No Military Academy at St Athan

2010-02-13T01:44:00.000-08:00

2009-08-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

Qinetiq JV wins MoD contract

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Metrix, a joint venture between defence technology group QinetiQ and facilities management group Sodexo, has won a £31m contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The contract is part of the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Training Review (DTR) Package 1 PFI Project.

The DTR Package 1 Project aims to transform the way the MoD delivers specialist engineering, communications and information systems training on a Defence-wide basis.

Metrix will use Raytheon, the US technology company specialising in defence, homeland security and global training services, as the main sub-contractor to undertake the work which will provide the foundations to enable QinetiQ-led teams to deliver the technical trade training.

http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2953111

Ask the public..Raytheon make weapons to kill people, cluster bombs, war profiteers...

No mention of what this costing the public.

St Athan Arms testing, military jet training

2009-07-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

More here

Next meeting Mon 20th July 6.00pm Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff

News St Athan PFI Military College

1. locals unhappy with plans..more here... noise from arms testing, ambush training,military jet training
2. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance
of the site.. £12.5M. I hope this means some AMs will ask questions
3. Qinetiq consortium denies £1.3bn hole

1. locals unhappy with plans..more here

The Vale Council is currently considering the extensive planning application for the Defence Training College (DTC), and the public are being invited to express their views.
Coun Roger Eustace told The GEM: “There has been much local support for the DTC, but the previous public consultations and exhibitions made little mention of the type of military training – which was always presented as low level. “The goalposts have now changed.” ..

up to three military jet aircraft training on northern cross runway for up to four hours per day...
“The range will also be used for armament testing, including 5.56mm minigun and the larger calibre general purpose machine gun. .....The area will mainly be used for ambush training comprising noisy initial demonstrations followed by a few hours of dry drills. Typically, there will be eight demonstrations per day consisting of two Land Rovers being ambushed by one or two thunder flashes, with possibly blank small arms fire from SA80 rifles up to 30 rounds ..
..............................................

2.The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance
of the site

Rosalind Britton-Elliott Press Officer - Policy Desk Ministry of Defence : 020 7218 5903

DEPARTMENTAL MINUTE DATED 26 JUNE 2009 CONCERNING THE REPORTING
OF A CONTINGENT LIABILITY FOR THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE
DEFENCE TRAINING REVIEW
There is also a requirement for MOD to deliver a clear site at St Athan
before construction work can begin.
The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance of the site,
with a pre-Financial Close maximum expenditure of £12.5M. WAG is, however, unwilling to
start work prior to Financial Close unless this work is underwritten by
MOD lest the Defence TrainingCollege fails to reach Financial Close.
MORE here http://www.antimetrix.org/

3. Qinetiq consortium denies £1.3bn hole

Government has offered Metrix an additional £44m of state guarantees – in effect promising to pay for preparatory work even if it scraps the deal.
Metrix has called its “fallback” plan “part of good project governance”.
So far the MoD has offered almost £100m of guarantees to Metrix.
more here http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c38a0078-6990-11de-bc9f-00144feabdc0.html

DTR should be declared dead

2008-12-20T02:44:00.000-08:00

Qinetiq falls on concerns about defence outlook
guardian.co.uk - UK
We believe the risk relating to the DTR contract is now too high to warrant a more positive stance." The fall in Qinetiq has contributed to a 101.1 point ...
I guess they will sell this to anyone? Crazy!

Selling off the defence of UK to USA?

Guardian 20th Dec 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/20/british-nuclear-fuels-sells-awe-management-stake

Independent 20th Dec 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-secret-nuclear-selloff-storm-1204979.html

Telegraph 20th Dec 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3854008/Britain-sells-stake-in-Atomic-Weapons-Establishment.html

PCS on non announcement!

2008-10-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

DTR - Non Announcement

Published by Cheryl under Cosford, MoD

Yesterday the Shropshire Star had the following to say about the defence debate in the house of commons:

Thursday the 9th of October was another “non announcement” on the future of Package 1 DTR from the Minister for the Armed Forces Bob Ainsworth. Local MP’s Mark Pritchard both asked questions during the debate, an ad hoc version is below. Of interest was the fact that none of the Welsh MP’s made any comment.”PCS Branch Official H O’Harney at Cosford said “The news that further delays in the programme did not come as a shock to the staff at Cosford, they have been waiting for years to have clarification on their futures .The MoD seem hell bent on moving to Wales at all cost and the sooner the National Audit Office or Publics Account Committee review this programme the better since PCS are still skeptical that DTR is affordable. A £12 billion PFI carrying on in this current finacial crisis seems ridiculous given the risks and affordability issues. Our members at Cosford have made it clear that they have no intention to move Wales and the risk to the training of the Armed Forces is still real. It would appear that the MoD want to privatise at all cost despite the huge risks”

The response to a question, by the astute MP Mark Pritchard, Mr. Ainsworth: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has a national interest too, but he has a particular interest in this matter and, obviously, he pursues it. I am not saying that the costs have not changed. I am saying that we still have an affordable package that is far cheaper than the alternatives, and that has been worked on over the summer. We will be able to go ahead with defence package 1 and get value for money out of those proposals…..

