving advisors, left the Prime Minister’s Office in 2008 to take over the newly minted Canada School of Energy and Environment that received $15 million in federal funds.

The Prime Minister’s Office asked the RCMP, the Commissioner of Lobbying and the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner to investigate Carson’s activities after APTN disclosed some of the information gathered in the course of the investigation.

Carson says on-camera he witnessed the contract’s signing between H2O Pro and Michelle McPherson, who also goes by the escort name Leanna VIP.

“I didn’t sign it…I witnessed it,” said Carson, when he asked by APTN about the details of the contract.

According to records, Carson and McPherson share a $400,000 house with an in-ground pool that sits on a 2-acre lot near Winchester about 60 km from Ottawa.

The home was bought in December. Carson rarely stays there. He works out of Calgary and when he does come to Ottawa he also books a room at the Chateau Laurier next to Parliament Hill.

McPherson also drives a black Mercedes SUV that Carson purchased.

H2O Pros created a company called H20 Global Group to deal with the possible Indian Affairs contracts.

An APTN Investigates team initially approached the company to do a story about their so-called “First Nations Water Project.”

In the course of the investigation, Carson and company officials opened up about plans to sell up to 40,000 water filtration units to 50 identified First Nations with dire water problems.

The secret contract, called an agency agreement, stipulates that McPherson would act as the “agent” and the face of the company when dealing with Native people on all water deals.

Throughout the investigation APTN was not able to get McPherson to appear on camera or comment about her job with the company. Sources have told APTN the deal would have given McPherson “money for nothing.”

The contract stated: “The principal hereby appoints the Agent, and the Agent hereby agrees to act, as the exclusive agent for the purpose of representing the Principal in all matters including trade shows, pilot projects, sales and all related activities dealing with First Nations and the Principal’s water purification products.”

Former company insiders told the APTN Investigative News Unit that another, more detailed contract was also signed earlier this year.

Company president Patrick Hill told APTN each of the units ranged in price between $3,500 to $6,000.

APTN has since learned the price of the units could have hit $10,000 each, as a result of assessments and shipping costs.

The resulting contracts would have resulted in tens of millions of dollars in sales and a healthy profit for McPherson.

The company has faced financial difficulty of late, failing to pay employees and witnessing a high turnover.

According to former employees, at least 15 people had left the company since December.

Carson and Hill both told APTN they believed the company was on the “cusp” of making a breakthrough into the on-reserve water market.

Despite repeated requests, Hill has refused further comment.

Company employees attended the Alberta chief’s assembly last Thursday in Calgary and were in active talks with the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve near Belleville, Ont., when APTN began to investigate its activities.

Carson, who recently stepped down from the Canada School of Energy and Environment which was given $15 million by the current federal government, also told APTN how he planned to use his position with the school to push the water contract forward.

Carson also told APTN that Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan’s office was aware of the project and doing what they could without appearing to interfere.

Carson did meet with officials in Duncan’s office, a spokesperson for the minister said.

“The minister has never met with, been spoken to or been lobbied by Bruce Carson on these matters. The minister’s staff met with Bruce Carson on one occasion. Mr. Carson briefed the staff on a proposed water project. Staff provided publicly available information to Bruce Carson,” said Michelle Yao, spokeswoman for Duncan.

Carson also managed to land several meetings with Indian Affairs departmental officials, according to a department spokesperson who referred to Carson and company representatives as “stakeholders.”

“Ms. Mitchell, along with members of her staff, have met with Mr. Carson and representatives of H2O Global Group on several occasions over the last several months to discuss issues related to water infrastructure on reserve,” said a department spokesperson.

kennethbrianjackson@gmail.com

jbarrera@aptn.ca
The Businessman, the Girlfriend, the Water Deal and the PMO

OTTAWA — A former top adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was lobbying the Indian Affairs Department earlier this year for a water filtration company involved in a multi-million dollar deal in which his fiancée, a former upscale call girl from Ottawa, stood to gain a lucrative commission.

The revelation of Bruce Carson’s activities prompted the Prime Minister’s Office to ask the RCMP this week to investigate allegations of influence-peddling.

Michele McPherson’s name appears as an “agent” of the water company, according to the contract first reported by the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network. And Carson, one of Harper’s longtime advisers, told APTN that he had witnessed the contract to sell water-filtration units to First Nations reserves.

Carson and his escort-turned fiancée own a house together near Kemptville, south of Ottawa. They purchased the house in December, according to land registry documents that list both as co-owners.

Indian Affairs officials confirmed Thursday that Carson, who is not registered as a lobbyist, met with John Duncan’s ministerial staff on Jan. 11. He had left the PMO in February 2009.

McPherson has come a long way since being recruited as a prostitute from a Vanier playground.

She was only 13 when she started turning tricks for junk food and cigarettes, then money.

In a meeting with the Citizen while she was still working as an escort, she claimed one of her clients was a member of the Ottawa Police Service.

She also gave the Citizen a tour of the Vanier playground where it all began, and pointed out the hotels where she took money for sex.

On her VIP escort website in 2009, she boasted:

“Are you looking for adventure, passion, romance, intrigue wrapped up in one unbelievable sexy little package?”

Her escort name on the website is Leanna and features photographs of her wearing little.

Her target market, she said, was “upscale and distinguished gentlemen.”

“My philosophy of pleasure is to tease and seduce you and make a special connection between us. My youthful radiance and uncanny ways will melt your heart,” she wrote on the website.

Her mother, Christine McPherson, is the director of programs and services for the water filtration firm, H20 Global Group. She defended Carson and her daughter in an interview Thursday.

“Mr. Bruce Carson has never worked with us as a lobbyist and never promised any form of access to any government official. He has simply assisted us in an advisory role to understand how we can work with the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and First Nations,” Christine McPherson said in a statement.

“Mr. Carson has never lobbied for us nor has Mr. Carson ever offered to do (so) and no money has been paid or (has any been offered) to give us access to any government official,” the statement continued.

The APTN report included e-mails authored by Carson in which he said he had talked to the “PM”.

He later told APTN that what he wrote wasn’t true. One e-mail shows that Carson knew the name of the new Indian Affairs minister a day before it was publicly announced.

Indian Affairs has also confirmed that Carson, in his 60s, met with ministerial staff about the water-filtration deal, which has yet to be finalized.

McPherson’s statement continued: “Mr. Carson has never lobbied for us nor has Mr. Carson ever offered to do and no money has been paid or offered any to give us access to any government official.”

The PMO asked the RCMP on Wednesday to probe the influence-peddling allegations.

Federal law prohibits former political staffers from lobbying government for five years after leaving office, and Carson was never registered as a lobbyist.

“Given what we’ve learned about Bruce Carson, our government will not be in communication with him on any matter,” Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Harper, said in a statement Wednesday. Soudas wouldn’t elaborate on the nature of the allegations being investigated, but said Harper had “never met with, been spoken to or been lobbied by Bruce Carson on any of the matters.

“Our government strengthened Canadian laws with the toughest anti corruption legislation — the Federal Accountability Act — including a ban on lobbying for five years by former political staff.

Christine McPherson also confirmed the contract unearthed by APTN, saying:

“The contract of Michele McPherson is between H2o Global Group and Michele McPherson and has nothing to do with Mr. Carson whatsoever.”

She acknowledged her daughter’s sordid history and compared her “struggles” to that of young native women.

“Michele McPherson, my daughter struggled through her youth with escorting. She fought her way out of that and wanted to make a difference. As a young girl she has travelled … throughout Baffin Island and Northern Quebec, and struggled the same way many young First Nations women do.

“What is not being reported is that Michele is not an escort today and has devoted her life to something decent and good. What is not being aired is that her contract is between H2o Global and her and she has insisted that our approach incorporate helping young first nations people and that she wants to ensure that is done.

“First Nations people are without clean, healthy and safe water and their communities often suffer with other challenges. Our work is precious and we stand by it.”

H2O Global is federally registered water filtration company that has manufacturing plants in Regina and a shell office in downtown Ottawa where it sometimes holds meetings.

The revelations involving Carson fed into pre-election posturing Thursday in ongoing parliamentary hearings about whether the Harper government, and one minister in particular, were in contempt of Parliament.

The newest revelation about Carson, a longtime aide to Prime Minister Harper, came to light after the prime minister’s office sent a letter asking RCMP commissioner William Elliott to investigate whether Carson exploited his inside connections to influence a government decision.

The Prime Minister’s Office also sent letters, obtained by Postmedia News, to the ethics commissioner and lobbying commissioner, asking them to look in to Carson’s activities.

Spokespeople for both commissioners and the RCMP said they are reviewing the letters before launching investigations.

Carson is the second former Conservative political staffer referred to the Mounties this week, following recommendations from the federal information commissioner and Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose that the RCMP investigate allegations thatSebastien Togneri interfered with an Access to Information request.

Liberal house leader David McGuinty said he was “astonished” to see Harper calling in the Mounties to investigate one of the prime minister’s closest confidantes.

But NDP MP Pat Martin said Harper’s office alerted the RCMP not out of concern, but for political appearances.

“They’re desperately trying to get out in front of this so they can frame the story,” he said. “They think calling the RCMP in absolves them of any involvement.”

Meanwhile, Tory Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies said everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“I am a proud Canadian and a proud believer in the fact that people are innocent until proven guilty,” said Menzies. “That’s all.”

Until Wednesday night, Carson was the executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment at the University of Calgary.

In a statement issued through the University of Calgary that night, he announced he would be taking a leave of absence effective immediately.

Carson was a key adviser to Harper, both in opposition and government.

He was parachuted briefly in 2006 as chief of staff to then-environment minister Rona Ambrose, as environmentalists and other critics pilloried her for insufficient action to curb climate change.

She was ultimately demoted, and Carson returned to Harper’s side full-time.

Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Businessman+Girlfriend+Water+Deal/4460760/story.html#ixzz1Gvbzu000–

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2011-03-15 Process for selection of the new President for the University, Peter Mackinnon’s memo, Jan 28, 2011

 Knowledge Base  No Responses »
Mar 152011
 

Thank you, Sandra, for your questions regarding the process for the search for a new president.  There will be an opportunity to discuss the selection of the Senate member to serve on the presidential search committee at the April 16th Senate meeting, as presented by Bev Dubois, chair of the Senate Nominations Committee.  My responses regarding the process and Senate’s involvement are found below.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions regarding this very important task. 

 Regards,

Sandy Calver

Acting University Secretary

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Questions:

 1.     Does the appended memo on the selection process for senior administrators apply to the search for a new president? 

Yes, the newly approved search and review procedures approved March 4, 2011, by the Board of Governors will apply to the presidential search; the new procedures can be found at:  http://www.usask.ca/university_secretary/policies/search_proc.php.  The principles and associated procedures can be found beginning on page 29 of the joint committee report.

2.     If so, does the current president play the same role in the selection of his successor?

 The current president is not involved in the search for his successor, search committees report to the Board of Governors through the president, except the search committee for the president, which reports directly to the Board.

 3.     The Search Committee includes “ …   and, typically, a Senate representative”.    What is the process for selecting the Senate representative?

 Under the new procedures, the Senate Nominations Committee selects the Senate member to serve on the presidential search committee.  The Senate Nominations Committee met recently and determined that expressions of interest from Senators willing to serve on the search committee be requested at the April 16th Senate meeting, to be considered subsequently by the Senate Nominations Committee. 

4.     Saskatchewanians will possibly have people who they think would be good candidates for the position of President of the University of Saskatchewan.  What does the University recommend as the best avenue through which people of the Province can input their recommendations to the selection process?

Nominations for the candidacy for the position may be submitted to Ms. Nancy Hopkins, Chair, Board of Governors and Chair, Search Committee for the President.

