Embargo – For Immediate Release
8th August 2006
Press Contacts – Andrew Beckett and Sarah Johnson
Tel 07875 708873
Email – smashedopress@yahoo.co.uk
See www.smashedo.org.uk for more details
Day of Rage against Brighton Arms Manufacturers’ Supply of Weapons For War Crimes in Gaza and Lebanon
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EDO MBM manufacture components for the Israeli Hellfire missile and the VER-2 F16, currently being used in Gaza and Lebanon. As laser guided air-strikes once more claim a death toll amongst a civilian population Brighton activists will remind EDO MBM of their complicity in war crimes.
EDO Corporation literature, given out at the Farnborough Air Show, boasts that the company is initiating new contracts with the Israeli military.
Andrew Beckett, press spokesperson for Smash EDO, said ‘people are very angry about the crimes being committed’ with British made weapons, in Gaza and Lebanon. This weekend over 100 000 people marched in London calling for a ceasefire. However EDO MBM are making a profit from the misery inflicted on the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. We will not tolerate EDO MBM’s presence in Brighton any longer’.
Call 07875 708873 for interviews
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Notes for Journalists
Brighton & Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City
EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of huge U.S arms conglomerate EDO Corp, which was recently named No. 10 in the Forbes list of 100 fastest growing companies. They supply bomb release mechanisms to the US and UK armed forces amongst
others. They supply crucial components for Raytheon's Paveway guided bomb system, widely used in the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Iraq.
Campaign against EDO MBM.
EDO MBM makes electrical weapons components for the Israeli military. EDO MBM manufactures components to be incorporated into the Hellfire missile, which the Israeli army has recently used to attack the civilian population of Gaza. They have organised conferences on the development of UCAVs, unmanned aircraft which are widely used in aerial attacks on Gaza. EDO Corporation, of which EDO MBM Brighton is a wholly owned trading unit, has a direct contract with the Israeli Navy who murdered 10 civilians on a beach near Beit Lahiya, Gaza, earlier this month.
People involved in the anti-EDO campaign include, but are not limited to: local residents, the Brighton Quakers, peace activists, anti-capitalists, Palestine Solidarity groups, human rights groups, trade unionists, academics and students.
The campaign started in August 2004 with a peace camp. It's avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their complicity in war crimes and to remove them from
Brighton.
Contact Andrew Beckett or Sarah Johnson For more Details
Email - smashedopress@yahoo.co.uk, tel 07875708873
http://www.smashedo.org.uk