This is another first for the DTR programme in suggesting that the “fallback posistion” is more expensive than the proposed move to St Athan !! No wonder the Department needs to give Metrix another six months grace to rearrange costings to fit. It is also of note that in the preamble issued to staff that the MoD have stated that the sale of additional sites plays no part in enabling the move to ahead. Strangely in their own Risk Assessment which was featured in the Private Eye magazine, this was one the MoD’s identified risks. The fact that the DTR IPT can try to spin another 6 month delay is a positive message to all the staff is ludicrous !! PCS will continue to campaign against this looming financial disaster.

EDS latest cockup

2008-10-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

A computer hard drive with the private details of armed forces personnel is missing, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The portable drive contains the names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and driving licence details of around 100,000 serving personnel across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF, along with details of their next of kin.

It also contains data on 600,000 potential services applicants and the names of their referees.

The drive could not be accounted for during an audit conducted by MoD contractor EDS as part of the ongoing Cabinet Office review of data security being conducted by Sir Edmund Burton.

Officials said they were "not ruling out" the risk that bank account details of personnel were held on the drive, which belonged to its IT contractor EDS.

..EDS are a key partner in the Metrix consortium to deliver training in the biggest PFI ever at St Athan.

Hutton & New defence team

2008-10-07T00:21:00.000-07:00

New Defence Ministerial team announced

A Defence Policy and Business news article 6 Oct 08

Following the appointment on Friday, 3 October 2008, of the Rt Hon John Hutton MP as Secretary of State for Defence, further changes to the Defence Ministerial team have been confirmed.

L-R: Quentin Davies MP, the new Minister for Defence Equipment and Support and Kevan Jones MP, the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans
[Picture: Allan House]

Quentin Davies MP will become Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, with the Rt Hon Baroness Taylor of Bolton PC moving to the newly-established appointment of Minister for International Defence and Security, supporting the Defence Secretary on NATO, ESDP and international issues; she will continue to lead on defence matters in the House of Lords.

Kevan Jones MP will become Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans. Bob Ainsworth will remain Minister for the Armed Force

The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of British education?

2008-10-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

latest SGR Newsletter : Autumn *2008*
The St Athan Defence Training Academy:
the future of British education?

Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing implications of the Ministry of
Defence's new multi-billion pound training academy.

Britain's largest education and technology investment project in recent
memory has been developing quietly under the public's radar. It is time we
paid attention. In January 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded an £11
billion contract to the private Metrix Consortium (see Box) to build a
massive new training centre for the British armed forces at the village of
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

St Athan, which is expected to become one of the world's biggest military
training establishments when it opens in 2013, will provide specialist
training in engineering, communications and information systems technology
to all three services of the British military. For the first time, it will
centralise in one location military training that is currently done in sites
across the country.

Supporters of St Athan emphasise that the Academy will use state-of-the-art
technology and training methods such as neurolinguistic programming,
e-learning technologies, computer-based training, computer-aided
instruction, emulation, simulation and Web-based systems. St Athan, they
claim, "breathes life into the classroom of the future model which for many
years now has been anticipated by futurologists and thought leaders in the
education community." St Athan represents a "model for training in this
country" that will enable Britain to realise Lord Leitch's vision of gaining
"world leadership in skills."

Why should any of this worry us? There is the fundamental question of why we
should support such a massive outlay of taxpayer money on a military that is
still involved in fighting an illegal war in Iraq – and in a country,
Britain, that already boasts the world's second-largest military budget.
Beyond this, St Athan represents three developments which should be
attracting extended public and political debate, but which instead have
received little attention, beyond a small, local campaign against the
Academy that sprung up in Wales after the project was first announced.

First, St Athan is part of a political project of privatising the British
armed forces, and turns over responsibility for military training to a
private, for-profit consortium. At a time when, across the Atlantic, US
Congress is holding investigations into abuses perpetrated by private
military companies such as Blackwater in Iraq, Britain is rushing headlong
down the same path of military privatisation that the USA has gone down
before. This privatisation, moreover, makes the British government a direct
partner of one of the world's largest and most controversial arms dealers,
Raytheon, which is a core member of the St Athan Metrix Consortium.

Second, St Athan represents a major leap forward in Britain's participation
in the global arms trade. The Metrix business model for maximising profits
at St Athan is to maximise the amount of training it provides, through
serving not just the British military but militaries from around the world.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Ministry of Defence provided military training to
more than 12,000 personnel from 137 countries, many with poor human rights
records.  With St Athan, this trade promises only to increase.

Third, St Athan represents another step up in the ongoing militarisation of
British education. The Open University – whose Vice-Chancellor, Brenda
Gourley, claims that universities should be "beacons that reflect the very
best of which the human spirit is capable"  – is a direct partner in the
Metrix Consortium. Schools around the Vale of Glamorgan are making plans to
train local youth for jobs at the St Athan Academy, while colleges and
universities across South Wales, which have already been extensively
militarised over the past decade, are exploring new Academy contract
tie-ins.  Indeed, one reason why we shouldn't expect Cardiff University, the
premier institution of research and learning in the region, to lead any
critical investigation into the St Athan project is that, in 2005, it signed
a long-term strategic research partnership with QinetiQ, another core member
of the Metrix Consortium.

Promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy claim that it
represents the future of education in Britain. Without public
investigation, debate and critique of St Athan and other military
research and education projects across the country, there is a
strong possibility that this will come true.
If it does, it will not be for the better of Britain or anywhere
else in the world.

Action

•    To find out more about the issue or to join the Stop the St Athan
Academy campaign, see http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk or
http://www.no2militaryacademy.com 

http://www.antimetrix.org

EDS MOD project costs treble!

2008-09-29T06:17:00.000-07:00

New Labour's unlucky 13 IT projects here

Now the Labour Party's conference, which was held in Manchester, is finished, I've looked at the lessons and what went wrong on 13 large, government IT-based projects and programmes:

Magistrates' courts
Schools
Intelligence Services
GCHQ
Passport Service
National Health Service
Rural Payments Agency
Criminal Records Bureau
HM Revenue and Customs
Department for Work and Pensions
Department of Health
Department for Innovation Universities Skills
Ministry of Defence

The analysis is tied in with an analysis and comment, to be published in Computer Weekly this week, on Labour's track record on managing big IT-based projects and programmes.

Ministry of Defence (EDS are one the METRIX consortium - why would you hire these people?)

The expected costs of the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) are £7bn - when Parliament was told the costs would be £2.3bn. The National Audit Office in July 2008 found there had been "major delays to the roll out of the first stage of the DII programme. The Department contracted to have 62,800 DII terminals in place at permanent defence sites by the end of July 2007. At the end of April 2008, only 29,000 had been delivered

"Currently the end date for installation of increment one is running 18 months late against the estimated latest completion date at contract signature".

The cost of the project was announced originally at about £2.3bn, but the latest cost estimate is £7bn, though not because of any fault of the main contractor EDS. The National Audit Office found the costs of the DII contracts with the Atlas consortium, led by EDS, are under firm control. The MoD paid EDS less than the supplier had originally expected because of an 18-month delay in the roll-out. The difference in costs is because the MoD was not open and candid when announcing the costs originally. The DII programme "assumed that the roll-out of infrastructure and terminals would be more straightforward than transpired," said the National Audit Office.

Allied article: Why can't new Labour get IT right?

Fellowship of Reconciliation Wales oppose military academy

2008-09-05T04:58:00.000-07:00

Press Release -03/09/2008

Jill Evans MEP and Dafydd Iwan will join the Rev. Guto Prys ap Gwynfor to light a flame of peace at the memorial at Penyberth, near Pwllheli on Monday 8th September at 2pm. The event will commemorate the fire lit by Saunders Lewis, Rev. Lewis Valentine and DJ Davies to stop the building of a bombing school there in 1936. The meeting will send a clear message to the politicians in Cardiff Bay and London of the need to oppose the proposed military academy at St Athan. The following is a declaration by The Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, which is an international faith based peace movement , who have organised this event for their opposition to the St Athan military academy:

“We oppose the proposed military academy at St Athan for the following reasons:

1.Christian morality declares that by loving the enemy we can resolve conflict, not by killing and destroying the property of the enemy.

2. The privatising of military training will have a destabilising effect and means there will be no public accountability for activities there and the profit motive will prevail for the benefit of the shareholders of the private consortium.

3. The fragile Welshness of the Vale o Glamorgan will be further eroded by the influx of personnel from elsewhere.”

Welsh Campaigners Condemn Pendine Missile Tests

2008-06-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

CND press release

CND Cymru has joined others campaigning to stop the arms race in space, inroundly condemning the testing of three 'penetrator missiles' which werefired into a sand bunker at the Qinetiq-run Missile testing centre at Pendine, Carmarthenshire. These tests now make Wales a prime testing ground for "dual use" weapons forbunker buster applications and technologies to be used to further the armsrace in space.

This test in Wales is disguised as a Moon test but as NASA has long said, everything carried out by 'space exploration' organisations; every technology they create is for "dual use", meaning they will serve as aspace weapons system as well.Peter Truss, one of those responsible for the testing of the missiles at Pendine, is reported as saying: *"... with the increase in technology thatwe can apply to these problems, all sorts of possibilities open up,".In 2002, another penetrator, bunker busting bomb was to be tested atPendine,in advance of the invasion of Iraq, but the tests were called offafter objections by local people and anti-war protestors. If a 'penetrator missile' could be aimed at a point on another planet, itis only time before such a missile will be fired to non-compliant'adversaries' to earth from military space stations.Jill Gough, CND Cymru National Secretary said today: " We humans just don't seem to learn. It was the 'space race' in the 1950sand 60s that fuelled and helped develop the cold war arms race. At a time when we are allegedly having to live with increasingly scarce natural resources and with pollution, poverty, war and injustice, we are insteadresearching and learning new ways to deliver misery and destruction to life on earth and even to other planets."