 5.     I presume that the process has a time-line with deadlines.  What is the time-line?

The search committee is to be constituted by July; following the search committee will determine its own timelines within the framework of the search and review procedures, with a view to making an appointment by July 1, 2012.

 6.     In the interests of transparency,  I as a Senator, will appreciate being informed as the administrators of the process become known.

 Regular updates on the process and progress towards appointing a new president will be communicated to the university’s governing bodies and stakeholders.  In addition, broad consultation regarding the accountabilities for the position as stated in the search and review procedures, as follows:  “For a Presidential Search, the committee will provide the opportunity for interested members of the University community to provide written comments on the strategic goals and objectives of the University, and on the progress made or problems encountered in achieving those goals and objectives” (no. 9, pg. 35). 

________________________________________

From: McBain, Norma

Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 11:27 AM

To: Sandra Finley

Cc: Calver, Sandra

Subject: RE: University:  Search for New President to replace Peter Mackinnon

Ms. Finley,

By copy of this e-mail I am forwarding your message to the Acting University Secretary, Sandra Calver for reply.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —

Dear Norma,

RE:   Process for selection of the new President for the University, Peter Mackinnon’s memo, Jan 28, 2011 

Do you mind forwarding this to the appropriate person for response?    The questions arise out of my role as a University Senator.  I understand that I am to help represent the voice of the citizens of Saskatchewan in the governance of the University.    

 Questions:

  1. Does the appended memo on the selection process for senior administrators apply to the search for a new president?
  2. If so, does the current president play the same role in the selection of his successor?
  3. The Search Committee includes “ …   and, typically, a Senate representative”.    What is the process for selecting the Senate representative?
  4. Saskatchewanians will possibly have people who they think would be good candidates for the position of President of the University of Saskatchewan.  What does the University recommend as the best avenue through which people of the Province can input their recommendations to the selection process?
  5. I presume that the process has a time-line with deadlines.  What is the time-line?
  6. In the interests of transparency,  I as a Senator, will appreciate being informed as the administrators of the process become known.

 Thanks!

 Sandra Finley

Saskatoon

= = = = = = = = = = = =

 http://www.usask.ca/president/news_and_events/news_items/Clarification-and-Update-on-Search-Processes.php 

 MEMO

TO: President’s Advisory Council, all faculty, USSU President, GSA President

FROM: Peter MacKinnon, President and Brett Fairbairn, Provost and Vice-President

Academic

 SUBJECT: Clarification and Update on Search Processes

DATE: January 28, 2011

Colleagues,

 We write to acquaint you with the university’s current selection processes for deans and other senior administrators–a topic widely discussed on our campus in recent weeks and months. As of late, search processes in general have been a topic of media stories, most notably regarding two searches, where misleading and inaccurate statements have been made.

 Just yesterday, University Council concluded its discussion of our university’s senior search and review procedures. This topic has been the subject of more than a year of careful and thoughtful work by a joint board-council committee.

 The report of the Joint Committee on the Review of the Search and Review Procedures for Senior Administrators confirms that our practices are appropriate for an institution of our kind in the 21st century. The committee has brought forward changes of a housekeeping nature together with some updates, modifications and clarifications. Perhaps most significantly, the committee has developed clear statements for our university that also detail the principles underlying our search and review processes. The committee’s work will no doubt be helpful to future committees, their members, the provost, president and Board of Governors. Now that University Council discussions on search processes have concluded, the report will next be presented to the Board of Governors for review at their March meeting, with a view to a final decision. 

You are encouraged to view the committee report, which can be found online in the University Council agenda for Jan. 27, page 106: http://www.usask.ca/university_secretary/council/Council%20Meetings/agenda_archives/2011_Jan_CouncilAgendaFinal.pdf. 

As the report indicates, confidentiality and respect for participants are among the important principles for searches. While we can discuss the procedures, out of respect for the individuals involved in the searches, we avoid public comment about individual searches and urge others to show the same discretion.

…/2 Clarification and Update on Search Processes Page 2

 The new report does not change the fundamentals of our process. As detailed in the University Act 1995, deans and other senior administrators are appointed by the Board of Governors on the recommendation of the president. The board and president are assisted by large, multi-stakeholder search committees which include: members of the faculty of the college concerned; students; representation from the Board of Governors; the provost or designate; deans or other senior administrators; and, typically, a Senate representative.

 The search committee is invaluable in the process and we want to take this opportunity to thank all members of search committees for their dedicated efforts. It is important to note the search committee is responsible for a number of tasks including:

• Reviewing the position profile and needs of the college

• Identifying candidates

• Collecting information about the candidates and assessing this information rigorously, collectively, and in confidence. Information assessed by the committee includes feedback from presentations done in the colleges during open searches.

• Interviewing candidates

• Keeping colleges informed on the progress of the search 

Both the provost’s office and a search consultant support committees to do this work.

 At the conclusion of its process, the committee is encouraged to deliberate in a way that provides a range of committee members’ perspectives on all final candidates, promotes internal consensus, and helps the provost frame a recommendation to the president. The president makes his recommendation to the board, and the board makes the final decision with the knowledge of what the search committee has reported.

 The value of the search committee’s report lies in the advice it provides about all candidates. This important advice helps guide the provost, president, and the board in the processes leading up to the appointment. The university’s board and administration are represented within the search committee, hear all the discussion, and are participants throughout the process. The result is normally consensus. In 14 of 15 senior administrator searches co-ordinated by the provost’s office over the last five years, the university offered the position to the candidate favoured unanimously or by a wide majority of the search committee. 

Search procedures for senior administrators are very different from search procedures for faculty members. In faculty searches, a committee comprised of faculty members and the department head make a recommendation, first to the dean and ultimately to the provost. No appointment is made by the provost without a positive recommendation from the search committee. The procedures for faculty searches can be found in Section 13 of the USFA collective agreement at http://www.usask.ca/hrd/docs/USFA_Collective_Agreement_2010_2012_Agreed_Language.pdf.

 Please feel free to share this memo with others in your college or unit as you see fit.

…/3 Clarification and Update on Search Processes Page 3

 If you have any further questions about search committee procedures, please contact the provost’s office by phone at 966-8484 or by email at provost@usask.ca.

 Sincerely,

Peter MacKinnon Brett Fairbairn

President Provost and Vice-President Academic

2011-03-14 Vermont state senator Virginia Lyons re amendment to the US Constitution, corporations are not persons. David Cobb constitutional lawyer.

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category)  No Responses »
Mar 142011
 

News article – scroll down.   This is an important development.  Stay on top of it.

March 14th – left a message and later talked with Virginia Lyons re update on the resolution.  It is in committee and moving forward.    

Called POCLAD re David Cobb, constitutional lawyer who worked on Vermont’s resolution re corporations.  At POCLAD spoke with Mary,  Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF).   Mary also referred me to  www.movetoamend.org    

Spoke briefly with David Cobb.  Referred me to Joel Bakan (Cdn law)  and hi to Janet Eaton.

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Hi Joel, 

Wondering if it’s possible to mimic Vermont Senate’s  – David Cobb’s work on re-defining what corporations can and cannot do. 

Am working on a resolution in the form of draft legislation for Saskatchewan to stop corporate funding of political parties,  etc. etc.    The draft legislation could be “worked” on the internet (citizen participation in developing it) and then become a proposed private member’s bill for Nov 7, 2011  Provincial Election . 

Was thinking that part of the resolution could be a Canadian version of what they are doing in Vermont.  Recognizing that American and Canadian law on the subject will be widely divergent.   

If you have any time for an initial response to the idea,   please feel free. 

Thanks

Sandra Finley

Saskatoon

306-373-8078

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Vermont, state senator Virginia Lyons,  an amendment to the United States Constitution … which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United State  The profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,” it states, noting that corporations “have used their so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws.”

Thus the unfolding of the obvious: “democratically elected governments” are rendered “ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies.” The resolution goes on to note that “large corporations own most of America’s mass media and employ those media to loudly express the corporate political agenda and to convince Americans that the primary role of human beings is that of consumer rather than sovereign citizens with democratic rights and responsibilities.”

Denouncing this situation as an “intolerable societal reality,” the document concludes that the “only way” toward a solution is the amendment of the Constitution “to define persons as human beings.”

Constitutional lawyer David Cobb, the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, recently traveled to Vermont to help draft the resolution. Cobb says it is an historic document. “This is the first state to introduce at the legislative level a statement of principles that corporations are not persons and do not have constitutional rights,” he told AlterNet. “This is how a movement gets started. It’s the beginning of a revolutionary action completely and totally within the legal framework.”

Citizens United: People Strike Back

How states and people are mobilizing to defend democracy.

Document Actions

by Riki Ott, David Cobb

posted Apr 16, 2010

— tags: citizens united

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which opened political campaigns to unlimited contributions from corporations, the American people are demanding everything from legislative fixes to constitutional amendments to defend the integrity of our democracy.

In Citizens United, the high court cited two earlier rulings—that money is speech, and that corporations are “persons” entitled to constitutional rights—to produce a third ruling that further usurps rule by the people.

The attempts to combat Citizens United vary from modest legislation to prohibit the worst interpretations of the decision from becoming law to calls to amend the United States Constitution. Some believe a constitutional amendment should abolish corporate rights to political free speech, while others are building a movement behind an amendment that would abolish all corporate constitutional rights.

Pending Legislation

On the legislative front, some states—including Iowa, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia—have introduced bills to compel public disclosure of all corporate and union political disbursements, require a majority vote of shareholders or union members for political campaign expenditures, or ban “pay to play” corruption (preventing state contractors from making campaign contributions on behalf of state political candidates or their campaigns). In other words, the legislative fixes are designed to make the impact of the decision a little less bad—without challenging the illegitimate premise that corporations are sovereign and entitled to human rights.

Similarly, federal legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress to reduce the impact of Citizens United by creating hurdles to corporations “investing” in—or opposing—political candidates. These include proposals to prohibit political contributions or investments from foreign corporations, as well as to seek prior shareholder approval before corporations dip into their treasuries to spend money on campaigns.

But legislative fixes will not reverse the court’s decision. They can only address elements the court left undefined.

Communities Take Power

The citizens of Barnstead, N. H., used local law to keep corporate giants out of their water.

Some states have taken a stronger approach by targeting efforts to abolish corporate political free speech rights. For example, Alaska introduced bills in the House and Senate to prohibit for-profit corporations and limited liability companies from being considered persons for the purposes of elections, initiatives, referendums, or recalls. Significantly, by including citizens’ initiatives, these bills push back against an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Boston v. Bellotti, 1978) that gave corporations the right to unlimited speech (i.e. to spend unlimited money) in efforts to overturn grassroots initiatives.

Senator Hollis French, a candidate for governor, is a sponsor of the Senate bill. In a press release, he called on other states to pass similar legislation in order to “strengthen a future challenge to the Court’s decision that corporations are ‘persons’ under election financing laws.”

Washington State is considering a joint resolution asking Congress to initiate amending the U.S. Constitution “so that corporations will not be considered as persons for the purposes of electioneering communications or direct contributions to candidates for public office.”

Citizen Movements

Several public organizations, including Free Speech for People, Public Citizen, and People for the American Way, are also working to abolish the rights of corporate persons to use political speech to influence elections, candidate selections, and policy decisions. A nationwide coalition of grassroots, community-based civil rights and social justice groups have come together under the banner of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy, which is rapidly building a popular movement to achieve genuine self-governance: rule by the people as promised in America’s founding documents.

The campaign advocates a series of amendments to the U.S. Constitution:

  • to affirm that only human beings are entitled to constitutional protections (thus abolishing all claims by non-living entities to constitutional rights);
  • to establish that money is not speech;
  • to protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments.

