[COAT] Ottawa's Mayor & War Bazaars! Democracy Under Attack!

[coat AT list.openconcept.ca]

Please circulate this article. The
online
 version of this
article includes many images.

Note: Ottawa peace activists will
converge on City Hall tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24, at 10 am. for
Council's historic vote on whether to uphold the 20-year ban on hosting
war-industry bazaars.

Please join us if you are in
Ottawa!

Ottawa's Mayor O'Brien, Calian Technologies and the CANSEC
War-Industry Bazaar: 
Democracy under Attack at Home and Abroad
By Richard Sanders, coordinator,
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT)
 
For weeks now, while peace activists have been busy campaigning to oppose
the use of Ottawa's publicly-funded municipal facilities for private
military arms exhibitions, like CANSEC 2009, the City’s mayor -- Larry
O'Brien -- was on trial.
 
The mayor of Canada’s capital city (and founder of Calian Technologies --
a prominent local war industry exhibiting at CANSEC) is one of those
colourful corporate-class executives who enters the political arena by
threatening to run the government as if it were his own private business
enterprise.
 
While this apparently is no crime, attempted bribery and purported
influence peddling, are. These charges became public when a fellow
right-wing mayoral candidate, Terry Kilrea, asserted that

O'Brien had offered him $30,000 and a plum federal job on the
National Parole Board in exchange for withdrawing from the mayoral race
in 2006.  Kilrea bolstered his claim by signing a legal affidavit
that was initiated and paid for by the Ottawa Citizen
newspaper.
 
These much-discussed accusations, revealing O'Brien's apparent disdain
for the basic principals of local democracy, have featured prominently in
mainstream media accounts of this story. 
 
However, there is a far more insidious and largely unspoken dimension to
this chronicle of O’Brien’s perceived willingness to undermine democracy.
This hidden aspect of the O'Brien narrative, which the corporate news has
not deigned to report, has to do with how Canadian military industries --
like O'Brien's very own Calian Technologies -- supply scores of high-tech
products and services for wars that undermine democracy at a global,
international level. 
 
Like the unseen subsurface mass of an iceberg, this is the much larger
yet invisible saga of how Canadian military industries profit from the
big business of equipping those whose professional occupation is to wage
war.  In practical terms, for Canadian war industries, this means
supplying what some indiscreetly call the "US war
machine."  That's because about about three quarters of all
Made-in-Canada military hardware is exported and 80% of those exports are
sold, without any federal restrictions, to the United States. Once south
of the border, Canadian technology -- much of it in the form of high-tech
components -- is assembled into complete, American weapons systems.
Although some of these major weapons are then sold to other governments,
they are -- for the most part -- used in whatever war, or wars, the US is
then waging. For those who haven't noticed, this usually means either
some "regime change" (to physically topple an unwanted foreign
government) or "regime maintenance" (to help business-friendly
governments retain their iron grip on political power). 
 
Calian, which O'Brien founded in 1982, is one of these lucrative Canadian
military industries and, financially, it seems to be doing very well
indeed.  Calian supplies software, training, personnel and
high-technology components and support services to the world's biggest
institutions of war. 
 
Calian has several subsidiaries and each one is deeply ensconced in the
business of war. Let's take a brief look at a few examples of Calian
contracts that have aided and abetted the planning and waging of
large-scale armed conflicts.
 
SED Systems
SED Systems is a wholly-owned division of Calian Technologies, based
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It provides ground services for various
satellites including those used by US intelligence and military
institutions.  For instance, SED has been under contract since 1995
to "control and monitor the RADARSAT-1" satellite. SED also
provides "flight operations services to the RADARSAT-2
mission." Although these two publicly-funded Canadian satellites
cost taxpayers over a billion dollars, the Liberal government was quick
to privatise RADARSAT. Its state-of-the-art earth-monitoring services
have been used for weapons-targeting roles in various US-led wars, most
notably in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. A six-month study of
RADARSAT's many military functions led to a 52-page COAT report called:
"Canada’s
Role in the Militarisation of Space: RADARSAT - The Warfighters’ Eye in
the Sky and its links to Missile Defense."

SED also supplies "various systems and components" for the
so-called
"
Manportable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar" (MSTAR).
This US system "locates moving targets and uniquely classifies them
as personnel, tracked or wheeled vehicles." MSTAR is said to have
"performed admirably in service with U.S. and Allied Forces in
Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and other locations." Users of this
military targeting system include the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army.
There are now "more than 500 MSTAR radars...in service throughout
the world."  
As during previous years, SED Systems was an exhibitor at the CANSEC 2009
military trade show in Ottawa this May 27 and 28. This landed Mayor
O'Brien in hot water. After commenting publicly that CANSEC should be
held on City of Ottawa property, despite a 20-year ban imposed by a 1989
Council resolution, O'Brien was accused of conflict of interest. Because
he still sits on Calian Technologies' Board of Directors, O'Brien stood
to personally benefit from the CANSEC trade show because of SED's
position as an exhibitor. (Ottawa Citizen,

March 29,

March 30,

March 31.)
 
Calian Technology (US) Ltd
This branch of Calian Technologies prides itself on helping to facilitate
the export of US military equipment to foreign governments around the
world. It does this through contracts which provide "Foreign
Military Sales management training in support of the International
Programs Office of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)." The DLA is
the
"
logistics combat support agency whose primary role is to provide supplies
and services to America's military forces worldwide."
 