"Is this what we want in Wales - to be part of the problem, or to be part of the solution?" *More information about the test
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7438270.stm

Interviews for CND Cymru : Jill Gough CND CYMRU 01495 773 180 heddwch@cndcymru.org Mobile: 07704 675787
Interviews from Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons& Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011 44 (207) 443 9502
http://www.space4peace.org/
mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (Blog)

More Raytheon Protests - now in Flintshire!

2008-06-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

Demo for nine peace protesters in Flintshire

Daily Post, UK -DEMONSTRATORS held a protest outside a the Flintshire plant of a defence industry firm in support of peace activists prosecuted for occupying the firm’s ...

Solidarity demo at Broughton on day Raytheon 9 trial collapsesIndymedia UK, Campaigners from Wrexham, Chester and beyond held a demonstration outside the Broughton Raytheon factory this afternoon in solidarity with the Raytheon 9. ...

see http://www.antimetrix.org/

Rsytheon 9 trail and the links with Metrix

2008-05-30T01:48:00.000-07:00

The Raytheon 9 trial and the links with Metrix.

The Raytheon 9 trial - lesson for Raytheon in Wales? Mark Steel's article, censored by the Indy lawyers, is below.

Publicising the trial of 9 who occupied Raytheon's office in Derry, to stop their weapons manufacture. Government grants and encouragement to Raytheon to provide jobs (in guidance systems for bombs and missiles) are paralleled by the involvement of Raytheon in the Metrix consortium - to train British and any other 'friendly' soldiers to use the missiles.

Raytheon's involvement in cluster munitions is a symbol - one that Rhodri Morgan has been at pains to deny - of the wider plans to integrate Britain into US military plans (say anti-Metrix campaigners) http://www.antimetrix.org/http://caatcardiff.blogspot.com/

Mark Steel on the Raytheon 9 trial-----------------------------------Hmm, I've written this article for this week's Independent, about a case that should have had masses of publicity but has had hardly any. So there I am feeling smug at redressing the balance and I'm informed this evening that the good people of the law won't let it be printed. So here it is - my illegal article - oo, it must feel like reading LadyChatterley's Lover in 1962.....----------------------------------------------------------------------There's a trial currently taking place in Belfast, that seems to explain plainly how nothing makes any sense. It revolves around a factory owned by the arms company Raytheon, which was set up in Derry soon after the IRA ceasefire.

John Hume, who'd just won the Nobel Peace Prize was among those who announced the opening of the plant, welcoming it as a result of the 'peace dividend' So at last, now the men of violence had agreed to give up their weapons, the area could attract a peaceful company with a turnover of seventeen billion dollars from making weapons.

Clearly, all the while theIRA were decommissioning their arms, most of us misunderstood this process. Because the government reports must have gone "They possess 100 rifles, 10 RPG 7 rockets and a shed full of semtex. If they want to be taken seriously this isn't NEARLY enough; they need Tornado bombers and a car park full of tanks - we can't deal with these amateurs."
For example, when Raytheon won a contract to develop a new missile system for the Israelis in 2006, a spokesman boasted they would "Provide all-weather hit-to-kill performance at a tactical missile price."

Next they might have adverts, that go "Hurry hurry hurry to the Raytheon springtime sale for lasers, tasers and civilian-erasers that will make flesh sizzle through snow, sleet or drizzle WITHOUT making a casualty of your wallet." Despite this, the government in Northern Ireland welcomed the new plant, claiming they'd been assured it wouldn't be making weapons. To which a reasonable response would be 'Right - they're a weapons manufacturer - they supplied weapons to, amongst others, the Indonesian military junta - this might, if you were cynical, suggest they make weapons.

Or what do you THINK they're going to be making - FAIRTRADE FUCKING CUSTARD!' Eventually it was admitted they were making guidance systems for missiles, and so for a while there was a pretence these were being employed for peaceful reasons. Perhaps the systems were being attached to wasps so that a central controlling network could guide them away from picnics.
Continued...http://www.marksteelinfo.com/pt/blog/default.aspx?id=10&t=The-evidence-mounts-that-some-things-are

... Note that John Hume of the Nobel Peace Prize was taken in and welcomed Raytheon to Derry - so our Rhodri is in good company.

Serco Iraq contract

2008-05-27T05:21:00.001-07:00

KBR losing exclusive hold on Iraq contracts
International Herald Tribune - France
... the prior contract, and it plans to outsource much of the management and oversight of the contractors to yet another company, Serco, for $59 million. ...

Critics also say they doubt that the new contract will result in significant cost savings or better services for soldiers in Iraq. The U.S. Army has built into the deal the potential for larger profits for the contractors than existed under the previous contract, and it plans to outsource much of the management and oversight of the contractors to yet another company, Serco, for $59 million.

