Yuram Almanfi's Blog

A Special Relationship: The US and Israel

yuram — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:21:40 -0600

“The Special relationship between the United States and Israel is as strong as it is because of your (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s) fidelity to the partnership.” – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).[i]

The US and Israel share a special relationship that began in 1948 when the US became the first nation to recognize the “provisional government” of the new Jewish state in Palestine.[ii] After the 1967 War, the US recognized that Israel could be a “strategic asset” in its cold war with the former Soviet Union,[iii] making it the number one recipient of US foreign aid by the end of the 1970s.[iv] However, due to American desire for good relations with Arab oil-producing nations, the decline of the Soviet threat and Israeli treatment of native Palestinians, forces in conflict with the relationship emerged. In 1989, after the start of the First Intifada, Yale Law Professor Charles Black wrote that this special relationship “is sweepingly and grossly incompatible with our country’s (US’) supposed dedication to the cause of human rights throughout the world.”[v]

Lobbying influence of the Zionist state seems to dominate US Middle East foreign policy. Pat Buchanan once described the US capitol as “Israeli-occupied territory,”[vi] which can be surmised from the following quote by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “Lawmakers depend on AIPAC for good, honest information and that’s exactly what we’ve gotten.” And in return for that “good, honest information,” Israel has gotten a 10-year, $30 billion security agreement, with $2.55 billion in aid for fiscal year 2009.[vii]

AIPAC, a major force behind the US-Israel special relationship, lobbies members of Congress and the Executive Branch to support a pro-Israel agenda, and screens politicians for appropriateness of their views and votes. Any criticism of the Jewish state results in swift retribution, as former Illinois Congressman Paul Findley and South Dakota Senator James Abourezk learned by loss of their seats.[viii] AIPAC’s lobbying expertise is unmatched, with an overall success rate of 60% for passage of their agenda items and if the US President approves the item, the rate increases to 95%.[ix] As former US President Bill Clinton has testified, “AIPAC has done a magnificent job, better than anyone else lobbying in this town…You have been stunningly effective.”

Some highlights of this “stunningly effective” career of AIPAC are worthy of mention.

AIPAC lobbied to squelch the investigation of an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on 8 June 1967. The attack, which resulted in the loss of 34 American lives and 171 wounded, “was outrageous,” according to then Secretary of State Dean Rusk.[x] Equally outrageous was AIPAC lobbying in the year following the attack, which was influential in the sale of Phantom F-4 jet fighters to Israel in 1968.[xi] Another success was the passage of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that called for moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in violation of international law, but a loophole has allowed the US President to postpone the transfer for 6 months at a time.[xii] In 2005, senior AIPAC employees Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman were indicted for receiving classified information from Pentagon Analyst Lawrence Franklin, who was sentenced in 2006 to 12 years.[xiii] This is not the first involvement with espionage, as AIPAC is reported to have lobbied for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.[xiv] Most recently, AIPAC lobbied for the invasion of Iraq[xv] and was instrumental in facilitating Israel’s brutal attack on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.[xvi]

What makes AIPAC so successful as a lobbying organization? One reason is that Washington is obsessed with Jewish voting power, according to AIPAC former chief lobbyist Douglas M. Bloomfield. In addition, he states, “One other reason for its success is that the lobby sells fear; it is easier to rally people around the fear of terrorism and Iranian nuclear weapons than around hope for peace.”[xvii] And, of course, fear leads to suspicion, hatred and dehumanization of others, increased military spending, and eventually to war. And a war with Iran seems to be the next goal of the US – Israeli “partnership” as indicated by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s remarks after his recent meeting with President Bush. "We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat," said Olmert. Continuing, as if reading a scripted narrative, he informed Bush, “Israel loves you very much, you and your wife Laura.”[xviii]

There are other aspects of this “special relationship” as well. The US and Israel are both nuclear powers, a fact Israel was recently forced to acknowledge by President Carter’s disclosure regarding the size of the Zionist nuclear arsenal.[xix] US knowledge of the Israeli nuclear program at Dimona appears to date back to 1964 when President Johnson deliberately “looked the other way” in exchange for Israeli and American Jewish support for his Vietnam war policies.[xx] Additionally, both Israel and the US are “on the same page” when it come to the obstruction of meaningful resolutions towards international disarmament. In October of 2002, both Israel and the US were the ONLY two nations to veto (by abstention) two significant UN Disarmament Committee resolutions, one for prevention of the militarization of space and the other reaffirming the 1925 Geneva protocols banning chemical and bacteriological methods of warfare.[xxi]

