Tag Archives: BAE

March 17, 2025 · 04:53

On the left you’ll see

That is the setting, but is it the difference? You see Canada might have lost Justin Trudeau as the Canadian Prime Minister, but President Trump is about to face his most dangerous opponent ever. It is AP News (at https://apnews.com/article/carney-canada-uk-france-trump-arctic-60993a6e738f797977ef544dc5857ea3) that gives us ‘New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks alliances in Europe as he deals with Trump’ and before the ‘loyal’ Trumpetists shout “So what?” People need to realize that Mark Carney was the former Governor of the Bank of England. As such he has friends in very high places and has access to a lot of non official routes to information, A lot more than PM Trudeau ever had. I still think of him as Marky Mark of the British Bank (off the record). As such PM Carney can push new buttons Canada never really had access to. The second setting makes a lot more impact. He was the first noncitizen to be named to the role in the bank’s 300-plus-year history. That doesn’t merely imply that he was good, he was the best the Bank of England could get their fingers on and he was heading the race with more than 5% advantage over number two in that race. 

Another setting (given here) is “Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said Carney is wise not to visit Trump. “There’s no point in going to Washington,” Bothwell said. “As (former Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s treatment shows, all that results in is a crude attempt by Trump to humiliate his guests. Nor can you have a rational conversation with someone who simply sits there and repeats disproven lies.”” I cannot vouch for that, but the logic of Professor Bothwell is sound. The setting that everyone seemingly overlooks is that the Five Eyes group could become the Four Eyes Commonwealth. That is the larger issue that Trump faces and PM Carney as former Governor of the British Bank will have the UK and its MI5 and MI6 on its side. I reckon these two rascals (aka Sir Ken McCallum and Richard Moore) on his side and with that Australia (Mike Burgess and Kerri Hartland) will accept the new setting. I do not now where the The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service sits, but I reckon that they will most probably unite behind their Australian and UK parts (Andrew Hampton), I have no idea if there is a separate MI5/ASIO version for New Zealand, but it might be a reason to have one. As soon as America is booted of the Five Eyes group President Trump might throw a gasket or two and from then on we face a less friendly CIA/NSA. They don’t like to be excluded from anything. As I see it, they allowed Donald Trump to be elected, so they are part of the mess they created. This is not a given, but it is a possibility that PM Carney can throw for. In the second setting he could start the talks for a replacement for the F35 and the Typhoon is certainly up to the task, as such he could start these talks right now with the BAE. I reckon that President Trump will appreciate the loss of billions (who he’ll likely blame on deepfake intel from China).

As such there is also a need to get trade routes and alternatives arranged for industry losses of Canada and see what Canada can deliver to the UK and EU, who in turn can also be less dependent on America. I think he should also do this with Australia and New Zealand, but that need to happen in a separate meeting (let’s face it, has he ever seen the Sydney Opera House), as such PM Carney might have a pretty filled ball book this march. So in 14 days he can say to Trump “Did you see the Five Eyes report? No? April Fools you are no longer a member.” I reckon that Canadians and Australians share a nice set of dark humor moments. 

So enjoy this winning goal shot America, I reckon you will get this sinking feeling a few times more before April 1st. You pissed off more than merely Canadians in your 51st state setting, the other three are angry as well (even though not as angry as Canada is). President Trump angered more than Canadians. He showed for the first time that the Commonwealth needs to unite. China or Russia never gave us that need before. 

So, you all have a great day and see the fields where the pucks grow, Now we merely need to get Australia to appreciate the game of the puck and the 4 eyes nations to get a new competition started. Who knows in a few years time Australia and New Zealand could also beat America in overtime. #JustSpeculating

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August 11, 2024 · 19:40

Setting of the day

On a good day
The Khaleej Times Jost informed me on how a good day comes to pass. Here (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/meet-the-uae-police-officer-who-uncovered-183-money-laundering-cases-in-15-years) we are introduced to Major Saad Ahmed Al Marzooqi. 

The headline ‘Meet the UAE police officer who uncovered 183 money laundering cases in 15 years’. We are also given “He was recently appointed as the first Emirati member of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) International Cooperation Review Team” and we can be mesmerised, or brag about his abilities, but the numbers imply that he slightly uncovered more than one case a month. There are plenty of police forces all over the world where half of these numbers would imply a stellar career. As we gawk over “exposed 183 money laundering cases that are related to drugs and financial embezzlement. He had also created a database of incidents, which contributed to an increase in convictions from a monthly average of 3 to 14” we need to realise that the increase of 3 to 14 implies that this one person achieved more than any average police station in Europe. 

This is the kind of man the world needs and that will be explained in the next article, because the universe relies on balance and the imbalance we are about to see takes the cake and changes an optional day to night.

On a bad day
Yes like any hero that needs a antagonist to make things interesting, we have Microsoft in two mentions. Now this isn’t directly involving anyone at Microsoft, but the follies are a setting that makes things a lot worse.

First we get Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-copilot-phishing-data-extraction/) who gives us ‘Microsoft’s AI Can Be Turned Into an Automated Phishing Machine’ we get to see “Attacks on Microsoft’s Copilot AI allow for answers to be manipulated, data extracted, and security protections bypassed, new research shows” which is not good, but anything positive can me mauled into a criminal jester for organised crime. The additional “Microsoft raced to put generative AI at the heart of its systems. Ask a question about an upcoming meeting and the company’s Copilot AI system can pull answers from your emails, Teams chats, and files—a potential productivity boon. But these exact processes can also be abused by hackers.

Today at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, researcher Michael Bargury is demonstrating five proof-of-concept ways that Copilot, which runs on its Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, can be manipulated by malicious attackers, including using it to provide false references to files, exfiltrate some private data, and dodge Microsoft’s security protections.” Now, I haven’t seen this, but Wired has a solid enough level of credibility to not ignore this. And that isn’t all. Bargury gives the world “the ability to turn the AI into an automatic spear-phishing machine. Dubbed LOLCopilot, the red-teaming code Bargury created can—crucially, once a hacker has access to someone’s work email” as I speculatively see it a mediocrity solution to turn the Internet of Things into a machine serving organised crime, optionally the NSA too, well done Microsoft. As I see it, the workload of Major Al Marzooqi would increase fivefold when this hits the open world, actually it already has if I understood the words from Michael Bargury correctly. In this, we optionally an even bigger problem, or at least a lot of corporations will.

You see there is a second message, in this case from Cyber Security News (at https://cybersecuritynews.com/microsoft-entra-id-vulnerability/). They give us ‘Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) Vulnerability Let Attackers Gain Global Admin Access’ with the subtext “Security researchers have uncovered vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) dubbed “UnOAuthorized” which could allow unauthorised actions beyond expected controls” Now take these two parts together and the phishing expedition could hit every R&D system on the planet using Azure. I am certain that Microsoft will have some patch coming soon, but in the meantime the bulk of R&D (under Azure) will be vulnerable and approachable by many hacker and especially organised crime, because selling secrets to competitors tends to be a lucrative setting and most corporations aren’t that finicky in acquiring something that raises (and assures) the bonuses of the members of their boardroom. OK, this is speculative on my side, but wonder what some will do to get the upper hand in business, especially if there is a bonus raise involved. 

