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In reply to the discussion: Cheney backs Obama on drones [View all]reorg
(3,317 posts)81. I'm wondering if these guys may also have something to do with it
General Dynamics Business Model Changes
To grasp how Obamas policies benefit General Dynamics (GD) in particular, we need to understand how GDs business model has changed as the U.S. military and intelligence budgets have doubled in the past decade. Pentagon contractors like General Dynamics have evolved from simply manufacturing weapons to playing an integrated role in military operations, targeted killings and the new surveillance state. As Dana Priest and William Arkin write in their new book, Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State: Of the 1,900 or so companies working on top secret contracts in mid-2010, roughly 90 percent of the work was done by 6 percent (110) of them. To understand how these firms have come to dominate the post-9/11 era, theres no place better to look than the Herndon (Virginia) office of General Dynamics.
Inside General Dynamics offices, a software trainer showed off one of its new products. They watched a picture of a white truck on a TV monitor as a U.S. surveillance plane followed it along a road in Afghanistan. With the click of a mouse, the technician could get:
The technician explained that all this material would be stored and searchable if other Americans became interested in the same truck again later.
(...)
The bottom line for major shareholders like the Crown family is that General Dynamics revenue has tripled from $10.4 billion in 2000 to $32.5 billion in 2010 and the value of their stock has quadrupled. GDs Information Systems and Technology Division (IS&T) now provides 34 percent of its revenue. As the 2010 annual report explained, (IS&T) remains the companys revenue leader and was the fastest growing segment in 2010.... Volume was particularly strong in IS&Ts battlefield communications and information technology modernization programs.
http://www.zcommunications.org/investing-in-weapons-war-and-obama-by-nicolas-j-s-davies
To grasp how Obamas policies benefit General Dynamics (GD) in particular, we need to understand how GDs business model has changed as the U.S. military and intelligence budgets have doubled in the past decade. Pentagon contractors like General Dynamics have evolved from simply manufacturing weapons to playing an integrated role in military operations, targeted killings and the new surveillance state. As Dana Priest and William Arkin write in their new book, Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State: Of the 1,900 or so companies working on top secret contracts in mid-2010, roughly 90 percent of the work was done by 6 percent (110) of them. To understand how these firms have come to dominate the post-9/11 era, theres no place better to look than the Herndon (Virginia) office of General Dynamics.
Inside General Dynamics offices, a software trainer showed off one of its new products. They watched a picture of a white truck on a TV monitor as a U.S. surveillance plane followed it along a road in Afghanistan. With the click of a mouse, the technician could get:
- link to a photo of the truck drivers home and a list of recent visitors
- an infrared view of the truck to see what might be inside it
- close-up and analysis of something that the driver threw out of the window
- higher resolution image of the truck from a U-2 spy plane 70,000 feet above it
- log of the trucks previous journeys
- real-time map of U.S. forces in the area
- chat window with comments from other Americans watching the same video
The technician explained that all this material would be stored and searchable if other Americans became interested in the same truck again later.
(...)
The bottom line for major shareholders like the Crown family is that General Dynamics revenue has tripled from $10.4 billion in 2000 to $32.5 billion in 2010 and the value of their stock has quadrupled. GDs Information Systems and Technology Division (IS&T) now provides 34 percent of its revenue. As the 2010 annual report explained, (IS&T) remains the companys revenue leader and was the fastest growing segment in 2010.... Volume was particularly strong in IS&Ts battlefield communications and information technology modernization programs.
http://www.zcommunications.org/investing-in-weapons-war-and-obama-by-nicolas-j-s-davies
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...is a shit statement. About the only people speaking out are on the left.
Comrade Grumpy
Feb 2013
#11
Yeah, but jihadist terrorists have a particular tactic they developped for decades.
Amonester
Feb 2013
#47
Nothing in those articles is counter to anything I've said, nor do they verify what you have said
Ash_F
Feb 2013
#86
good thing the sun gives free energy and after the plants use the free energy it's there for humans.
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#56
I back Obama on drone use too. But Cheneny also wants troops on the ground right?
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#17
"I bet the countries that give the USA permission to root out the terrorists like the drones better"
Mutatis Mutandis
Feb 2013
#21
I know war is a terrible thing it is hell. I hate what Bush started, he made the USA a FAT target!
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#23
Both of bin Laden's fatwas against the USA where written well before that POS Bush became POTUS
Mutatis Mutandis
Feb 2013
#28
end the empiric wars, use fair trade, not guns, nationalise the Fed, break up the too-big-to-fail
Mutatis Mutandis
Feb 2013
#33
after shock and awe when bush beat his chest on that ship, mann did that make them hate the usa more
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#52
by "most countries" do you mean most of the people there? or their supreme leader?
Gentle-man
Feb 2013
#36
In many of those countries 90% or more can't read or write, so their Leaders control thebit of media
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#53
Thanks for explaining that in your mind, a country is the same as its leader
Gentle-man
Feb 2013
#63
why do you deflect from cheney the war criminal loves the killer drones, so Obama must be a bad man
Sunlei
Feb 2013
#64
Cheney and Obama see eye-2-eye on illegal "extra-judicial" killings by "Leader of the Free World"
panzerfaust
Feb 2013
#62