Both nations engage in state-sponsored terrorism through blatant violations of international law, extra-judicial assassinations, pre-emptive strikes, illegal occupations and a general disregard and callousness for the concerns of other sovereign nations and their citizens. The US has killed thousands of children in Iraq. Haifa Ahmed Fuad, the 8-year-old daughter of Ahmed Fuad from a village near Ramadi, is the name of one of them.[xxii] Israel has also killed hundreds of children --842 since 29 September 2000-- in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and has in fact killed 62 children this year in Gaza alone as of this writing. One of them, 8-year-old Aya Hamdan Al-Najjar was killed by a rocket fired from an Israeli helicopter.[xxiii]

Both the US and Israel were built by ethnic cleansing[xxiv] and continue to act with callousness and impunity towards indigenous populations. The ethnic cleansing of the Native Americans by the US colonists is well documented, as is the treatment of Blacks, Latinos, Japanese and other minorities. Israel’s on going ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians has also been documented by Ilan Pappe,[xxv] John Rose[xxvi] and most recently by former President Jimmy Carter.[xxvii] The discrimination by the Ashkenazi-lead government of their Sephardi and Mizrahi brethren has also been well documented by Israeli authors. One such case, studied by Yael Tzadok, concerned the Zionist government’s condoning the kidnapping of Yemeni infants and placing them with Ashkenazi families.[xxviii]

Finally, the US and Israel share the bond of cruelty towards those who dare to resist their imperialist policies of aggressive wars and illegal occupations, employing inhumane methods of detention and interrogation of the unfortunate individuals who are apprehended as suspects. The Zionist regime currently has thousands of Palestinians,[xxix] including women and children, locked up in jails under cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions,[xxx] and routinely uses torture and humiliation under the pretext of “bitahon,” Hebrew for security.[xxxi] Similarly the Washington regime has held prisoners at Gulag Guantanamo for over 5 years under inhumane conditions, isolating some prisoners up to 22 hours a day and using torture during interrogations, all justified in the name of the “war on terror.”[xxxii] Bush The Liar -- "As I've said before, the United States does not torture. It's against our laws and it's against our values. "[xxxiii] -- has admitted recently that he knew his top aids had approved of the use of torture during interrogation procedures.[xxxiv]

Israel and the US indeed have a special relationship, sharing common bonds of militarism, racism and ethnic cleansing, as well as torture and other inhumane treatment of prisoners, indigenous populations and minorities within their respective imperial boundaries. Both nations justify their cruelty under the guise of defense while maintaining a facade of democracy, moral elitism and unquestionable innocence.

“Avoid cruelty. Whoever commits it, his life will become dark.” – Imam Ali (PBUH)[xxxv]

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2008-06-28

[i] What Top Leaders Say About AIPAC, Handout by American Israel Public Affairs Committee

[ii] President Truman's statement recognizing the State of Israel, May 14, 1948. Charles Ross Papers, 1904-1967, Alphabetical Correspondence File: "Handwriting of the President," Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/publish/article_118.shtml (Accessed 26 June 2008)

[iii] Eli E. Hertz, The U.S.-Israel Special Relationship, Myths and Facts, 2005, http://www.mythsandfacts.com/NOQ_OnlineEdition/Chapter17/unitedstatesisrael1.htm (Accessed 24 June 2008)

[iv] Robert J. Lieber, U.S.-Israeli Relations Since 1948, Middle East Review of International Affairs, Volume 2, No. 3 - September 1998, http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/1998/issue3/jv2n3a2.html (Accessed 24 June 2008)

[v] Charles L. Black, Jr., Let Us Rethink Our ‘Special Relationsip’ with Israel, Jewish Committee on the Middle East, September, 1989, http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/p-black.html (Accessed 24 June 2008)

[vi] Justin Raimondo, Indictment Shows Washington is ‘Israeli-Occupied Territory,’ Antiwar.com, 15 June 2005, http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6316 (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[vii] House Approves Israel’s Security Assistance Increase, Legislation and Policy Update, AIPAC website, http://www.aipac.org/Legislation_and_Policy/default.asp (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[viii] Umut Uzer, The Impact Of The Jewish Lobby On American Foreign Policy In The Middle East, Perceptions – Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 4, December 2001, http://www.sam.gov.tr/perceptions/Volume6/December2001-February2002/uuzer.PDF (Accessed 19 June 2008)

[ix] Umut Uzer, ibid.

