Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

EDO MBM Hide Evidence of War Crimes

* | 18.04.2007 20:46 | Lebanon War 2006 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Terror War | South Coast | World

EDO MBM have removed references to the 'Zero Force Retention Arming Unit' from their UK website just a few days before it was to be used as evidence in the defence of three anti war protesters.

The trial of the three begins on Monday 23rd at Brighton Magistrates Court. The move is just the latest in a history of attempts to hide the truth about what the Brighton arms firm is up to.

The EDO MBM ZF RAU is an essential part of the main bomb rack of the Israeli F16, used to commit war crimes in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. Under UK law anyone who acts to assist war criminals is guilty of an offence under the ICC, Geneva Conventions, and Criminal Law acts.

The section on the arming unit that used to be on a 'pylon ancillaries' page of the EDO MBM website has now vanished although the protesters legal team retain their copies.

The webpage was exhibited as evidence in the part-heard trial of two anti-war activists just last month in Brighton Magistrates Court. The trial of the two rooftop occupiers was only part-heard and has been put back to the summer. The webpage also formed defence evidence in the EDO Injunction case that collapsed last year.

In next week's trial of the EDO Blockade Three, Paul Hills, managing Director of EDO MBM, is likely to be called as a witness to answer questions about the products of the company. By removing the web reference, Hills appears to be trying to cover up the evidence against his company.

In December 2005, former Managing Director of EDO MBM, David Jones, admitted to Lewes Crown Court that he had hidden a reference on the company webpage to the Israeli VER-2 bomb rack to try and dampen Palestine solidarity protests. He resigned a few weeks after the admission.

Despite the latest attempt at subterfuge, Paul Hills will still have to answer questions on another webpage found on the main US EDO Corp site that advertises the EDO MBM Zero Force Retention Arming Unit as 'current application' of the Israeli Air force (IAF). See:  http://www.edocorp.com/documentation/ZeroRetentionForceArmingUt.pdf

Sources close to the company reveal Hills has found it politically difficult to get any favours from the EDO Corp board, what with the mess his company has created for his American bosses.

The closure last year of EDO Rugged Systems, a quarter of the UK operation, was a massive blow to the Brighton arms makers and a major victory for the protesters.

EDO Blockade Trial begins Monday 23rd at Brighton Magistrates Court, Edward Street and is set to last 3-5 days.


More on EDO Corps’s dodgy dealings here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_EDO_Corporation#_note-16


*
- Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk

Additions

archive.org page

18.04.2007 21:48

ftp


Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

EDO MBM SUCK!

18.04.2007 21:49

they now that the 3 defendent will be found not guilty, so they are doing everything to prejudice the trial!

edo mbm are doing down!!

tipobarra


Hidden VER-2 page

18.04.2007 23:02

thanks ftp for a very very useful website reference

Here is the page that advertises the Israeli VER-2 bomb rack hidden (we now know) in December 2004

 http://web.archive.org/web/20040401120233/http://www.mbmtech.co.uk/br.html

*


EDO MBM new parts for the F16

19.04.2007 02:25

UNCLASSIFIED

OSD RDT&E PROJECT JUSTIFICATION (R2a Exhibit)

Project Justification Exhibit R-2A


Date: February 2007

APPROPRIATION/ BUDGET ACTIVITY RDT&E/ Defense Wide BA# 6 PE NUMBER AND TITLE

0605130D8Z - Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT)

0605130D8Z (P130) Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT)

PROJECT P130

main charge propellant at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG). Additional outputs from FY 2006 funding include conducting final qualification testing of EI propellant at YPG (slated to occur in FY 2007).
Accomplishment/Planned Program Title FY 2006 FY 2007 FY 2008 FY 2009

1760 Umbilical Cord (Air Force) 0.423 0.000 0.000 0.000

Outcome: Increased reliability and service life of the MIL-STD 1760 interface umbilical by 10 fold. This umbilical transfers guidance information to weapons and is currently a one time use and throw away. The 508th Fighter Support Group at Hill AFB, Utah will evaluate an advanced umbilical connector, developed by EDO MBM Technology, Ltd. of the United Kingdom, which will disengage without being
damaged.

The current Air Force 1760 connecter is of a "screw on/pop off" design which is experiencing damage during weapon release. The EDO umbilical uses a collar that screws onto the weapon's 1760 connector and an umbilical cable that snaps on/off the collar and is repairable.

USAF could save roughly $315 thousand per year on cables for the F-16. Considering that the F-16 is projected to be in use until 2026, the overall life-cycle savings could reach as much as $6.0 million.

The primary outputs and efficiencies to be demonstrated are:
(1) that the EDO umbilical connector mates with Mil DTL-38999/20 and /24,
(2) that the connectors accept SAE-AS85049 self-locking
accessories and
(3) that they will disengage without damage from any coupled connector including partially mated

FY 06 Output: Contract for the test articles awarded. Eglin test plan completed.

Rather than funding separate tests the testing will be concurrent with programmed testing completing the final demonstration in 3rd Qtr FY07.

Completion date and publishing the Final Report planned for 4th Qtr FY 2007.

FY 2008 results include the planned transition of the umbilical cord into the Defense Logistic Supply Chain.

 http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2008/OSD/0605130D8Z.pdf

qwerty


Heads Up, Thumbs Down

19.04.2007 23:56

You may remember NuLab were voted in on 'an ethical foriegn policy'. Part of that was a promise and a policy not to export arms to be used on the Occupied Territories. This faced a challenge early on as BAE wanted to export Heads Up Displays for Israeli F-16s that were bombing civilians. So they changed the policy they themselves had introduced.

"What critics were most angry about was the fact that this decision actually supersedes the existing government policy of banning equipment sales when they may be used in the Occupied Territories. In effect, this means that restrictions have been lifted for all sales (specifically of parts) for American-made weapons, whether or not it is known that they will be used in conflict areas around the world."

Britain invokes US defense ties to break own Israel arms ban
 http://www.rimeallaf.com/articles/a0039.html

British arms exports to Israel double in a year
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1828246,00.html

Danny


update: case put back to july 2007

25.04.2007 21:09

five day trial now set for 23 july 07 start

mmm


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech