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See also sections of this website entitled:

• Arms/weapons industry
• Aircraft/airline companies
• Security companies
• Security issues / Conflict zones

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2003:

DynCorp Rent-a-Cops May Head to Iraq - A major military contractor -- already underfire for alleged human rights violations and fraud -- may get a multi-million dollar contract to police post-Saddam Iraq. (Pratap Chatterjee, Corpwatch, 9 Apr. 2003)

Supreme Court to Decide Age Discrimination Case [USA] - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether a federal law barring age bias in the workplace allows for reverse discrimination lawsuits by employees in their 40s who claim older workers are better treated.  The high court agreed to hear an appeal by a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp. arguing the law does not allow for such lawsuits. (James Vicini, Reuters, 21 Apr. 2003)

• High Court Accepts Age Case Bias favoring older workers is alleged [USA] (Newsday, 22 Apr. 2003)

New DynCorp Contract Draws Scrutiny -...Insight has learned that the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has issued a $22 million contract to DynCorp Aerospace Operations (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), to "re-establish police, justice and prison functions in postconflict Iraq."...last year alone [Dyncorp] was not only sued but paid large settlements to two former employees who blew the whistle on corporate managers and employees who engaged in sex trafficking in Bosnia (Kelly Patricia O Meara, Insight, 11 Apr. 2003)

Lawbreaking continues at Point Blank [USA] - Bullet-proof vest maker continues to violate employees' rights, commit unfair labor practices, labor charges allege - On the eve of a possible war, an important defense contractor, Point Blank Body Armor [subsidiary of DHB Industries], has allegedly committed more than a dozen violations of national labor law, according to charges filed by UNITE union with the National Labor Relations Board late last week...The charges allege that Point Blank committed 15 violations of its employees’ rights by illegally terminating an employee for union support, subjecting employees to surveillance because of union activity, and retaliating against union supporters by denying them overtime – all in defiance of a recently issued injunction. (UNITE - Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees,17 Mar. 2003)

• company website: Point Blank Body Armor

Ex-firefighter sues DynCorp over dismissal [USA] - Skaggs' lawsuit alleges the company violated Americans with Disability Act and Age Discrimination Employment Act when it fired Skaggs, who is in his early 50s. (Jay F. Marks, Enid News & Eagle, 14 Mar. 2003)

The Military-Industrial-Think Tank Complex: Corporate Think Tanks and the Doctrine of Aggressive Militarism [USA] - Each major element of the Bush administration's national security strategy -- from the doctrines of preemptive strikes and "regime change" in Iraq, to its aggressive nuclear posture and commitment to deploying a Star Wars-style missile defense system -- was developed and refined before the Bush administration took office, at corporate-backed conservative think tanks like the Center for Security Policy, the National Institute for Public Policy and the Project for a New American Century...Unilateralist ideologues formerly affiliated with these think tanks, along with the 32 major administration appointees who are former executives with, consultants for, or significant shareholders of top defense contractors, are driving U.S. foreign and military policy. (William Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, World Policy Institute’s Arms Trade Resource Center, in Multinational Monitor, Jan./Feb. 2003)

Tanks & Toxics, Planes and Pollution The Ecology of a Military Build-Up [USA] -...Environmental contamination from defense hardware manufacturing dots the U.S. landscape...Communities around defense plants that increase production in the new military boom will face more emissions of pollutants...which especially could affect the health of sensitive populations [refers to Nuclear Metals Inc., Rocketdyne (now a subsidiary of Boeing and formerly operated by Rockwell International), Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Vought Aircraft; also refers to lawsuits] (William Kelly, editor and publisher of California Environment Report, in Multinational Monitor, Jan./Feb. 2003)

Total Business Awareness: The Corporate Contracting Behind John Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness Program [USA] - The Total Information Awareness System, the controversial Pentagon research program that aims to gather and analyze a vast array of information on people in the United States, has hired at least eight private companies to work on the effort...The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversees the Total Information Awareness System (TIA), awarded 13 contracts to Booz Allen & Hamilton amounting to more than $23 million. Lockheed Martin Corporation had 23 contracts worth $27 million. The Schafer Corporation had nine contracts totaling $15 million. Other prominent contractors involved in the TIA program include SRS Technologies, Adroit Systems, CACI Dynamic Systems, Syntek Technologies and ASI Systems International...Grassley [Senator Charles E. Grassley] questioned the parameters and scope of TIA, how Poindexter was selected to head it, and what protections are in place to ensure civil liberties are not violated...Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, says that she plans to introduce legislation to address any threats to privacy rights that TIA poses.. (Adam Mayle and Alex Knott, Center for Public Integrity, in Multinational Monitor, Jan./Feb. 2003)

2002:

EEOC [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] settles disability discrimination suit against aerospace giant Honeywell for $100,000 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 22 Nov. 2002)

Making a Killing: The Business of War [11-part series] (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 11-part series, chapter 11 issued 20 Nov. 2002, other chapters issued earlier)

• chapter 1: Introduction: Making a Killing: The Business of War -...Gone is the superpower ideological divide that once gave a strange sort of order to the world’s wars. In its place are entrepreneurs, selling arms or military expertise and support, and companies, whose drilling and mining in some of the hottest spots often prolong conflict and instability. (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 28 Oct. 2002)

• chapter 2: Private military companies: Privatizing Combat, the New World Order -...ICI is one of several companies contracted by the State Department to go into danger zones that are too risky or unsavory to commit conventional U.S. forces. It also has been active in conflicts in Haiti and Liberia [in addition to Sierra Leone]...a nearly two-year investigation by ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] identified at least 90 private military companies, or PMCs (as some of these new millennium mercenaries prefer to be known), that have operated in 110 countries worldwide. [includes reference to Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton; Booz Allen Hamilton; BDM, owned by the Carlyle Group; Armor Holdings; L-3 Communications; MPRI; Sayeret Group; Pistris Inc.; Trojan Securities; TASK International; DynCorp; ICI] (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 28 Oct. 2002)

• chapter 3: Marketing the New 'Dogs of War' [private military companies] [includes reference to Executive Outcomes/Sandline International, Strategic Consulting International (SCI) Ltd., Sandline Consultancy Ltd, Trident Maritime] (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 30 Oct. 2002)

• chapter 4: Greasing the Skids of Corruption [refers to money paid by multinational oil companies to Angolan Government ending up in private bank accounts] [includes reference to Marathon Oil Company]...Angola is certainly not unique as a country where conflict and corruption are fueled by petroleum dollars [includes reference to Chinese, Canadian and Malaysian oil companies in Sudan; Shell in Nigeria; Equatorial Guinea]...Some oil companies contribute to the problem directly by hiring corrupt government militaries to provide security for their operations. [includes reference to ExxonMobil in Indonesia, Unocal and Total in Burma] (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 4 Nov. 2002)

• chapter 5: The Curious Bonds of Oil Diplomacy [Equatorial Guinea] -...The 23-year-old regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been criticized for allowing the oil companies to exploit Equatorial Guinea’s oil riches with little obvious benefit to the people. [includes reference to ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, Chevron Texaco and Marathon Oil] (Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 6 Nov. 2002)

Unions say threats to free speech and other rights a growing issue in white-collar workplaces [USA] -...Limits on scholarly research in colleges and universities by conditional corporate giving....Soley [Professor Lawrence Soley] charges that priorities and research of physics and engineering departments are being influenced by large defense contracts; biology and chemistry departments by drug companies and biotech firms; and computer science departments by chip makers and software firms – a development that has led many universities to place the interests of business ahead of students and basic research. (American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, 23 Oct. 2002)

Harrowing tales prompt probe by dept: Lost limbs, depleted lungs and lifetime illnesses lead to visit to Denel plants [South Africa] - Harrowing reports of lost limbs, depleted lungs and lifetime illnesses from workers at two of the government-owned arms company Denel's plants near Cape Town have prompted Parliament's portfolio committee on Defence to visit the plants "within a week" and to demand a probe by the Department of Labour. (Sue Segar, Natal Witness, 23 Oct. 2002) 

13 Companies Earn Perfect Score on First HRC Corporate Equality Index [USA]: Demonstrate Leadership with Regard to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Employees - A total of 13 major U.S. corporations earned 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's first Corporate Equality Index, released today. The index rates large corporations on policies that affect their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors...The 13 companies that scored 100 percent are: Aetna Inc.; AMR Corp./American Airlines; Apple Computer Inc.; Avaya Inc.; Eastman Kodak Co.; Intel Corp.; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Lucent Technologies Inc.; NCR Corp.; Nike Inc.; Replacements Ltd.; Worldspan L.P.; and Xerox Corp...At the other end of the scale, three companies scored zero: CBRL Group Inc./Cracker Barrel; Emerson Electric Co.; and Lockheed Martin Corp. (Human Rights Campaign, 13 Aug. 2002)

• New Index Rates U.S. Corporations' Treatment of Homosexuals - A survey by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) of 319 U.S. companies... found that 92 percent include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies, one of seven criteria the HRC used to create its 2002 Corporate Equality Index...Companies that scored near the bottom include Emerson Electric, Exxon Mobil, Lockheed Martin, and Perot Systems. (Business for Social Responsibility News Monitor summary of article in DiversityInc, 13 Aug. 2002)