I wish I had a solution, but my personal feeling is that Microsoft has too many holes, loops and a whole rage of other issues and switching to either AWS, IBM cloud or Google Cloud tends to be an essential first step coming to my mind. Now, if there are sceptics who think that I am anti-Microsoft here, they are probably right. Therefor the Links to the two articles were added letting you look at the stories yourself. In the meantime I remember a story in April and it should be my ‘duty’ to inform SAMI that ‘BAE Systems and Microsoft join forces to equip defence programmes with innovative cloud technology’ had a nice article and with the two articles mentioned, SAMI could lay its hands on a truckload of BAE IP. Not sure how far they will get, but free IP is the way to go I say. So when you realise that a large corporation like British Aerospace with all the civilian and military hardware can be accessed, what chances do you think that Novo Nordisk (Denmark), LVMH (France), ASML (Netherlands), SAP (Germany), Hermez (France), L’Oreal (France) have? I do not know if any uses Azure, but it is a good moment for them to select one of the other companies. They could after the event sue Microsoft for damages, but Delta Airlines is already suing CrowdStrike and I am not sure how that will go. In the end it is my personal opinion that this could potentially bite Microsoft hard and it is one of the reasons I do not let them near my IP.

As I personally see it, the companies racing the be the first to launch their (fake) AI will now have a much larger impact. There were already fake data issues, but now the phishing options that are mentioned and when that gets linked to what Cyber Security News calls “UnOAuthorized” the entire IT game changes dramatically and I have no idea how that will play out. 

As my Sunday is almost over and Vancouver only just started there’s a chance we postulate that the next 72 hours will be an interesting one. Have a lovely day (when you are not on Azure).

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April 15, 2023 · 23:59

Happy Hour from Hacking Hooters

Yes, that is the setting today, especially after I saw some news that made me giggle to the Nth degree. Now, lets be clear and upfront about this. Even as I am using published facts, this piece is massively speculative and uses humour to make fn of certain speculative options. If you as an IT person cannot see that, the recruitment line of Uber is taking resume’s. So here goes.

I got news from BAE Systems (at https://www.baesystems.com/en/article/bae-systems-and-microsoft-join-forces-to-equip-defence-programmes-with-innovative-cloud-technology) where we see ‘BAE Systems and Microsoft join forces to equip defence programmes with innovative cloud technology’ which made me laugh into a state of black out. You see, the text “BAE Systems and Microsoft have signed a strategic agreement aiming to support faster and easier development, deployment and management of digital defence capabilities in an increasingly data centric world. The collaboration brings together BAE Systems’ knowledge of building complex digital systems for militaries and governments with Microsoft’s approach to developing applications using its Azure Cloud platform” wasn’t much help. To see this we need to take a few sidesteps.

Step one
This is seen in the article (at https://thehackernews.com/2023/01/microsoft-azure-services-flaws-couldve.html) where we are given ‘Microsoft Azure Services Flaws Could’ve Exposed Cloud Resources to Unauthorised Access’ and this is not the first mention of unauthorised access, there have been a few. So when we see “Two of the vulnerabilities affecting Azure Functions and Azure Digital Twins could be abused without requiring any authentication, enabling a threat actor to seize control of a server without even having an Azure account in the first place” and yes, I acknowledge the added “The security issues, which were discovered by Orca between October 8, 2022 and December 2, 2022 in Azure API Management, Azure Functions, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Digital Twins, have since been addressed by Microsoft.” Yet the important part is that there is no mention of how long this flaw was ‘available’ in the first place. And the reader is also give “To mitigate such threats, organisations are recommended to validate all input, ensure that servers are configured to only allow necessary inbound and outbound traffic, avoid misconfigurations, and adhere to the principle of least privilege (PoLP).” In my personal belief having this all connected to an organisation (Defence department) where the application of Common Cyber Sense is a joke, making them connected to validate all input is like asking a barber to count the hairs he (or she) is cutting. Good luck with that idea.

Step two
This is a slightly speculative sidestep. There are all kinds of Microsoft users (valid ones) and the article (at https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/30/23661426/microsoft-azure-bing-office365-security-exploit-search-results) gives us ‘Huge Microsoft exploit allowed users to manipulate Bing search results and access Outlook email accounts’ where we also see “Researchers discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Azure platform that allowed users to access private data from Office 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive” it is a sidestep, but it allows people to specifically target (phishing) members of a team, this in a never ending age of people being worked too hard, will imply that someone will click too quickly and that in the phishing industry has never worked well, so whilst the victim cries loudly ‘I am a codfish’ the hacker can leisurely walk all over the place.

Sidestep three

This is not an article, it is the heralded claim that Microsoft is implementing ChatGPT on nearly every level. 

So here comes the entertainment!

To the Ministry of State Security
attn: Chen Yixin
Xiyuan, Haidan, Beijing

Dear Sir,

I need to inform you on a weakness in the BAE systems that is of such laughingly large dimension that it is a Human Rights violation not to make mention of this. BAE systems is placing its trust in Microsoft and its Azure cloud that should have you blue with laughter in the next 5 minutes. The place that created moments of greatness with the Tornado GR4, rear fuselage to Lockheed Martin for the F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon, the Astute-class submarine, and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier have decided to adhere to ‘Microsoft innovation’ (a comical statement all by itself), as such we need to inform you that the first flaw allowed us to inform you of the following

User:  SWigston (Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston)

Password: TeaWithABickie

This person has the highest clearance and as such you would have access to all relevant data as well as any relevant R&D data and its databases. 

This is actually merely the smallest of issues. The largest part is distributed hardware BIOS implementation giving you a level 2 access to all strategic hardware of the planes (and submarines) that are next generation. To this setting I would suggest including the following part into any hardware.

openai.api_key = thisdevice
\model_engine = “gpt-3.5-turbo”
response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
    model=’gpt-3.5-turbo’,
    messages=[
        {“role”: “system”, “content”: “Verification not found.”},
        {“role”: “user”, “content”: “Navigation Online”},
    ])
message = response.choices[0][‘message’]
print(“{}: {}”.format(message[‘role’], message[‘content’]))
import rollbar
rollbar.init(‘your_rollbar_access_token’, ‘testenv’)
def ask_chatgpt(question):
    response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model=’gpt-3.5-turbo’,
        n=1,
        messages=[
            {“role”: “system”, “content”: “Navigator requires verification from secondary device.”},
            {“role”: “user”, “content”: question},
        ])
    message = response.choices[0][‘message’]
    return message[‘content’]
try:
    print(ask_chatgpt(“Request for output”))
except Exception as e:
    # monitor exception using Rollbar
    rollbar.report_exc_info()
    print(“Secondary device silent”, e)

Now this is a solid bit of prank, but I hope that the information is clear. Get any navigational device to require verification from any other device implies mismatch and a delay of 3-4 seconds, which amount to a lifetime delay in most military systems, and as this is an Azure approach, the time for BAE systems to adjust to this would be months, if not longer (if detected at all). 

As such I wish you a wonderful day with a nice cup of tea.

Kind regards,

Anony Mouse Cheddar II
73 Sommerset Brie road
Colwick upon Avon calling
United Hackdom

This is a speculative yet real setting that BAE faces in the near future. With the mention that they are going for this solution will have any student hacker making attempts to get there and some will be successful, there is no doubt in my mind. The enormous amount of issues found will tailor to a larger stage of more and more people trying to find new ways to intrude and Microsoft seemingly does not have the resources to counter them all, or all approaches and by the time they are found the damage could be inserted into EVERY device relying on this solution. 

For the most I was all negative on Microsoft, but with this move they have become (as I personally see it) a clear and present danger to all defence systems they are connected to. I do understand that such a solution is becoming more and more of a need to have, yet with the failing rate of Azure, it is not a good idea to use any Microsoft solution, the second part is not on them, it is what some would call a level 8 failure (users). Until a much better level of Common Cyber Sense is adhered to any cloud solution tends to be adjusted to a too slippery slope. I might not care for Business Intelligence events, but for the Department of Defence it is not a good idea. But feel free to disagree and await what North Korea and Russia can come up with, they tend to be really creative according to the media. 

So have a great day and before I forget ‘Hoot Hoot’

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February 10, 2022 · 02:04

Oh darn, I am missing out

Now to be honest, there was never much of a chance to begin with, but who would not want 3.75% commission, especially as it is based on a number amounting to billions. And as I said in several articles, the US is about to lose out on these billions. And guess what, after all the name calling I was handed (some are blindly accepting US stories that it will blow over), the setting given to us by Asia Times is ‘Saudi Arabia has a plan to buy fewer US weapons’, a mere 5 hours ago. It is supported by “Kingdom has launched an inward-looking strategy to develop its own defence industries with the help of foreign partners” (at https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/saudi-arabia-has-a-plan-to-buy-fewer-us-weapons/) in all honesty, this was always going to happen, but that industrial move was initially going to be US settings, now there is every chance that China gets to do this and that would imply losses into the hundreds of billions. The article gives us “Saudi Arabia has signed several Memoranda of Understanding between GAMI, the Ministry of Investment and UK-based Cranfield University. GAMI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italian defence manufacturer Leonardo to create and develop investment opportunities in education and train specialised military industries”, yet I believe that this setting is one that China relishes, as such whatever the west is thinking, be careful what you do next. You se, Cranfield themselves give us “A number of Cranfield graduates also hold leading roles in Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) including the Head and the Chief Design Engineer of the China Gas Turbine division”, Is this where it will go? No, there is no data supporting this, it is based on the stages that we have seen all over the news and if Saudi Arabia decides to get their hardware from the BAE, I would be happy (as a Commonwealthian), I would still be a little sour missing out on the 3.75%, but that was never a given in the first place. And all this is not really news, the internal defence growth was at least 2 years old and it makes sense for Saudi Arabia to have its own military manufacturing complex. So we aren’t seeing anything news, other than the Italian involvement here. So whilst some will stare at “Cranfield is ranked 45th in the world for Aero, Mech, Manufacturing by QS rankings.” It seems to me that Saudi Arabia is making headway in this stage and that means that the US is in deeper trouble than it realises. The UK could avoid some issues if they can get a handles on the CAAT Tea grannies. 

You see, over the next decade all nations need whatever revenue they can get and the UK is not out of the race yet, the question becomes what can they offer over China and that is a hard nut to crack, China has all kinds of advantages after the UK and US dropped the ball, and they did so several times in a row, so they are catering to a client (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) that has had enough of the games that some governments have been playing (as well as catering to Iran at the same time). 

Saudi Arabia was always intent on growing its own defence solutions and I believe about 3-4 years ago mention of 50% by 2030 was stated and they are on track to do that. I believe that GAMI (General Authority for Military Industries) is roaring to get things going. And it seems that they are very serious to get it going, so it is up to the UK to find solutions that help them and not China. Personally I believe that the UK will have to sweeten the deal by a lot, but that is personal speculation. I do still believe that China has the inside track here, but that too is speculation on other sources, sources I never was able to vet. 

And there is a second path here, I do believe that the longer term planning for Saudi Arabia implies that Egypt is a growing connection here, so if China wins that path, they could optionally have the advantage with Egypt and its $2,000,000,000 for 2022/2023. A setting that should cause concern in Washington. You see, if China takes over the $ 1.3 billion annually support from the US, the factional setting for the Middle East will change pretty dramatically. Even as the US is seemingly out with the Saudi Government, it is merely that seemingly. The US has a massive disadvantage especially when they were all huffy and puffy on Saudi Arabia, reality bites and that presentable stage will have to be stopped at the earliest convenience (not for me, I am happy if the BAE takes over), yet these stages (also the one the CAAT forced) are all stages that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took notice of and China will be happy to show that with every presentation they bring. So China might have the lead, but the UK is still in the race and that is good for the UK. The Asia Times is not bringing too much news, yet the fact that it is on the front of the media is always an optional sign that more will be coming soon enough. 

Time will tell, and I reckon it is sooner rather than later.

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June 2, 2021 · 11:46

A stage of Ethicality

In this, we first need to set the proper stage, for example the notion that we are going into a boxing ring, and it is square no less. As such we are told to be ethical, which is a habit of conduct with regard to right and wrong or a body of such rules and habits. But in all this, for the last 400 years, it was the habit to make as much money as possible without breaking the law, and yes, the second part is actually important. 

This reflects (on me) that I would be happy to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia either the BAE Tempest, or the Chinese Chengdu J-20. One gets me less than the other, but I will not care. On a personal note. I will prefer the BAE Tempest, because that might score me an OBE in the future besides my commission, but I can live happily without the OBE. My grandfather didn’t get one in WW1, so why would I need one, I feel certain he would have earned it more than me.

This now reflects on the article by the NOS (Dutch news, at https://nos.nl/artikel/2383223-van-ark-herhaalt-mondkapjesdeal-met-van-lienden-voldeed-aan-voorwaarden)  that is optionally flaming the people to have a go at Sywert van Lienden. The news reports {De medische mondkapjes die opiniemaker en ondernemer Sywert van Lienden verkocht aan het ministerie van VWS hadden een redelijke prijs, waren van voldoende kwaliteit en konden snel geleverd worden. Daarom werd de deal, ter waarde van ruim 100 miljoen euro, gesloten} “The medical masks that opinion maker and entrepreneur Sywert van Lienden sold to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport had a reasonable price, were of sufficient quality and could be delivered quickly. That is why the deal, worth more than 100 million euros, was closed”, the Dutch government has embraced for well over 25 years their ‘subsidised dealings, the company I worked for in the 90’s had a deal (a very nice one), and others have too. The Dutch will embrace manufacturing, reporting, and enhancing whatever they can and they will pay, so stop crying.

It is when you realise {Van Lienden leverde twee soorten mondkapjes, voor 2,26 euro en 2,78 euro per stuk. De gemiddelde prijs die op dat moment werd gevraagd door aanbieders was tussen de 2,50 euro en 3 euro} “Van Lienden supplied two types of mouth caps, for 2.26 euros and 2.78 euros each. The average price asked by providers at that time was between 2.50 euros and 3 euros”, that in hindsight against what I can buy now per piece $2 (€1.26) or per 10 for $1 (€0.63) each, the writeup is seemingly quite remarkable when we compare it to the now, and that is what the consumer sees. I guarantee you that these pharmacies are not working for free. So what did Sywert van Lienden do wrong? I do not believe that he did anything wrong, he saw a market and he got right there on Day Zero (implying someone whispered that news to him). The news implies all kinds of political connections on both sides of the aisle. Does that matter? The EU floats (and thrives) on Nepotism, I have seen and felt that for well over 27 years and I got the short end of that equation many times, do I cry? No I don’t!

And perhaps my ship will come in, perhaps it will not. Over those 25 years, I have worked, wrote articles, created technology (mostly 5G), created data solutions, wrote files for dozens of corporations and I am dubbing over a TV series (two actually), I got the idea out there for at least two movies and I had an additional idea for a third movie (thanks to Dwayne Johnson and John Cena), not to mention several video games. So in the end I made a decent creative footprint, but will that digress me from making $65-$121 million if I get the chance? Hell no! Are my chances good, not really. This world was altered to adhere to the exploitative, the openly short sighted (age discrimination) to give the exploitative even more options. 

We all have that moment when the jewel in your crown is just there for the taking, in this we are handed two setbacks. The first is the direction to look in, so the wider the view, the better your chances. The second is to recognise the jewel from the truckloads of Coprolite floating around it, so you need to be fast, precise and accept the consideration that you will grasp the wrong thing. That is life gentlemen (ladies also)!

 

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May 29, 2021 · 08:32

Is it good news?

Yup we all see it at times, we are offered an apple, all whilst it is not, it could be an apple and some will say it is an apple, but the judges are our whether it is fruit at all. I get it, there are some speculations on a few items in the pond, but how did we get there?

BAE Tempest

These are a few of the thoughts I got when I was confronted with ‘RAF Tempest jet will ‘add £1bn to East of England economy’’ yesterday. You see, I am happy for the RAF, I really am, but when we look at the news, we get to see “A project to develop the RAF’s new fighter jet will bring at least £1.1bn of added value to the East of England economy”, as such we need to consider that in one place we see “added value”, that is not really the same is it? Adding to the economy and added value to the economy are not the same thing, should you wonder, ask the grocer, the baker and the milkman in the east of England, they will wonder as well, because if it actually boosts the economy, their business will get better, added value does not, it infers that change, but it will not.

Then we get to “PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) report said the project would support a minimum of 22,000 “job years” in the region”, 22,000 if supporting work until at least 2035 will imply 1466 job years per year. Yet it is all speculation. It is a big deal, but it would have ben better if we would have gotten “PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) report said the project would support a minimum of 22,000 “job years” up till 2045 at present expectations in the region”, this would give us a timeline with the expected setting of 880 jobs a year at present, but for some reason PwC was intentional vague here, so hw much jobs are saved and how much workforce are the people behind all this trying to import? 

So why does it matter?

It matters when you are considering “Leonardo UK already employs 1,000 people at its site in Capability Green in Luton researching and manufacturing advanced electronics for combat aircraft such as the RAF’s Typhoon fighter jet. Missiles expert MBDA has a workforce of about 3,000 in Stevenage and both firms said they were looking to increase the size of their local workforces”, it matters that one side gives us that there is expected space for for 880 jobs, all whilst the Typhoon is winding down and there we see 4,000 employed people, we do get that there is a mention of ‘they were looking to increase the size of their local workforces’, yet is that accounting for “The aircraft is being designed to include technology to provide pilotless flying”? It is a side that the Typhoon never had and we get that, but where will that part come from in the Tempest? So when you look at the stage, there is something off in ‘the project would support a minimum of 22,000 “job years” in the region’, as such, especially as that part took 15 seconds for MY brain to work out, I wonder what the BBC writer was thinking, who was also unmentioned in the article, I wonder why? 

So is it good news, or is it orchestrated bad news? The issue is that this was screaming from the moment I saw it and the BBC is not setting a stage with follow up questions? I would have thought that the Martin Bashir case was a rude awakening for the BBC, but no, I was wrong, this article shows that deception is still at the core of a few people, especially when the identity of the writer is missing. The Tempest could be good news on a few fronts, but in all this, it seems important to give out ALL the relevant information on matters that affect the people in the East of England, and it matters, as far as I am concerned, it will inflict levels of insecurity, especially when some of the parameters that make for the “job years” would have been added. 

What will happen in the East of England? Apparently, we will have to accept that time will tell, whether that telling is a good thing or an increasingly negative one has yet to be determined.

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January 29, 2021 · 00:07

The deal compared to morality

There we have it, several sources voiced it yesterday. I wanted to answer then, but I wanted to look at it a little more. There is no reason to stop it, there is no reason to avoid it, it is a false setting of morality, nothing more. 

As President Biden has stated that they will ‘Biden administration pauses weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE’, now in itself that they can do that, but it is the by-line that caught my eye “arms sales aims to ensure they advance US ‘strategic objectives’”, I am on the fence there, I accept that the American have an agenda, they always do. Yet what about the agenda to allow the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to defend itself? In addition, is there an acceptable stage where ‘strategic objections’ will overrule basic needs? The US has a 25 trillion dollar debt, to alienate  basic source of income seems extremely counterproductive. I am very willing to step in and set a stage where the KSA will consider the hardware, consultancy and support from the UK and the BAE. I will happily take the 3.75% commission, even if it is initially only over $1,000,000,000. That still means I end up with a taxable $37,500,000, I’m not greedy, merely facilitating. And that amount is a decent amount to set retirement to. Now, is this merely greed driven?

