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HOW EDO MBM SUPPLIES THE ISRAELI MILITARY
EDO components used in Iraq
EDO
MBM/ ITT are a key partner in the development of Raytheon’s Paveway
guided bomb programme. The Paveway bomb was the most used air weapon in
the 2003 attack on Iraq. 70% of all munitions launched in the initial
‘shock and awe’ bombing were Paveway bombs. Records show EDO MBM have
exported parts to the US company General Dynamics, that make the bomb
bodies of the US Paveway bombs on a regular basis at least since 2006.
EDO MBM currently manufacture hardbacks and ancillaries for the new
generation of UK Paveway IV guided bombs
as part of a global
assembly line that stretches from the US to Sardinia. Since 2003,
hundreds of thousands of people have been killed as a direct result of
the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The guided bombs used
in these immoral and illegal acts of aggression were directly and
knowingly assisted by EDO MBM’s research and development of the Paveway
system.
On these facts alone, EDO MBM/ITT are complicit in
crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law. Any
damage done to their factory by the decommissioners action in January
2009 pales into insignificance when this is taken into account. But EDO
MBM’s complicity goes further still...
EDO and Israel
Since
2004 two managing directors of the company have confirmed the company
owns the patents of two essential components used by the Israeli Air
Force F16 aircraft called the VER-2.
Open sources and statements
by directors of the company prove that the Zero Retention Force Arming
Unit and the Ejector Release Unit (ERU) 151 are both used in the VER-2
bomb rack. In 1990,
Flight International reported that the Lucas Western ‘Zero Retention Force Arming Unit’ had ‘already
been fitted to Tornados, Israeli F-16s, Australian F-111s, USAF F-15Es and USN A-6s and A-7s’. Be-
tween
2003 and 2007 EDO MBM advertised on its Brighton website that it was
‘actively manufacturing’ the EDO MBM Zero Retention Force Arming Unit.
EDO MBM advertised the VER-2 until 2004 when managing director David Jones hastily removed
it
because, as he stated under oath ’we were experiencing protests‘ and
‘didn’t want to adver- tise what we particularly do to outside people
who were likely to use it against us’.
EDO MBM’s website
continues to advertise the ERU-151 while directors of the company have
denied under oath that it has ever been made, sold, exported by them or
by anyone else. However during an investigation buy the Information
Commissioner in 2008 the UK Government Department for Business (DBIS)
admitted that since 2000 the company had applied for arms trade export
licenses to export the ERU-151 but refused to disclose dates, or
destinations, claiming this might damage the commercial interests of
the firm.
In March 2009 both the UK Government and the
Information Commissioner confirmed that these license applications had
been approved.
In August 2009 the Head of Export Policy Unit
at the UK government Export Control Organization admitted that these
licenses had not been found in initial 2007 searches of the license
documents under a Freedom of Information Act request, or during a
further four week internal review, because the company had described
the ERU-151 in its applications in an ‘unconventional’ way.
Despite
this the Government claim that this does not prove that directors
lied in court about the ERU-151 because it is possible the licenses
were never used. The Department of Business claim they do not
collect information about when military export licenses are actually
used.
Currently EDO MBM has 55 arms export licences in force The
company may also be describing the military items to be exported in an
‘unconventional’ manner so as to escape the scrutiny of arms export
controls. The same tactic may be widespread throughout the arms
industry and the thousands of companies that export military components
every year without any of the scrutiny that EDO MBM have been placed
under.
On
21 April 2009 Foreign Office minister David Miliband admitted in
parliament that UK military components had been used by the Israeli Air
Force in its attacks on Gaza. ‘British made components for F16s have
been exported to the United States where Israel was the ultimate end-
user,’ he said. The next day another FCO minister Bill Rammell, Deputy
Head of the Counter Pro liferation Department stated before the
Committees On Arms Export Control. ‘We believe that there is IDF
equipment that was used in Operation Cast Lead, and it almost certainly
contained British-supplied components’. In respect of F16s, helicopters
and armoured personnel carriers, either on an incorporated or an
unincorporated basis, there have been no approvals since Lebanon 2006.’
Under a five year Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL), if the
ERU-151 licence was approved in 2002, then EDO MBM could still have
been exporting it directly to Israel up to 2007. If approved around the
time of the Lebanon war of 2006, then EDO MBM could still
have been making and exporting it to Israel indirectly, via the
USA, France or another country, right up to the time of the
decommissioning action. It is very probable that such contracts include
the regular provision of spares and replacement parts for the
equipment that EDO MBM have owned the sole patent to since 1998.
As of August 2009 the UK government refuses to confirm or deny if
they hold any information relating to EDO MBM/ITT’s exports to Israel.
The Government claim international relations with allied
government could be damaged by any such disclosure, and any
disclosure of exports to sensitive destinations could lead to the
company being targeted by ‘pressure groups’ in further acts of
direct action. The question arises. If there is nothing to hide, why do
the UK government refuse to provide information. All this evidence
leads us to just one highly probable conclusion. EDO MBM are arming
Israel.
By the Scintilla Research Project
scintillaresearch@gmail.com
Some Sources:
iv
Testimony of David Jones. Managing Director /of EDO MBM Technology
Ltd. 7 December 2005. Appeal of Gittoes, Marcham, Sacca,
A20050031/36/41.Lewes Crown Court (Sitting in Hove). Transcript
provided by Appellant
vi‘Lucas
in B-2 weapons launch study’ Flight International. 14
February 1990
xi
Confirmed by legal representatives for DBERR and ICO in Information
Tribunal case EA/2009/0002. Telephone Directions Hearing. March
2009.
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