Woman sacked for revealing UN links with sex trade: How a [UK] tribunal vindicated an investigator who blew whistle on workers in Bosnia -...After a two-year battle, an employment tribunal ruled yesterday that Ms Bolkovac was unfairly dismissed by DynCorp, an American company (Daniel McGrory, Times [UK], 7 Aug. 2002)

• Investigator wins UN sex abuse case - A human rights investigator, who insisted she was sacked for exposing the sexual abuse of women in Bosnia by her United Nations colleagues, had her claim of unfair dismissal upheld yesterday...She took her case against her employer, DynCorp, an American recruitment agency, to an industrial tribunal in Southampton, Hants [UK], because the company was governed by UK employment law. (Stewart Payne, Daily Telegraph [UK], 7 Aug. 2002)

• Sex-slave whistle-blowers vindicated: DynCorp, a private military powerhouse, fired two employees who complained that colleagues were involved in Bosnian forced-prostitution rings. The employees went to court -- and won. (Robert Capps, Salon.com, 6 Aug. 2002)

• Outside the law: Pending lawsuits allege that U.S. military contractors on duty in Bosnia bought and "owned" young women. But the accused men have never been -- and will never be -- brought to justice. [refers to DynCorp] (Robert Capps, Salon.com, 26 June 2002)

MPs call for controls on military firms [UK] - Private military companies - descendants of mercenaries from the days of the "dogs of war" - are here to stay but their activities must be strictly controlled, MPs said yesterday in a report sparked off by the arms to Africa affair [when the UK Government was accused of conniving with Sandline International in the illegal export of arms to Sierra Leone]. They should be licensed and monitored in the same way as weapons exports but barred from armed combat operations, the Commons foreign affairs committee said. (Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian [UK], 2 Aug. 2002)

Corporate Human Rights -...For several years, a small group of lawyers and labor advocates has been trying to hold transnational companies responsible for their actions by suing them in the United States for abetting and/or benefiting from human rights abuses overseas. Finally, these corporation-chasers are beginning to see signs of possible success. [refers to lawsuits against Unocal, Shell, Texaco, Rio Tinto, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, DynCorp, Drummond Company, ExxonMobil] (David Corn, The Nation, 15 July 2002)

Corporate Human Rights -...For several years, a small group of lawyers and labor advocates has been trying to hold transnational companies responsible for their actions by suing them in the United States for abetting and/or benefiting from human rights abuses overseas. [refers to lawsuits against Unocal, Shell, Texaco, Rio Tinto, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, DynCorp, Drummond Company, ExxonMobil] (David Corn, The Nation, 27 June 2002)

Show the G8 the red card - G8's uncontrolled trade in arms and military aid undermines fundamental human rights -...too often, by exporting military and security equipment, the G8 are contributing to human rights abuses and undermining the prospects for social and economic development around the world. (Amnesty International, June 2002)

• Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan's letter to companies on the trade of illicit arms (Amnesty International, June 2002)

• Amnesty International Launches Initiative on Small Arms (U.N. Global Compact, June 2002)

• {···español} «Tarjeta roja» al G8 - El comercio de armas y la ayuda militar no controlados del G8 socavan los derechos humanos fundamentales (Amnistía Internacional, junio 2002)

• {···français} Carton rouge pour le G8 - Le commerce des armes et l'aide militaire incontrôlés des pays du G8 portent atteinte aux droits fondamentaux (Amnesty International, juin 2002)

Journalists List Corporations Found Guilty of Crimes throughout the 1990s - A simple list of corporate crimes, presented along with guilty pleas or fine payments, hints at the pervasiveness of poor corporate ethics...journalists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman have compiled a list of The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade...The authors point out that six corporations--Exxon (now ExxonMobil), Rockwell International, Royal Carribbean Cruises, Warner-Lambert (now part of Pfizer), Teledyne, and United Technologies--appear more than once on the list. (William Baue, SocialFunds.com, 29 May 2002)

• Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade [includes full list] (Russell Mokhiber, 1999)

• Annotated list of the top 100

• Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s (Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, in Mother Jones, 7 Sep. 1999)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: UNEP Blasts Industry "Business As Usual" (UN Wire, 16 May 2002)

• Sector Reports - UNEP DTIE is facilitating the preparation of a series of sector reports [for World Summit on Sustainable Development], whereby international, industry organisations and associations take stock of progress towards sustainable development and outline future challenges and actions to be taken (United Nations Environment Programme)

• Sector report - Aviation

British firm accused of still making landmines (Reuters, 13 May 2002) 