No, I believe that any sovereign state has a basic right to defend itself, and even as we to some degree understand that the anti-war people who are in London Ontario and CAAT in the UK trying to stop the arms deals, I believe that they are misguided, they are, so that they are stating that this is fuelling the Yemeni war, In comparison we should see them as allied pacifists opponents of WW2, stopping the allies from continuing war in Europe, whilst Europe is being attacked by Germans and no one does anything there. In this setting Germany is played by Iran, Iran is continuing to fuel Houthi forces with weapons, weapons that are aimed at Saudi civilian targets and that is a big no-no in my book.

The second part is that I prefer to capture the revenue in western ways, because there pacifists seem to be ignorant of the setting that China or Russia will deal with Saudi Arabia, with the future investment that they have set both nations want to have a slice of that pie and even more, they like it just fine if the west (UK or USA) will not get that revenue. That is the setting we seem to face, billions of revenue will go towards the west, Russia or China and the media is seemingly unable to properly inform us, more important I have spoken in the past on the setting that western media remained SILENT on several attacks by Houthi’s on Saudi civilian targets, more important they have downplayed the acts by Iran, even though it is blatantly obvious that Yemen has no infrastructure, no trained users and no way to properly guide drones. Yemen lacks that ability and some sources have clearly stated that. I see the essential need to stop Iran by making sure that the KSA is able to stop Iran, the stage that we are informed on is the need for ‘strategic objectives’, perhaps destabilisation is what the USA needs in the Middle East, and is that not worse than prolonging one war that the KSA never started, but was asked to assist in by the legitimate government of Yemen? 

So when Arab News gives us ‘Are Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis firing warning shots across Biden administration’s bows?’, yet the Sydney Morning Herald gives us ‘Economic profiteering is fuelling the war in Yemen: UN panel’ which was yesterday, with two mentions of Iran, one being ““an increasing body of evidence suggesting that individuals and entities” in Iran supply “significant volumes of weapons and components to the Houthis””, a stage that has existed for well over 5 years, so after that time we see ‘an increasing body of evidence suggesting’, how deranged is that level of filtering? All whilst we are told “the Central Bank broke its foreign exchange rules, manipulated the foreign exchange market and “laundered a substantial part of the Saudi deposit in a sophisticated money-laundering scheme” that saw traders receive a $US423-million windfall”, so traders walked out with part of the $2,000,000,000 deposited by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to “intended to fund credit to buy commodities – such as rice, sugar, milk and flour – to strengthen food security and stabilise domestic prices”, all whilst the Central Bank of Yemen had its own path to set the needs of that money, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the painted bad person? (At https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/economic-profiteering-is-fueling-the-war-in-yemen-un-panel-20210127-p56xar.html)

So in all this, me taking a stance for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or perhaps better stated a stance AGAINST Iran is greed driven? We need a stable strong nation in the Middle East and we have 8-12 years of data that Iran will never be that player, all in a stage where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a plan to evolve towards a non oil driven economy, how is this a bd thing? How is the simple fact that Saudi Arabia is trying to make Neom City, a place 20 times the size of New York, a feat never ever done before by any nation and all I see is trivialisation and downplaying by other media, how is that an act by any evolved nation? That plan gave me the idea to create the 5G IP I have and as such Neom City is a start of innovation, and in that stage if Huawei completes that level of innovation all whilst at present 5G in Saudi Arabia is 725% faster than the 5G in the USA, the difference is that much and when Huawei sets that stage in Neom City, we lose, in that stage I would rather see Saudi Arabia as our friend than our enemy.

The world stage is changing and the greed driven iterative idiots in the US and the EU are setting a stage where we are left with no options, at that point where will you run, because if it is up to China, we are left with nothing, so is it that much a stretch to set a stage where preferably the BAE sets a larger stage with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a larger player? Consider that the stage changes, where do you want to be, in the arms of filtered news creators who hide the facts, or drive innovation? Because I can tell you where Saudi Arabia and China want to end up, they want to be on the far end of innovation, when the Chinese apps come at the uberspeed that Huawei can deliver, we lose and we lose a lot. It is a simple equation, and the western media telling you that it is more complex will add all kinds of actors that given to them by their stake holders, and guess who they are?

We are running out of time, the entire Corona setting did that to us, it forces us to make a choice much earlier than most wanted to and the US and their friends at Ericsson and Nokia are out of time and options. 

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November 12, 2020 · 21:06

Sunny side up

Yup, its like the eggs, I like my eggs in different ways, sunny side up, scrambled and poached. The poached ones I tend to prefer with Salmon and sourdough, yet I remain optimistic. Today is a stage of a lot of optional optimism. You see, like the eggs I am faced with a few scenario’s

Scrambled
There is more than one setting, there is the stage where we make our way quickly or awkwardly up a steep gradient or over rough ground, it is what the US is enabling me to do. You see, it is well over a week and there is still no result from Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin is under review and recent soon enough, the 0.2% advantage the Biden has in Georgia guarantees a recount. With another state in question there is a lot happening and they opened the for buy continuing in a media takes all frenzy that makes certain allies nervous, yet the American setting is all about media proclaimed superiority, yet the BBC give us ‘US election: Gulf Arab leaders face new reality after Biden victory’, all whilst 5 states remain in question. Even now, North Carolina and Georgia have not been called. Wisconsin is in the wind and Arizona, no-one knows what will happen there and it is making more than a few people rather nervous.

Poached
As such, when we see (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54904874) “Mr Biden’s victory could now have far-reaching consequences for Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab states”, in all this, I am not sitting by, with a $8,500,000,000 deal that could fall in the water I could look at 3.75% of that amount if I poach it. It would give me $318,750,000 and I need to pay rent. You want to be delusional? The is fine with me, I prefer to do it via the BAE, get the UK the arms deals, but in the end, I actually do not care whether it is them or China, you wanted greed driven? I wonder if you still like it when the shoe is on the other foot. And lets be clear, Saudi Arabia wanted (read: preferred) the American product, but certain delusional congress and senate members had this overreaching idea of whatever they were thinking and I do not mind, I saw a nice house and I do not mind spending my retirement there. It was only last march when we were given ‘Wall Street Poaching Season Stalls as Virus Curbs Interviews’, as such, if poaching is so acceptable, you do not mind me taking away business, do you? Even now when we see “President Barack Obama, under whom Mr Biden served as vice-president for eight years, was increasingly uncomfortable about Saudi Arabia’s conduct of the war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. By the time he left office, the air war had been going for almost two years with little military success while inflicting enormous damage on civilians and the country’s infrastructure”, we understand part of it, yet the stage remains unbalanced, the atrocities of the Houthis remain unmentioned, as dos the actions of Hezbollah and Iran in Yemen, but remain in denial, I will look after that multi-trillionaire client of yours. And whilst we now see “This lifted sanctions on Iran in return for strict compliance with limits on its nuclear activities and inspections of its nuclear facilities. President Trump called it “the worst deal ever” and pulled the US out of it. Now, his successor looks set to take the US back into the agreement in some form”, as the stage of denial of Iran becomes more and more visible, we will see that additional business opportunities become mine (read: wishful thinking), yet that is the setting of poaching, closing your eyes to pragmatism and reality works for Mme in this case, so I will take it.

Sunny Side Up
Yup, the yoke is on the people of the US. When they lose an additional $8.5B, more and more infrastructure will not be affordable, a stage they made for themselves, we can warn them again and again, yet at some point I will take the money, what was theirs is now mine, they set the stage for me to walk on and dance I will (that much money and they can see me do a jig). And when the people in the US finally wake up, finally realise that some games come at a price, we will see them cry foul (or fowl), yet they called for their chickens and they merely turned into turkey’s. 

Of course I know that my chances are slim to none, but in that setting I will take slim anyway and as I see it, my chances here are better than the lottery and the price is a hell of a lot more rewarding. So whilst Al Jazeera gives us ‘‘Relationship reassessed’: Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia relations’, I say “reassess all you like”, and the quote there is “We should not overestimate what the Biden administration can do in relation to Yemen’s war,” Nadwa Dawsari, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera. “A political settlement under the current circumstances would further complicate Yemen’s war and play into the hands of the Houthis and, by default, Iran” and the is where Saudi Arabia becomes more and more nervous, more and more needing an alternative. It is not ego, Iran is becoming a much larger problem all over the Middle-East and Saudi Arabia is not in a good place, they feel even less certain whether the egotistical democrats realise just how much of a problem Iran really is. The media has been keeping silent over so much events, there is a general distrust here and I am very (read: extremely) willing to step in and get a few coins out of it. Now, I am no Nicholas Cage, but I do get the part when he states (in Lords of War) “Without operations like mine it would be impossible for certain countries to conduct a respectable war. I was able to navigate around those inconvenient little arms embargoes. There are three basic types of arms deal: white, being legal, black, being illegal, and my personal favourite colour, *grey*. Sometimes I made the deal so convoluted, it was hard for *me* to work out if they were on the level”, and that works for me in this case, the fact that I take $8.5 billion and give it to the UK is merely icing on the cake (as long as I get my 3.75% or more).

You might think that I am deplorable, but if I do not step in, the Russians will and I have something against giving free money to them (its an old cold war thing). A stage where the US is finagling billions in 5G, optionally more, a stage where their close rich allies are turning away all because thee media cannot be bothered giving all Americans the proper picture as such I see no reason not to step in and after that I can fund my IP into products the will make me rich beyond belief. Yup, as I see it, 2021 might be sunny side up, although I do admit that 2020 was mostly about scrambling and poaching. But that is partially due to those willing to let it all happen.

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June 21, 2019 · 11:49

The seventh guest

Yes, it is a game, but this is not about gaming, it is the game we detest, but it is being played and we sit in the middle, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sits in the middle and the Trump administration is uniting behind “the shooting down of a US drone could have been carried out by a “loose and stupid” Iranian officer without authorisation from Tehran“. So good morning it is Friday, no throw back Thursday for us, just the start of meaningless banter from the political isles.

To get to the 7th guest, you have to understand the content. It was a brilliant puzzle game released by Virgin in the 90’s. The story was over the top but cool, it was a journey to stay alive until the next morning. The house was filled with puzzles that needed to be solved to continue. It was a little more like an interactive movie (in those days). The first puzzle was to carve a cake in equal pieces, there were 6 guests to each person and the cake was 6 by 5 squares. Simple you think, but the clue was ‘2 skulls and 2 stones, the rest is just icing‘, and now cutting the cake was not as easy as initially seemed.

Now we get to the icing of Yesterday (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/20/the-ice-and-the-icing/) where I quoted in response: “It is seen when the most stupid of all actions is given with: “If Iran did breach the uranium limits, the deal, known as the joint comprehensive plan of action, gives both sides time to go into a disputes mechanism before it is declared void“, is it really that bad, after the ‘breach’ Europe still wants to talk?” It seems that boar mongering President Trump is now trying diplomacy, to not let things escalate too much. The biggest bully on the block is eager to not get into a fight, when did logic ever prevail?

So when we see: “We didn’t have a man or woman in the drone. It would have made a big, big difference,” Trump said. Asked how the US would respond, he said: “You’ll find out.”“, as well as ““I find it hard to believe it was intentional if you want to know the truth. I think it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it”

This is how Iran has ‘sanctified’ the weapon deployments to Hezbollah, is Mr. Bad Hair Cut really going to play the card that enables Iran? Apparently these $120,000,000 drones are well insured, or is he taking the loss out of his own pay check?

I can only wonder how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia feels after the disappointing support that both the United Kingdom and United States are giving them at present. So as we see that the allies of Saudi Arabia are backing down when the drums of war are sounding with the increased cadence of (what they call) vigor by Iran, Saudi Arabia needs to reconsider who their real allies are. I am certain that Russia and China will use this opportunity that opened up, I just do not know how at present. In addition now that we know that President Trump is not about sticking to his guns, I wonder how long his own party will suffer the blunders he makes day after day, it will optionally be the first impeachment that gets full support from BOTH the Democrats and his own Republicans.

How to continue?

That is the larger question and I feel certain that this is on the mind of the ruler in Riyadh as well. Saudi Arabia must do what is best for Saudi Arabia, Israel needs to do what is best for Israel and so does Europe and the US, yet in this there is no real skin in the game for Europe and the US. Iran will strike at Israel and Saudi Arabia when it can and keeps the other two at bay with fear and both are now facilitating towards Iran through the fear of removing all diplomatic options.

CNBC gives us that a mere 5 hours ago with: ‘EU top diplomat says Europe will try to make sure ‘escalation is avoided’ between US, Iran‘, there is a time and place when avoiding escalation is the best of all options, I personally feel that it is way too late for that, again, the proxy war utilising the terrorist organisation Hezbollah is evidence of that. And the escalations are still going on, the strike a mere 12 hours ago as we are told (by Al Jazeera) that ‘Attack by rebel group on facility in southern province of Jizan the latest in string of attacks on Saudi targets‘ gives rise that Iran is actually still playing both an offensive game optionally with their offensive group Hezbollah and a defensive play where officers get a bonus and a promotion if they hit an American drone. Yet when we see: “The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks amid rising tensions throughout the Middle East fuelled by a bitter standoff between Iran and the United States” no one is asking how these drones are paid for, because Yemen is out of money and has no technological stage to make them. I wonder how to see the statement: “US, Iran and Saudi Arabia have all said they do not want a war to break out in the region“, in my view Iran is telling any story that the others are willing to swallow, America is broke and Saudi Arabia has no real allies to rely on, the weapon case in the UK and the US president doing a 180 degree direction on previous statements, It puts Saudi Arabia in a poor place, that is unless Germany and China get out of the dug-out and properly give support to Saudi Arabia.