These amendments address the fundamental issue raised in Citizens United: Who rules? Is it the nation’s citizens, as our founders intended? Or is it concentrated capital (corporate “persons”) wielding human rights such as “free speech” (including money) to elect politicians and judges to do their bidding? Hundreds of democratically enacted local, state, and federal laws that attempt to protect our elections, safety, health, environment, and our right to organize have been overturned by corporations wielding such illegitimate power.

In the three months since Citizens United was decided, the strongest response to the sovereignty question has come from “we the people.” As envisioned by our founders, the people are the ultimate defense of our democratic republic and human rights. It is heartening to see such a diverse and rapid response to the very real threat that Citizens United poses to government of, for, and by the people.

Riki Ott and David Cobb wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Riki is director of Ultimate Civics; she shares her story of evolution from marine scientist to democracy activist in Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. David Cobb is a principal with the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy and a member of the steering committee of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County; he was the 2004 Green Party nominee for President of the United States. Riki and David are national spokespersons for the Campaign to Legalize

2011-03-14 NUKE: Saskatchewan moves ahead with nuclear agenda despite crisis in Japan, Rob Norris Minister tells (Canadian Press)

 Nuclear, Take back the University  No Responses »
Mar 142011
 

 Saskatchewan moves ahead with nuclear agenda despite crisis in Japan

Jennifer Graham, The Canadian Press
Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:19:00 CST

REGINA – Saskatchewan plans to pursue its nuclear agenda even as the crisis in Japan raises questions about the industry’s safety.

There are concerns about possible meltdowns at some Japanese reactors after an earthquake and tsunami affected cooling units.

Innovation Minister Rob Norris, who is also responsible for SaskPower, said Monday that the province will move ahead with nuclear medicine, material science and research on small-reactor technology. The situation in Japan is serious but more research can help in the future, he added.

“We need to make sure that we’re contributing to this dialogue, to the discussion and actually to the science about making the technology safer,” said Norris.

Saskatchewan is the world’s largest producer of uranium, the key component in nuclear power generation, but so far it hasn’t gone beyond mining the raw material.

“With 20 per cent of the world’s uranium produced here in Saskatchewan, moving forward isn’t an option,” said Norris.

“It’s actually an obligation, an ethical obligation that we have. Now’s the time for more science and we think we’re very well positioned to help contribute certainly into the future.”

Premier Brad Wall has repeatedly said the government is interested in uranium value-added opportunities.

The Saskatchewan government rejected the idea of allowing a large-scale nuclear plant to be built in December 2009. However, Wall said in January that Saskatchewan is looking at a partnership with a private company to research whether a small reactor could fit into the province’s existing power grid.

Earlier this month, Wall announced that the province will build a new research centre for nuclear science and medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Norris noted there are two research reactors at the university. He said the research infrastructure is among the most highly regulated in the world and suggested people should not be afraid of moving forward.

“We’ve said first and foremost, any step is going to be focused on safety,” said Norris.

“We’re certainly very aware of the safety issues that are now coming up within Japan. It certainly doesn’t detract from the track that we’re on, in fact I think it reinforces it.”

Uranium is a major economic engine for Saskatchewan, where Cameco (TSX:CCO) — the world’s largest uranium miner — is headquartered.

A letter sent by Cameco to the government last week said the company contributed over $145 million last year in taxes and royalties through its operations in the province. More than 11,000 direct and indirect jobs are provided in Saskatchewan as a result of the uranium industry, it said.

Cameco’s shares took a beating Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, tumbling nearly 13 per cent to close at $31.70.

But Cameco CEO Jerry Grandey said he doesn’t expect a hit to the Saskatchewan economy.

“I really don’t expect so. As I indicated, we’re going to be well within guidance for sales and other guidance we put out in terms of revenue. So I don’t see that this is having a significant impact at all on the province,” Grandey said in a conference call.

Norris said he was in contact with Cameco officials over the weekend about the situation as the company sought reassurance about Saskatchewan’s nuclear plans.

“The question about the research agenda did come up and we reinforced that we think now’s a very, very vital time to actually contribute to the science,” said Norris.

2011-03-11 No Fly Zones (Libya)

 Peace or Violence  No Responses »
Mar 112011
 

How will the No Fly Zone for Libya work out?

INPUT FROM NETWORK:

I look forward to seeing the counter-point on “No-Fly” but maybe consider the following. The U.S. and other Western powers only have an interest in “political stability” for the benefit of their oil companies and other business interests operating there. If Ghaddafi restores this stability, the U.S. and many other Western powers will remain content with the status quo as they have been since the early Nineties when they took Libya off their Terrorism Watch List. 

A no-fly zone could in effect be established by bombing a mere three or four targets, Ghaddafi’s residence, the military’s headquarters and the main runways used for the bombers and fighters. This would eliminate Ghaddafi’s military advantage over the rebels who are seeking a more democratic future for Libyans. 

By not supporting a no-fly zone, one is in fact supporting Ghaddafi’s horrible dictatorship in general and presently supporting his military advantage over the popularly supported resistance. Its also in turn supporting their oil royalty friendly and business friendly regime for the west which in turn is propped up by maintaining horrible human rights and economic conditions for Libyan citizens. 

Something to think about,

Steven Block

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Hi Sandra 

A lot of people jumped on that band wagon and it is confusing. Avaaz says they consulted with a lot of their usual sources and people on the ground in Libya. 

However, one only has to look at the history of No-Fly, especially in Iraq where US planes continued to bomb daily, terrorizing Iraqis for over a decade during the sanctions that caused the deaths of over 500 million children. 

History has also shown us that humanitarian intervention is not about humans, it’s about control of resources and protection of corporations. The best thing for Canadians to do is pressure our parliament and divest from the arms trade. 

Keep up your work on other fronts of our frayed society, 

Thanks

Susan

—

Victoria Peace Coalition

http://victoriapeacecoalition.wordpress.com/

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Sandra,�
You have done so much good work, I am very disappointed on this.  Investigate deeper, please. I think you’ll revise. Libyans don’t want foreign military intervention.

*TRNN EXCLUSIVE: Liberated Libya Rejects US
Intervention*<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6342> 
On the streets of liberated Benghazi people say no to McCain, Lieberman and any US intervention  

We ought to resist any precipitous and irresponsible clamouring for “a no-fly zone”  over Libya,  that gives permission for another Iraq type war. This petition is altogether jumping too thoughtlessly toward permission for NATO involvement.

It is not a light thing to call for war on a nation in civil conflict.  Petitions like this will be used to justify NATO intervening in any country it chooses (usually where some valuable resource can be found, that somehow evaded ownership by the western corporate world), because something can almost always be found that is “outrageous” under any regime.  Remember how we were misled with the story about Iraqi taking babies out of incubators in Kuwait?  (Story later found to be a deliberate fabrication — it was merely designed to motivate the masses into war.)

NATO is looking for legitimacy in RTP (so called right to protect), since it officially abandoned its historic purely defensive purpose.  We should not fall into this trap of endorsing an outmoded military machine seeking to perpetuate itself into a world-controlling power. NATO may still have a use, but this is not it.
  Z.

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You may be jumping the gun calling for war on this issue, The Russians claimed that their satellites showed no air strikes,

Others have claimed that the air strikes were by f16’s which Libya doesn’t have.   Americans will use any excuse to get their greedy

Little hands on the oil.    If the idea of killing people to protect them is used then why did we not stop Israel from their illegal bombing

In Gaza?   This duty to protect is being used to justify war.   If Libya didn’t have oil this would not even be in the news. 

Humanitarian War vs. Humanity

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Humanitarian-War-vs-Human-by-David-Swanson-110223-685.html

 Bill

Barrie, Ontario

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Hi Sandra, 

Well thanks for your apology but really, none was needed.  

We are bombarded daily with lies and deceit, and a huge internet to dis-info the info, and vice versa. 

I am also upset at the rolling out of armoured vehicles – especially after I read an SP article that says its more for pyschological intimidation, and noted its usage to be helpful in situations like the Patty Hearst kidnapping case (of over 30 years ago..)  … and we’re supposed to buy that?! 

You and other truth tellers like you Sandra, are my salvation.

My faith is restored when I see others who are not afraid to stand by their convictions. 

At the beginning of 2010, I read that 2010 was going to be the year of truth telling.

What an understatement that was ! 

At the beginning of this year, I read 2011 is the year the truth gets back. 

I am looking at hooking up with another producer to start a doc on our battles.

Finding the right co-producer is going to be the challenge. 

Thank you for all your email, and keeping the truth in the light.  

All the best to you. 

Gayle

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WITH THANKS TO MARJALEENA REPO:

1) Michel Chossudovsky 

Insurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d’Etat in Libya?
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23548

2) The Old Gang’s All Here

Libya and the Return of Humanitarian Imperialism

http://www.counterpunch.org/bricmont03082011.html

By JEAN BRICMONT

The whole gang is back: The parties of the European Left (grouping the  “moderate” European communist parties), the “Green” José Bové, now allied with Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who has never seen a US-NATO war he didn’t like, various Trotkyist groups and of course Bernard-Henry Lévy and Bernard Kouchner, all calling for some sort of “humanitarian intervention” in Libya or accusing the Latin American left, whose positions  are far more sensible, of acting as “useful idiots” for the “Libyan tyrant.”

Twelve years later, it is Kosovo all over again. Hundred of thousands of Iraqis dead, NATO stranded in an impossible position in Afghanistan, and they have learned nothing! The Kosovo war was made to stop a nonexistent genocide, the Afghan war to protect women (go and check their situation now), and the Iraq war to protect the Kurds. When will they understand that all wars claim to have humanitarian justifications? Even Hitler was “protecting minorities” in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

On the other hand, Robert Gates warns that any future secretary of state who advises a US president to send troops into Asia or Africa “must have his head examined”. Admiral McMullen similarly advises caution. The great paradox of our time is that the headquarters of the peace movement are to be found in the Pentagon and the State Department, while the pro-war party is a coalition of neo-conservatives and liberal interventionists of various stripes, including leftist humanitarian warriors, as well as some Greens, feminists or repentant communists.

So, now, everybody has to cut down his or her consumption because of global warming, but NATO wars are recyclable and imperialism has become part of sustainable development.

Of course the US will go or not go to war for reasons that are quite independent of the advice offered by the pro-war left. Oil is not likely to be a major factor in their decision, because any future Libyan government will have to sell oil and Libya is not big enough to significantly weigh on the price of oil. Of course, turmoil in Libya leads to speculation that itself affects prices, but that is a different matter. Zionists are probably of two minds about Libya: they hate Qaddafi, and would like to see him ousted, like Saddam, in the most humiliating manner, but they are not sure they will like his opposition (and, from the little we know about it, they won’t).

The main pro-war argument is that if things go quickly and easily, it will rehabilitate NATO and humanitarian intervention, whose image has been tarnished by Iraq and Afghanistan. A new Grenada or, at most, a new Kosovo, is exactly what is needed. Another motivation for intervention is to better control the rebels, by coming to “save” them on their march to victory. But that is unlikely to work: Karzai in Afghanistan, the Kosovar nationalists, the Shiites in Iraq and of course Israel, are perfectly happy to get American help, when needed, but after that, to pretty much pursue their own agenda. And a full-fledged military occupation of Libya after its “liberation” is unlikely to be sustainable, which of course makes intervention less attractive from a US point of view.

On the other hand, if things turn badly, it will probably be the beginning of the end of the American empire, hence the caution of people who are actually in charge of it and not merely writing articles in Le Monde or ranting against dictators in front of cameras.

