The Netherlands: Nine of ten biggest pension funds invest in military weaponry

Nine of the ten largest Dutch pension funds invest in arms manufacturers who supply systems to countries that violate human rights, such as Saudi Arabia. In total these pension funds invest over a billion euros in 14 of these types of arms companies, NRC reports based on the Fair Pension Guide study by peace organization PAX.

Read more at:
https://nltimes.nl/2019/11/28/nine-ten-biggest-pension-funds-invest-military-weaponry

World Day for Migrants and Refugees: 'We cannot remain insensitive': Pope decries world's indifference to migrants, refugees

Pope Francis on Sunday decried "the culture of comfort" that leads to indifference in the face of a global migration and refugee crisis.

The Pope, who has made caring for migrants a major objective of his papacy, spoke during a mass at the Vatican in Rome for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees.

"We cannot be indifferent to the tragedy of old and new forms of poverty, to the bleak isolation, contempt and discrimination experienced by those who do not belong to 'our group,"' Francis said.

 "We cannot remain insensitive,our hearts deadened, before the misery of so many innocent people. We must not fail to weep. We must not fail to respond.

The pontiff has often spoken of the need to be welcoming to migrants, travelling to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 on his first trip as Pope to comfort refugees.

His message found political resistance in Italy's previous populist government, during which the former hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, campaigned to prevent the arrival in Italy of migrants rescued at sea by humanitarian groups.

The Pope also noted the weapons that fuel wars are often produced and sold in other regions, "which are then unwilling to take in the refugees generated buy these conflicts."

Read more at: 'We cannot remain insensitive': Pope decries world's indifference to migrants, refugees | CBC News

Capitalism: slowly but surely the Capitalist system is self-destructing

Capitalism: all we have to do is look how some major multinational corporations, including the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries, weapons or financial Industry, are exploiting the world community, to realize they are the ones who are destroying the image and reputation  of Capitalism

http://www.asanet.org/news-events/speak-sociology/real-structural-problem-self-destruction-capitalism

Saudi Arabia: France and Britain still selling weapons to Saudi Arabia despite killing of journalist and other human rights problems

Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron clash over Saudi weapons. 

 

Read more at :
https://p.dw.com/p/37GIs

Saudi Arabia: Saudi King Hopeful Over Sunday's Summit With Trump - really ?

High level diplomacy or just plain hypocracy?

Saudi King Salman on Monday expressed hope a "historic" summit to be held Sunday between Arab and Muslim nations and US President Donald Trump will enhance ties and promote tolerance.

The summit will be one of three forums held during a visit by Trump, who is making Saudi Arabia his first overseas stop since assuming office in January.

Trump has frequently been accused of fueling Islamophobia but aides described his decision to visit Saudi Arabia as an effort to reset relations with the Muslim world.

Along with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), at least 18 other Muslim nations have been invited to the summit, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Niger and Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population.

Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran is not invited.

Salman told a cabinet meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah that the meeting "comes in light of the challenges and sensitive situations that the world is going through".

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, "he expressed his hope that this historic summit will establish a new partnership in the face of extremism and terrorism and spreading the values of tolerance and coexistence" while enhancing security.

Note EU-Digest: Amazing that Donald Trump has chosen Saudi Arabia for his first foreign visit. We can only suspect that the image of being warmly greeted by such a strong representation of Sunni Muslim kings, emirs and presidents is a potential bonanza for a U.S. leader beleaguered by domestic troubles.  

The fact that Saudi Arabia has been the cradle of "terrorist awakening",  from where Saudi born terrorists like Ben Laden became the main instigators of the 9/11 NY World Trade Center attack, and many other evil deed's does not  seem to bother Donald Trump, or, unfortunately as it did not really bother any other US President before him, including President Obama.

As one foreign EU diplomat stationed in Ankara  noted. "Donald Trump, or any US President for that matter, will sell their soul to the devil, in order to complete a series of arms deals for the US weapons industry, and with these recent sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100bn.- they will also gladly even dance with the devil. 

This Saudi visit by Trump has only 10% to do with diplomacy and 90% for showing US gratitude to the Saudi's. for their continued support of the US weapons industry. It can also be classified as "brown nosing" the Saudi's. 

And this brown nosing the Saudi and keeping a blind eye about their lack of respect for human rights is certainly not only limited to the US, but also indulged in by many other Nations around the world, including quite a few in the EU.

It is high time this hypocracy stops, because it has become so flagrant that no-one takes this nonsense serious anymore.

Read more: Saudi King Hopeful Over Sunday's Summit With Donald Trump

Weapons Industry: International arms trade shoots up to highest level since end of Cold War – by Daniel Mützel

The global arms race grew significantly last year and sales shot up by 8.4%, according to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that compared the last five years with the 2007-2011 period. It called it the highest level since the end of the Cold War.

The five largest arms suppliers, the United States, Russia, China, France and Germany, are responsible for 74% of weapons traded around the world.

