Smash EDO Press Release -Demonstration against EDO's Complicity in Drone Attacks

A demonstration will be held at EDO MBM/ITT, Home Farm Road, Brighton, from 4 til 6 today (12/08/2009), against EDO's complicity in attacks by unmanned fighter aircraft (drones). Protesters will fly kites outside the Brighton weapons manufacturer to symbolise the aircraft used by the US and Israeli militaries.

EDO MBM, a Brighton based arms factory, advertise several components for the US Reaper drone, which has recently been used in assassinations of "al-Qaeda" suspects in Pakistan. By April 2009 687 Pakistani civilians alongside 14 people suspected of involvement with al-Qaeda, 50 civilians for every suspect.

Earlier this year Lord Bingham, a retired senior lawlord, said that drones were "so cruel as to be beyond the pale of hman tolerance" and called for a debate as to whether they should be seen in the same category as landmines and cluster bombs.

EDO MBM/ITT will be marketing its drone technology at this years' DSEI arms fair in London from 8-11th of September, the largest arms fair in the world (for more info see www.dsei.org).

Chloe Marsh, of the Smash EDO campaign, said "EDO MBM/ITT have helped to design and market drone technology which has been used in extrajudicial executions and war crimes by the US and Israel. Today we will stand in solidarity with the victims of those attacks"