BAE: The Scum of the Earth

So BAE systems are at it again, using their obscene Whitehall punching power to take swings at people who ask naughty and entirely unreasonable questions of their staff, such as "did you pay bribes to the Saudis to obtain arms contracts?"

The sheer cheek of it! Don't these Luddites know that we have an Empire to protect?

Mark Thomas has an opinion. And more to say on the matter here, such as:

"Let us cast our minds back to the activities of that ardent supporter of "our boys", the arms company BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace). Back in the 1990s, BAE was helping to arm Saddam Hussein through a company called Arab British Dynamics (ABD). ABD was a joint-venture company formed in 1978 by the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (an Egyptian- based firm backed by Gulf funding) and BAE, which owned 30 per cent of the venture.

According to Jane's, the defence bible, BAE withdrew from the company in 1992 when the post-Gulf war British government discovered that ABD was helping Saddam Hussein with his Scud missile programme.

More important, though, is ABD's development and marketing of its anti-tank guided missile, called the Swingfire. It appears that BAE provided the technology for the Swingfire, which was developed under British licence. In 1983, the Financial Times noted that Swingfire missiles were supposedly heading to Sudan and Iraq. Jane's has subsequently confirmed Saddam Hussein's possession of the weapons. So BAE helped Saddam with his anti-tank missiles as well as his Scuds. Incredibly, no laws were broken as no parts, equipment or components were exported.

Then, in December 2001, a Daily Telegraph report appeared listing some of the items found at a "cleared" al-Qaeda centre in Afghanistan. Among the items were a "glossy brochure for Arab British Dynamics extolling the benefits of the company's Swingfire guided missile" and an operating manual for the system. Thus, it is possible that al-Qaeda could have Swingfire missiles, thanks to BAE. The government's Export Control Act does not cover the issue of licensed production of arms; so as long as nothing actually leaves the UK, British companies can export their technology and create foreign-based companies to avoid any UK or EU rules governing arms exports.

They can arm the dictators, who will oppress the people, whose liberation will serve as the excuse to send "our boys" to face the missiles they sold and try to bomb the civilians to freedom. You can be sure of one thing: other than family and friends, anyone who shouts "support our boys" is either a fool or a callous cynic of the worst kind."