According to the SIPRI, the reason for this increase in sales is the growing demand presented by Asia and the Middle East.

Read more: International arms trade shoots up to highest level since end of Cold War – EurActiv.com

Saudi Arabia: Money, not morality speaks in America when it comes to supporting the weapons industry

US Senate refuses to block Saudi Arabia arms sale http://flip.it/kxEmXA

US-Israeli military arms deal provides 15-20 percent of Israels Military budget

The United States military aid to Israel amounts to a whopping 15 - 20 percent of Israel's annual military budget. Despite US largesse, a powerful political lobby in Washington enables Israeli intransigence.

Israel is procuring all kinds of arms from the United States, but most important for Israel has been the advanced combat aircraft, the F-15 and the F-16. And also very important now, the new F-35, the most advanced combat aircraft the US is willing to export to anyone. That is really significant for Israel because those weapons are often equipped with subsystems coming from the Israeli arms industry itself, such as the bombs and missiles. Those platforms are used to reach deep into the territory of an enemy. That is part of the core of Israeli military potential.

The Obama administration’s announcement that the US and Israel have agreed on a record new package of at least $38 billion in US military aid over a 10 year period is an effort to appease the US arms industry, according to an American writer and researcher who is based in Washington, DC.

Walt Peretto made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday, a day after the Reuters news agency reported that the 10-year pact between Washington and Tel Aviv is expected to be signed within days.

The deal will represent the biggest pledge of US military assistance ever made to any foreign party, American and Israeli officials told Reuters.

EU-Digest

Weapons Industry: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports.

There was a time when America’s greatest exports were high-quality consumer goods, such as automobiles and textiles. Today, most American manufacturing has been outsourced to Chinese and Latin American sweatshops. However, there’s still one thing that the U.S. does extremely well: design, manufacture and export the finest killing machines and equipment of any nation on the planet. Furthermore, our nation’s defense industry sells more of them than anyone else in the world.

This windfall for fine corporations such as Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and others is due largely to recent contracts with their three biggest customers: South Korea, Qatar and our reliable Middle Eastern “ally”, Saudi Arabia. Despite the fact that global weapons sales have leveled off and more companies are jumping into the industry in order to get their piece of the pie, U.S. weapons sales rose from $26.7 billion to $36.2 billion in 2014 – representing an increase of 35%.

While the U.S. is leading the parade of death and destruction, it’s not marching alone. In second place is Russia, having sold $10.2 billion worth of weaponry (a slight drop from the previous year), followed by Sweden, France and China.

The Congressional study in which these figures were presented finds that a weakened global economy has led to much slower sales. In fact, despite a slight increase in global weapons purchases (approximately .03%), the study found that “the international arms market is not likely growing at all.”

This state of affairs has in turn increased competition among weapons manufacturers.

And the U.S. is coming out on top. While the country is crumbling from within, those with connection to the weapons industry are swimming in pools of champagne, nibbling on truffles and fine caviar while riding aboard their private jets and luxury yachts, financed by blood-soaked dollars. It’s not likely to change, either.

Weapons manufacturers are offering great deals, such as flexible financing (making certain their customers remain debt slaves for decades), co-production agreements, and counter-trade agreements (essentially, a form of in-kind payment or barter).

Read more: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports. Doesn't That Make You So Proud? - The Ring of Fire Network

EU relationship with Saudi Arabia - 7 reasons the EU shouldn't be allies with Saudi Arabia & 1 reason why it still is

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia continues to be one of  Europe's key international allies with ministers, Heads of State and even Royal families making every effort to keep the hard-line Middle East kingdom on Europe's side.

But while Europe has no problems with the US forcing them to impose tough sanctions on countries like Russia for their war with Ukraine, the EU often falls deadly silent amid claims of human rights abuses and war crimes by Saudi Arabia.

This attitude is remarkable for the EU, which claims to cherish human rights and always stands ready to protect it by all means possible. This while the Saudi royal family regularly face accusations of overseeing a brutal regime where political opponents are executed, all criticism is censored and women are second-class citizens.

A kingdom which has also faced claims it is the breeding ground of Islamist terror groups across the world.

Here are seven reasons why the EU shouldn't be friends with Saudi - and one multi-billion EURO reason why it still is…

Crime and Punishment : Documents show ISIS & Saudi Arabia prescribe near-identical punishments for crimes.

Death Penalty: A recent report by human rights charity Reprieve found 171 people are currently facing execution in Saudi Arabia.

Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of these were sentenced to death for non-violent offences, including the attendance of political protests.

Those found protesting against the kingdom's rulers are convicted of 'corrupting the Earth' - a charge which carries the death penalty.

Censorship:  The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights branded the public flooding a "cruel and inhuman punishment… prohibited under international human rights law".

Amnesty International has accused Saudi's hardline rulers of systematically wiping out almost all human rights activism in the country over the past few years, much of it under the disguise of 'counter-terror' laws.