But Calian does more than assist the US government agency responsible for
getting war technologies into the hands of a million or more US
warfighters strategically based around the world. Calian's
"management support" is specifically targeted to help the
"
international purchasers of US weapons systems." Calian
contracts include, for example, teaching the DLA's
"
Foreign Military Sales management course." Could there be any
more significant evidence of Calian's support for the international arms
trade than this?
 
F/A-18
"Hornet"
Calain Technology (US) Ltd., has been supporting the Royal Australian Air
Force (RAAF) F/A-18 program since 1988.  It provides
"professional, technical, and administrative support services"
to the RAAF's Technical Liaison Office that
"
include financial and administrative support, logistical analysis and
systems engineering support" for Australia's fleet of
F/A-18s.
 
Australia uses American F/A-18 fighter/attack warplanes to fulfill
various combat roles including the escort of bomber warplanes during
bombing sorties, the suppression of enemy air defences, reconnaissance,
forward air control, close and deep air support, and day and night strike
missions.  Australia has used their F/A-18s in the Afghan and Iraq
wars since 2001 and 2003 respectively.
 
  
Calian Content Management Services (CMS)
Calian CMS provides high-technology software products and services
for numerous major US weapons systems, particularly war planes and
drones, used in the Iraq War. These weapons systems have also been used
in Afghanistan and elsewhere. For more details on Calian's contracts for
these weapons systems, click on the links below. 
 
F-117 "Night
Hawk" 
The F-117 is a wedge-shaped, ground-attack fighter aircraft with stealth
features that make it virtually undetectable to radar. First used by the
US Air Force in the bombing of Panama in 1989, it was heavily used in
1991 Gulf War and against Iraqi targets through the 1990s. In 1999,
F-117s were used during the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia. Then,
beginning in 2001, it was used in bombing Afghanistan to assist and
empower the Northern Alliance warlords who have since been encouraged to
take political power in that country. F-117s were also used during the
most recent Iraq War that began in 2003. 
 
RQ-4 "Global
Hawk"
This high-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance drone -- the size of a
large business jet -- carries one ton of imaging technology and can
photograph targets with one foot of resolution from 200 kilometres
away.  It uses Synthetic Aperture Radar and Electro-Optical/Infrared
imagery to provide data for weapons targeting. America's RQ-4s have been
used in the following wars and military operations: Afghanistan
(2001-present), Pakistan (2002-present), Philippines (2003) and Iraq
(2003-present).
 
 U-2 "Dragon
Lady"
This variety of US spy plane was originally operated by the CIA. It has
conducted high-altitude surveillance and tactical reconnaissance missions
since 1956 and has been used in a great many wars and military
operations. For instance, the U-2 is known to have provided data for use
in military operations over the following countries: Egypt, Lebanon,
USSR, Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. 
 
C-130
"Hercules"
This cargo plane is the primary means for transporting troops, weapons,
tanks and other vehicles into battlezones. Having accumulated over 20
million flight hours, it is probably the most versatile, tactical
transport aircraft ever built. Some variants refuel fighter and bomber
aircraft, while others have sprayed Agent Orange and dropped the world's
largest conventional weapons (the BLU-82) in Vietnam and Iraq. 
C-130s have been used in countless wars, bombing missions invasions and
regime changes including Lebanon (1958), Congo (1960-1961, 1964-1965),
Dominican Republic (1965), Vietnam (1962-1975), Korea (1968-1969),
Cambodia (1970), Israel (1973), Korea (1976), Zaire (1978), Iran (1980),
Grenada (1983), Panama (1989), Iraq (1991), Somalia (1991-1992), Angola
(1992), Sierra Leone (1992), Somalia (1992-1994), Haiti (1994-1995),
Rwanda (1994-1996), Yugoslavia (1992-1996, 1999), Liberia (1996),
Afghanistan (2001-present) and Iraq (2003-present). 
 
F-16 "Fighting
Falcon"
This multi-role, high-performance fighter/bomber warplane is used in
air-to-air combat and for attacking ground targets. American F-16s have
been used many wars and bombing missions including: Lebanon (1982-1983),
Iraq (1991, 1992-2003), Yugoslavia (1994, 1995-1996, 1999), Afghanistan
(2001-2003) and Iraq (2003-present).
 
C-5 "Galaxy"
This large, military transport aircraft provides strategic
intercontinental cargo services for the US Air Force. In use since 1969,
it is one of the world's largest warplanes and was deployed in Vietnam
(1970-1972), Israel (1973), Iraq (1991), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan
(2001-present) and Iraq (2003-present).
 
MQ-8B "Fire Scout"
This aerial drone is nearing operational testing for launch from US
warships to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition
operations in Iraq. It is also able to fire "Hellfire"
missiles, "Viper Strike" weapons and the "Advanced
Precision Kill Weapon System." As such, the MQ-8B will be on the
cutting edge of advanced killer robots.
 
Business and Technology Services (BTS)
Division
Calian BTS Division recently received major contract to provide
advanced military training services for Canadian warfighters in
Afghanistan. The Department of National Defence (DND) has just signed a
contract with Calian that may bring in close to $200 million for Mayor
O'Brien's company. Calian's role is to create and use high-tech
computer-simulated synthetic environments to train soldiers.

The use of artificial, electronically-created environments allows them
soldiers to practice and rehearse the tactics they will use on the
battlefield. This Calian contract is for the continued provision of
Training and Capability Development Support Services with DND's
Directorate of Land Synthetic Environments (DLSE). The DLSE is
responsible
"
to assist


in the development and validation of combat development solutions for the
Army in operations throughout the spectrum of
conflict."


More information, Coalition to Oppose the
Arms Trade (COAT)