It is difficult for ordinary citizens to know exactly what is going on in Libya, because Western media have thoroughly discredited themselves in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine, and alternative sources are not always reliable either. That of course does not prevent the pro-war left from being absolutely convinced of the truth of the worst reports about Qaddafi, just as they were twelve years ago about Milosevic.

The negative role of the International Criminal Court is again apparent, here, as was that of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in the case of Kosovo. One of the reasons why there was relatively little bloodshed in Tunisia and Egypt is that there was a possible exit for Ben Ali and Mubarak. But “international justice” wants to make sure that no such exit is possible for Qaddafi, and probably for people close to him, hence inciting them to fight to the bitter end.

If “another world is possible”, as the European Left keeps on saying, then another West should be possible and the European Left should start working on that. The recent meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance could serve as an example: the Latin American left wants peace and they want to avoid US intervention, because they know that they are in the sights of the US and that their process of social transformation requires above all peace and national sovereignty. Hence, they suggest sending an international delegation, possibly led by Jimmy Carter (hardly a stooge of Qaddafi), in order to start a negotiation process between the government and the rebels. Spain has expressed interest in the idea, which is of course rejected by Sarkozy. This proposition may sound utopian, but it might not be so if it were supported by the full weight of the United Nations. That would be the way to fulfill its mission, but it is now made impossible by US and Western influence. However, it is not impossible that now, or in some future crisis, a non-interventionist coalition of nations, including Russia, China, Latin America and maybe others, may work together to build credible alternatives to Western interventionism.

Unlike the Latin American left, the pathetic European version has lost all sense of what it means to do politics. It does not try to propose concrete solutions to problems, and is only able to take moral stances, in particular denouncing dictators and human rights violations in grandiloquent tones. The social democratic left follows the right with at best a few years delay and has no ideas of its own. The “radical” left often manages both to denounce Western governments in every possible way and to demand that those same governments intervene militarily around the globe to defend democracy. Their lack of political reflection makes them highly vulnerable to disinformation campaigns and to becoming passive cheerleaders of US-NATO wars.

That left has no coherent program and would not know what to do even if a god put them into power. Instead of “supporting” Chavez and the Venezuelan Revolution, a meaningless claim some love to repeat, they should humbly learn from them and, first of all, relearn what it means to do politics.

Jean Bricmont teaches physics in Belgium and is  a member of the Brussels Tribunal. His book, Humanitarian  Imperialism, is published by Monthly Review Press. He can  be reached at Jean.Bricmont@uclouvain.be.

==========

3) Another NATO Intervention?

Libya: Is This Kosovo All Over Again?

By DIANA JOHNSTONE
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone03072011.html

4) Eric Margolis,  GADAFFI: HANG’EM HIGH!http://ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/gadaffi-hangem-high.aspx
March 04, 2011

War fever over Libya has gripped the United States and Canada. After a hiatus of nine years, in which he was a useful ally to western interests, Col. Muammar Gadaffi is once again the man we love to hate.

“On to Libya! Down with the Tyrant of Tripoli!” That’s the latest hue and cry from North America’s right wingers, media, and neoconservative lynch mob. Once again there’s talk of war against a small, almost defenseless nation that can’t seriously fight back. 

The right thinks it sees  a golden opportunity in Libya’s current civil war to get rid of the unloved Muammar Gadaffi, “liberate” Libya’s high-grade oil, and to halt the wave uprisings now flaring across the Arab world.   

We heard this same song about Iraq:     

an evil dictator oppressing his people, seas of oil, arsenals of dangerous weapons.  

President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to attack Libya and implement no-fly zones over it. US Marine amphibious units are nearing Libya’s coast. 

Leaders of the US, Britain, France, and Germany who were happy to play footsie with Gadaffi and take his money and buy his premium oil now suddenly brand him a monster. There is enough hypocrisy over former ally Libya to float the US 6th Fleet.   

A US-British-French-Canadian invasion of Libya would be sugar-coated as a humanitarian mission to rescue Libyan civilians from supposedly murderous air strikes by Gadaffi’s totally inept air force.  

But no mention is made of the 65 Afghan civilians recently killed by a US air strike, or the nine Afghan boys collecting wood on a hillside massacred by US helicopter gunships last week Nor about repeated US air strikes on Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen that have killed large numbers of  civilians.  When we do it, it’s `collateral damage.’

There are reports of US, British, French and perhaps Canadian special forces operating in eastern Libya, training, arming and even fighting alongside anti-Gadaffi irregular forces. The oldest trick in the book is to foment an uprising, then call for outside help. 

The tribes of eastern Libya, and the city of Benghazi, have always been opposed to Gadaffi. British intelligence, MI6, has long been active in the region. A major British attempt to assassinate Gadaffi was mounted in Benghazi. 

Libya is very fragile and appears to be coming apart at the seams. It only became a unitary state in 1951 when its three independent regions, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan were merged. Regional and tribal civil war is now breaking out, and oil-hungry foreign powers are circling Libya,   as Col. Gadaffi warned.  Libya may end up splintered, like Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Having learned nothing from America’s trillion-dollar fiascos in Afghanistan and Iraq, Washington’s national security circles (America’s term for what in Britain were called “imperialists”) are  eager to invade Libya. Plans to attack Iran and/or Pakistan have been postponed.   Libya’s oil riches are too good to pass up. 

However, some voices of reason are still heard in Washington. The able US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, stated very strong opposition to any no-fly zone and/or ground invasion of Libya, warning the US can’t  risk or afford a third major war when 40% of every dollar spent by the US government is being borrowed from China or Japan. 

Not so Canada, newly infected by the virus of neo-imperialism from running its little colony in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Its prime minister, who seems to regret missing the Iraq War, is now beating the war drums over Libya.  

Former CIA chief Gates is quite right. A no-fly zone would soon draw the US into ground combat and into the midst of a confusing tribal conflict no one in Washington understands. This is precisely what happened in Afghanistan, where America found itself in the middle of a civil war between its Communist-dominated Tajik/Uzbek allies and the majority Pashtun. 

The supposed “cakewalk” in Iraq turned into a quagmire tying down 50,000 US troops costing $1 million each per annum.   The US is now getting ever deeper involved in  conflicts in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier and, most lately, Djibouti.   Could Libya be the straw that breaks the American camel’s back? 

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Attacking Iran certainly would be. But for now Tehran is breathing easy thanks to Col. Gadaffi. 

One person who must be relishing this spectacle is the elusive Osama bin Laden(assuming he is alive.) Bin Laden’s primary goal was overthrowing US-backed autocratic regimes across the Muslim world. Attacking western targets was merely secondary.   

Col. Gadaffi was not totally wrong when he blamed al-Qaida for Libya’s uprising. Bin Laden was not pulling the strings of Libya’s rebellion, but al-Qaida’s revolutionary philosophy and anti-western jihad certainly inspired many young people from Morocco to Bangladesh. 

That’s Washington’s big problem. Invading Libya will intensify the fires burning in the Arab world and create yet another anti-western jihad. Interestingly, this is exactly Osama bin Laden’s strategy: draw the US into many small wars in the Muslim world and so bleed it dry.   So far, the US has been cooperating with Osama master plan. 

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2011

See my interview on Gadaffi with TVO’s excellent Steve Paikin, posted on my Facebook page

2011-03-10 Myths for Profit: Canada’s Role In Industries of War and Peace’ + “From Military-Industrial Complex to Permanent War State” + from William Hartung “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex.

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Mar 102011
 

CONTENTS

  1. AMY MILLER’S  “MYTHS FOR PROFIT:  CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE”
  2. GARETH PORTER, FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT WAR STATE, (Common Dreams, January 17)
  3. WILLIAM HARTUNG, AUTHOR OF “PROPHETS OF WAR” WRITES TO US (January 16, 2011) 
  4. COMMENTS 

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1.   AMY MILLER’S “MYTHS FOR PROFIT:  CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE” 

http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1518666265/   

Amy is a long-time member of our network.   She makes an important contribution to seeing ourselves (Canadians) as we really are: peace-keepers or the makers of violence?

I hope that the posting on the armoured vehicles that are appearing in Canadian cities (March 7, 2011)  will add to understanding the truth of Amy’s message, one we would prefer to deny.  

Leo Kurtenbach draws a reality of the war industries to attention,  but it is a reality that can be challenged : 

“   —  Read the words of Chris Hedges, … a few excerpts from an  article published  January 10th 2011.— 

“Power does not rest with the electorate. It does not reside with either of the two major political parties”—

“Power rests with the corporations. And corporations gain very lucrative profits from war, even wars we have no chance of winning”

We contribute to the wars, but there has been no bombing in Canada.  So far, we live in luxery. 

When you add the armoured vehicles that are now being trotted out in Canadian cities, a contribution we make to the profits of the war-mongers,  we are well-advised to hear the words of Gareth Porter (item # 2) even though they are addressed to an American audience.   Porter speaks of a grassroots movement that requires “a massive educational .. effort“.    Many thanks to Amy for her contribution to our education.   We can all aid that education by … (you know!).

Gareth Porter (FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT WAR STATE)   writes:  “ The only thing missing from this picture is a grassroots political movement organized specifically to demand an end to the Permanent War State. Such a movement could establish firm legal restraints on the institutions that threaten American Democratic institutions through a massive educational and lobbying effort. This is the right historical moment to harness the latent anti-militarist sentiment in the country to a conscious strategy for political change. “   

Back to Amy’s work:

http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1518666265/   

hi Sandra,
thanks for this. I would suggest you consider adding a bit about the ‘Making War in Canada’ map as I think it is very relevant.

http://wideopenexposure.com/product/making-war-canada-map

‘Making war in Canada’ 24” X 32” map

‘Making War in Canada’ companion map to documentary ‘Myths for Profit’ Canada’s role in Industries of War and Peace’. Canada’s military industrial complex is alive and growing yet many people are surprised to learn this. Beyond the military bases that train the troops, the think tanks, media outlets and government offices that provide diplomatic, political or financial support to the Department of Defence, Canada has hundreds of companies that produces arms and components for weapon systems that are used in wars all over the world. This map shows only a small fraction of the Canadian companies and other support systems that are profiting from conflicts and war.

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2.     GARETH PORTER, FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT WAR STATE, (Common Dreams, January 17, 2011)  

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/17-6

Fifty years after Dwight D. Eisenhower’s January 17, 1961 speech on the “military-industrial complex”, that threat has morphed into a far more powerful and sinister force than Eisenhower could have imagined.  It has become a “Permanent War State”, with the power to keep the United States at war continuously for the indefinite future.

But despite their seeming invulnerability, the vested interests behind U.S. militarism have been seriously shaken twice in the past four decades by some combination of public revulsion against a major war, opposition to high military spending, serious concern about the budget deficit and a change in perception of the external threat.  Today, the Permanent War State faces the first three of those dangers to its power simultaneously — and in a larger context of the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

When Eisenhower warned in this farewell address of the “potential” for the “disastrous rise of misplaced power”, he was referring to the danger that militarist interests would gain control over the country’s national security policy. The only reason it didn’t happen on Ike’s watch is that he stood up to the military and its allies.
The Air Force and the Army were so unhappy with his “New Look” military policy that they each waged political campaigns against it. The Army demanded that Ike reverse his budget cuts and beef up conventional forces. The Air Force twice fabricated intelligence to support its claim that the Soviet Union was rapidly overtaking the United States in strategic striking power — first in bombers, later in ballistic missiles.

But Ike defied both services, reducing Army manpower by 44 percent from its 1953 level and refusing to order a crash program for bombers or for missiles.  He also rejected military recommendations for war in Indochina, bombing attacks on China and an ultimatum to the Soviet Union.