Peaceful activists from one leading group are are said to have been rounded up, beaten and given long prison sentences in an effort to “wipe out all trace” of the organization.

It followed fears among the Saudi royal family that the 2011 'Arab Spring' uprisings could inspire a similar revolt against themselves.

Treatment of women : Apart from considering women inferior to men Saudi Arabia  is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.

War Crimes:  Since civil war broke out in Yemen this year, a Saudi-led coalition has carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels who overthrew the country's government.

Riyadh has frequently been accused of war crimes with hospitals, schools, markets, aid warehouses, charity offices and refugee camps all said to have been targeted by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.
 

By September more than 2,200 civilian deaths had been registered.

One report by Amnesty International documented the use of internationally-banned cluster bombs while the body of a one-year-old baby was found in wreckage with his dummy still in his mouth.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is currently considering legal action against the Government unless it stops allowing British-produced arms being sent to Saudi amid concerns of war crimes in Yemen.

 

Is Saudi Arabia inspiring fanatical extremism?: Since the 9/11 terror attacks in New York in 2001 - when 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers were found to be Saudi nationals - the kingdom has faced regular claims it is helping to breed Islamic extremism and terror groups across the world.
 

The fanatical 'Wahhabi' strain of Islam, which is centred in Saudi Arabia, is now said to be closest ideology to that of ISIS - with some claiming the views espoused by Saudi's Wahhabist clerics inspired the growth of the terror group.

Saudi has also faced accusations it has tried to export puritanical Wahhabism abroad over the last three decades, at a cost of  €100B

 

The cash is spent on building mosques or establishing madrassas - religious schools - in other Muslim nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and parts of Africa.

Are the Saudi's Funding ISIS ? : Saudi Arabia has strongly denied it has provided funding to ISIS, with officials pointing to new laws it has brought in to prevent money from the kingdom going to jihadist groups.

But their denials still haven't stopped accusations from some British politicians of a link between the financing of ISIS and Saudi Arabia.

Last month former British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown claimed ISIS was continuing to be funded by wealthy individuals from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He said: "I don't say the governments have been doing it, but their rich businessmen certainly have."
Saudi money and weapons for anti-regime forces have poured into Syria soon after the country plunged into civil war.

Why are so many EU states still ever so closely connected to Saudi Arabia?: It comes down to one simple answer - Arms Sales : (click) EU arms sales contributed to a large extend in propping up Saudi Arabia's military and indirectly also contribute to increased  terrorism and violence in the Middle East.

 

British figures show that Saudi Arabia has twice as many British-made warplanes as the entire RAF, and these same Government figures show two-thirds of British-made arms go to the Middle East with Saudi by far the major buyer.

 

On a global scale the above picture becomes even more interwoven and complex when we include the US in this scenario. They are not only the closest Saudi Arabia ally, but the US is also the major exporter of arms to the Kingdom. 

Just recently the U.S. approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, despite widespread mounting evidence of the country’s mass atrocities and possible war crimes in neighboring Yemen.  

 

This sale included  over 10,000 bombs, munitions, and weapons parts produced by Boeing and Raytheon. of which 5,200 Paveway II “laser guided” and 12,000 “general purpose” bombs. “Bunker Busters,” designed to destroy concrete structures. 

 

Total US arms sales to the Saudi Kingdom last year are estimated to have been close or over $50billion.

 

As the Shakespearean saying goes: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". 

EU-Digest

Middle East: Sales of US arms fuels the wars of Arab states - by Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper

To wage war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is using F-15 fighter jets bought from Boeing. Pilots from the United Arab Emirates are flying Lockheed Martin's F-16 to bomb both Yemen and Syria. Soon, the Emirates are expected to complete a deal with General Atomics for a fleet of Predator drones to run spying missions in their neighborhood.

As the Middle East descends into proxy wars, sectarian conflicts and battles against terrorist networks, countries in the region that have stockpiled American military hardware are now actually using it and wanting more.

The result is a boom for American defense contractors looking for foreign business in an era of shrinking Pentagon budgets — but also the prospect of a dangerous new arms race in a region where the map of alliances has been sharply redrawn.

Read more: Sales of US arms fuels the wars of Arab states

Germany: Weapons Industry: Berlin mulls Saudi, Australian weapons deals

Germany's national security council, a government body headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and made up of ministers from seven ministries, has decided to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia due to "instability in the region," the mass-market Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday, adding that the information has not been officially confirmed.

According to the newspaper, orders of weapons from Saudi Arabia have either been "rejected, pure and simple" or deferred until further notice.

The kingdom is "one of the most important clients of Germany's arms industry," the newspaper said, noting that it paid German weapons manufacturers 360 million euros ($400 million) in 2013. But the government has decided "the situation in the region is too unstable to ship there."

Read more: Berlin mulls Saudi, Australian weapons deals: reports | News | DW.DE | 25.01.2015