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Qinetiq, Carlyle, Brit Ministry of Defence, Poxy Politicians, Sickening Sell Outs and God Alone Knows What Else ...
Here's a quick couple of clips from a piece we published way back in January 2006.
The following shocking story was run by the BBC in December 2002, and it frightened the f*ck out of This Old Brit.You should start by reading below to (quickly), get the general gist of the direction we're going.
Others with knowledge of the two companies concerned were equally alarmed but alas, few chose to articulate their shared 'scared-shitless' sentiments in such colourful language as he so often does .
US firm (Carlyle) buys stake in UK defence labs
QinetiQ has branched out from defence to modern technology
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has sold a third of its defence research business, Qinetiq, to the US private equity group Carlyle
(snip)
Carlyle will also retain a holding after the listing. The investment group has a 31% stake but 51% control of the voting rights, which it bought for just £42m but are now believed to be worth £340m.
In case anyone ever doubted it, this is yet more evidence of how & why certain 'selected'' conglomerates are constantly booming in the money-in-misery business. And all at the cost of intentionally uncounted innocents' blood.
In fact, it could quite safely be said that never before in the field of human greed, have so many suffered so much for the profits of so few.
In better days under better, more honourable and honest politicians such shameless selfishness was precisely the kind of thing called 'war profiteering'. And rightly so.
Now read the rest of our (18 month old), article: Is Blair Actually Selling The Keys To The United Kingdom --- To Carlyle ?
Next, back to the business in hand (23/11/07), via a remarkable BBC revelation of today. Stick with us - dot connecting's no problem - in fact it's a doddle.
Here's a couple of quotes from said BBC piece.
Read the rest of the BBC report right here(Includes comments well worth seeing).A battalion of former military bigwigs last night accused Gordon Brown of being tight-fisted on Britain’s defence. Which adds resonance to today’s judgement by the National Audit Office that taxpayers were short-changed in the sale by the Ministry of Defence of a stake in Qinetiq, the technology and defence business.
The charge which sticks against the MoD and the Treasury (which always oversees these deals) is that they made a schoolboy error in the sale-process. They ran an auction and identified the US private equity house, Carlyle, as the preferred bidder
(snip)
Carlyle’s internal rate of return was a staggering 112 per cent per annum. This wasn’t just a vintage deal for Carlyle, it was vintage Krug.For those who ran Qinetiq, it was Krug in diamond-encrusted, solid gold goblets. The top ten executives in the business made £200 for every £1 of their own cash they invested in the business. Sir John Chisholm, Qinetiq’s chairman, turned £130,000 into £26m; Graham Love, the chief executive, scooped £21m from £110,000
Can anyone else smell the same stomach churning stench here that we can?
Nice work if you can get, eh?
Good jobs AND big bucks for 'the boys'.
Labels: Carlyle Group, George W. Bush, Gordon Brown, Graham Love, John Major, Ministry of Defence, Qinetiq, Sir John Chisholm, Tony Blair
posted by Richard at Friday, November 23, 2007
12 Comments:
way of the world brit .... business is business
Actually, Rick,
Carlyle RUNS the world....
And it never ceases to amaze me how few actually believe this. Even when presented with your good post or countless other books, article, what haveyous. I guess it's just too damn appalling, wot?
XO
WWW
Wisewebwoman : Hammer. Nail. Head.
anonymous : Have another nice cop~out day. And then week. And then month. And then year.
What a meaningless, noncontributory existance your type of philosophy must give you.
Bad enough if Carlyle gets its claws in, but when you start hearing talk of privatizing the army (i.e. Blackwater), the point of no return is in sight. House of Bush, House of Saud, house of Halliburton, house of Erik Prince.
Glad you put John Major's name in there, Rick; another sleazy sell-out who has slunk into a top paying job at Carlyle.
Carlyle has a huge stake in Dubai, which has no oil, but which has turned itself into a glizsy Dubailand (as they call themselves), full of top shops and conference centres. Remember that fuss a while ago about a 'Dubai' company buying American ports? Looks now like George Jr. was just selling them to George Sr.
I wonder how Reiver Brown and the rest of his slimy cronies are benefitting from Carlyle.
Incidentally, what happened to the money from this sale?
(And did you know that payment of British civil service pensions was turned over to an American company a few years ago? And that Raytheon (US) has been handed the contract for 'citizen security'?)
