We never pulled together accurate, concise, damning descriptions of the War Profiteers, Corporate Media, and RNC Corporate Sponsor (in that order).
To be more specific, we're talking about the nine companies listed below. The information at http://www.m27coalition.org/warprofiteers.html is a good starting point, but needs to be updated, fact-checked, and in some cases rewritten.
Thanks!
Here's the list of companies that benefit from war:
Data Center: Impact Research for Social Justice - datacenter.org and under reseach tools:
http://www.datacenter.org/research/web_res.htm
corpwatch.org - has research guides (organized by the Data Center) and Hands On Corporate Research Guide
http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=945
United for a Fair Economy - research
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/index.html
AFL-CIO - Research Resources
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/research/
Costofwar - "War affects everyone, not just those directly involved in the fighting. This webpage is a simple attempt to demonstrate one of the more quantifiable effects of war: the financial burden it places on our tax dollars..."
http://costofwar.com/
Has SIC holdings
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Windfalls of War: US Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The findings come from "the three agencies that awarded most of the Iraq and Afghanistan contracts in 2002 and 2003 — the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development." Browse statistics on contractors by country, amount of contract, campaign contributions, and other factors. Includes commentary and analysis. From the Center for Public Integrity.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/
The big news about AM General is that Ron Perelman just bought a 70% interest. A couple of articles/releases:
http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=100652
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK4.story&STORY=/www/story/08-10-2004/0002229023&EDATE=TUE+Aug+10+2004,+01:40+PM
Taxpayers for Common Sense whitepaper explaining light-truck tax break and Hummers.
http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/whitepapers/SUVtaxbreak.htm
Includes a dandy table entitled "First-year deductions on a
$110,000 Hummer H1"
Indianapolis Star article
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040507-army-humvees.htm
This places the cost to the military of a new HumVee at betwen $200-250K. Also features returning character Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN).
AM General corporate FAQs
http://www.amgeneral.com/corporate_faqs.php
Since AMG is a privately held company, it's not required to provide the kind of information to the public that a public company would be. Nonetheless, it's certainly worth taking a look at the company's public face.
Hope that's helpful!
I sent information on Logicon-with-an-N, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, to the patron. Lani also worked on this one:
Here's what I came up with on Logicon; owned by Northrop Grumman; news about them can be searched from their web page (http://www.northropgrumman.com/). If you Google for +Logicon +Iraq, and +Logicon +"war profiteers", you will no doubt get some interesting stuff; the latter will obviously be lefty type sources. Their Hoover's page is here:
http://www.hoovers.com/northrop-grumman-it/--ID__10906--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
I might proceed the same way I did with Carlyle, by picking a few C-level people and running their names through OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political contributions. (Make sure to use the Lastname, Firstname order - if you don't find anything, you can truncate to Lastname, F (first initial) and see what happens.)
I hope that's at least helpful - let me know if there's anything more specific I may be able to help you with.
Now, I can't access the original question, so, original asker, please let me know if I'm not really addressing your concerns. I'm not totally sure what "war profiteering" means, apart from profiting from a war...must be more nuanced than that...
Carlyle Group
Not sure what you consider "damning facts" -- the fact that the Hoover's Online entry begins "Can you say military-industrial complex?" might be one to some.
I started by visiting their web page; the pages of financial services firms usually incorporate press releases, lists of their holdings. You can see these holdings broken out alphabetically, geographically, by industry, and by the fund through which they're held. The most relevant category given the question ("War profiteers") would probably be Aerospace & Defense. Others that might be of interest include Energy & Power, and Industrial. Here's some select information about their Aerospace group.
The Disinfopedia entry on Carlyle is mostly cribbed (with citations, no worries) from Hoover's Online. There's no handy link to the Hoover's entry, but if you go to Hoover's and search for "Carlyle" in the search box, basic information is available without a subscription.
I spent some time running the leaders of the Aerospace group through the political contributions engine at OpenSecrets.org, and found that they're overwhelmingly rich....Democrats. Boy, do they love them some Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN). Bayh is a moderate Democrate and a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee - he's not a ranking Dem on any subcommittees. According to this Weekly Standard article , Bayh is seriously pro-war (or was in 2003).
