BAE And The Keys to The MoD

Where do the crooks at the top of the MoD end up after they have bungled their way through a career as a civil servant?

 You've guessed it on the board of BAe or other such defence companies.

They should flush all the NAZI'S out of the MoD, then it would function better. I know that there are fascist sympathisers in the MoD, and they would not risk challenging me in court. 

To be fair to NuLabour, as funny a concept as this may be, this is not even remotely new. In fact the UKs military-industrial complex (MIC) is the oldest known, circa 1880. The fact that MICs require "institutionalised collusion" and "whose motivation is profiteering" gets up your noses is, I suspect, that this now seems to be viewed as a broad agendal for govt rather than an exception.

'...Jack Straw has always been the most pervasive and insidious supporter of BAE in the Cabinet. It was Straw who lobbied hardest against Cook's plans to limit BAE arms sales, and when Blair sacked Cook it was Straw who replaced him as Foreign Secretary. It was Straw who lobbied hardest for the investigation into the BAE bribes to be dropped, and it is Straw who now has become, supreme irony, Minister of Justice.

When Straw escorted Condoleeza Rice around the North West of England in March 2006, a BAE arms factory was the highlight of the trip.

Straw's links with BAE are partly conducted through Lord Taylor of Blackburn, the former leader of the Blackburn with Darwen Council that includes Straw's Blackburn constituency. Lord Taylor, an archetypal New Labour apparatchik from Straw's constituency machine, has lived off the taxpayer in Labour Party appointed posts all his life. He is now chiefly known as the second highest claimer of expenses in the House of Lords. In 2005 Lord Taylor claimed over £57,000 of tax-free expenses, over three times the average claim of under £19,000. he spoke 15 times in the year.

But he doesn't really need that public money anymore, as the grasping creep Taylor is the primary conduit between the defence industry and New Labour. He has been a highly paid "Consultant" to BAE for over a decade. He also has used some of that money to make major contributions to Jack Straw's election expenses in his Blackburn constituency, declared by Straw in the Register of Member's interests. Lord Taylor also regularly makes large contributions to fund Blackburn New Labour. When I stood against Straw in Blackburn at the last election, Taylor was present with Straw at a black tie event hosted by BAE in the constituency said to be "unrelated to the election".

Interestingly, this year in the House of Lords' Register of Members' interests, BAE has disappeared from Taylor's list of eleven paid consultancies and two paid directorships. It might be interesting to dig for links between these companies and BAE. Some are certainly arms firms - including the highly sinister Electronic Data Systems.

EDS is another of the arms companies that has made many billions from the Iraq war. Among their many current defence contracts is a $12 billion project on electronic systems for the US armed forces. Presumably a well-plugged in New Labour apparatchik like Lord Taylor was of no hindrance to EDS in March 2005 when they landed a £2.5 billion contract from the UK MOD for a similar project. Indeed, if Lord Taylor cannot help swing that kind of contract, why are EDS paying him?

I do not have power of words sufficiently to condemn the institutional sleaze of a system where a scumbag like Lord Taylor can be put, unelected, by Blair into a seat for life in the national legislature. There, while a legislator, he can act as a well paid and highly connected lobbyist for the arms industry. As someone who has been deeply patriotic, I must now say that I find myself unable to have any pride in my own country any longer.

What are our soldiers dying for again?'

http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/08/theres_good_mon.html#comments

Illegal Attacks...

new antiwar record

Ian Brown (Stone Roses)

Sinead O'Connor (no introduction necessary)

"It’s a commercial crusade, ‘Cause all the oil men get paid, And only so many soldiers come home, It’s a commando crusade, A military charade, And only so many soldiers come home, Soldiers, soldiers come home, Soldiers come home"

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqfBH1IJkWo

"Prince Bandar, challenged as to whether there is corruption in deals with the Saudi royal family, replies:" "Yes. So what?"

http://tinyurl.com/2zvlr3

BAE's lobbying...

http://tinyurl.com/2vpojy