Noisy low-flying planes from Qinetiq training

2008-05-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

MP supports defence companies Worcester Standard - Michael Foster leapt to the defence of technology and security companies such as QinetiQ following a small number of complaints from his constituents about ...the noise of low-flying planes over the city. Having raised the issue with defence minister Derek Twigg MP, Mr Foster was told that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was sorry for any disturbance caused by planes but the aircatft were taking part in essential training.

St Athan may have to put up with noise from low flying aircraft, helicopters , tanks and additional traffic.

It seems if it is ESSENTIAL training there are NO boundries. Local residents and councillors amy well raise questions about noise and complain but when the Mega base is open there will be no return to a quiet life at St Athan and in the Vale of Glamorgan!

St Athan Anti-metrix protest

2008-04-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

for more info see http://www.antimetrix.org/2008/04/big-brother-hassles-anti-metrix-st.html

Jill Evans MEP speaks at the protest rally

Let Wales teach peace not war!

2008-04-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

cnd cymru campaign for nuclear disarmament/yr ymgyrch dros ddiarfogi niwclear

press release 25th April 2008 press office: t: 01495 773 180 m: 07704 67 57 87
Let Wales Teach the World Peace Not War
Stop Military Academy Protest in Cardiff Tomorrow!Activists and campaigners from all over Wales, will be taking part intomorrow's Cardiff demonstration against plans to build a PFI (publicprivate finance initiative) funded Military 'Academy' at St Athan in theVale of Glamorgan. Courses at the proposed academy are being designed to train any soldiers,sailors, air force or private 'security service' personnel who are willingto pay. It will be an institution whose main purpose is to profit frombullying, war and violence.
CND Cymru is particularly concerned that those preparing to initiate and participate in nuclear warfare would be trained to do so in our 'Nuclear Free Wales'. The creation of this all-service military educational establishment at StAthan, between Cardiff and Swansea, was announced as a 'done deal' inJanuary 2007. Despite the fact this represented the biggest PFI in history,involving at least £14 billion of taxpayers' money, there had been no public debate in either Westminster, National Assembly (Senedd) or mostimportantly, with the people of Wales. A determined group of activists from all walks of life and all parts of Wales have been working to draw the public's attention to this insanity, and will be taking their message onto the streets of Cardiff tomorrow.
Speakers at tomorrow's demonstration will include Chair of CND Cymru Jill Evans MEP. She said today: "We are opposed to the privatisation of military training and to making Wales the base for that training for Britain and other countries. Throughout the world, Wales is recognised for its traditions of peace and reconciliation.""We have the skills and the potential to be a real driving force for peacein the world. Instead the British government is making us the centre oftraining for war, putting that training in the hands of multinational armscompanies.""When I met the Minister and civil servants responsible for this project inNovember last year, they said that only the first phase of the project was confirmed. They said there would be somewhere between 2,000 - 3,000 jobs involved with the first phase, about half of which would be teaching rolesand the other half support staff, such as caterers, cleaners and security.They also confirmed that existing MOD staff would be offered relocation toSt. Athan from other parts of Britain. No-one would say how many and what kind of jobs will be available to local people."

"I have been always consistent in my views on this project from the verybeginning, and have sought to reveal the facts. Other politicians have madewild, exaggerated claims about the number of jobs being created as they toattempt to justify the military academy. Of course, this is not just about jobs, it's about the kind of Wales we want."Jill Gough, National Secretary of CND Cymru asked: "As the world wide economic recession takes hold and public hostility tothis huge waste of resources grows, will there still be enough taxpayers'money available to fund this folly? Will politicians still be prepared to beassociated with this white elephant? ""Imagine a world in which the armed forces are trained by arms dealers, andwe subsidise their profits. That world will become reality unless we stop the proposed school of death at St Athan."

ENDS * Interviews for CND Cymru : Jill Gough CND CYMRU 01495 773 180HYPERLINK "mailto:heddwch@cndcymru.org"heddwch@cndcymru.org Mobile fromSaturday morning: 07704 675787Jill Evans is available for comment: 07803 902 401 * MARCH TO STOP THE ST ATHANS MILITARY ACADEMY.Saturday 26th April Assemble 1.30 pm, outside City Hall Cathays Park.Demonstration through the City at 2pm.

March to stop the military academy

2008-04-25T03:36:00.000-07:00

Stop the War NOW: MARCH TO STOP THE UK MILITARY ACADEMY
Mass demonstration called by Stop the St Athan Military Academy Campaign
Supported by UK Stop the War Coalition
Assemble 1.30 pm, Cathays Park
(opposite Museum/City Hall, Cardiff
Saturday 26 April

Bring placards, banners, drums, people etc
In the summer of 2006, hundreds of people protested in Cardiff against the war on Lebanon. The Israeli military dropped half-a-million cluster bombs on Lebanon supplied by arms companies like Raytheon. Now Raytheon has been invited to Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government to help run a huge, privatised military academy near Cardiff. It's time to get back onto the streets! Anything we can do in Wales to prevent the State waging war on its terms can only be of help to those resisting in the frontline in the Middle East and beyond.