From the Center for Public Integrity:
Computer Sciences Corporation is an IT consulting firm founded in 1959. It currently generates $11B in revenues, mostly from it's 1000+ government contracts. On the war front, CSC operates through its new subsidiary, DynCorp. DynCorp is a defense technology and security services contractor. DynCorp Intl. was recently awarded a contract to provide private security forces to Iraq and also to train local police agencies, the value of which may exceed $83M. DynCorp also provides security for the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. The value of this contract could exceed $43M.
Interesting facts:
1. For those really paying attention, they will know that DynCorp was the employer of a group of security officers who bought and sold Bosnian sex slaves in the aftermath of the fighting in Kosovo. These officers confessed to such things as prostitution and photographing themselves raping young girls. The officers were dismissed from DynCorp, but so were their fellow employees who blew the whistle on their repugnant behavior. One employee successfully filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in a British court.
2. DynCorp is also contracted by the US government to fight the drug war in Colombia. A group of Ecuadorian peasants have filed a class action suit against the company because of the pestisides it uses to destroy the Colombian cocaine fields. The peasants assert that the pestisides are drifting over the border and causing massive environmental problems.
3. DynCorp/CSC has given over $1.2M in campaign contributions over the past 10 years. It is the fourth-largest corporate contributer. The company was also a sponsor of the Democratic National Convention.
4. Several of CSC's board members are former military and intelligent officers. They have ties to NASA, the Army and Navy, and the FBI.
5. Resent extensions were made to DynCorp's contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, both without a competitive bidding process. The State Department insisted that there was no other company that could do the job.
All of the sources appear to be or have
valid, factual references, or at least they cite sources. There definitely
needs to be a better awareness of Lockheed Martin's involvement in war
profiteering and in the privitization of war.
Sources regarding Lockheed Martin:
1) Lockheed Martin: World’s Largest Weapons Manufacturer:
http://www.actagainstwar.org/article.php?id=165
2) Peace Activists Rally against Lockheed Martin (from the Santa Cruz
Sentinel):
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/August/07/local/stories/03local.htm
3) Lockheed Martin: World’s Largest Weapons Manufacturer:
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/corporate/dd/lm.html
4) Lockheed Martin Corporation – Fact Sheet – Hoover’s Online:
http://www.hoovers.com/lockheed-martin/--ID__10903--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
Here is what I have found out about Schlumberger so far.
* It is one of the world's largest oil services companies:
Hoover's Company Profile
Yahoo Business Information
* Schlumberger Announced its Second Quarter 2004 Results recently (triple profits):
slb.com
money.cnn.com
*Ownership of other companies:
PetroAlliance - Russian oil services company
Owns decision Team - German based software developer for the petroleum industry
Co-owns (70%) WesternGeco, US company that is a large provider of seismic services w/Baker Hughes (30%) -
*John Deutch as a Board Director , frmr CIA Director
* Some news articles relating to Schlumberger (or subsidiaries) and Iraq that may be of interest:
The RAND Corporation is a "non-profit" think-tank supported by taxpayers. It receives well over $100M per year in funds to conduct research for the government, universities, and private corporate clients. Most recently, it has been employed to advise the Bush administration on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Interesting facts:
1. Among the many corporate bigwigs on the board of this "independent" think-tank is former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, also the chairman of The Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group is another infamous war profiteer. Calucci and his shareholders - George Bush, Sr and George Bush, Jr - stand to make a fortune the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. So much for RAND's "objective analysis..."
2. RAND's experts are quite the handy apologists. In one commentary posted at their website, the author profusely defends the police departments who have been found to engage in racial profiling. The author says the data isn't good enough to prove anything conclusively, even though dozens of other studies and millions of law-abiding minority citizens can testify otherwise.
3. One of RAND's experts, Laurent Murawiec, testified just prior to the invasion of Iraq that Saudi Arabia - a 60-year ally of the US - was suddenly "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent in the Middle East." He actually said outloud that if the Saudis refused to cooperate in the war on terror that all their oil assets should be aggressively seized by the United States. The Saudis were to cooperate in removing Saddam Hussein and installing a friendly regime in Iraq that would increase oil exports to the West. One way or another, Murawiec wanted to see Americans in control of Saudi and Iraqi oil assets. The Bushies never acted on this advice, of course, the worse to ruffle the feathers of their royal Saudi friends. Nevertheless, it is a strikingly blunt expression of the neo-con agenda being pushed by this "independent" organization.