Now we know why our government is so slavishly following at the American heel; the US owns Britain!
*sweetoldlady*
Aha! Dubai, refuge of the mega wealthy. Amazingly favourable tax treatment for the rich, and obviously beyond the (right & proper) laws and penalties of any other country.
Don't forget that Cheney's Haliburton moved it's headquarters there very recently. Only 'on paper' of course, but that's all that really matters (is needed).
Hmm. I see that Kellog Brown and Root also have a fondness for Dubai.
While we're on the subject, here's a film you'll find interesting, Rick:
'War Profiteers: Iraq for Sale'
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15097.htm
Doesn't the US army have 'sappers'? (Does the British army still have 'sappers'?
Sorry about the long address; I haven't worked out how to do the 'link' thingy, yet.
*sweetoldlady*
Rex --
Kellogg Brown & Root are owned by Halliburton, which this year moved its HQ to Dubai.
At the link you provided, the main e-mail contact for the KBR guy is oliver.stanley@halliburton.com
*sweetoldlady* --
Dubai itself may not have all that much oil (Wikipedia says it's only 6 percent of their public revenue; trade and services is their real livelihood), but it doesn't stand alone ... it's the largest population among the 7 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Which (with neighboring Oman) bestrides the southern shore of the Straits of Hormuz, through which all Persian/Arabian Gulf oil tankers must pass.
A perfect spot for an oil services conglomerate (Halliburton) to locate ... all the better to keep things running smoothly, or be near at hand for necessary repairs, salvage, or ship-channel clearing should the need arise.
No wonder Dubai wanted to buy U.S. ports ... that's the only other place that the oil transport system (to/from the U.S.) could get gummed up.
[/rambling]
The person who said "The US owns Britain" is mistaken. The US is rapidly becoming owned by an oligarchy of corporations, which in turn is led by the Carlyle Group and the International Bankers.
I am afraid Britain is about to suffer the same fate.
In my country the evidence is becoming obvious: (1)our government can't function at all as it is supposed to; (2)our legislature can't or won't pass any substantive new laws; (3)if they do pass laws the President can ignore them with "signing statements", getting around any need to go through the process of overriding a veto, or he can simply say he has special powers because our country is "at war"; (4)WAR is very profitable for the corporations, so of course one war or another must continue forever somewhere; (5)The US Treasury is rapidly being drained to pay for wars and fatten the pockets of the corporations which have massive "No-Bid" contracts with no check on performance;.....
I could go on, but you get the picture.
We (the people) no longer own our National Parks or our National Forests. They all belong to corporations now, more or less. Even our prison system is completely run by corporations at a healthy profit.
And of course you know our health care apparatus is almost all corporatized by a combination of BIG PHARMA, HOSPITALS, and INSURANCE, all of which are corporations that can charge as much as they like.
Traditional Family Farms have all but disappeared. The vast majority of agriculture is all corporate owned and controlled. The same goes for all the rest of the food distribution process right down to the big corporate grocery store.
Small independent banks are almost a thing of the past.
Our elections have become a sham and a joke, at least at the national level.
There is no point in bashing George W. Bush. He is just a willing puppet of the corporate oligarchy. (Cheney might be another story).
Take a good look. Don't let this destruction happen to Britain. Most Americans didn't really care until things had gone too far. You may still have time to save your country.
Above all, do NOT let your law enforcement become privatised and put in the hands of another Blackwater (who did their best to help destroy New Orleans after Katrina).
By the way, I strongly second the earlier recommendation of the film, War Profiteers: Iraq for Sale.
It is a must to get the real war picture of intentional (and profitable) waste.
I live outside Britain but have been very very worried for a very long time over this question of privatising basic services... I'm now worried several people here suggest that there's still time to do something ...
maybe ...
For example, the small and medium sized farmers in Britain have been put out of business, I believe, through external "military precision" destabilizing tactics. One of the promises of the PNAC -- ensure that there are no economic competitors among allies ...
So who was behind the ruining of British beef farming and the foot and mouth so that agro-business could get a hold? Buy up all the bankrupt farmers? Who is behind ensuring that genetically modified crops contaminate ordinary fields ...? The list only starts here, but the way I see it, this operation has seen the collusion of British politicians and big business for over 20 years now and the fix is in.
Time? You reckon. I'm a pessimist.
greetings from a well-wisher.
sally
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