The global arms trade

Merchants of Death – Lithograph by Mabel Dwight

Worldwide total military spending amounts to some $1.69 trillion per year. Of this, about $375 billion goes to buying arms.

The volume of international transfers of major arms in the period 2014-18 was 7.8 per cent higher than in 2009-13 and 23 per cent higher than in 2004-2008, according to data on arms transfers published in March by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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War profiteers not welcome in Canada! Opposition organized to Ottawa weapons fair

By NICK LIN

The annual CANSEC weapons fair is being held in Ottawa May 29 and 30. Anti-war activists are holding a protest during the opening speech by Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan on May 29. Two other federal ministers – Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement – and Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff will also deliver keyote addresses. The “weapons fair” is organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), involving some 900 corporations. It  has been hosted annually in Ottawa since 1998 and just as often opposed by the people of that city.

Picket Arms Manufacturers’ Trade Show — May 29

Make Canada a Zone for Peace!

Ottawa
No Weapons for Saudi Arabia! No New Nuclear Arms Race!
Yes to Peace!
Wednesday, May 29 – 7:00 am
EY Centre, 4899 Uplands Drive, Ottawa
Facebook

The largest war profiteer/arms manufacturer trade show in Canada (Cansec) is happening in Ottawa on May 29-30. Multinational corporations making billions in profit off nuclear weapons manufacturing and violence overseas — including Canada’s weapons sales to Saudi Arabia — will be there. The U.S. military is the single largest contributor to global warming, while Canadian Forces overseas operations are exempt from Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan will speak on the morning of May 29 at the EY Centre.

Americans and other mercenaries charged with conspiracy in wake of Haitian protests

Arrested men told Haitian police “they were on a mission, and they didn’t have to speak to [the police]… They said they were on a government mission” | “US officials deny any active covert operation on the ground in Haiti.” [1]

Cache of weapons seized in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti on February 17, 2019.

Air America: Venezuelan officials find large cache of weapons at airport delivered from Miami

Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Public Security, Endes Palencia (first from left), reveals the shocking discovery of a cache of weapons that was delivered on by a commercial cargo plane from Miami on Sunday. February 3rd | CUENTA DE TWITTER DEL GENERAL ENDES PALENCIA ORTIZ

 

By TONY SEED

(February 10, updated February 14) – It was inevitable. On Sunday, February 3, the day before the Lima Group countries met in Ottawa to fraudulently call for a “peaceful transition of power” in Venezuela and  demand it allow a puppet parallel government to accept its “humanitarian aid”, a Boeing 767 took off from Miami International Airport loaded with warfare equipment. It landed at the Arturo Michelena International Airport in the northern city of Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city, and some 170 kilometres directly west of the capital, Caracas.

An Army of the Europeans

BERLIN (german-foreign-policy.com) – The program of the Berlin Security Conference, which ended yesterday, included discussions on new steps toward creating an “army of the Europeans,” concerns over the possible erosion of the West’s “margin in defence capabilities” vis à vis Russia and China, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in future wars. Unlike the Munich Security Conference, this conference is not oriented on foreign policy but specifically on military policy and the arms industry, with more than a thousand military and business representatives, state officials, and politicians participating.

Gaza ‘laboratory’ boosts profits of Israel’s war industry

Gaza functions as a live testing area for Israeli weapons manufacturers | GABRIEL SCHIVONE*

Mohammed Zaanoun. ActiveStills

(October 5) – After exploring the vast surveillance regime along the US-Mexico border and finding Israeli systems installed at every turn, the author Todd Miller and I were drawn to investigate Israel as the largest homeland security industry in the world. Israel’s arms industry is twice the size of its US counterpart in exports per capita and employs a percentage of the national workforce double that of the US or France, two of the top global arms exporters.