Stop the St Athan Military Academy Campaign supporters include:
Aberystwyth Peace & Justice Network, Bangor Peace & Justice GroupCaernarfon Peace & Justice Group, Cardiff Anarchist Network, Cardiff Justice & Peace Group, Cardiff RESPECT/Left Party, Church Action Against Poverty, CND Cymru, CND (Swansea), Communist Party of Wales, Cymdeithas y Cymod (Fellowship of Reconciliation Wales), Cymdeithas yr Iaith (Welsh Language Society), Cynefin y Werin, Green Party (Wales), Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, Penarth Justice & Peace Group, Permanent Revolution, Quakers (Caerleon), RESPECT/Left Party, Socialist Labour Party (Wales), South Wales Anarchists, Stop the War Coalition (UK), Stop the War (Bristol)Stop the War (Cardiff), Stop the War (Swindon), Stop the War (Wrekin), Women in Black (Abergavenny), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Wrexham Peace & Justice Centre
To add your name or organisation to the list of supporters or for more information about the campaign, email: no2militaryacademy@inbox.com
Imagine a world in which the armed forces are trained by arms dealers.And we subsidise their profits.
That world will become reality unless we stop the proposed school of death at St Athan.The creation of a military super-academy at St Athan, between Cardiff and Swansea, was announced as a done deal in January 2007. Despite the fact this represented the biggest PFI in history, involving £14 billion of taxpayers' money, there had been no debate in either Westminster or the Welsh Assembly (Senedd). A promise of 5500 local jobs was trumpeted loudly by an uncritical news media and presented as a great victory for Wales.
No wonder the politicians didn't want any debate. The new super-academy, replacing many smaller centres, means that military training will now be in the hands of shameless profiteers.The winning bidders for the project were the Metrix consortium. This consortium includes Qinetiq, the privatised research and development wing of the MoD. Qinetiq was recently the subject of intense criticism by the National Audit Office. Its privatisation was proposed by MoD managers – who then saw their shares rise 10,000% on the day of the sale! 33.8% of Qinetiq was also bought by the US-based Carlyle Group, a sinister lash-up of politicians and arms dealers with a vested interest in promoting war.Former members of its board include one George W. Bush.
Then there is the US arms manufacturer Raytheon. Raytheon make the missiles which deliver cluster bombs, the horrendous weapons which are estimated to have killed 100,000 people – 98% of them innocent civilians. The world can also thank Raytheon for the depleted uranium weapons which have led to thousands of horribly deformed babies and large increases in cancers in war zones and beyond.Raytheon, Qinetiq and friends will not just be training UK armed forces at St Athan. They will train any soldiers, sailors and air force personnel that are willing to pay for the privilege. And like all PFIs, the St Athan academy will be subsidised by the taxpayer, and if necessary, bailed out with public money.There has never been a detailed breakdown of the jobs the academy will bring. However, even Metrix admit that many of the military trainers will relocate from elsewhere. Every PFI has secured profits by cutting costs. St Athan will mean less MoD jobs overall, and the poorest pay and conditions for lowskilled workers.
In any case, imagine what else could be done with £14 billion! With hospitals and schools closing throughout Wales and the UK, with a desperate need to improve social facilities, create sustainable sources of energy etc, such public money could be invested in socially useful projects rather than the preparation for future wars of occupation like Iraq.
If this development goes ahead, 21 st century Wales will be become a militarised, security-obsessed nightmare. If you want to stop the war profiteers in their tracks, support the campaign and raise it in your union, student union, workplace and community.

Can't rely on Plaid

2008-04-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Don’t rely on Cardiff, says Plaid ic Wales - United Kingdom

On the multi-billion- pound Defence Training Academy development at St Athan, it says: “Plaid would have preferred if this major funding had gone into a scheme or schemes not so directly involved with the military. Nevertheless, the possibilities are there if we work to take them.”

Waht possibilities are these???

John Smith MP and the St Athan Jobs Con

2008-04-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

John Smith MP and the St Athan Jobs Con By Luther
In November last year I blogged about the hugely inflated estimates on the number of jobs the St Athan Military Academy will bring to Wales being bandied around by politicians of all parties. One of the biggest cheerleaders for the ...Luther ap Blissett -
http://lutherapblissett.blogspot.com/

John Smith (Vale of Glamorgan, Labour) HOC Welsh Affairs 28th Feb here

John Smith I qualify my remarks by saying that the final negotiations are not complete and will not be for some time. I hope that Main Gate 2 will be ready in spring, and we will have a clearer picture then. However, I shall give the revised figures. There will be roughly just over 1,000 trainers' jobs—in training design and general training provision—just over 1,000 support jobs for training on the site; and 1,000 full-time military jobs on the site. That is approximately—we must be careful—3,000 jobs.

Trainers and military are not jobs to be advertised in barry job centre!

Monbiot. I notice his guardian article today is relevant to the Ffos y fran and St Athan project!
He looks at other 'projects' usually unethical and often dangerous to the environment are promoted and welcomed by politicans for JOBS which turn out to cost millions to the tax payer.
The Metrix consortium itself devised the formula for the number of jobs to be created!!!

