Brigadier General Smedley D Butler wrote of war in his 1935 book, War is a Racket, and said,
Well, it’s a racket, all right.
A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can’t end it by disarmament conferences. You can’t eliminate it by peace parlays at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can’t wit it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.
War is Business has analyzed a report in the NY Times of 83 US Department of Defense contractors who do business with our ‘enemies’. Included on the list is Bank of America, expected to be the subject of a forthcoming Wikileaks release that may force resignations of top executives, according to Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder.
Bank of America recently attempted to cripple the whistleblower organization by cutting off payments believed to be intended for the non-profit organization. According to this list, they may not like Wikileaks but have no moral or ethical conflict to working with “Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers“.
Here’s the list of US military contractors holding extra-special export licenses, derived from the Times’ reporting, and the blacklisted countries or organizations with which they’ve done business. The list runs in descending order by the number of export licenses held, from over 200 in the case of Bank of America and GE, down to five at the bottom.
Bank of America Cuba, Iran, Kosovo, Sudan, Non-Proliferation, Multiple, Iraq, Burma, Weapons Mass Destruction, Yugoslavia, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
General Electric Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Libya, Cuba
Siemens Iran, Iraq, Sudan
Boston Scientific Corporation Iran, Iraq
Datascope Corp Iran
Pfizer Inc Iran, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Becton Dickinson and Company Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Cuba, Libya
Caterpillar Inc. Iraq, Iran, Taliban, Cuba
Abbott Laboratories Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Libya, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Archer Daniels Midland Company Iran, Cuba, Libya, Sudan, Iraq
Hologic Inc Iran
Philips Electronics Iran, Libya, Sudan
Cargill Cuba, Sudan, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Iraq
Medtronic Inc. Iran, Sudan, Libya, Iraq
Stryker Corporation Iran, Sudan, Libya
Wyeth Iran, Sudan, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Libya, Narcotics, Global Terrorism, Iraq
AirSep Cororation Iran, Libya, Sudan
Coca-Cola Company Iran, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, Iraq
Medrad Incorporated Iran, Sudan
Eastman Kodak Company Iran, Sudan
PepsiCo Inc. Iran, Sudan, Libya
Carl Zeiss Meditec Iran, Iraq
Draeger Medical Systems Iran, Sudan
Bayer Corporation Iran, Sudan, Kosovo, Cuba, Iraq
Merck Iran, Sudan, Libya, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Iraq
Genzyme Corporation Iran, Libya, Cuba
St. Jude Medical Inc. Iran, Iraq
The Boeing Company Sudan, Multiple, Global Terrorism, Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Libya, Belarus, Cuba
Varian Medical Systems Iran, Sudan
Haemonetics Corporation Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Iraq
Ohmeda Medical Libya, Sudan, Iran
Del Monte Iran, Sudan
Hill-Rom Company Iran, Iraq
Zoll Medical Corporation Iran
American Red Cross Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Multiple, Sudan NGO Registration, Terrorism List
Johnson & Johnson Iran
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical Company Iran
Valmont Industries Inc Iraq, Iran
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Iran, Libya, Sudan
FMC Technologies Iraq
Gambro BCT Inc. Iran, Sudan
Genetics International Sudan, Iraq
Masimo Corporation Iran
3M Company Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Sudan
Beckman Coulter Sudan, Iraq
C.R. Bard Inc Iran, Sudan, Cuba
Edwards Lifesciences LLC Iran, Libya, Sudan
ExxonMobil Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Narcotics, Angola, Taliban, Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Nova Biomedical Corporation Iran, Sudan
Royal Crown Cola Co. Sudan
ConAgra Foods Cuba, Libya, Sudan, Iran
Fisher Controls International Iraq, Libya
Lockheed Martin Corporation Sudan, Multiple
MCI Cuba, Iran, Iraq
DynCorp International LLC Sudan, Iraq, Cuba, Iran
EG & G Global Terrorism, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Liberia, Terrorism
Ingersoll-Rand Company Iraq, Cuba
Merit Medical Systems Inc. Iran
Minrad Inc. Iran, Sudan
Alcon Laboratories Iran
CHS Inc. Iran, Libya
Elekta Limited Iran
General Mills Iran
Grason-Stadler/Div of Viasys Healthcare Iran
Lincoln Electric Company Iraq
Oracle Corporation Iraq
PAE Government Services Inc Sudan
Pall Corporation Iran
Respironics Inc. Iran
Starkey Laboratories Inc. Iran
World Fuel Services Corporation Iraq, Iran, Burma, Sudan
ABB Inc. Iraq
AGA Medical Corporation Iran, Sudan
American Equipment Company Iraq
Aspect Medical Systems Iran, Sudan NGO Registration
Bechtel Iraq
Datex Ohmeda Inc. Iran, Iraq
Motorola Iraq, Taliban
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Inc. Iran
Pharmavite Iran
Smiths Medical MD Inc. Iran
William Wrigley Jr. Company Sudan, Iran
York International Coporation Iraq
Smedley Butler’s words have never been more timely.
Notwithstanding the status of defense contractor or not, it is possible for a company to both meet its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders AND be socially and ethically responsible.
Butler wrote, “I spent 33 years in the Marines, most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism.”
The primary reason for this post is to highlight the hypocrisy of Bank of America with regard to Wikileaks while engaging in commerce with drug traffickers and countries supposedly bent on killing our troops.
I for one, resent, that my government and companies more concerned with their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders than anything else, thought my son was expendable.
We get to disagree on this one. First, they may all be “US Military Contractors” – I presume that means selling something to some branch of the US military, in some world wide location. Second, the list is not all US companies. The list includes US, Netherlands, German, and Swiss headquartered companies. Third, these companies are not constrained by US law and most do not consider our enemies to be their enemy. And, fourth, the leaders of listed companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to grow the business and make money. If these companies were not selling products in the countries listed – someone else would be. This happens every day. Our friends, the Dutch, Germans, French, Italians, Japanese, Taiwanese, Brits, Koreans, and others including the Russians do not hesitate to make sales where US law prohibits US companies from selling ditrectly.