 After Eisenhower, it became clear that the alliance of militarist interests included not only the military services and their industrial clients but civilian officials in the Pentagon, the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, top officials at the State Department and the White House national security adviser.  During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, that militarist alliance succeeded in pushing the White House into a war in Vietnam, despite the reluctance of both presidents, as documented in my book Perils of Dominance.

But just when the power of the militarist alliance seemed unstoppable in the late 1960s, the public turned decisively against the Vietnam War, and a long period of public pressure to reduce military spending began. As a result, military manpower was reduced to below even the Eisenhower era levels.

For more than a decade the alliance of militarist interests was effectively constrained from advocating a more aggressive military posture.

Even during the Reagan era, after a temporary surge in military spending, popular fear of Soviet Union melted away in response to the rise of Gorbachev, just as the burgeoning federal budget deficit was becoming yet another threat to militarist bloc.  As it became clear that the Cold War was drawing to a close, the militarist interests faced the likely loss of much of their power and resources.

But in mid-1990 they got an unexpected break when Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait. George H. W. Bush – a key figure in the militarist complex as former CIA Director — seized the opportunity to launch a war that would end the “Vietnam syndrome”.  The Bush administration turned a popular clear-cut military victory in the 1991 Gulf War into a rationale for further use of military force in the Middle East.  Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s 1992 military strategy for the next decade said, “We must be prepared to act decisively in the Middle East/Persian Gulf region as we did in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm if our vital interests are threatened anew.”
The Bush administration pressured the Saudis and other Arab regimes in the Gulf to allow longer-term bases for the U.S. Air Force, and over the next eight years, U.S. planes flew an annual average of 8,000 sorties in the “no fly zones” the United States had declared over most of Iraq, drawing frequent anti-aircraft fire.
The United States was already in a de facto state of war with Iraq well before George W. Bush’s presidency.

The 9/11 attacks were the biggest single boon to the militarist alliance. The Bush administration exploited the climate of fear to railroad the country into a war of aggression against Iraq.  The underlying strategy, approved by the military leadership after 9/11, was to use Iraq as a base from which to wage a campaign of regime change in a long list of countries.

That fateful decision only spurred recruitment and greater activism by al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, which expanded into Iraq and other countries.�
Instead of reversing the ill-considered use of military force, however, the same coalition of officials pushed for an even more militarized approach to jihadism.  Over the next few years, it gained unprecedented power over resources and policy at home and further extended its reach abroad: �
* The Special Operations Forces, which operate in almost complete secrecy, obtained extraordinary authority to track down and kill or capture al Qaeda suspects not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in many more countries.
* The CIA sought and obtained virtually unlimited freedom to carry out drone strikes in secrecy and without any meaningful oversight by Congress.
* The Pentagon embraced the idea of the “long war” – a twenty-year strategy envisioning deployment of U.S. troops in dozens of countries, and the Army adopted the idea of “the era of persistent warfare” as its rationale for more budgetary resources.
* The military budget doubled from 1998 to 2008 in the biggest explosion of military spending since the early 1950s – and now accounts for 56 percent of discretionary federal spending.
* The military leadership used its political clout to ensure that U.S. forces would continue to fight in Afghanistan indefinitely, even after the premises of its strategy were shown to have been false.�
Those moves have completed the process of creating a “Permanent War State” — a set of institutions with the authority to wage largely secret wars across a vast expanse of the globe for the indefinite future. �

But the power of this new state formation is still subject to the same political dynamics that have threatened militarist interests twice before: popular antipathy to a major war, broad demands for reduced military spending and the necessity to reduce the Federal budget deficit and debt.

The percentage of Americans who believe the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting has now reached 60 percent for the first time. And as the crisis over the federal debt reaches it climax, the swollen defense budget should bear the brunt of deep budget cuts. 

As early as 2005, a Pew Research Center survey found that, when respondents were given the opportunity to express a preference for budget cuts by major accounts, they opted to reduce military spending by 31 percent.  In another survey by the Pew Center a year ago, 76 percent of respondents, frustrated by the continued failure of the U.S. economy, wanted the United States to put top priority in its domestic problems.

The only thing missing from this picture is a grassroots political movement organized specifically to demand an end to the Permanent War State. Such a movement could establish firm legal restraints on the institutions that threaten American Democratic institutions through a massive educational and lobbying effort. This is the right historical moment to harness the latent anti-militarist sentiment in the country to a conscious strategy for political change.

———-
Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005. 

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3.    WILLIAM HARTUNG, AUTHOR OF “PROPHETS OF WAR” WRITES TO US: 

Sandra,

       Thanks so much for being in touch!  I had heard about the controversy over Lockheed Martin’s role in the Canadian census  from Steve Staples, who works in an Ottawa-based NGO.  

I have talked to Steve about doing a trip to Ottawa for some events related to my book, but haven’t figured out a date yet.

Don’t know if I can travel to other parts of the country or not.  The book tour has been great so far, but I am rapidly falling behind on other things, like fundraising so I can keep doing this work!  But I will think it over to see if I can find a way to do more than one set of events in Canada.

       I will look at the materials you have put up on the web, so as to better educate myself on Lockheed Martin’s role in Canada.  It’s such a huge octopus that there are whole areas of its work that I only managed to mention in the book, each of which might have merited a chapter or part thereof.  But hopefully the book will serve as a platform to deal with some of these issues in more depth.

     Keep up the great work you are doing, and thanks for spreading the word about the book.

Best,

Bill Hartung

William D. Hartung

Director, Arms and Security Initiative

New America Foundation

38 Greene St. 4th Floor

New York, NY 10013

(work) 212-431-5808

(cell) 917-923-3202

http://asi.newamerica.net/home

From: Sandra Finley   Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 4:34 PM
To: William Hartung
Subject: Lockheed Martin in Canada

Dear Mr. Hartung,

Do you have any cities in Canada on your book tour?  

Lockheed Martin’s role in the Canadian census is quite controversial here at the moment.   

I received a “guilty” verdict this Thursday past for failing to fill in my 2006 census form which I did not do because census work was out-sourced to the Lockheed Martin/IBM duo (same as in U.S.).  

You can imagine what a wonderful bit of serendipity your book is for me!

It would be an excellent time for you to be on talk-shows in Canada, if that is possible.   The next Canadian census is 4 months away (May 2011).

I am back in court Thur Jan 20 for sentencing. 

I have run an activist email network for 10 or 11 years.  I took down my website when I was charged in April 2008.   In the last 3 weeks I have hastily posted past emails on the Lockheed Martin issue.  Unfortunately I need more time to better present them, but the blog will nonetheless give you a better idea of what’s happening here in relation to Lockheed Martin:

www.sandrafinley.ca  ,  top – left tab “Pages”,   drop-down list,  click on “Lockheed …”

News of your book is circulating, at least in the email networks in Canada.

The verdict over the census is fairly controversial.  It’s not easy to get the Lockheed Martin name into the mainstream media, not in a way that informs the public.   The guilty verdict has actually been quite helpful.  Slowly a greater awareness is being created.  It started back in 2003 when activists first became aware of the census contracts.  We have capitalized on various opportunities since then – as I say, steadily growing awareness.

On the blog you will see news of the original launch for “Prophets of War”  and then today a post related to the video of the interview.

I can’t thank you enough for your book.  It is invaluable for our work.

Sincerely and best wishes,

Sandra Finley

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

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4.  COMMENTARY

I think most of us know that people living OUTSIDE the U.S. have more information on what is being done in the name of Americans than the people living INSIDE the U.S., generally speaking.    

HOWEVER,  it is exactly the same here in Canada.  I remember the horror when a few years back I saw “Canada” included on the list of countries that manufacture cluster munitions.  Most of us are largely unaware of the bad things being done in our name.  People outside Canada are better informed than we are.  They are, and should be critical of us.  We should not be so self-satisfied as to believe that we do not suffer from the same ignorance as suffered by the Americans.  As Amy Miller’s video shows, the propaganda is effective.  We believe in a myth.

Crazy people: 

1.       The YouTube video (11-minutes) at  2011-01-18  (Jeremy Rifkin: The Empathic Civilization)  makes the point that nation states are artificial constructions pitting us against each other, when really we are connected.   

I notice the tension created by the nation state when I am writing, and so do you: 

“The Americans” is shorthand for “Corporate Interests”.   Every time I write “The Americans” in reference to warring ways or whatever bad thing, one of you will (thankfully) object.   

I will then point out that three out of four of my Grand Parents came from the USA, that I have good friends in the USA, we lived in North Carolina for a year and met the most wonderful people, and yes, I know it isn’t “the Americans” who are the culprits.  Most of them basically want what we want.  

Sometimes I will take time to add my tale of being in a black township in South Africa and the poignant lessons that they, too, only want what we want:  education for their children and a safe community in which to raise them.  We are all basically tied at the hip.   

And I will try again not to use the shorthand “The Americans” when I am pressed for time or space.   People in some countries, as documented in former emails (e.g. in relation to Canadian mining companies in South American countries),  now use “The Canadians” with the same venom on their tongue.

Words are important;  I become guilty of not-subtle “demonization” of the people in a different nation-state than my own when I use the lazy, unthoughtful shorthand.   I say – – it’s not the people.  BUT ACTUALLY, in a developed country like Canada IT IS US – because we have the means to stop what is being done in our name.

2.      And then there’s the damn other side:  I feel some pangs when I am quoting Dwight Eisenhower, a President of the U.S., or Thomas Jefferson, or Martin Luther King, or William Hartung or Gareth Porter.  Why am I not quoting Canadian wisdom?   Well – – I do that, too.   The important contributions of John Ralston Saul to our understanding, Jane Jacobs, Joel Bakan (The Corporation), David Suzuki, Maud Barlow, Steve Staples at ceasefire.ca, now Amy Miller and so on, the list is far too long to enumerate. 

The funny part of all this is that the only reason I feel those pangs (generated by nationalisim) is because I haven’t yet fully moved to the level of awareness of people like Jeremy Rifkin.  It is only a state of awareness; we are all people around the Earth in this together.  If we provide the money that enables the destruction of the homes of other people, in time it will all come back to us.  Combat vehicles in our cities is just another step toward that evolving state. 

Lockheed Martin may be American, but we have long been a part of the War Machine in ways hidden from us, but no longer. 

AND THEN, in a state of awareness, we can embrace the Empathic Civilization, joining hands with like minds – –   no matter where they live.   It really is an exciting time.  The momentum gathers. 

Paul Hawken’s book describes the force.  2007-06-10  Blessed Unrest & A Force More Powerful (non-violent resistance).   

It is important to connect our energy with that of people who share our work.  Amy has been a part of our network for some time.  We connected with Paul Hawken and his staff.   Now, William (Bill) Hartung – – his email in item #3.   

It is looking as though Father John Dear may not be able to make it to Saskatoon as earlier envisioned.  But that’s okay:  he and the others who are in Court over trespassing on Creech Air Force Base over Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) (Lockheed Martin) know our network is behind them.   

man, we are stronger than rats and dragons

– and had forgotten it and always knew.  

(From   2011-01-13 “All our Cowardice and Servility” from the Museum of Non-violent Resistance at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin) 

Maybe we can make the industries of war in Canada and armoured vehicles in Canadian cities an election issue?

2011-03-08 Lockheed Martian & FBI – Next Generation Identification System (biometrics)

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Mar 082011
 

The following are various news reports on the enlargement of the FBI’s capability, working with Lockheed Martin, for data bases that contain biometric information on citizens.   You will see the same thing as we saw here in Saskatoon for the announcement of Lockheed Martin’s $3.5 million donation to the Sask Indian Institute of Technology – – Lockheed Martin writes the news releases for the public entity (the FBI or SIIT) , a common practice.

