Mass Murderers Brazenly Hold Conference, Discuss Tools of Trade
By David Swanson
A unique conference is planned in Charlottesville, Va., featuring
the latest technologies for the practice of large-scale killing. The Daily Progress tells us that, "to allow participants to speak more freely about potentially
sensitive topics, the conference is closed to the media and open only to
registered participants."
Well I should think so! Registered participants? How does one get registered for such a thing?
Exactly how many people will be there?
"About 225 people are expected to attend the inaugural event, which
is attracting government, business and academic leaders, said conference
chairwoman and organizer Joan Bienvenue, who is also the director of
the UVa Applied Research Institute."
Wait, what? The University of Virginia has an "applied research institute" for applying research to the practice of mass murder?
Is there no shame left in any institution?
"Sen. Timothy M. Kaine and Rep. Randy Forbes, R-4th, are also scheduled to give key speeches at the conference."
I guess that answers my question.
And where exactly will this blood-soaked confab take place?
"Located in Albemarle County, Rivanna Station is a sub-installation
of the Army's Fort Belvoir. The local base employs mostly civilians and
houses operations of the National Ground Intelligence Center, Defense
Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency."
The National Ground Intelligence Center, previously downtown in what
became the SNL Financial building, is now north of Charlottesville, and
the University of Virginia has built a "research park" next door, where
this conference will be held. The NGIC famously played an utterly
shameless role in marketing the war on Iraq that took at least a half a
million lives and destroyed that nation.
When the experts at the Department of Energy refused to say that
aluminum tubes in Iraq were for nuclear facilities, because they knew
they could not possibly be and were almost certainly for rockets, and
when the State Department's people also refused to reach the "correct"
conclusion, a couple of guys at the NGIC were happy to oblige. Their
names were George Norris and Robert Campus, and they received
"performance awards" (cash) for the service.
Then Secretary of State Colin Powell used Norris' and Campus' claims
in his U.N. speech despite the warning of his own staff that they
weren't true. NGIC also hired a company called MZM to assist with war
lies for a good chunk of change. MZM then gave a well-paid job to
NGIC's deputy director Bill Rich Jr, and for good measure Bill Rich III
too. MZM was far and away the top "contributor" to former Congressman
Virgil Goode's campaigns, and he got them a big contract in Martinsville
before they went down in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Rich then picked
up a job with a company called Sparta, which, like MZM, was
conveniently located in the UVA Research Park.
Local want ads in Charlottesville offer jobs "researching biological
and chemical weapons" at Battelle Memorial Institute (located in the UVA
Research Park). As you may know, researching such weapons is rarely if
ever done without producing or at least possessing them. Other jobs
are available producing all kinds of weaponry for all kinds of
governments at Northrop Grumman. Then there's Teksystems, Pragmatics,
Wiser, and many others with fat Pentagon contracts.
From 2000 to 2010, 161 military contractors in Charlottesville pulled
in $919,914,918 through 2,737 contracts from the federal government.
Over $8 million of that went to Mr. Jefferson's university, and
three-quarters of that to the Darden Business School. And the trend is
ever upward. The 161 contractors are found in various industries other
than higher education, including nautical system and instrument
manufacturing; blind and shade manufacturing; printed circuit assembly;
real estate appraisers; engineering services; recreational sports
centers; research and development in biotechnology; new car dealers;
internet publishing; petroleum merchant wholesalers; and a 2006 contract
with Pig Daddy's BBQ.
Have we at long last no sense of decency? War has taken 200 million
lives in the past 100 years, costs the world $2 trillion a year and the
United States half of that. It is the top destroyer of our natural
environment and undergirds all the removal of our civil liberties and
the creation of mass surveillance. Military spending produces fewer jobs
that other government spending or even tax cuts. Numerous top
officials say it produces more enemies than it kills.
And who does it kill? Over 90% are civilians of all ages. Over 90%
are on one side of conflicts between wealthy and poor countries. These
one-sided slaughters leave behind devastated nations: Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya. A poll of 65 nations found the U.S. most widely viewed as the
greatest threat to peace. For 3% of what the United States spends on a
program of killing that endangers us, impoverishes us, and erodes our
way of life, starvation could be eliminated worldwide. It wouldn't take
much to become the most beloved nation rather than the most feared.
And wouldn't it be nice to live in a society where our top public
program didn't have to be kept hush-hush to protect "sensitive topics"?
--
David Swanson wants you to declare peace at http://WorldBeyondWar.org His new book is War No More: The Case for Abolition. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
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