CITIZEN'S TEAM ARRESTED INSPECTING RAYTHEON
Major missile maker in Massachusetts suspected of abeting violations of international law.
by Michael True

Eleven members of a Citizen's Weapons Inspection Team were arrested on Monday, October 26, as they entered Raytheon Electrical Systems (RES), Andover, Massachusetts.

As authorization for their attempted inspection, the Inspection Team cited Principles VI-VII of the Nuremberg Principles asserting that the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances...is a crime punishable under international law."

The group, calling itself the Raytheon Peacemakers, was charged with trespass in Lawrence District Court, and released on personal recognizance, to report for a pre-trial hearing December 3.

Several members previously conducted weapons inspections at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, Groton, Connecticut, and Dimona nuclear weapons facility, in Israel, and witnessed first hand the devastating effects of weapons made at RES on people in Iraq.

The Raytheon Peacemakers' statement condemned "the hypocrisy of justifying the mass starvation of a civilian population of Iraq with the ruse of weapons inspections, while the United States remains the largest possessor, builder, and trader of weapons of mass destruction." According to the public record, it continued, "weaponry produced by Raytheon Corp. and its subsidiaries were used against civilian targets in Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan."

The Peacemakers entered the Andover facility "in search of evidence that components of weapons of mass destruction are under construction" at RES. According to their statement, MK99 Fire Control Systems for the AEGIS Weapons Systems and the Sparrow missile "have been declared illegal by the World Court and numerous international treaties, including the Geneva Convention of 1949, the Nuremberg Charter, the Non Proliferation Treaty, and U.N. Resolution 1653 (1961)."

The defendants called upon RES employees and all people of good will "to begin immediately the critical work of disarming the U.S. at a pace at least equal to that imposed upon Iraq, and to lift the harsh sanctions currently imposed" on that country.

For more information call Raytheon Peacemakers at (978)249-9400.