[PEN-L:5328] Re: Professor T Mictic on Kosovo

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This article Doug posted is open and obvious evidence of the military industrial complex, and direct support and connecton between the ruling class and the institutions of war and militarism - a sort of smoking gun of capitalist mass murder. It is some refutation of the arguments being made that the U.S./NATO attack on Yugoslavia is without economic or business motives. Would business people be doing this if the U.S. military and NATO were carrying out any wars that the transnational monopoly  corps. and banks consider against their interests ? I don't think so.  Would these business people be this enthusiastic (even with the token or symbolic amounts of money for them ) about NATO if there weren't big bucks to be derived for them somewhere in the current war ? Give me a break. Clinton and the U.S. government, Blair et al. are the executive. They serve at the pleasure of the Board of Directors. The list of companies (in Doug's original post) are a representative committee of  !
!
the Board of Directors  or Directorate of Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie.

Of course, some might think the Bourgeoisie are concerned about humanity in Yugoslavia and around the world. Yea, they are concerned that they control mass human labor power. They can't kill everybody, just lots of people.

Charles Brown

Get the god damn U.S. out of everywhere !

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The Washington Post - April 13, 1999

COUNT CORPORATE AMERICA AMONG NATO'S STAUNCHEST ALLIES

By Tim Smart

        For many Washingtonians, the NATO military alliance's upcoming
50th-anniversary bash may end up being notable only for nightmare
traffic tie-ups. For a few companies, though, the summit could be the
ultimate marketing opportunity.
        A handful of top-drawer U.S. companies -- including heavyweights
such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. as well as upstarts
such as Nextel Communications Inc., a McLean-based wireless
communications firm -- will be the gathering's hosts and as such will
get to showcase their wares and schmooze with top military and
political leaders from 44 nations at events taking place throughout the
District.
        A dozen companies have paid $250,000 apiece in cash or "in-kind"
contributions for the privilege of having their chief executives serve as
directors of the NATO summit's host committee. The group is a
private-sector support system raising $8 million to finance the April 23-
25 event.
        While company representatives express disdain at the notion they
will be lobbying NATO officials for business, many of the firms on the
host committee sell precisely the kinds of products most in demand by
the emerging economies of Eastern and Central Europe -- which
include NATO's newest members and some prospective additions.
Ameritech, for instance, is interested in running international phone
networks. United Technologies Corp. views emerging or developing
countries as a big potential market for its Otis elevators and Carrier air-
conditioning and heating units. Both Ford and GM have auto plants
throughout Europe. Their target audience? Heads of state and key
cabinet ministers from the 19 NATO members, accompanied by
leaders from 25 nations that make up the Partnership for Peace,
countries with aspirations to join the alliance. The guests will be
accessible for the kind of low-key lobbying and wining and dining
customary at such international gatherings. About 1,700 dignitaries are
expected to attend -- along with a media contingent of 3,000.
         "The business community was in it from Day One," said Alan John
Blinken, a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium and investment banker
who is heading the host committee. "In a lot of these cases, they came
to us -- we didn't solicit them."
         A second tier of firms, including Washington powerhouse law and
lobbying firms Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and Verner,
Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, are members of the
committee. Other companies, such as Eastman Kodak Co. and missile
manufacturer Raytheon Co., are participating but taking a less public
role. And more are still being courted. "They're actually wooing our
CEO right now," said Gerald Robbins of 3Com Corp.'s Washington
office. The communications networking company has a contract with
NATO to supply equipment for the military alliance's AWACS
surveillance and control planes that are being flown over Kosovo.
"NATO is a big customer," Robbins said.
        Some host committee members, including Nextel, also hope to
attract the attention of top U.S. government officials at the summit. The
company is providing almost 2,000 of Motorola Inc.'s I-1000
combination cell phone and two-way radios to visiting foreign
dignitaries and members of the State Department's summit staff. Four
hundred of the $299 phones will be embossed with a special
anniversary emblem.
        Hungary, one of NATO's three newest members, held a reception
last week at its embassy here, where Nextel's general manager, Nick
Sample, proudly displayed one of the phones. Beaming, he told of how
the product had recently been added to the General Services