Snow Jobs
April 1, 2008 The employment figures attached to large projects tend to be codswallop.
(more…)

WAG spending £4.5 million on St Athan Military Academy 2007-2008

2008-03-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

Other freedom of information requests
Disclosure log 1637
A request has been recieved for information relating to the Welsh Assembly Government’s involvement with the Defence Training Academy project at St Athan Ein cyf * Our ref: ATI 2412 21 February 2008

Cofnod ddatgelu 1012
2. What assistance has the Welsh Assembly given to the Metrix Consortium? Read here

Freedom of information - for general enquiries contact the Assembly switchboard: Tel: 0845 010 3300e-mail: webmaster@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Freedom of Information OfficerWelsh Assembly GovernmentCathays ParkCardiffCF10 3NQTel: 029 2080 1177 Fax: 029 2082 5137Email:

InformationOfficer@wales.gsi.gov.uk
If you are seeking copies of documents published by the Welsh Assembly Government, please contact the Publications Centre:Tel: 029 2082 3683 Fax: 029 2082 5239E-mail: assembly-publications@wales.gsi.gov.uk

http://new.wales.gov.uk/publications/accessinfo/DLnewv2/dl1600to1699/2068263/?lang=en

Teachers condemn MOD recruitment drive

2008-03-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Mirror.co.uk

Teachers condemn MoD recruitment drives
Times Online, UK - 4 hours ago
The motion defended the rights of teachers “not to take part in activities promoting military recruitment, or which they feel present a partisan view of war ...
Teachers attack army over "school recruitment" Reuters UK
Teachers to oppose MoD 'propaganda' The Press Association
Pupils 'lured' into armed forces BBC News
Guardian
all 239 news articles »

Teachers attack army over "school recruitment"
25 MAR 2008 12:58 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Teachers accused the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday of "exploiting" schools to find new recruits after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made it harder to sign up volunteers.

Full Article

Army recruitment in schools row
Guardian, UK - The union backed a motion committing the NUT to "support teachers and schools in opposing Ministry of Defence recruitment activities that are based upon ...

See more info on
In the Vale of Glamorgan John Smith boasts of opportuniuty for children to have benefits of St Athan Military academy on the agenda! waht are they then.. Working for arms dealers - Cluster bomb makers - training with mercenaries?

http://www.no2militaryacademy.com/2008/03/ilegal-propaganda-in-schools.html

Army £2m campaign for public support

2008-03-18T01:37:00.000-07:00

Army campaign to boost public support 17 Mar 2008 The Army has launched a publicity campaign costing an estimated £2m to encourage public support for UK soldiers. ....More propaganda ...There may be soldiers from Guantanamo training our young people in St Athan.

Guantanamo: The Bigger Picture Foreign Policy In Focus - Mar 17, 2008
...and if you go for a dead in job

Coroners face gagging over troop deaths 18 Mar 2008 Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, is trying to prevent coroners from being highly critical of the Ministry of Defence over the deaths of British troops killed in action. In a highly unusual move, Mr Browne began legal moves yesterday to prevent coroners from using language prejudicial to the MoD when issuing verdicts on the deaths of troops who die on active service. Lawyers for Mr Browne went to the High Court to challenge comments made by a coroner in Oxfordshire after an inquest of a Territorial Army soldier in Iraq.

How to Become a Concentration Camp Guard Without Even Trying
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
A reluctant Guantanamo Bay jailer, who found himself working in

Campaign joins Stop the War in London

2008-03-16T07:24:00.001-07:00

Ilegal Propaganda in Schools

2008-03-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

MoD accused of propaganda in Iraq worksheets for schools
Guardian, Friday March 14 2008
Polly Curtis, education editor
The Ministry of Defence has been accused of supplying "misleading propaganda" to schools and attempting to recruit pupils into the army. The children's secretary, Ed Balls, has written to officials in the MoD asking them to investigate teachers' claims that their worksheets for 16- to 18-year-olds provide a one-sided view on the war in Iraq. The National Union of Teachers (...) (...) on the war in Iraq. The National Union of Teachers said the MoD was "unethically" targeting recruitment materials at schools in disadvantaged areas. (...)

and what are they teaching them in Vale of Glamorgan schools - Llanwit Major Comp has not replied to any of my lettersin the last month. Estyn said that the school must be contacted.

Is it legal to put just the BENEFITS of the Defence Academy on the curriculum? The article says that they are required by law to give a balanced view which is what we have written to the school and its govenors to ask.

There ahas been no reply from John Smith or the director of Education or the chair of thew education committee!

The Guardian article above ..

One worksheet supplied by the MoD and designed by a private marketing company, Kids Connections, describes the UK force's efforts in Iraq as mainly targeted at "helping the Iraqis to rebuild their country after the conflict and years of neglect".
It describes the work the armed forces have done in security and reconstruction, and notes the 2005 democratic elections. But union officials said it failed to mention the US-led invasion, Iraqi civilian deaths and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
The NUT will debate the issue at its annual conference in Manchester next week. Teachers are regularly sent model lesson plans, worksheets and other teaching materials by government departments, charities and private companies, but these are required by law to give a balanced political view. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in January highlighted websites set up by the MoD targeted at 12- to 17-year-olds, but noted that some recruitment tactics targeted children as young as seven. "Children are introduced to the potential benefits of a forces career, but not to its risks," the report said.

