THE CRUX OF BUSINESS

THE CRUX OF BUSINESS

by M. Kato

Marine One is getting old and the President needs a new state-of-the-art helicopter to ferry him around, both in the United States and overseas. More to the point, he needs twenty-three new machines to fulfill this requirement. The Navy Department considered proposals from Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, the latter having supplied presidential helicopters since the Eisenhower administration. In what is turning into a controversial decision, the Navy chose Lockheed Martin as the primary contractor in a deal that is worth $1.7 billion.

The controversy centers around the fact that the new Marine One chopper is based on AugustaWestland’s EH-101 design. AugustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica Spa. Critics like Democrat Senators Dodd and Lieberman from Connecticut, where Sikorsky is headquartered, claim that Sikorky can produce a better product and that it was, in effect, unpatriotic to have awarded the contract to Lockheed Martin. The Sikorsky helicopters would have been an all-American effort, whereas some of the work under Lockheed Martin will be done in Britain. (uk.news.yahoo.com/050129/344/fbcam.html)

It has been reported that Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi made personal requests of George Bush that the contract be awarded to Lockheed Martin. As the two largest contributors of troops to the “Coalition of the Willing,” after the United States, it could be construed that Lockheed Martin’s good fortune was tied to British and Italian cooperation. (timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1461644,00.html)

Making matters worse for patriots like Dodd and Lieberman was AugustWestland’s attendance at the January Iran Air Show held on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. Although a company spokesman for AugustWestland denies that it was involved in the air show, its name appears in the list of exhibitors on Iran Air Show’s web site, (iran-airshow.com) and on its “Exhibition News” page it states, “Companies from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, England, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates set up pavilions in the exhibition.” Further, an MSNBC report by Lisa Myers states, regarding Finmeccanica’s AugustaWestland presence at the Air Show, “It was also in Kish showing off its helicopters to Iran.” (msnbc.msn.com/id/7018071)

Myers further reports an exchange with Stephen Bryen, President of Finmeccanica USA that is quite enlightening. When asked if he thought that Iran “is an enemy of the United States?” he replied, “I think they’re our enemy at this point,” adding, “I mean, they’re behaving like our enemy.” Myers then asks the reader, “So why would Bryen’s company trade with the enemy?” to which she gives his reply. “In Europe, they don’t call it the enemy. If it’s a civilian item that doesn’t threaten anyone, then I don’t have a problem with that.” Well, I’m certainly relieved with that clarification. (For an eye opening picture of exactly who Stephen Bryen is go to rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/bryen_st/bryen_st.php) Suffice it to say that this is exactly the kind of response one would expect from an arch neoconservative and member of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs Advisory Board.

I should also point out that the Dutch, another staunch Coalition of the Willing participant, slated to pull its 1,600 troops from Iraq this month, sold 25 Fokker-70 commercial jets to the Iranians for $980 million, according to the Iran Air Show Exhibition News. Rekkof Aircraft and Stork NV, two Dutch firms, will produce the Fokkers in a joint venture.

But, despite the fact that Iran is labeled as a central component of the Bush Junta’s “Axis of Evil,” Americans should not get overly exercised at the apparent treachery of the Anglo-Italian and Dutch firms courting it with their wares. AugustaWestland, Rekkof and Stork aren’t doing anything different than American companies like Halliburton, General Electric and ConocoPhillips have been doing in Iran for years. And, although these latter firms have now pledged to cease doing any new business with the “evil” Persians, they will honor existing contractual obligations until their work there is completed. A deal’s a deal, after all. And, the Crux of Business is more powerful than the Axis of Evil.