References:
www.hereinreality.com
www.rand.org
www.the-cat-bird-seat.net
Vinnell Corporation
A subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Division, Vinnell [http://www.vinnell.com] has been training the Saudi Arabian National Guard since 1975. The Vinnell presence in Riyadh has been the target of several terrorist attacks in the not-so-distant past and concerns about the development of "executive mercenaries" has grown (Hartung):
*November 13, 1995: 220-pound car-bombing of Saudi National Guard training facility.
*May 12, 2003 Car-bomb exploded in Vinnell compound killing 35 people (including 9 suicide bombers)
*June 8, 2004 A Vinnell employee was executed in his home
Links between the US trained Saudi National Guard and al Qaeda:
After the attack on the Vinnell compound in May 2003, an investigation insued to look into illegal arms sales by National Guard to al Quaeda (Finn).
Vinnell has been rumored to be a cover for CIA activity in Saudi Arabia (Buncombe).
Vinnell was owned by the Carlyle Group from 1992-1997. Dan Briody's book THE IRON TRIANGLE a study of Vinnell's one-time owners, claims that the initial contract "had a no Jews clause" (Cobain).
Brief Bibliography:
Briody, Dan. "The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group". New York: John Wiley, 2003.
Buncombe, Andrew. "Terrorists' target firm accused of acting as CIA cover." The Independent (London, England), May 15, 2003 p10
Cobain, Ian. "Firm was 'Cover for CIA'; In the shadows." Times (London) May 14, 2003.
Finn, Peter. "Al Qaeda link to Saudi National Guard." The Age. May 20, 2003. [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/19/1053196523425.html?oneclick=true]
Hartung, William. "Bombings Bring U.S. 'Executive Mercenaries' Into the Light," "The Progressive". (May 16, 2003). [http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0305vinnell.pdf]
OTHER LINKS:
Center for Public Integrity [http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=64]
Disinfopedia [http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Vinnell_Corporation]
A search on InformationClearinghouse.info results in many articles about Vinnell.
Burson-Marsteller (B-M) is a global public relations company that provides 'crisis management' as well as advertising, marketing, design, branding, etc. services for corporations, countries, politicians and governments. In 1979, B-M became a part of the Young & Rubicam company which was in turn bought by the WPP Group in October 2000. In 2002 B-M had sales of $175million. B-M has recently been awarded the role of PR agency by the Moscow 2012 Olympic Games Bid Committee.
According to Corporate Watch:
- The Nigerian government hired B-M to discredit reports of instability and genocide. Nigerian military paid the lobbying subsidiary over $1million in fees from 1991-1992.
- B-M was also hired by Argentinean military to "improve the country's international image and create the impression of stability to attract foreign investment."
- Saudi Arabia hired B-M after the September 11th attack to "ensure that its national image remains untarnished".
B-M high profile projects of note:
- Bhopal disaster -:B-M lobbying and PR Union Carbide resulted in a court settlement — Union Carbide paid US $470 million with the caveat that Union Carbide will not be held liable in future claims.
- Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: B-M denies handling crisis management for Exxon.
- B-M developed a crisis campaign to counter arguments that silicone breast implants were not safe. In 1991/1992 Dow-Corning, the client and breast implant maker, billed B-M $3.8 million.
Public interest, marketing and lobbyist groups created by B-M are given benign titles that suggest they are in support of environmental and human rights issues when they are working hard to change legislation to benefit their clients. For example:
- Foundation for Clean Air Progress (FCAP) — a group established to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to reject air pollution controls.
- Wide Use Movement: network of groups lobbying for less environmental legislation.
- British Columbia Forest Alliance, another anti-environmental group, received $1million dollars from corporate sponsors to re-engineer the public image of Canada's forest industries.
- Keep America Beautiful (KAB): anti-littering campaign funded by Coca-Cola, Reynolds Metal Co., Philip Morris, R.J Reynolds and other corporate sponsors believe that littering is a problem for the individual citizen.
- Californians for Realistic Vehicle Standards: formed by B-M and funded by automakers to oppose restrictions on lower automobile emissions.
A few more noteworthy B-M crisis management projects include: the Tylenol tampering case; Salmonella scare for Schwans & Jewel Supermarkets; BSE monitoring at McDonald's; BSE/CJD for National Cattlemen's Beef Association; and the Anthrax-laced mail for the United States Postal Service.
Sources:
Corporate Watch
DISINFOPEDIA
GAMESBIDS
Hoovers
Redbooks
(submitted by dtp)