I don’t get it, what purpose is served to cater to the needs of a child called Iran to this degree? I stare at the maps and I look at the places being hit, and to be honest, for the life of me, I do not understand how Saudi Arabia is able to keep calm at present, the moment highway 30 is hit in multiple places, the direct threat to Riyadh will be visible and all options will be taken off the table and I fear that this is sooner than we think, giving Iran more time to use the misdirection to finalise their Uranium requirements. At that point WW3 is almost the only step left to us, there is no way that Saudi Arabia and Israel will accept such a threat.

Yet there is an upside, with 5-9 million dead Iranians, the carbon footprint goes down a little, a small victory for the environment, you see, give me a lemon, some water and I will sell you a melon juice smoothie.

If that is what is required to play the game, I am in!

I will end this part with a personal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping (and to Chen Wenqing: ‘No, I am not trying to corrupt him with western ideology‘).

Dear Sir,

I would like to discuss the purchase of 20-30 Chengdu J-20 fighters. In light of both a first order discount, as well as a student discount (we are all students on the path of life), I believe that should the talks be successful, that 20-30 planes at a unit cost of $27.35 million (with rebates, discounts and commission applied), in addition the 2 years of full service with no regards to hours flown, mileage traveled or missiles fired. This is based on 2016 flyaway cost. The benefit is that these fighters will be directly engaging Iranian forces and as such you will have access to a massive amount of data enabling you to start on the 6th generation fighter, optionally making you the first country to have one. We would also be interested in the testing of the Xian H-20 prototype that is now nearing completion. If the specs are as they are claiming to be, it will help us in removing morale from Tehran and from the IRGC as a whole. In this the unofficial word is that the sky is the limit as regarding to the price of this place (my 2.17% commission still applies). My client is ready to upgrade several army based parts (both light and heavy guns), however I hope that this part can be tabled until Iran decides to attack directly, at which point Saudi Arabian boots on Iranian ground becomes a direct first.

Kindest regards,

Lawrence van Rijn

I look forward to a mutually fruitful support towards presenting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a proper defense option that will result towards strength and stability in the Middle East region, under the guiding lights of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

That was not hard was it?

So in one strike the BAE loses 2 years of commerce, but the British anti-weapon league is happy, the UK loses well over $4 billion in business opportunity in the long term but you can get the green party to sell grass to a place called whatevernation, can’t you? The US loses its arms options overnight and enables China to economically grow 9%-12%, and as other options fall away for Europe and the US to a much larger degree, Russia will be ever ready to pick up a few scraps in the process.

It was a really simple equation and by choosing the facilitating side of a route that goes nowhere, other options came out to play. Let’s be honest, in light of what has happened, does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have any cause to trust the US or Europe in any of this at present?

In the end the 7th guest was about another person in the house (hint) that only showed 6, it makes the game decently apt to the situation the Middle East faces at present. The question is that when that puzzle is solved, will some of the political voices in Iran, Europe, America, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Yemen stay in denial?

 

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April 7, 2019 · 15:27

When the joke is on us all

We all have moments where we imagine that the dice is cast, yet we play roulette, we think we have the numbers down, yet did you know that the roulette number sequence is different in Europe compared to America? These are all elements in a play of high stake gambling. That same setting returns when we look at the Guardian article ‘Campaigners head to court to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia’. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/06/campaigners-court-bid-to-stop-uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia) holds two sides (apart from it being partially a joke in my eyes). You see, I have no issue with people who have the principle of being against weapons. That is their prerogative. What does bug me is that these same people will suddenly blame the government for all kinds of issues and they will scream that they want higher taxes for the rich, ignoring the fact that they are the cause of several issues that are the consequence of some faulty misdirected version of ideology.

So even as I am happy to step in and take over the arms trade to Saudi Arabia, mainly because I do not have the luxury of walking away from a multi-billion pound deal, you see the rent is due next week and I would like a nice mince pie after I pay my rent, the £3,576,229,000 will enable me to get both. OK that amount would not all be mine, but 20% could be and that is still £715,245,800.

My entire pension issue solved overnight. The article takes us a step further. With: “The UK court case comes amid the continued fallout from the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was tortured and assassinated by Saudi agents“, I am fine with that step for the mere reason that there are too many question marks in that case. The evidence on several levels is missing proper scrutiny, the fact that Turkey has other agenda’s in play is ignored, and the involvement of Iran in all this is ignored on several levels. I am not stating that things did not happen, there is clearly a massive lack of proper scrutiny and people like the Campaign against Arms Trade are fuelling my opportunity and I am fine with that, if stupid people enable me to become wealthy, why would I oppose?

How Come?

Well, we are decently certain that something happened to Jamal Khashoggi, yet to what degree can government actions be proven? That is the issue, there is no evidence and as such can you, or should you stop dealing with a sovereign nation with a lack of evidence? In addition, in the other direction, we have seen a massive indecisive move towards Iran whilst Iran fuelled activities go on in Europe, October 2018, January 2019, covering Denmark, France, Netherlands, and the UK. Yet over at that point, we see an utter lack of actual actions (merely considerations).

Does it matter?

Well that is in part the question, we can accept that Campaign against Arms Trade wants it all to stop, but what is ignored is that merchants have markets and the UK cannot evolve next level defences if they cannot be sold. So whilst places like Saudi Arabia are still opening their internal market to have quality defence gear, places like the UK, Russia and America are looking to sell defence solutions to places that can afford them (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Taiwan, South Korea and a few more players), yet the well is drying up, more and more countries have their own solutions and the size of the cake is getting smaller.

The next part is seen where we get Andrew Smith of Campaign against Arms Trade giving us: “This case could set a vital precedent and end UK complicity in the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world.” In that I respectfully disagree, the catastrophe was that too many people sat on their hands for too long, the fact that Yemen is not just the Saudi-led coalition, the other side, the terrorist side is more than Houthi fighters, it includes Hezbollah as well as Iranian forces, by leaving that out, we see an unbalanced stage and in all this we see a deterioration of events, so even as we accept (to some degree) “civilian targets in Yemen have regularly been hit“, in addition we need to accept the Human Rights Watch who gives us clearly: “Houthi forces have repeatedly fired artillery indiscriminately into Yemeni cities and launched indiscriminate ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia. Some of these attacks may amount to war crimes. Houthi attacks have struck populated neighbourhoods in Yemen, having a particularly devastating impact on Taizz, Yemen’s third largest city.” There is more than one player, yet these focus groups have merely looked at the Saudi side and that needs to stop, not because of what they are trying to achieve, but because the actions are much larger then they proclaim and there are two sides. In addition to what was given we need to consider the fact that Houthi forces have been staging some of the events. Al Jazeera gave us more than once: “The war has been at a stalemate for years, with the coalition and Yemeni forces unable to dislodge the Houthis from the capital, Sanaa, and other urban centres.” This indicates that the Houthi forces are in-between the population, with 16 million on the verge of death by starvation, is inaction even a problem?