[x] Walter Hixon, The Myth of American Diplomacy, Yale, New Haven, 2008, Page 230.

[xi] Umut Uzer, ibid.

[xii] Public Law 104–45—NOV. 8, 1995, http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ45.104.pdf (Accessed 19 June 2008)

[xiii] David Johnston, Pentagon Analyst Gets 12 Years for Disclosing Data, New York Times, 20 January 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/politics/20cnd-franklin.html?pagewanted=print (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xiv] AIPAC Holds National Meeting Amid Spy Scandal Investigation, Democracy Now, 25 May 2005, http://www.democracynow.org/2005/5/25/aipac_holds_national_meeting_amid_spy (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xv] Pepe Escobar, And the Winner is…the Israel Lobby, Centre for Research on Globalization, 9 June 2008, http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9258 (Accessed 22 June 2008)

[xvi] Ari Berman, AIPAC’s Hold, The Nation, 4 August 2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/aipacs_hold (Accessed 22 June 2008)

[xvii] Douglas Bloomfield, Myths and facts about the Jewish lobby, New Jersey Jewish News Online Commentary, 27 September 2007, http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/092707/commMythsAndFacts.html (Accessed 19 June 2008)

[xviii] Gil Ronen, Olmert Hints U.S. Action on Iran Nukes is Near, Israel National News, 5 June 2008, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126416 (Accessed 21 June 2008)

[xix] Israel ‘Has 150 Nuclear Weapons,’ BBC News, 26 May 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7420573.stm (Accessed 21 June 2008)

[xx] Arlene Lazarowitz, Different Approaches to a Regional Search for Balance: The Johnson Administration, the State Department, and the Middle East, 1964–1967, Diplomatic History 32:1, 25–54, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00676.x (Accessed 19 June 2008)

[xxi] Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival; America’s Quest for Global Dominance, Holt, NY, 2003, Page 121.

[xxii] Ellen Knickmeyer, Iraqis Say Civilians Killed in U.S. Raids, Washington Post, 18 October 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101700808_pf.html (Accessed 15 June 2008)

[xxiii] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Narratives Under Siege: (15) “We Could not Even Bury our Daughter,” http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/campaigns/english/gaza_closure/Narratives_15.html (Accessed 15 June 2008)

[xxiv] Rosemary Radford Ruether, Nations built by ethnic cleansing: the U.S. and Israel, Catholic New Times, 30 January 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_2_29/ai_n9770588 (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxv] Ilan Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine, 2^nd Ed., Cambridge, NY, 2006.

[xxvi] John Rose, The Myths of Zionism, Pluto, London and Ann Arbor, 2004, pp 81, 205.

[xxvii] Jimmy Carter, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, Simon and Schuster, NY, 2006.

[xxviii] Meyrav Wurmser, Post-Zionism and the Sephardi Question, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2005, http://www.meforum.org/article/707 (Accessed 21 June 2008)

[xxix] Saed Bannoura, Palestinian P.O.W.s make up half of Israeli prison population, International Middle East Media Center, 20 November 2007, http://www.imemc.org/article/51623 (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxx] Israel And The Occupied Territories Mass Detention In Cruel, Inhuman And Degrading Conditions, Amnesty International, May 2002, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/074/2002/en/dom-MDE150742002en.pdf (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxxi] Ghali Hassan, Torture: The Israeli Denial, Ha’aretz, 15 December 2005, http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-hassan030106.htm (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxxii] United States Of America Cruel And Inhuman: Conditions Of Isolation For Detainees At Guantánamo Bay, Amnesty International, 5 April 2007, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/051/2007/en/dom-AMR510512007en.pdf (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxxiii] President Bush Signs Military Commissions Act of 2006, White House Press Release, 17 October 2006, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017-1.html (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxxiv] Bush Admits To Knowledge of Torture Authorization by Top Advisers, American Civil Liberties Union Press Release, 12 April 2008, http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/34879prs20080412.html (Accessed 23 June 2008)

[xxxv] Ayatullah Sayyid Kamal Faghih Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into The Light of the Holy Qur’an, Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) Library, Isfahan, 1998, Vol. 5 (Parts 7 & 8), Page 97.

