INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => Political Pundits => Topic started by: Peter on March 29, 2008, 12:10:10 PM
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I bet there's a bob or two to be made from arms dealing.
Mark Thomas - plays "let's start an arms company"
Columnists
Mark Thomas
Monday 3rd April 2006
I can think of no finer act of citizenship than students exposing the government's failure to control the arms trade, writes Mark Thomas
A few months ago I watched a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Ellie, from Oxford, phone a tank manufacturer in Romania. Ellie was part of a group of British students who formed their own arms company and ran it once a week at lunchtime.
"I want to chat to someone about a tank," she said. "What kind of tank?" asked an uncertain eastern European voice.
"A TR-85 M1."
"You want a price?"
"Yes, that would be great."
A month later and Ellie's arms company was quoted a guide price of 2.5m for the tank (CD players and cup holders are extra).
The students attend Lord Williams's Upper School, in Thame, Oxfordshire, and are part of the school's Amnesty International group. Together with a teacher, George Lear, they set up an arms company, Williams Defence - completely legally - from their school premises, as part of a project for Channel 4's Dispatches programme.
The Daily Mail might be tempted to scream, "Kids taught arms dealing at school" (something it might actually approve of, if the subject were referred to as business studies). In reality, however, the pupils approached the project by discussing the human-rights implications of the UK government's arms licensing policy. They interviewed arms dealers, quizzed politicians and discussed citizenship. They ended up presenting their findings to MPs from the quadripartite committee (the select committee with oversight of arms licensing) and the minister responsible, Malcolm Wicks. Parliament, you may remember, is keen that citizenship be taught in schools. I can think of no finer act of citizenship than school students exposing the UK government's failures to control the arms trade.
The students focused on brokerage, which is basically acting as a middleman. For example, someone in the UK could broker AK-47s direct from China to Chad and the guns would not touch British soil. No government controls would have applied before 2004. Since then, laws have been introduced requiring brokers to license such deals. However, the school's investigation highlighted a number of loopholes, particularly for what is called "police and security equipment". The pupils started by locating arms companies on the internet and e-mailing them. It didn't take long to find equipment intended for torture or ill-treatment. They then purchased and shipped it all, legally.
Thumb cuffs sound medieval and, indeed, they are. The internal edges are serrated and will tear flesh quite easily. They are used in China against Tibetan monks, priced $3.65 from Taiwan. Wall cuffs are a single handcuff with a bolt and chain for shackling a prisoner to the wall. These are used all over the world. Straight out of Poland: yours for £9 a set. A sting stick is a long metal baton with spikes and barbs along its shaft. Priced $7.50, it has been used in Tibet and Nepal. The sting stick was brokered to a human-rights activist in the US and then imported into Blighty. The police told me during our filming that if I carried the stick in public I could be arrested for possessing an offensive weapon. Yet there is no UK law to prevent it being brokered around the world.
None of these items requires a licence and there is not even a register of arms dealers and brokers. That is why it was so easy for the students to run an arms company from school. Yet it wouldn't be hard to update the lists for torture equipment, and even the Defence Manufacturers Association (the arms trade body) supports a register for arms dealers and brokers.
The students went one step further. Brokering small arms (pistols to AK-47s) needs licences if done from Britain, but if a British citizen steps over the border from Northern Ireland into Ireland they do not. Which is what Williams Defence did, setting up an office at the side of a road and using their mobile phones. They were given quotes for grenade launchers from Pakistan to be sent to Syria ($421), MP5 sub-machine guns to go from Turkey to Mali (750) and pump-action shotguns to go from South Africa to Israeli settlers in Hebron. The dealer in South Africa said he couldn't get a licence to get the guns to Israel but he could send them to a firm in Switzerland or Greece which would do the deal from there.
The Dispatches programme shows the need for Europe-wide brokerage controls. In a parallel project in Ireland, where no brokerage laws exist, six schoolgirls and a nun brokered electro-shock batons. They were also asked to become agents for Korean electro-shock equipment dealers.
The rule of extraterritoriality should ensure that British law applies to British citizens even when outside the UK. It is used to catch paedophiles. It should be used to prevent British citizens dealing in leg-irons, wherever they are. If we have a law covering long-range missiles, why not one for the real weapons of mass destruction, small arms? Half a million deaths a year are caused by small arms - almost one a minute.
The government ordered a review of arms export laws, to report in 2007. It could do worse than ask the students at Lord Williams's Upper School where UK policy is going wrong.
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Yes this sounds like a good enterprise people are always wanting to kill or hurt someone. We could do it as a group as we are spread around the world someone can always be near where the action is :o
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Yes this sounds like a good enterprise people are always wanting to kill or hurt someone. We could do it as a group as we are spread around the world someone can always be near where the action is :o
Having people in various countries would be great for routing the goods around import/export restrictions, since arms often can't be sent directly to their destination. With minimal effort, we could have our very own global arms network.
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:laugh: That story is fucking awesome. Damn, I wish the nuns at my school had been that kind of activist.
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I got taught how to shoot in school in Poland.
Had a crap aim though.
The nuns at my school were useless. All Sr Brenda (the head) did was go on holidays for the money we paid her. Bitch.
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Most teachers are cock-sucking bitches
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:indeed:
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My high school had a rifle team but thats about as close as we came.
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would you steal other people's or grow them in a lab?
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would you steal other people's or grow them in a lab?
I'd buy them from other countries. I wouldn't care whether the people I was buying them from had stolen them or grown them.
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my arm hurts, can you fix it? :toporly:
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We'll sell you a new one :zoinks:
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i want my old one though. :toporly: i'm attached to it. :zoinks:
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I can help you with that >:D
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DAMN!!! I was hoping some of you limies wised up, bought some milling machines and lathes, and started making your own black market guns.
Is the gun violence as bad as I hear... now that you can't LEGALY own a gun in the UK??
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The only people in the UK that have guns, are the criminals.
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DAMN!!! I was hoping some of you limies wised up, bought some milling machines and lathes, and started making your own black market guns.
Is the gun violence as bad as I hear... now that you can't LEGALY own a gun in the UK??
Gun violence is a rarity here in Glasgow, but violent crime in general is very common, being achieved with knives, clubs, unarmed assault etc. The result is that while you're more likely to be attacked than in the US, you're also less likely to be killed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2656875.stm). Particularly, people here are less likely to be killed for 'looking at someone the wrong way' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/14/usgunviolence.usa), since an assault will be far more likely to take the form of a kicking or stabbing than a bullet to the face.
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Peter if you start one, I can be your first customer :toporly:
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DON'T FUCKING LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT :litigious:
I don't doubt that for a minute
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Especially when a bunch of tards are pissed.
Seen many situations like that on the nightbus.
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Especially when a bunch of tards are pissed.
Seen many situations like that on the nightbus.
All the more reason to stay home or carry a gun yourself >:D
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You gave me an idea for my next birthday present :orly:
I could go on a shooting spree >:D
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I'd suggest an automatic grenade launcher. :toporly:
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Particularly, people here are less likely to be killed for 'looking at someone the wrong way' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/14/usgunviolence.usa), since an assault will be far more likely to take the form of a kicking or stabbing than a bullet to the face.
I can't believe the propaganda they have over in the UK about gun violence here. You might try getting some research by peer-reviewed criminologists, intead of those über-liberal, political hack, gun grabbers.