Administration's list of approved merchandise, allowing government
purchasing officers to order the wireless communications gear. Having
Nextel phones widely available to high-level bureaucrats as well as
foreign heads of state is the kind of marketing that can only be labeled
as priceless.
        For the guests, it's free, as Nextel is providing the phones gratis.
"We've had quite a few inquiries already from the FBI, the State
Department and the CIA," Sample said.
        Corporate support for the NATO summit is an outgrowth of the
active role many U.S. companies, particularly defense contractors such
as Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, have played in the move to
enlarge NATO beyond its traditional U.S.-Western Europe axis. U.S.
defense companies lobbied hard in Congress in recent years to admit
the former Soviet satellites Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
        "Companies like Lockheed Martin, for example, and all of them
were active with me overseas," said former congressman Gerald B.H.
Solomon, who headed a House task force appointed by former House
speaker Newt Gingrich to push the membership issue.
        Solomon, now a private lobbyist, said he traveled throughout
Eastern and Central Europe spreading the message that if the United
States was going to be NATO's principal military power, supplying
most of its high-tech weaponry, then U.S. defense firms should receive
contracts to rearm the former Soviet states.
        "We wanted them to buy American," Solomon said.
        Corporate representatives say private-sector underwriting of an
international meeting for sovereign nations is standard business
practice these days, though the NATO event is a far bigger draw than
other international get-togethers.
        "This is a very unique beast," said Sally Painter, a lobbyist for
Tenneco Inc. on leave from the auto parts and packaging conglomerate
while serving as chief operating officer of the host committee. Painter,
previously a top aide to then-commerce secretary Ronald H. Brown,
was involved in international business development for Tenneco.
"These are global corporations that understand the role stability plays
with investment. There's no quid pro quo at all."
        Jim Christy, vice president of government relations for TRW Inc.,
said it makes sense for companies, rather than the member nations, to
foot the bill for such events.
        "Whether it's the [Group of Seven] summit in Denver or the
Summit of the Americas in Miami, there are not government funds
available," Christy said, noting that TRW Chairman Joseph Gorman
was personally approached by Blinken on behalf of the host committee.
        "My chairman is public-spirited and agreed to do so," Christy said.
        TRW, though it has no contracts to provide products to NATO, is
one of a handful of companies providing critical communications and
defense supplies to the U.S. military. Along with donating $250,000 in
cash to the summit, TRW is developing its World Wide Web site.
        "We were hit up for the Summit of the Americas" Christy said,
adding that TRW did not contribute money for the meeting but built the
summit's Web site for free.
        Blinken said that the expansion of NATO and the pro-Western tilt
of countries formerly tied to the Soviet Union have created "major new
trading partners" for the United States but that today the interest in new
markets comes not only from arms merchants but also from a variety of
technology firms, including Ameritech Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc.
and Nextel.
        "Most of the companies are not companies you would have
expected in the old day, companies selling bombs and missiles, what
have you," Blinken said. "You've got communications companies."
        Yet a good number of the firms on the host committee sell
weaponry. Although the economic crisis that spread throughout Asia
and other parts of the world last summer has somewhat cooled their
enthusiasm, new NATO members such as Poland and other countries
such as Turkey are viewed as prime candidates for U.S. weapons.
Poland has been considering new fighter jets from either Lockheed or
Boeing Co.
        TRW's Christy said the summit was low on the radar of most
companies just a couple of months ago, when the events committee
made its first solicitations. But the fighting in Yugoslavia has focused
attention on the gathering.
        "All of a sudden," he said, "now this is beginning to burnish a little
into the consciousness."

NATO Access

        Here are the 12 companies that have paid $250,000 to have an
executive (in parentheses) serve as one of the directors on the NATO
summit's host committee:

        Ameritech (Richard Notebaert)
        DaimlerChrysler (Robert Liberatore)
        Boeing (Christopher W. Hansen)
        Ford Motor (Jacques A. Nasser)
        General Motors (George A. Peapples)
        Honeywell (Michael R. Bonsignore)
        Lucent Technologies (Richard A. McGinn)
        Motorola (Arnold Brenner)
        Nextel Communications (Daniel F. Akerson)
        SBC Communications (Edward E. Whitacre Jr.)
        TRW (Joseph Gorman)
        United Technologies (George David)

        SOURCE: NATO Anniversary Summit Host Committee