Merchants for the Angel of Death

yuram — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:02:00 -0600

“You are on test in this world and have to render account for it. Certainly this world is a dirty watering place and a muddy source of drinking.” – Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib[i]

Indeed we are on test. And perhaps the dirtiest watering place is the pool of dollars in the U.S. defense budget. How will we Americans render account for the money that we allow our government to spend on defense? Defense is the key word here, not war, but defense. Before 1947, the U.S. had a Department of War, but the United Nations Charter outlawed war[ii] and only “rogue” states would operate outside the law, so it was renamed the Department of the Army and in 1949 was placed under the newly formed and euphemistically named Department of Defense (DOD.)[iii] But it’s really still the Department of War, because “defense” that includes pre-emptive strikes and invasions for regime change is really just a euphemism for war. Similarly, “justice” has become a euphemism for firing missiles at civilians from helicopters.[iv]

And how much does the U.S. spend on war? According to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) figures, U.S. DOD weapons acquisitions have grown under Bush from $790 billion in 2000 to $1.6 trillion in 2007 in fiscal year 2008 dollars.[v] The 2009 budget calls for $515 billion,[vi] which amounts to 3.7% of the U.S. gross domestic product and over 4% when supplemental spending requests for current wars are included.[vii] But these seemingly innocuous percentages mask the grim reality that the U.S. spends roughly the same amount on weapons as the rest of the world combined, based on an estimated world arms budget of some $1.1 trillion.[viii] And who comes to drink from this muddy source of U.S. defense dollars?

In 2007, U.S. “defense” companies accounted for 66% of the weapons sales recorded by the world’s top 100 bomb builders. The top 10 U.S. firms of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, United Technologies, KBR, SAIC and General Electric accounted for 51%. The United Kingdom, whose top 8 munitions makers are BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, QinetiQ, GKN, VT, Cobham, Babcock International and Ultra Electronic Holdings, came in second to the U.S. in the arms revenue race with over 11%. Weapons merchants in the top 100 from countries other than the U.S. and U.K. accounted for less than 23% of revenues.[ix]

While all these companies produce weapons of varying degrees of mass destruction used around the world to kill people, Bethesda Maryland-based Lockheed Martin stands at the top of the list with revenues of over $36 billion. The dollar amount exceeds the combined arm sales revenues of all companies on the list from Russia, Japan, Israel, Germany, Sweden, India, Singapore, Spain, Finland, Australia, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, Norway and Turkey. This sum even exceeds the combined revenues of the top 8 British weapons firms listed above.

Lockheed Martin employs 140,000 people worldwide and is the largest weapons technology and services provider to the U.S. government. Aircraft marketed by Lockheed Martin includes the F-16 Fighting Falcon (4,398 delivered to date), F-22 Raptor (114 delivered to date)[x] and F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) that will be produced in 3 models, one each for the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Missiles include the Patriot (PAC-3) kinetic energy missile, the Army Tactical Missile System (ATMS) and the Hellfire II missile (AGM-114.) Consider the manufacturer’s glowing description of the missile’s capacity to kill and maim:

“The precision-strike semiactive laser (SAL)-guided HELLFIRE® II missile system defeats advanced armor and urban point targets in the presence of severe electro-optical countermeasures, with minimal collateral damage. HELLFIRE II is a highly successful, combat-proven weapon system for precision kill of high-value armor, air defense, ships, waterborne, and fixed targets.”[xi]

The deadly Hellfire missiles can be fired from launchers mounted on Boeing’s AH-64D Apache helicopter, as Gaza residents know by first-hand experience when Israel unleashes them on the civilian population.[xii]^{, [xiii]} According to a report by the New York based National Lawyer’s Guild,

