When Merchants of Death Protestors Visited
Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics

David Swanson / World BEYOND War

(Armistice Day, November 11, 2022) — On Thursday, I caught up with representatives of MerchantsOfDeath.org who are planning a war crimes tribunal next year. They were delivering subpoenas to Washington, DC-area offices of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics.

I missed the Lockheed stop but am told they were not very welcoming. I’m reminded of the last time I visited Lockheed and their representatives literally would not open their mouths. Now, if we could just teach their lobbyists that trick.

When I got to Boeing, peace advocates were gathered in the lobby waiting for someone to come meet with them.

I said a few words (this video gets better after the first few seconds):

Lee claimed that Boeing needed to support the “Department of Defense” and its allies, by which he meant the Pentagon and every nasty government Boeing could get permission from the US government to sell weapons to, and that Boeing did this by “bringing the troops home” with no explanation of who it was who got the troops away from home and would go on doing so.

He also — I’m paraphrasing very roughly — seemed to suggest that Boeing helped in widespread slaughter around the globe precisely so that people could come air their grievances in the lobby (unlike, it was implied, in many of the other countries that Boeing sells weapons to).

And yet this freedom-isn’t-free malarkey had not helped out at Lockheed Martin and would prove as much a failure as any war when we got to Raytheon and General Atomics. Not that any of these companies alerted each other that we were coming. They clearly did not.

But Raytheon wouldn’t come out or let us in, and none of the people outside would say they worked for Raytheon.

When Brad and I went into General Atomics I remarked on how fitting it was that they had a revolving door, before I even saw the guy with the Marines lanyard around his neck — though whether it indicated a past job, the Marines’ birthday, or just bad taste I do not know.

Following this visit, some of us were talking about the usual problems: war, nuclear danger, climate destruction, broken media, broken government, etc. I said that I thought the biggest problem (not the only problem, as all the other problems are real problems) in persuading people to see through propaganda was not that they were stupid or uneducated or only moveable by emotional appeals and not facts, and not that sensible people were no good at communicating, but rather the general widespread fantasy that what’s on TV or in newspapers has some connection to what’s intelligent or persuasive.

The New York Times recently, I noted, had a columnist practically brag about how he’d refused to admit climate collapse was real until someone flew him to a melting glacier. No apology. No warning. No lesson learned. The proper admirable position is apparently precisely to refuse to believe serious evidence until someone flies you to a glacier. But, of course, I commmented, we cannot actually fly every jackass in the world to a melting glacier.

And yet, if you’re going to fly government officials to an annual COP meeting, why hold it in an Egyptian dictatorship? Why not hold it on a melting glacier? And given the general failure of all else to end war, why not fly the same government officials the next week to Yemen or Syria, Somalia or Ukraine, and set up viewing stands the way they did at Bull Run / Manassas (or Riotsville), and ask them to look solemnly into the camera and explain how what they’re seeing is creating the freedom thousands of miles away to be given a few dismissive words by some hack at the Boeing corporation?

Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.

“Subpoenas” Delivered to Lockheed Martin,
Boeing, Raytheon, & General Atomics

Merchants of Death

(November 10, 2022) – On November 10, 2022, organizers of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal and their supporters served the following “Subpoena” to the corporate offices and corporate directors of weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics, compelling them to provide to the Tribunal all documents revealing their complicity in aiding and abetting the United States government in committing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Bribery, and Theft.

Gregory J. Hayes, Raytheon Technologies

THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH
WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL TO:
Gregory J. Hayes
Raytheon Technologies
1100 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22209 U.S.A.

YOU ARE COMMANDED to produce and permit inspection and copying of the following documents, reports, records, or tangible things listed therein that are in your possession, custody, or control, at the time, date, and method set forth below:

1. Documents indicating all profits generated from sales of specific military weapons and supplies, year by year, produced by Defendant since September 11, 2001;
2. Documents demonstrating the number of lobbyists retained by Defendant, year by year, since September 11, 2001, and the cost, for the purpose of influencing members of Congress with respect to their decisions on weapons and military supplies sales and regulation and foreign and military policies;
3. Documents disclosing the number of active and former U.S. military personnel hired by Defendant, year by year, since September 11, 2001;
4. All internal documents disclosing the number of people killed or wounded by weapons Defendant produced since September 11, 2001;
5. Documents disclosing the specific weapons and supplies sold, quantity sold and the dollar value of each sale, since September 11, 2001, to the United States government, private entities and foreign governments;
6. Documents showing how much money the corporation has spent on advertising, year by year, since September 11, 2001, indicating the amounts that have been spent for ads in various forms of media and with which specific media firms;
7. Documents showing how much the corporation has spent each year since September 11, 2001, in supporting sporting competitions and prizes, community organizations such as the United Way and contributions to educational institutions, with a listing of recipients in all categories;
8. Documents showing, year by year, since September 11, 2001, the contracts between the corporation and specific educational institutions, and their amounts, for research and other services;
9. Documents since September 11, 2001, including email, and other electronic communication, in which officials of the corporation or their representatives conveyed to elected officials expressing opinions about what course the U.S. government should take with respect to foreign policy and particularly with respect to decisions involving U.S. military action;
10. Documents since September 11, 2001, detailing, year by year, the amounts of money spent by the corporation in support of specific public policy research and analysis organizations (“think tanks”);

11.Documents since September 11, 2001, detailing compensation of all corporate officers and board members, including stocks, and other benefits, which have been provided in the face of historic public concern over war profiteering as evidenced by the U.S. Senate’s Nye Commission, after World War I, the U.S. Senate’s Truman Committee, formed prior to the start of World War II and extending until 1948, and continued public revulsion, so evidenced in artistic expression of war and profiting from the blood-letting of war;

12.Documents since September 11, 2001, explaining how in good conscience
the corporation leadership continues to make and sell weapons domestically
and internationally in the face of ample documentation of the massive
human death and suffering caused by these weapon and the evidence that
these weapons, used individually and in concert with other weapons, are
dramatically contributing to the accelerating destruction of historic globalweather conditions a nd patterns that threaten all life on earth;

13. Documents since September 11, 2001, explaining how the corporation leadership can, in good conscience, participate in the construction of nuclear weapons, given the certain knowledge that the use of these weapons will lead not only to gross human death and suffering but the near certainty that their use will lead to the extinction of the human race;

14.Documents showing any and all visits since September 11, 2001, between corporate officials and agents, and officials and agents of foreign governments, the purposes of these visits, and any payments or other support of any kind made by the corporation to these individuals. Of particular interest are any communications relating to foreign policies and military policies of the United States and the foreign governments;

15.Documents since September 11, 2001, between the corporation and U.S. elected officials, executive branch officials and foreign officials with respect to the regulation of arms exports and particularly with respect to the export of arms shipments in war zones; 16.Documents since September 11, 2001, showing both the recipient’s name and the amount provided by the named corporation, to political campaigns, including, but not limited to, contributions by any of its officers or employees to political candidates, elected officials and or non-profit organizations, or any other type of entity or individual, intending to influence U.S. elections (“Dark Money”).

17.Documentation of any payments or other support provided to journalists, editors, or media outlets since September 11, 2001;

18.Documents of all corporate lobbying visits, and money spent, since September 11, 2001, in connection with arms control initiatives, particularly

with respect to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
19.Documents since September 11, 2001, listing all corporation contracts with public and private educational institutions and public and private research organizations, showing the purpose of the contract and its amount;
20. Documents listing, for each year since September 11, 2001, each corporate contract concluded with the U.S. federal government; state and local governments; foreign governments; and non-governmental entities, listing the amount of the contract, its purpose and the percent of corporate profit from each contract;

21.Documents since September 11, 2001, listing the top 10 weapons produced by the corporation in these categories: units sold, income to the corporation and profit;

22. Documents since September 11, 2001, listing all current geographical locations of corporate facilities, what is produced at each facility, the numbers of people employed at each, and any subsidies, cash payments, tax relief and relaxation of environmental regulation enforcement that the corporation may have received from state, county, or local governments.
    23. U.S. wars are fought to gain profitable access to fossil fuels for fossil fuel corporations. Accordingly. provide all documents since the year 2000 evidencing a connection between the defendant and fossil fuel corporations and institutions invested in fossil fuel corporations, including but not limited to: information on defendant corporate officers and board members who have worked for or now sit on boards of fossil fuel corporations and firms invested in fossil fuels; and/or, who may provide advice on energy policy to government and private entities. In addition, provide all communications between corporate officers and board members and entities of the U.S. government with respect to U.S. military and diplomatic efforts that might
    benefit fossil fuel corporations and fossil fuel investors.
    DELIVER TO: Send all documents electronically to wartribunal2023@gmail.com
    ON OR BEFORE DATE: February 10, 2023.
    Witnessed and Signed by the Following Tribunal Members:
    Brad Wolf, ____________________
    Kathy Kelly, ___________________
    Nick Mottern, __________________