CONTENTS

  1. Enlargement of FBI facility for “Next Generation Identification System”, article from local paper in West Virginia
  2. New American article, “FBI Announces Creation of Biometric Database“
  3. LOCKHEED MARTIN’S NEWS RELEASE ON THE “NEXT GENERATION IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM”
  4. THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN 2008, “LOCKHEED MARTIN AWARDED NEXT GENERATION IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM”

RELATED POST:   2009-07-01   The National Security Agency (NSA) is planning to build a $1.6 billion storage facility in Utah to warehouse personal data.

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1.  Enlargement of FBI facility for “Next Generation Identification System”, article from local paper in West Virginia

Bennett writes: 

I read the following and said to myself: “Shades of George Orwell and book 1984”    

March 21, 2011

CHARLESTON, W.Va. —

The Clarksburg FBI complex is taking part in a $1 billion project that will enable law enforcement agencies to identify criminals and terrorists by physical characteristics more quickly and accurately, an FBI official said Monday in Charleston. 

Earlier this month, the FBI center unveiled its “Next Generation Identification System,” which will slowly replace an older system that can no longer handle the volume of fingerprints sent to Clarksburg. 

“It’s bigger, better, faster,” said Stephen Morris, a deputy assistant director at the FBI Center. “It increases capacity and accuracy.” 

Morris spoke Monday at a Charleston Rotary Club luncheon at the Civic Center. 

The NGI system, built by Lockheed Martin, allows FBI employees to conduct automated fingerprint searches and exchange information with more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies. 

The FBI’s fingerprint examining staff also received new “advanced technology workstations” that will help increase accuracy, Morris said. 

Under the system, state and local police officers also will eventually use hand-held devices to scan suspects’ fingerprints and send the images electronically to the FBI center. 

“It’s a quick scan to let police officers know if they should let the person go, or take him into custody,” Morris said.  

In later stages, NGI system also will be expanded to include the analysis of palm prints, handwriting, faces, human irises and voices. 

“Our job is to study those and see how reliable they are for law enforcement,” Morris said. 

The FBI plans to increase the size of the Clarksburg complex significantly with the opening of a new 350,000-square-foot Biometric Technology Center in 2014, Morris said.  The FBI plans to share the facility with the U.S.Department of Defense. 

The FBI center, which opened in 1995, now has about 2,500 full-time workers and another 500 contract employees. 

The center analyzes and identifies nearly 168,000 fingerprints a day on average. The fingerprints are used to solve investigations, prevent crime and identify criminals and terrorists. 

Reach Eric Eyre at erice…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4869.

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2.  New American article, “FBI Announces Creation of Biometric Database“

Written by Daniel Sayani   
Monday, 21 March 2011 15:04
2

The FBI announced last week that its new identification system has reached its initial operating capacity. Known as Next Generation Identification (NGI), the Lockheed Martin-built program serves as an incremental upgrade of the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS — which will revolutionize law enforcement’s ability to process fingerprints.

NGI provides automated fingerprint and latent search capabilities, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints to more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and other authorized criminal justice partners 24/7. Upon completion, the system will have the ability to process fingerprint transactions much more effectively and accurately.“The implementation announced today represents a tremendous achievement in enhancing our identification services. Already, we’re seeing how the NGI system is revolutionizing fingerprint identification in support of our mission,” said Louis E. Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI Science and Technology Branch.

“Lockheed Martin was there supporting the FBI when IAFIS went live in 1999, and we’re thrilled to be here for NGI today,” affirmed Linda Gooden, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions. “Technology like this is a powerful tool when it comes to protecting America’s citizens, and we’re proud to serve as a partner in that mission.”

“While IAFIS has been effective, criminal and terrorist threats have evolved over the past decade. Today’s environment demands faster and more advanced identification capabilities,” said Assistant Director Daniel D. Roberts, of the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division. “NGI represents a quantum leap in fingerprint identification that will help us in solving investigations, preventing crime, and apprehending criminals and terrorists.”

Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest recipient of defense industry contracts, and a leader in the field of biometrics, says that the new technology enhances the FBI’s background-check programs by giving investigators expanded and more timely access to fingerprints. They also note that they see the FBI contract as a means by which biometric surveillance can be increased: a press release from the defense contractor states that “[W]hile this meets the challenges of today, tomorrow holds the possibility of developing iris scanners, genetic scanners, and other advanced biometric solutions.“

The biometrics company was awarded the $1 billion contract to develop the new, enhanced identification system in February 2008. According to Leslie Holoweiko, a Lockheed representative, the company has also received government contracts to open the Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts (BEACON™) center in White Hall, W.Va., to serve as a collaborative center in the development of integrated biometrics solutions for both current and future initiatives. She also indicates that the company is the lead systems integrator for the Registered Traveler program led by Verified Identity Pass, Inc. Lockheed is also the lead contractor for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program, a TSA initiative to protect ports by issuing a biometrically-based credential to vetted workers requiring unescorted access to the ports.

To date, the NGI system is the world’s largest biometric database, which the FBI expects to make available to a wide variety of federal, state, and local agencies, all in the name of keeping America safe from terrorists (and illegal immigration). The FBI also intends to retain (upon employer request) the fingerprints of any employee who has undergone a criminal background check, and will inform the employer if the employee is ever arrested or charged with a crime.

The Washington Post also says that the NGI database relies heavily upon real-time (or very nearly real-time) comparisons. This could include general face recognition, specific feature comparison (notable scars, shape of the earlobe, etc.), walking stride, speech patterns, and iris comparisons. To date, facial-recognition technology hasn’t exactly reshaped the face of law enforcement.

The increasing use of biometrics for identification is raising questions about the increasing inability of Americans to avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who worry that people’s bodies will become de facto national identification cards. Critics say that such government initiatives should not proceed without proof that the technology really can pick a criminal out of a crowd.

The use of biometric data is increasing throughout the government. For the past two years, the Defense Department has been storing in a database the images of fingerprints, irises, and faces of more than 1.5 million Iraqi and Afghan detainees, Iraqi citizens, and foreigners who need access to U.S. military bases. The Pentagon also collects DNA samples from some Iraqi detainees, which are stored separately.

The Department of Homeland Security has been using iris scans at some airports to verify the identity of travelers who have passed background checks and who want to move through lines quickly. The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs. The DHS already has a database of millions of sets of fingerprints, which includes records collected from U.S. and foreign travelers stopped at borders for criminal violations, from U.S. citizens adopting children overseas, and from visa applicants abroad. Therefore, there could be multiple records of one person’s prints.

“It’s going to be an essential component of tracking,” warned Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s enabling the Always On Surveillance Society.”

Advocates of civil liberties (inspired by John Locke’s belief that one’s natural rights to life, liberty, and property entail a fundamental right to be free from government intrusions into bodily autonomy) also are concerned that the creation of this biometric database can unconstitutionally infringe on the Fourth Amendment rights of the American people. (The New American discussed many of these concerns in a previous analysis of the DHS’s creation of a genetic scanning program, which could easily metastasize into a government DNA database.)

Privacy advocates also are concerned about the ability of people to correct false information. “Unlike say, a credit card number, biometric data is forever,” noted Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology forecaster. He voiced his concern that the FBI, whose computer technology record has been marred by expensive failures, could not guarantee the data’s security. “If someone steals and spoofs your iris image, you can’t just get a new eyeball,” explained.

By 2013, the FBI says that it hopes to expand the NGI system to “fuse” fingerprint-, face-, iris-, and palm-matching capabilities into one mega-database, according to Kimberly Del Greco, the FBI’s biometric services section chief. In addition, Lawrence Hornak, director of the West Virginia University Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), indicated that the government’s goal is “ubiquitous use of biometrics.” A traveler may walk down an airport corridor and allow his face and iris images to be captured without ever stepping up to a kiosk and looking into a camera, he said.

For those who champion constitutional rights, this latest milestone represents yet another step in the erosion of natural rights and individual liberties, and a turn toward a more robust, authoritarian police state.

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2.   New American article, “FBI Announces Creation of Biometric Database“

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/constitution/6771-fbi-announces-creation-of-biometric-database 
FBI Announces Creation of Biometric Database | Print |  E-mail

3.  LOCKHEED MARTIN’S NEWS RELEASE ON THE NEXT GENERATION IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2011/3-8-2011-fbi-announces-ngi-ioc.html

FBI Announces Initial Operating Capability for Next Generation Identification System

CLARKSBURG, W.Va., March 8th, 2011 — New technology designed to revolutionize law enforcement’s ability to process fingerprints has reached its initial operating capability, the FBI announced today.

The Next Generation Identification System (NGI), built by Lockheed Martin, delivers an incremental replacement of the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). NGI provides automated fingerprint and latent search capabilities, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints to more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and other authorized criminal justice partners 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Upon completion, NGI will have the ability to process fingerprint transactions more effectively and accurately.

“The implementation announced today represents a tremendous achievement in enhancing our identification services. Already, we’re seeing how the NGI system is revolutionizing fingerprint identification in support of the FBI’s mission,” said Louis E. Grever, executive assistant director, FBI Science and Technology Branch.

“Lockheed Martin was there supporting the FBI when IAFIS went live in 1999, and we’re thrilled to be here for NGI today,” added Linda Gooden, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions. “Technology like this is a powerful tool when it comes to protecting America’s citizens, and we’re proud to serve as a partner in that mission.”

“While IAFIS has been effective, criminal and terrorist threats have evolved over the past decade. Today’s environment demands faster and more advanced identification capabilities,” said Daniel D. Roberts, assistant director, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division. “NGI represents a quantum leap in fingerprint identification that will help us in solving investigations, preventing crime, and apprehending criminals and terrorists.”

In addition to the new fingerprint identification technology, the NGI program has also delivered Advanced Technology Workstations to the FBI’s fingerprint examiner staff. The workstations include significantly larger display screens with higher resolution and true color support, allowing staff to see more detailed attributes of biometric data for more efficient decision-making. 

Lockheed Martin Media Contact: Kimberly Jaindl, kimberly.jaindl@lmco.com, 301-519-6400

FBI Media Contact: Criminal Justice Information Services Division, 304-625-5820, www.fbi.gov

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4.  THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN 2008, “LOCKHEED MARTIN AWARDED NEXT GENERATION IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM”

http://www.alienexistence.com/index.php?topic=1461.0 

Lockheed Martin awarded Next Generation Identification System
« on: February 13, 2008, 12:09:07 AM »
 
The FBI announced today it has awarded Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions the contract for the design, development, documentation, integration, testing, and deployment of the Next Generation Identification (NGI) System. The contract will consist of a base year and the potential for up to nine option years. The NGI System will expand on the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division’s current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which is primarily a fingerprint-based identification system operated and maintained in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The NGI System will provide improvements to current services and new functionality for the criminal justice, national security, and civil communities
 
The industry of identification systems is moving beyond dependency on a unimodal (e.g., fingerprint) biometric identifier and is beginning to incorporate multimodal biometrics such as iris and facial imaging. Due to the many issues associated with identity theft, lost and stolen documents, and the ability to spoof standard name-based identity management systems, coupled with the rapid advances in technology and the nation’s focus on combating terrorism, there are increasing needs for new and improved identification services. In line with this trend, the NGI System will advance the integration strategies and indexing of additional, lawfully authorized, biometric data, providing the framework for a future multimodal system which will facilitate biometric fusion identification techniques. This framework will be expandable, scalable, and flexible to accommodate new technologies and emerging biometrics standards, and will be interoperable with existing biometric systems.

It is important to note that the NGI system will not expand the categories of individuals from whom the fingerprints and biometric data may be collected; however it will allow for the collection of additional biometric data from criminals and terrorists. Although fingerprint data will remain the primary means of identification, the collection of additional biometric data will be used for investigative purposes and to assist in the identification process.