“The U.S.-made assault helicopters are the most deadly and fear-inspiring weapons used. They are used extensively to attack civilian neighborhoods and to implement assassinations. The huge number and extensive use of Apache attack helicopters is, at a minimum, a symbol of U.S. foreign policy creating a warlike atmosphere.”[xiv]

Lockheed Martin also markets the Paveway II Laser Guided bomb, which is a system that converts ordinary bombs into “smart” ones for a “precision kill” with less “collateral damage.” It comes in 3 configurations; the GBU-16 for 1000 lb. bombs, GBU-10 for 2000 lb. bombs and the GBU-12 for 500 lb. bombs. The merchant proudly proclaims, “Laser Guided Bombs have been used extensively and successfully in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war against terrorism.”[xv] I wonder if the Iraqis would rate the 8,583 of these bombs that the U.S. dropped on them during “shock and awe” as successful?[xvi]

In 2007, the top 10 weapons firms spent over $82 million on lobbying to ensure their continued success. While General Electric out spent all others by far, if we adjust the dollar amounts by percentage of “defense” revenue, once again, Lockheed Martin is in first place with over $10 million spent on lobbying.[xvii] To date in 2008, 42 reports filed by 39 different lobbying firms listing Lockheed Martin as the client appear in the Lobbying Disclosure Act database[xviii], with two additional reports filed by Lockheed Martin lobbying on behalf of itself. A report filed by PMA Group is typical, listing a $40,000 fee earned for lobbying about procurements under Department of Defense Appropriations Act and the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2009.[xix] In addition, Lockheed Martin is a major political contributor having donated some $15 million since 1990, with roughly 60% to Republicans and 40% to Democrats.[xx]

And the lobbying and political contributions have paid off, as Lockheed Martin was awarded the largest defense contract in history for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The contract, awarded in 2001 and estimated to be worth $200 billion, has deliveries scheduled to begin in 2010 and continue past 2030.[xxi] In a recent report, the GAO estimated that the acquisition and maintenance costs for the 2,458 aircraft would exceed $1 trillion and that operational costs would exceed those of the F-16 it is designed to replace.[xxii] Funding requirements for the JSF program will average $11 billion for the next twenty years, with expected cost overruns. No doubt from a capitalist point of view, Lockheed Martin President and CEO Robert J. Stevens has earned every penny of his estimated $9.5 million compensation package.[xxiii] From a humanitarian point of view, one must ask, couldn’t the staggering sums involved here be better spent?

With U.S. military personnel stationed in over 150 countries[xxiv] and DOD employees in over 163,[xxv] one must also ask, who, where or what is the perceived threat against which the U.S. spends so much for defense? Is it Iran -- with an estimated defense budget of $4.3 billion, about 1/10 of close U.S. ally Great Britain’s which, in turn is less than 1/10 of what the U.S. spends -- that poses the greatest threat to world peace?[xxvi] Is it Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah or perhaps Hamas? No, it is the country whose ruling regime spends these obscenely outrageous sums on weapons of mass destruction that poses the greatest threat to world peace, much more so than any other country or so-called terrorist organization.[xxvii]

The size of the American arsenal, the sums lavished on lobbying, and the greed of the munitions manufacturers assure us of a policy of perpetual war from the Washington regime. War has simply become too profitable for these arms dealers and world peace too threatening for them to allow any serious discussion of it. Truly, these companies are merchants for the Angel of Death, with the U.S. war profiteers his closest companions and Lockheed Martin his most trusted assistant. If an opportunity arises to talk with the CEO of one of these companies about their weapons systems, please ask,

“Do you feel when the Angel of Death enters a house, or do you see him when he takes the life out of anyone?” – Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib [xxviii]

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2008-05-07

[i] Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib translated by Ali Reza, Nahjul Balagha, Peak of Eloquence, Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an Inc., New York, 1984, Sermon 82, Page 207.