• UK company accused of offering to sell landmines - Downing Street expressed concern on Friday about allegations that a subsidiary of Chemring, a UK defence manufacturer, had offered to sell landmines outlawed under British law and the 1997 Ottawa convention. (Alexander Nicoll, Financial Times, 10 May 2002)

Swarthmore Presses Ahead with Lockheed Challenge Following Shareholder Vote [USA] - Buoyed by developments at Lockheed Martin’s recent shareholders meeting, Swarthmore College will continue to press the company to broaden its anti-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation. (Swarthmore College, 7 May 2002)

• College lobbies Lockheed on bias [USA] - Swarthmore College is using its stockholder status to press Lockheed Martin Corp. to adopt a nondiscrimination policy based on sexual orientation. (AP, in Washington Times, 2 Apr. 2002)

Pratt & Whitney Sponsors Industry-EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] Pollution-Reduction Initiative [aimed at reducing pollution at its metal finishing suppliers] -...Pratt & Whitney is the second corporate sponsor of the Strategic Goals Program, following the Raytheon Company in 2001. (GreenBiz.com, 10 Apr. 2002)

{···français} Emploi - Poussées par la justice, des grandes entreprises indemnisent les militants dont la carrière a été pénalisée par leur engagement syndical [France] - Discrimination syndicale les entreprises se rachètent une conduite:...Les exemples de la SNCF et de EDF démontrent une chose que la France ne voulait pas voir : la discrimination syndicale n'est pas uniquement pratiquée dans quelques groupes emblématiques de l'antisyndicalisme comme Citroën et Michelin. La CGT, première organisation à s'être mobilisée sur le sujet, a établi une liste de plus de soixante-dix entreprises «discriminantes». Parmi celles-ci, on trouve le gratin de l'économie française : Renault, Aérospatiale (maintenant EADS), Matra, Thales, Framatome, Snecma, la SNPE, Comurex, Sollac, Ugine, Delphi, mais aussi la RATP, ou encore des PME comme TLD Tracma, près de Tours. (Hervé Nathan, Libération [France], 2 avril 2002)

{···français} L'Industrie de l'amiante jugée inexcusable...Une victoire pour les victimes [France] -...Trente affaires lui avaient été soumises le 17 janvier, impliquant les grands producteurs de produits à base d'amiante, comme Everite ou Eternit, des sidérurgistes, comme le groupe Sollac-Usinor, des entreprises de la métallurgie. (Armelle Thoraval, Libération, 1 mars 2002)

• {···français} 100 000 morts d'ici à 2025 [France]: Des matelassières en Bretagne, des ouvriers d'entretien à la SNCF, ceux affectés à la maintenance à la RATP: en dehors des employés atteints dans des entreprises qui maniaient notoirement l'amiante comme composante essentielle de leur production, comme Everite et Eternit, le risque sanitaire pour les «amiantés» est considérable. (Armelle Thoraval, Libération, 1 mars 2002)

• {···français} Le souffle court et la mort en tête [France]: Manifestation hier à Paris de 2 000 métallurgistes exposés à l'amiante. (Didier Arnaud & Charlotte Moreau, Libération, 1 mars 2002)

• {···français} "Patrons pollueurs, patrons payeurs", le slogan de 2 000 manifestants à Paris:...Stein Industrie (ex-Alstom)...De l'amiante pour le calorifugeage, les ouvriers de cette usine de fabrication de chaudières thermiques et nucléaires en ont cotoyé des quantités considérables, sans précaution et sans en connaître les risques. Cinq en seraient morts et quinze cas de maladies ont été décelés. (Le Monde, 1 mars 2002)

IRAQ: German Companies Violating U.N. Sanctions, Der Spiegel Reports - German officials are investigating six German companies suspected of selling military equipment to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported this week. (UN Wire, 28 Feb. 2002)

• full text: Business & Human Rights: A geography of corporate risk - Amnesty International and The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) have collaborated to produce a series of seven detailed world maps, which depict where human rights abuses and violations exist and where leading North American and European multinational companies are at risk of being associated with them. The suite of maps covers the extractive, food and beverages, pharmaceutical and chemical, infrastructure and utilities, heavy manufacturing and defence, and IT Hardware and telecommunications sectors. (Amnesty International UK, and Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, Feb. 2002)

• Atlas pinpoints countries where investment flows despite abuses: A world atlas of countries where multinationals co-exist with regimes inflicting human rights abuse was presented yesterday at the launch of a campaign for ethical investment...The study, the first of its kind, will be used by Amnesty International and the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum to press companies to take account of human rights when making commercial decisions. (Kim Sengupta, Independent [UK], 13 Feb. 2002)

