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Published on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 by the Style Weekly (Richmond, Va.)
by Margie Burns
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
I have not heard your widely acclaimed radio broadcasts, but it has come to my attention that you've been urging your fans to "PLEASE, BOYCOTT ALL FRENCH PRODUCTS!"
As luck would have it, the perfect target for your boycott is coming up: on June 15 through 22 of this year, France will host the 45th annual Paris Air Show.
The Paris Air Show, as you may know, is a global aviation and arms fair, that takes place in the Paris venue Le Bourget every other year, alternating with another huge trade show for weapons and weapons systems called Eurosatory. You may not have heard that Eurosatory and the Paris Air Show are hugely patronized by the U.S. government and by U.S. military contractors. (http://www.paris-air-show.com)
The list of U.S. exhibitors so far, available from contact person Cara Boulesteix in the Commerce Department, runs 16 pages and more than 200 companies. Many subsidiaries, partnerships and cooperative agreements are not mentioned.
Prominently featured are giant military contractors General Electric Co., Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. Indeed, the list is a virtual who's who of our corporate federal contractors who are also feverishly hawking (no pun intended) their wares abroad, including Kaiser Aluminum, Goodrich, Teleflex and Bell Helicopter. A glossy tradition of cosmopolitanism in arms and "dual-use" transactions has long been established here, of course: You may recall that Honeywell, Rockwell and Bell Helicopter also were among the dozens of U.S. corporations whose products ended up in Saddam's Iraq. (www.thememory-hole.org/corp/iraq-suppliers.htm)
Some of the merchant-of-death networking might surprise the public. Several states, including Virginia, are exhibiting at the venue, including Jeb Bush's Florida, which will be amply represented by "Southwest Florida," and "Enterprise Florida," each advertising cheap Florida labor. Speaking of security, Tampa International Airport also is an exhibitor. But then, the Federal Aviation Administration itself attends the air show, as does the American Association of Airport Executives. So any purchases of security systems, military data recorders, night-vision searchlights, cargo and baggage handling systems, communications systems and other devices designed to elude them, take place figuratively under their noses.
Thus far, the FAA has not been grounded. This year, though, the administration is limiting the number of officials attending the show to 150.
Not that the rubbing elbows is confined to current officeholders. Another U.S. exhibitor is Aviall Inc., a giant aviation-parts distributor owned partly by the Carlyle Group, in which the Bush family possesses a substantial interest through former President George H. W. Bush. Not much new there. This would be the same Carlyle Group formerly associated with Saudi Arabia's giant industrial complex, the Bin Laden Group.
Mr. Limbaugh, I know what you may say: These corporate networks are so intertwined in our lives that no person, even equipped with a conscience, can avoid entanglement. You may point out that even Clear Channel, the communications behemoth whose hundreds of radio stations proudly advertise your talk show, does multimillion-dollar business in France annually. Clear Channel itself, you will say, which banned the Dixie Chicks' songs on its channels, has radio hosts boosting I-
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