[ii] Charter of the United Nations, http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/ (Accessed 2 May 2008)

[iii] How We Evolved, U.S Department of Defense Official Website, http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/dod101/index.html (Accessed 2 May 2008)

[iv] Dave Lindorff, American and Israeli War Crimes: Same Atrocities, Different Responses, CommonDreams.org, 2 May 2008, http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/02/8679/ (Accessed 3 May 2008)

[v] Statement of Michael J. Sullivan, DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS Results of Annual Assessment of DOD Weapon Programs, United States Government Accountability Office, Highlights, 29 April 2008, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08674t.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008)

[vi] For a discussion of the total amount spent on defense, see Robert Higgs, The Trillion Dollar Defense Budget is Already Here, The Independence Institute, 15 March 2007, http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1941 (Accessed 25 April 2008)

[vii] Antonie Boessenkool, AIA: Spend More on Defense, Defense News, 17 April 2008, http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3482476&c=AME&s=TOP (Accessed 20 April 2008)

[viii] World Wide Military Expenditures, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm (Accessed 22 April 2008)

[ix] Defense News Top 100 Defense Companies 2007, DefenseNews.com, http://dfn.dnmediagroup.com/index.php?S=07top100 (Accessed 19 April 2008)

[x] Corporate Highlights, Lockheed Martin, 22 April 2008, http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/corporate/documents/ir/LMT1Q08Highlights.pdf (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xi] Hellfire II Missile Product Description, Lockheed Martin Website, http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/HellfireII/index.html (Accessed 23 April 2008)

[xii] Gaza death toll rises to 33 children, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section, http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=696&CategoryId=16 (Accessed 28 April 2008)

[xiii] Note the picture of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile on the report by National Lawyers Guild, The Al Aqsa Intifada and Israel’s Apartheid: The U.S. Military and Economic Role in the Violation of Palestinian Human Rights, January 2001, http://www.pchrgaza.org/Library/NLG_MidEastReport.pdf (Accessed 28 April 2008). A list of U.S. weaponry used in Gaza is found on page 41 of the report specifically naming Apache helicopters and Hellfire missile as being used against the Palestinians.

[xiv] Ibid., Pages 42-43.

[xv] Paveway II Laser Guided Bomb Product Description, Lockheed Martin Website, http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/PavewayIILaserGuidedBomb/index.html (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xvi] T. MICHAEL MOSELEY, Lt Gen, USAF, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM – By The Numbers, U.S. Air Force, Assessment and Analysis Division 30 April 2003, Page 11, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/uscentaf_oif_report_30apr2003.pdf

[xvii] Lobbying Database, Open Secrets Website, http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/overview.asp?txtindextype=s (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xviii] Query the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=choosefields (Accessed 29 April 2008)

[xix] Lobbying Report, The PMA Group, 1^st Quarter 2008, 17 April 2008, http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=d3ff34e6-225c-43c5-823c-4cf965c5ab43 (Accessed 29 April 2008)

[xx] Donor Profile, Lockheed Martin, Open Secrets Website, http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.asp?ID=D000000104&Name=Lockheed Martin (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xxi] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II, Global Security Website, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-35.htm (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xxii] JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER Recent Decisions by DOD Add to Program Risks, United States Government Accountability Office, Highlights, March 2008, http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08388high.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008)

[xxiii] Compensation for Robert J. Stevens, President and CEO Lockheed Martin, http://swz.salary.com/execcomp/layouthtmls/excl_execreport_105098.html (Accessed 24 April 2008)

[xxiv] Department of Defense, Worldwide Manpower Distribution By Geographical Area, 30 September 2005, http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/M05/m05sep05.pdf (Accessed 29 April 2008)

[xxv] Our Global Infrastructure, U.S Department of Defense Official Website, http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/dod101/dod101.html - presense (Accessed 2 May 2008)

[xxvi] Polish Parliamentary Speaker: Iran greatest threat to world peace, Iran Focus, 5 July 2005, http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2743 (Accessed 25 April 2008)

[xxvii] U.S. Representative John Murtha says that the U.S. presence in Iraq is more of a threat to world peace than nuclear threats posed by Iran or North Korea. See Murtha says U.S. poses top threat to world peace, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 25 June 2006, http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/attack/135159.php (Accessed 25 April 2008)

[xxviii] Op. Cit., Sermon 111, Page 259.