“IAFIS has been a fantastic tool in support of criminal justice and the war on terror. Our partners on the Advisory Policy Board (APB) and National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact Council have defined a need for more modern technology that supports their current mission requirements. NGI will give us bigger, better, faster capabilities and lead us into the future. We have added additional capabilities to our current system, and are working with the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and State and the international law enforcement community in making our communities and nation safer. NGI will leverage the biometrics expertise in the north-central West Virginia area,” said Thomas E. Bush, III, Assistant Director of the FBI’s CJIS Division.

Committed to providing the highest quality biometric identification techniques, the FBI has employed a shared management approach with its partners through the CJIS APB and the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact Council to define the NGI System requirements and capabilities. These groups include representatives from criminal justice, national security, and civil agencies throughout the nation.

Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions will be developing the foundational framework which includes new technologies, emerging biometric standards, and interoperability with existing biometric systems. Additionally, Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, along with the FBI, will conduct trade studies to support a multi-biometric framework as the new capabilities are phased in according to schedule throughout the development cycle. The NGI System will enhance fingerprint and latent print processing services, and increase system availability, accuracy, and capacity. The NGI System will provide enhancements to the FBI’s Interstate Photo System by expanding the photo repository and providing photo search capabilities. Improvements will further expand disposition submission capabilities. Furthermore, the IAFIS repository will be enhanced to improve its infrastructure, provide single identity management, and support new biometric modalities such as iris imaging. In addition, a National Palm Print System will be created to provide a centralized national repository for palm print data to allow for comparisons of latent palm prints left at crime scenes against that repository.

A full and open competition was used for the award of the NGI contract. The FBI and Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions will take an incremental approach to the implementation of the NGI System.

source: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel08/ngicontract021208.htm  (INSERT:  Sandra, Mar 2011.  This webpage no longer exists.) 

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2011-03-07 UPDATE Census Lockheed Martin: the U.K. & Scottish Censuses are cookin’! Since March 4th.

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Mar 082011
 

2011-03-07    Tony Blair’s aide, David Manning, helped prepare for war on Iraq, then became ambassador to U.S. in 2003.  In 2008 he returned to the U.K. to become a Director of Lockheed Martin U.K.   Lockheed Martin USA helped sponsor his going-away party.  Lockheed Martin is doing the U.K. census.

2011-03-06   The Real News (short video newscast):  Census in Crosshairs: US arms maker link launches UK privacy fears   http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=9279  

YouTube -News cast  –  UK Census Controversy    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUSUieqKU3Y&feature=player_embedded

2011-03-07   Scotland:  Human rights group urges 11th-hour census U-turn over Abu Ghraib abuse concerns. 

2011-03-07   Census “conditional acceptance letter”!  

2011-03-07   Census Lockheed Martin:  Geoff writes to his friends about his intentions.

2011-03-07 York Regional Police, Vancouver Police, Saskatoon Police — all getting armoured vehicles. From March 2010, Vancouver: “The RCMP said the so-called “Cougars for cops” is a national program, and residents of other cities can expect to see the vehicles on their streets too.”

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Mar 072011
 

I think we had better do something.

Things are unfolding . .

CONTENTS

  1. COMMENT
  2. YORK REGIONAL POLICE GET VERSATILE ROLLING FORTRESS, GLOBE & MAIL, MARCH 7, 2011
  3. METRO VANCOUVER POLICE ANNOUNCE ARRIVAL OF ARMOURED RESCUE VEHICLE, VANCOUVER SUN, MARCH 2, 2011
  4. SASKATOON,  POLICE SHOPPING FOR ARMOURED VEHICLE,  STAR PHOENIX, JANUARY 25, 2011
  5. OTTAWA COPS GET NEW TOY, OTTAWA SUN, MARCH 24, 2010
  6. MARCH 24, 2010:  “ARMOURED VEHICLES ADOPTED BY B.C. RCMP, OTHER CITIES CAN EXPECT TO SEE THE VEHICLES ON THEIR STREETS, TOO”
  7. READER COMMENTS ON YORK POLICE ARMOURED VEHICLE (MARCH 7, 2011)
  8. “LIGHT ARMOURED VEHICLES” (LAVs), WHAT ARE THEY?   (AMERICAN WEAPONS MANUFACTURER, CAMBLI INTERNATIONAL IN QUEBEC)
  9. Feb 20, 2011,  OSHKOSH DEFENSE (AMERICAN) UNVEILED ITS PROTOTYPE FOR CANADA’S TACTICAL ARMOURED PATROL VEHICLE (TAPV) PROGRAM
  10. MYTHS FOR PROFIT:  CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE (THANKS TO AMY),  +   “FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT STATE OF WAR”  (U.S.)  +  REPLY FROM WILLIAM HARTUNG “PROPHETS OF WAR:  LOCKHEED MARTIN AND THE MAKING OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX”.

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1.  COMMENT

Compare:

  • the report on the armoured vehicle (AV) for Vancouver  from last year (item #5) and
  • the information on the sales of these “rolling fortresses” in Item #7  (LAVs, What are They?”).
  • the announcement March 2 this year,  another armoured vehicle for Vancouver (item 3)

When I compare, I would say that last year’s Vancouver report is not truthful.  “Thou doth protest too much.”  They went to great lengths to downplay the LAV (Light Armoured Vehicle) – –   it was just “gathering dust and out of service”, so what the heck,  shrug, shrug, we just got it for free.

The text from item #7 (LAVs what are they?)  says:    “Vancouver Police Department – 1 (LAV) delivered in 2010[2] from tender after 2008[3] ”    Hardly sounds like “gathering dust and out of service”.   (I wrote that sentence before finding out today, thanks to Jennifer, that the Vancouver Police have just added another LAV to their arsenal.   This time it’s just a “rescue” vehicle.  Words to comfort us, words used as propaganda.)

Item #7:   The  Comments from Readers (Globe & Mail) on the York Police purchase of an LAV cut to the core of the matter.   I cannot find a similar out-pouring of resistance in Vancouver?

In 2010 I said that we needed to be pre-emptive, to stop the LAVs from happening in other cities.    We need a Wiki leaks  . . .   Do your City Police have an LAV on order?  (“Other cities can expect to see the armoured vehicles on their streets, too”.)  I just found out today that the Saskatoon City Police, too, plan to spend our tax dollars on an LAV.

The “defense” contractors exist ONLY because of our tax dollars.   It is abundantly clear:  they have set up in Canada, they produce armoured vehicles for war – – but there is another lucrative market.   Us.

They can sell their war machinery to our municipalities and police organizations.   HOWEVER,  they have to create an enemy to go along with the war weapons.  Otherwise, there is no market.    Looks like we’ve become the enemy.   Else why would they need these LAVs in our cities?

The greater the inequities in the society, the greater the stresses because of failing economic conditions (brought on because we are not transitioning off fossil fuels),  stresses from the depletion of water supplies, inequity and injustice when CEOs think they are worth from $3 million to $65 million when they aren’t even the ones that do the work  – – the MORE money we spend on very expensive armoured vehicles, the less money there is to invest in programmes that will actually help people.  That is the way to “security”.  Instead, we are creating an economy based on violence.  By allowing our tax and resource revenues to be spent on the war industry, we are creating our own civil unrest and un-doing.  Our own massive debt, same as in the U.S.   Our own tax dollars are used against us as you see with the rolling out of armoured vehicles across the country, if we don’t stop this.

My Income Tax Installments are due March 15 and April 15.   As I did last year, I will deduct the portion that represents military spending by the Government.  See Conscience Canada.   It is now not so much a matter of conscience, as it is a matter of survival of this country.  I will also be working my buns off to help get as much resistance to Lockheed Martin as possible  in the U.K.  (March 27) and then in the Canadian census in May.   Stop the authors of destruction wherever the opportunity exists.

These are troubling and urgent times.  Rally the trooops!!   /Sandra

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2.  YORK REGIONAL POLICE GET VERSATILE ROLLING FORTRESS, GLOBE & MAIL, MARCH 7, 2011

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/york-regional-police-get-versatile-rolling-fortress/article1932035/

TIMOTHY APPLEBY

Globe and Mail Update

Published Monday, Mar. 07, 2011 6:00AM EST;   Last updated Monday, Mar. 07, 2011 6:04AM EST

133 comments

Built for comfort it is not. Sleekly elegant? Negative. Fuel-efficient? Forget about it.

But when members of the York Regional Police (YRP) swat squad climb into their new armoured truck and rumble noisily to the scene of a gun call or a risky arrest, what they will have is a versatile, rolling fortress.

More related to this story    Police keep range of equipment acquired for G20 summit

The Thunder 1, as it was named by its Quebec manufacturer, Cambli International of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, was custom-designed for YRP (York Regional Police), which until December did not have such a vehicle at all – the only police service in the Greater Toronto Area without one.

And with a price tag of $340,000, it was not inexpensive. But it was $10,000 cheaper than the more widely deployed BearCat armoured vehicles, made by Massachusetts-based Lenco Industries Inc., popular with U.S. police, and it has a larger capacity, with 10 seats rather than eight. Staff Sergeant Gregory Harper, who commands York’s 24-officer Emergency Response Unit, reckons it was a bargain.

The Thunder 1 is technically unique. Police in Vancouver have a similar vehicle, but because much of York Region is rural, calling for an off-road capability, the tires on this truck are slightly bigger, providing more clearance. The Vancouver truck also has dual rear axles, and it is black rather than grey.

If the boxy shape looks familiarly old-fashioned, that’s because Cambli’s chief line of production involves Brinks trucks, which have a basic design that has hardly altered in decades.

The truck was a parting gift from former York police chief Armand La Barge, who retired the same month the long-sought-after Thunder 1 arrived. Its acquisition gathered pace two years ago, when YRP had to call in the Toronto police tactical squad to handle a distraught man threatening to detonate a car bomb on Highway 400.

Inside the Thunder 1, it’s a surprisingly smooth ride.

It’s been deployed just a handful of times so far, most recently on Friday when it was dispatched to aid in the arrest in Richmond Hill of a man wanted for armed robbery.

“Its sole purpose is the protection of our officers and being able to move them into a dangerous environment,” Staff Sergeant Harper said. “It was a worthwhile investment. Very worthwhile.”

WHAT YOU GET

So what do you get for $340,000 when you buy a Thunder 1? Primarily a vehicle that affords state-of-the-art security for the police inside it.

The chassis and power train are built by International Truck and Engine Corp., and resemble the design of the big dump trucks the company makes: A Maxx Force DT, 285 HP Turbo engine; an Allison 3500 EVS transmission; and a 163-inch wheel base. It weighs more than 15 tonnes, and it has a top speed of about 130 km/h.

Its payload is a little over three tonnes, and its fuel tank holds 50 U.S. gallons.

The console is much the same as a commercial truck. But there the similarities cease. As with some small military planes, the 10 seats comprise two at the front, two flip-up seats facing forward, and three on each side in the truck’s rear facing each other.

The truck carries no weapons, but it has 12 gun ports for the heavily armed police inside who do – five on each side and two at the rear.

The precise thickness of the reinforced steel and steel glass that protect occupants against any ballistic threat is not something police are anxious to disclose. But thick it is.

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3.  METRO VANCOUVER POLICE ANNOUNCE ARRIVAL OF ARMOURED RESCUE VEHICLE, VANCOUVER SUN, MARCH 2, 2011

http://www.vancouversun.com/Metro+Vancouver+police+announce+arrival+armoured+rescue+vehicle/4373207/story.html    (Click on the news link.  Look at the picture.  ” … the rescue vehicle will be used to help extract people from life threatening circumstances”.  Please explain.  The picture is of an armoured vehicle, like the ones used in war zones.)