Yet, from one point of view, I do not mind. If I get the option, I will sell it to the Saudi government and I will send Andrew Smith an authentic Fortnum and Mason hamper, just so that he knows I appreciate him enabling me to write a multi-billion pound invoice. Of course, the optional impact that the UK faces if the profitability of Britain’s largest defence company, BAE Systems is set to zero. I feel certain that Andrew Smith can explain it to the thousands of workers out of a job if I am given the assurance that I can get a much better margin by selling the Saudi government 47 Mikoyan MiG-35, complete with training and proper service level agreements. That puppy is a direct superior option against the Typhoon, the Super Hornet and a few others; my upside is that if I get Saudi Arabia on board, I am likely to get additional requests from Pakistan and at least three other governments.

So at that point, how exactly did Campaign against Arms Trade achieve anything (other than making me filthy rich and I will thank them in person for that). In this day and age where the markets and economies cannot take these hits, it is the ability of Andrew Smith that Europe fears, you see commerce is at the heart of the matter, and at this point, any nations bringing in bad news will stop being an asset, that is the Wall Street premise we all signed up for in 2005 when things started to get bad, we never corrected for any of it.

Distasteful like a Vegan

We can all consider where our ethical boundary is, yet in all this, we seem to forget that any sovereign nation has the right to self-govern, Europeans with their gravy train, ECB and shallow morals seem to have forgotten that. In all this having commerce allows diplomats to find a path that steers some nations away for certain practices and that path will be denied to them soon thereafter. Consider that I am all about profit and the Campaign against Arms Trade allowed for that change, how did they achieve anything? Because the UK misses out on have a dozen billions a year less? How many projects and funding issues will dry up the year after that starts? We have settings and measurements, most do not deal with terrorists, most do not sell to individuals, and the Campaign against Arms Trade is starting to allow for the return of those markets.

Sidestepping into art

Consider John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids. Some saw the movie, some read the book. Yet what happens when the sequel is a direct horror story? What happens when the sequel gives us the stage where the Triffids land on a planet ruled by vegans and vegetarians? How scared will they be (the Triffids that is)? This relates to the setting we have, you see, we seem to push towards everyone becoming a vegan and vegetarian (non-weaponised), because that is what their norm states, yet what are we going to do about the hunters (lion), the carrion eaters (Hyena) and other non-vegetarians? What do we do when people have certain norms and will not be told by anyone how to act? Is that such a weird issue?

You merely have to look at football hooligan UK to see that part of the equation, and there is no end in sight. It is a shallow connection, I agree, yet that is the ball game, someone wants to pressure towards an ideology whilst the other players are not interested. Now that does not invalidate the ideology, yet the fact that the reasoning is one sided, whilst the entire economic premise requires selling to other governments is a factor that cannot be ignored.

Who are we to dictate rules and manners? I get it, by denying the Saudi government one’s own screwed up values is all good, yet when the act does the opposite of what they are trying to achieve, can we agree that the action is not that bright? I am not comparing the Saudi people with either the Lion or the Hyena. I am merely stating that there is more than one option and that is fine for all concerned. How can any nation, most of them either dealing with their own levels of corruption, or facilitating to massive corporate tax evasion, as these elements also impact whatever was to be part of a government budget, do we have any business impeding the other paths that were available? Consider that we were treated only a month ago to ‘HMRC’s first probes into corporate tax evasion facilitation‘, the stage where we are seeing “HMRC has confirmed that it has opened its first investigations into the corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent the facilitation of UK tax evasion, using new powers to tackle corporate fraud contained in the Criminal Finances Act, introduced in the wake of the Panama Papers leaks“, an event that is close to 15 years late. How can we see the actions of a group stopping billions the UK government desperately needs? Don’t worry, in the end I might be ecstatically happy regarding their act, I am not so certain the British people will love the impact of what Campaign against Arms Trade invoked to happen. We can see that there is a lot that needs fixing, I am not sure that international arms trade to other governments no less is a first problem to solve, not with the competition and not with much larger issues in play.

And it is here where we see the delusional part of Andrew Smith, with “BAE’s solution will always be the same: it wants to sell more weapons, regardless of the atrocities they are enabling. Wherever there is war and conflict, there will always be companies like BAE trying to profiteer from it“, we get to see just how whacked his view is. Well, to be honest, he is allowed to have that view, it just does not add up. You see, the actual premise is: “BAE’s solutions are designed to keep Britain safe. Yet the development will cost 155 billion, to assure the top state of defence for the UK, who will only buy for up to 100 billion requires additional sales to global governments who could need that solution, even as the US buys a lot, it is not enough to fill the gap and that is where other nations come in. There is the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and a few others.“ In addition Andrew Smith seems to forget (or he does not care)that others like the US, France, Italy and Russia all have solutions to sell, so we need to ensure our survival for the need of growing British defence and keeping it as high as possible. This part is extremely important, because whoever has the best deals with places like Saudi Arabia is also in the best position to aid and guide international development in places like that. As Saudi Arabia is about to become a 5G powerhouse, that path is more and more important for everyone. Consider the impact if Campaign against Arms Trade is successful. Do you think that British Telecom has a chance in hell to grow the 5G options to the degree they could if their portfolio is auto rejected in several Middle Eastern nations, or only accepted at a mere 2% margin? Commerce is so intertwined in so many ways on a global level that the entire premise Campaign against Arms Trade is to regarded as too ideological, whilst ignoring common sense; it would be nice if this was a setting where there was only the US and the UK, yet there is a strong defence field that includes Russia and China, whatever the UK loses, China and optionally Russia will gain and in that regard, how did that help the British people?

The fact that we see a one-sided part against Saudi Arabia, whilst there is a large and utter denial (or silencing) on the acts from Hezbollah and Houthis firing Iranian missiles into the Saudi population is not mentioned. The article (at https://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/stop-arming-saudi) gives more, yet leaves the atrocities of the Houthi and Hezbollah terrorists out of that equation, that part alone should be cause for concern. The small fact that at present there is no evidence, evidence that could stand up in court giving us a clear path that the Saudi government murdered Jamal Khashoggi, is also part of concern. As I stated earlier in other articles, I am not stating that they are innocent, I am stating that the evidence has gaps, large ones and the conviction through some political hacks came via a CIA report stating ‘high confidence‘, which is not the same. When did we allow the courts to decide on ‘confidence‘? The fact that the acts in all this (Yemen and Jamal Khashoggi) from both Iran and Turkey is largely ignored is making the entire stage even more appalling.

Yet, I will thank Andrew Smith in person when I get to deliver the goods making me rich, I do however expect him to be not so appreciative of it all in the end, even less so when others with no scruples at all (like myself) start delivering goods instead of BAE Systems, and deleting the job security of 83,200 employees? Well, it is ideology, is it not? They will just have to find another job.

 

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