Schools receive 'pro-war propaganda' teaching materials from MoD Daily Mail, UK The Ministry of Defence has been accused of sending out pro-war "propaganda" to schools. Britian's biggest teachers' union has said the MoD asked schools to ...Row as teachers call for ban on army 'pro-war propaganda ... This is London Pupils 'given biased Iraq view' BBC News Teachers' concerns over Iraq are valid Independent The Observer all 10 news articles »

Teachers' concerns over Iraq are valid
By Richard Garner
The National Union of Teachers is justified in expressing concern over the materials included in the lesson plan commissioned by the Ministry of Defence for teaching about the Iraq war. As Steve Sinnott, its general secretary, says, it makes no mention of civilian casualties or the fact that the UN failed to sanction the invasion. A High Court judge ruled that Al Gore's Oscar-winng film, An Inconvenient Truth, could not be shown in schools without teachers providing "balance" and correcting inaccuracies in it. The same should be the case for the MoD lesson plan.
Having said that, the debate at the NUT conference will be interested. The motion attacking the lesson calls for support for opposition to military involvement in sxchools. Mr Sinnott wants that support limited to cases where the military is providing biased information to schools. He concedes that - if the produce quality material - there is no reason why schoolshould not use it.

ESTYN Reply to complaint

Alexandra.Doel@estyn.gsi.gov.uk Chief-Inspector@estyn.gsi.gov.uk

Thank you for your email to the Chief Inspector dated 8 February 2008 which was passed to me for attention. He has asked me to reply on his behalf.
Matters relating to the curriculum of a particular school should be directed in the first instance to the school and its governing body. If the issue is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you may subsequently raise it with the local authority and ultimately take it to the Welsh Assembly Government if necessary.

I am sure that you will understand that we cannot comment on individual cases ourselves.
Yours sincerely,

Meilyr Rowlands
Managing HMI
Secondary education and 14-19 area provision

NUT WAR MOTION

I spoke the NUT Wales 02920 491818 and Gleshi Jones has promised to get the press officer to get back to me.

War MOTION 55
http://www.teachers.org.uk/resources/pdf/3715_motions_08.pdf

Conference reaffirms existing Union policies which:
1. Call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
2. Agree to participate in protests should military action be taken against Iran by US and/or UK forces.

Conference notes with particular concern the huge refugee crisis within and beyond Iraq’s borders, one consequence of which is the impossibility of education for most learners of all ages.
Further, Conference also notes that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the banishment of 750,000 Palestinians from their homelands. This unresolved injustice entrenches many opponents of the world’s most militarised states in a conviction that real peace, democracy and equality are not what those powers aspire to in these more recent conflicts. Conference congratulates those members that have established sustainable twinning arrangements with schools in Palestine, and encourages more to do likewise.
Conference further notes two respects in which schools are being asked to play a partisan role in war.

The first is via the development of Key Stage 4 classroom teaching materials, produced by Kids Connections, a children's marketing agency, working for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and published at; www.defencedynamics.mod.com

In the particular section for English ‘Writing To Argue’ information is presented largely from the MOD’s point of view. (For example there are no figures for the dead, wounded, homeless or refugees.) This would impinge on many schools’ commitment to peace and equality contained in their mission statements, and also breach the 1996 Education Act (Section 56 paras 406 and 407), unless teachers contribute additional materials to achieve the balanced views of such topics required by law.

The second is via the exploitation of schools for recruitment by the armed forces. Precisely because unpopular recent wars have contributed to a decline in volunteers all branches of the military are upgrading their methods of recruitment. Again, military intervention in schools customarily presents a partisan view of war, largely by ignoring its fatal realities in favour of promises of travel, skill training and further or higher education course sponsorships otherwise often unavailable to young people, especially in areas of high unemployment.
Conference believes that teachers and schools should not be conduits for either the dissemination of MoD propaganda or the recruitment of military personnel.
Conference therefore:
(i) Congratulates colleagues in the Educational Institute of Scotland for their decision in 2007 to oppose military recruitment in Scottish schools;
(ii) Agrees to actively oppose military recruitment activities in schools across England and Wales.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

a. By all means support Union members who face victimisation or other professional
difficulties in the course of implementing this policy of opposition to military recruitment in schools;
b. Support those students and parents who may also campaign against military recruitment in schools, locally and nationally;
c. Co-sponsor with the Stop the War Coalition and its other affiliated trade unions, mindful of existing legal guidelines, curriculum learning materials on peace and militarisation. In addition, the Union agrees to purchase and circulate the most recent education pack produced by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which promotes an understanding of the history of this most protracted dispute in the Middle East.

Lambeth, Croydon, East London, Cambridgeshire, Islington, Southwark, Redbridge