Abbotsford Times March 2, 2011 Comments (1)

The new armoured rescue vehicle purchased for the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team will enter service this week.

Photograph by: APD handout, for the TIMES   (Click on the news link.  Look at the picture. 

It’s big, and it’s coming to Metro Vancouver.

Abbotsford police have announced that the armoured rescue vehicle purchased for the Municipal Integrated Response Team (MIERT) will enter service this week.

Looking more like a tank, the rescue vehicle will be used to help extract people from life threatening circumstances, or when the police and public may be in danger due to the presence of weapons.

Civic and Police leaders from Abbotsford, Delta, New Westminster and Port Moody came together to purchase the new vehicle.

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4.    SASKATOON,  POLICE SHOPPING FOR ARMOURED VEHICLE,  STAR PHOENIX, JANUARY 25, 2011

(July 2011: web address no longer valid.  http://www.leaderpost.com/news/todays-paper/Police+shopping+armoured+vehicle/4161626/story.html )

By David Hutton, Saskatchewan News Network; Postmedia News, January 25, 2011

– The Saskatoon Police Service is shopping for a bulletproof armoured rescue vehicle (ARV) to beef up its fleet.

The roughly $350,000 military-styled vehicle would be used in critical situations involving firearms to protect officers, police officials say.

“We have to weigh the safety of our officers and safety of citizens and that’s what we’re trying to have the vehicles for,” said police Chief Clive Weighill. “We’re doing more high-risk warrant executions where there are firearms involved.”

As the drug trade intensifies in Saskatoon due in part to the lure of the strong economy, police officers are coming across more firearms when they execute search warrants on drug houses, Weighill said.

The police service has been socking away capital money for five years to fund an ARV, which would be used by the emergency response team, he said.

A request for companies which manufacture ARVs to submit bids has been advertised and police hope to have the vehicle by the end of 2011. ARVs range in price from $325,000 to $375,000.

“It sounds like a lot of money but a (fully outfitted) patrol car is $60,000,” Weighill said.

“Everything we buy now seems to be expenive.”

Other cities have used ARVs for high-risk situations such as search and arrest warrants, hostage-taking situations, escorting high-risk prisoners, responding to emergencies at the airport and providing cover in the event police and paramedics need to rescue people from dangerous situations.

The focus in Saskatoon will be on potentially lethal arrest warrants, standoffs and conflicts involving a suspect with a high-calibre weapon, Weighill said. The vehicle, which can typically hold 10 people, can get officers close to or citizens out of risky situations safely.

There have been times when members of the emergency response team have had to hold up steel plates over the windows of a police SUV to protect themselves from potential fire, Weighill said.

“This is really about the safety of our officers,” he said.

The expected lifetime of the ARV is 10 to 15 years and it would be only be used during emergencies, Weighill said.

Ottawa police recently purchased the BearCat, which is similar to what the U.S State Department uses in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and is used by U.S. Marines for perimeter protection at nuclear submarine bases. The three-metre tall vehicle has military-grade steel armour, bulletproof windows, run-flat tires, a 350-horsepower, twin turbocharged diesel engine and other classified items.

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post

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5.  OTTAWA COPS GET NEW TOY, OTTAWA SUN, MARCH 24, 2010

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/03/24/13343821.html#/news/ottawa/2010/03/24/pf-13343931.html

Friday, March 11, 2011 

Force will put armored car to good use: Chief

By DOUG HEMPSTEAD, Ottawa Sun

Last Updated: March 24, 2010 2:35pm

Click here to watch the video

Ottawa Police unveiled their new Lenco BearCat armoured vehicle Wednesday. 

Ottawa Police say the city will definitely get its money’s worth out of its new $365,000 armoured vehicle.

“Probably we’ll use it 25 to 50 times a year,” said Chief Vern White, who indicated the vehicle — a Lenco Bearcat — was custom designed for Ottawa Police.

He suggested the vehicle represents a “growing up” of the local force, which previously has simply borrowed a similar vehicle from the RCMP when needed.

“The largest police services in the country have purchased vehicles similar to this and for the same purpose. We’ve been going on calls and hoping that we can get to the call and get close enough without being put under fire, and many times find ourselves in high-risk situations,” said White.

To that end, specifically, the Bearcat is a bullet-proof all-terrain vehicle which will be used for gun calls, hostage-takings, injured people, officer rescues and high-risk warrants.

The American-made vehicle ended up costing nearly $15,000 more than originally thought. Last fall the police board approved the spending of $341,147.

Tactical officer Const. Jim Hutchins was part of the group who helped decide exactly what kind of options and accessories the vehicle needed for it to be best suited for use in Ottawa.

“We actually canvassed services across the country of comparable size, I believe there were 27 services we looked at,” Hutchins said.

Looking over Ottawa Police’s own numbers, he said the vehicle could have been used in 30% of the tactical calls over the past three years.

The vehicle doesn’t require a special licence to drive — something tactical officer, acting Staff Sgt. Jeff Kilcollins said his team members are looking forward to doing.

“This is a Cadillac, quite frankly,” said Kilcollins. “This is a very well-built and well-researched vehicle.”

The 10-ton Bearcat is too big and heavy to be parked at police headquarters on Elgin St. and although it was unveiled to the media at the new west-end headquarters, the Bearcat will be stored in a central location.

It won’t be used for regular patrols.

doug.hempstead at  sunmedia.ca

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6.     MARCH 24, 2010:  “ARMOURED VEHICLES ADOPTED BY B.C. RCMP, OTHER CITIES CAN EXPECT TO SEE THE VEHICLES ON THEIR STREETS, TOO”

The article is at:    http://news.ca.msn.com/local/britishcolumbia/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23717966

From email Mar 24, 2010:

Will you contact your Mayor and Council and the heads of your RCMP and police, etc. to advise that we do not want armoured vehicles in our cities?  Nor do we need them.    …   (for full text, click on  2010-03-24 Armoured vehicles adopted by B.C. RCMP. Other cities can expect to see them, too. )

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7.   READER COMMENTS ON YORK POLICE ARMOURED VEHICLE (MARCH 7, 2011)

Tragically Quipped   6:19 AM on March 7, 2011

This is a crowd control vehicle, not something to use for “risky arrests.”

Afraid we’ll take to the streets?

  • 7:31 AM on March 7, 2011

My Gawd! What are we coming to in Canada!

I have not seen anything this crazy since the LA cops introduced an Urban Assault Vehicle.

What is terrifying about this is not the vehicle as much as the mentality, the culture of raw brutality, this equipment represents.

Canadians need to reassess our personal security and ask: ‘Is the enemy within?’

  • Caradoc    8:03 AM on March 7, 2011

I went to high school with a guy who’s now a detective with the York Regional Police. He was, and probably still is, hands down the most bullying, intolerant, dim-witted dufus one could imagine. Anyone who has seen ‘Clockwork Orange’ where the former gang punks (‘droogs’) become police would understand completely.

My dad was a cop, and he was the first to say ‘the ones you really have to watch are the cops’. Every division or station is a potential gang clubhouse.

Libya, yes.
York Region, no.

Call it the UOVTRIV.

Useless Over The Top Intimidation Vehicle

  • Teapots   7:41 AM on March 7, 2011

So that’s what a gravy train looks like.

  •  gb_eh      6:12 AM on March 7, 2011

What a complete waste of tax payer money… didn’t realize that York region was a strong hold of criminals. I don’t remember hearing about swat team being used heavily in that area?

  •  Gardiner Westbound   6:32 AM on March 7, 2011

Toys for boys!

  • Mark Shore    8:21 AM on March 7, 2011

As far as I can recall, there has never been a past incident in York, the GTA, or anywhere in Ontario where such vehicle was actually required.

Just one more example of the increased militarization of Canadian police forces (the US has gone a lot farther down that road), and the way our paid employees use our money to distance themselves from – and intimidate – the public they nominally serve.

  • Astutent   7:12 AM on March 7, 2011

Let’s see…

The O.P.P. is the highest paid entity in Canada.

RCMP officers make ~$80,000/year plus benefits by year 3.

Officers get away with gross abuses (taser deaths, wrongful arrests, beatings, etc.) because the SIU is useless.

Due to recent legislation, police are now able to pull you over for absolutely no valid reason (“to confirm your eligibility to drive”)

The G20 catastrophe speaks for itself.

And now this.

People of Canada, welcome to the Police State.

  • SlaterSmith1    7:53 AM on March 7, 2011

When have we ever demonstrated a need for something like this?

  • SnapDeadRythym   7:09 AM on March 7, 2011

At some point the empathy shifts from victim to criminal. Just a general heads up.

  • G Allen   6:57 AM on March 7, 2011

Sure, why not. Police forces in Canada aren’t expected to use budget money responsibly. They can do whatever they want in the name of public safety. Crime rate going down? Let’s ramp up budgets because no one can challenge us.

Sadly, we are not so different from many of those countries we deride when we read their news.

  • Ab1   6:50 AM on March 7, 2011

Can everyone say Police State?

  • JohnD    6:36 AM on March 7, 2011

Welcome to the new South Africa…. I can’t believe that we are spending precious tax dollars on these vehicles. We don’t need them… but if we build them, they will be used, and therefore create situations that will justify their presence.

This is a CON dream if I ever saw one. Oh Canada.

  • Masdar    8:01 AM on March 7, 2011

Perhaps the police forces will need this rolling tank, with gun ports, for use in the next G20 summit to control the peaceful protesters.

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8.       “LIGHT ARMOURED VEHICLES” (LAVs), WHAT ARE THEY?   (AMERICAN WEAPONS MANUFACTURER, CAMBLI INTERNATIONAL IN QUEBEC)

LAVs are war machinery.  You will see them in pictures of war AND you see them in pictures of police-state crack-downs on citizens.   Watch for them in newscasts – – you will have seen them.

The Lockheed Martin INDEX talks about the Canada First Defence Strategy and how the Canadian economy is being transformed into one that, like the American, is dependent upon making enemies in order to justify war.   Now we have this (another) American company situated in Canada, Cambli International, selling LAVs to municipal police forces in Canada  . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambli_International_Thunder_1

Cambli International Thunder 1 is an armoured police tactical vehicle built by Cambli International Incorporated of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

The 4 X 4 wheeled light armoured vehicle (LAV) is based on the company’s armoured car platform using International 7400 SFA chassis. Armour plated body and bullet-proof glass gives the vehicle ballistic protection from high calibre weapons.[1]

The vehicle is being marketed to civilian agencies or police forces in Canada and the United States. Thunder 1 targets law enforcement agencies looking for a cheaper alternative for armoured rescue vehicles.

So far the vehicle has been sold to one user:  (INSERT:  they then list two)

Vancouver Police Department – 1 delivered in 2010[2] from tender after 2008[3]

York Region Police – 1 delivered in 2011[4]

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9.  Feb 20, 2011,  OSHKOSH DEFENSE (AMERICAN) UNVEILED ITS PROTOTYPE FOR CANADA’S TACTICAL ARMOURED PATROL VEHICLE (TAPV) PROGRAM

http://defense-update.com/wp/20110220_oshkosh-tapv.html

Oshkosh Defense unveiled its prototype for Canada’s Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) program, as well as the company’s plans to work with its subsidiary, London Machinery, Inc. (LMI), to leverage that company’s new facility in London, Ontario, in pursuit of Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) vehicle programs.

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10.    MYTHS FOR PROFIT:  CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE (THANKS TO AMY),  +   “FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT STATE OF WAR”  (U.S.)  +  REPLY FROM WILLIAM HARTUNG “PROPHETS OF WAR:  LOCKHEED MARTIN AND THE MAKING OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX”.   

Please click on  MYTHS FOR PROFIT  .  There is important background information related to the rolling out of these armoured vehicles across Canada. 

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