• Atlas warns firms of rights abuses: Campaigners have drawn up a world atlas of human rights violations to alert multinational corporations to the damage that can be caused to their business and reputations by being associated with human rights abuses in countries in which they operate (Guardian [UK], 13 Feb. 2002)

Globalization & Militarization - A national security exception protects countries’ subsidies for military production from international trade rules...By favoring arms sales over other forms of trade, the security exception fuels armed conflict. [includes discussion of U.S. policy on arms trade] (John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus, Feb. 2002)

Aerial Herbicide Spraying Violates Human Rights of Peasants and Indigenous Communities in Colombia and Ecuador: Earthjustice Urges the UN Commission on Human Rights to Act - The statement claims that the aerial spraying and drift of an herbicide mixture over vast areas of the Colombian and Ecuadorian countryside by private U.S. defense contractors with military protection is harming peasants and indigenous communities and depriving them of “their rights to a clean and healthy environment, health, life, sustenance, property, inviolability of the home and family, and access to information.” (Earthjustice, 15 Jan. 2002)

2001:

Northrop to Settle Unfair Labor Cases [USA]: Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. on Thursday said it would settle unfair labor practice cases involving its Avondale operation, reinstating a group of workers the National Labor Relations Board says were fired or badly treated due to union activity. (Reuters, 20 Dec. 2001)

Litigation Update: A Summary of Recent Developments in U.S. Cases Brought Under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Protection Act [includes update on lawsuit against DynCorp] (Jennifer Green [staff attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights] and Paul Hoffman [civil rights attorney and editor of ACLU International Civil Liberties Report], in ACLU International Civil Liberties Report 2001 [American Civil Liberties Union], Dec. 2001)

Recent ILRF [International Labor Rights Fund] Cases to Enforce Human Rights Under the ATCA [includes reference to human rights-related cases against Unocal, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, DynCorp] (Terry Collingsworth, Executive Director of International Labor Rights Fund, in ACLU International Civil Liberties Report 2001 [American Civil Liberties Union], Dec. 2001)

Text of class action complaint against DynCorp in U.S. court [download]: "The claims in this action arise from the DynCorp Defendants' conduct in connection with the implementation of their contract with agencies of the U.S. government to exterminate, by use of fumigants sprayed from airplanes, plantations of cocaine and/or heroin poppies in large tracks of the Colombian rainforest owned by private citizens of Colombia. During the course of implementing this contract, Defendants also sprayed large sections of Ecuador that border with Colombia, and caused severe physical and mental damage to Plaintiffs, their children, and other similarly situated lawful residents of Ecuador who have nothing whatever to do with the production of illegal drugs in Colombia." (International Labor Rights Fund, 25 Sep. 2001)

Environment: Ecuadorians file U.S. suit over Plan Colombia - Ecuadorian Indians are taking legal action in federal court here, charging that a U.S. company that was contracted to carry out fumigation of illicit crops in neighboring Colombia recklessly sprayed their homes and farms, causing illnesses and deaths, and destroying crops. U.S.-based attorneys representing 10,000 individuals living in the Amazon rainforest near the border with Colombia filed a class action complaint against Virginia-based DynCorp Corporation in federal court here Sep. 11. A DynCorp spokesperson said the company has not been notified about the complaint and declined to comment further. (Inter Press Service, 21 Sep. 2001)

BOSNIA: UN Worker Allegedly Fired For Reporting Sexual Misconduct - Former UN human rights investigator Kathryn Bolkovac on Friday filed a civil lawsuit in the United Kingdom against a major US contractor, alleging that she was dismissed for investigating allegations of sexual misconduct in Bosnia by fellow UN personnel, the Washington Post reports. (UN Wire, 25 June 2001)

DynCorp In Colombia: Outsourcing the Drug War (Jeremy Bigwood, CorpWatch, 23 May 2001)

Colombia: Private Firms Take on U.S. Military Role in Drug War (Juan O. Tamayo, Miami Herald, 22 May 2001)

U.S. civilians taking risks in Colombian drug war: Companies paid for missions military not allowed to perform (Juan O. Tamayo, Knight Ridder Newspapers, in Messenger-Inquirer [Kentucky, USA], 26 Feb. 2001)

Stopping the torture trade [report] (Amnesty International, 26 Feb. 2001)

• The torture trade spreads while governments fail to act [press release] (Amnesty International, 26 Feb. 2001)

2000:

Military aid . . . from the private sector: When the Pentagon decided to send Colombia military help for the war on drugs, it chose to outsource it (Paul de la Garza and David Adams, St. Petersburg Times [Florida, USA], 3 Dec. 2000)