Below are a few of the actions and events Kick Boeing to the Curb was involved in throughout 2007 and the beginning of 2008.

April 4, 2007: Break Up with Boeing action: A rally at Daley Center and march to Boeing headquarters in which over 100 people attended. We called Boeing’s Ethics Line and read a break-up letter over the phone.

May 1, 2007: We participated in the May Day Immigrants Rights March, handing out over 500 bilingual fliers about Boeing’s militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. We then picketed outside of Boeing headquarters.

June 17, 2007: Members of Kick Boeing to the Curb helped organize and participate in Operation First Casualty, an Iraq Veterans Against the War action. By using street theater, veterans re-enacted the reality of the brutal occupation in Iraq, including arresting, hooding and cuffing volunteers outside of Boeing headquarters.

August 11, 2007: KBC members attended and participated in an action outside Blackwater North’s facility in Mt. Carroll, IL. Video of the demonstration is here: Youtube A clip from the speech by KBC member Brad Thomson starts at approximately 4 minutes and 15 seconds into the video.

September 8, 2007: We endorsed and participated in an anti-war action at Rahm Emanuel’s office focused on ending Congressional funding for the War in Iraq.

September 19, 2007: We participated in “How We Fund,” a discussion at the Hyde Park Arts Center as part of the Pedagogical Factory. The discussion was about funding for progressive and artistic projects and addressed Boeing’s funding within the arts community here in Chicago.

December 22, 2007: In the holiday spirit, members of Kick Boeing to the Curb passed out hundreds of coupons announcing a “Bomb Blowout Sale” at Boeing, with discounts on missiles, bombs and other destructive weapons.   

January 7, 2008: KBC member Brad Thomson spoke on 8th Day, the radio program for the 8th Day Center for Justice: WLUW

January 14, 2008: Kick Boeing to the Curb was the recipient group for the monthly Peace Party held at Danny’s bar.

This article is a cover story from the Chicago Tribune, documenting the corruption of war profiteers in Iraq.

Inside the world of war profiteers

From prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors in Iraq cheated the U.S.

By David Jackson and Jason Grotto|Tribune reporters

February 21, 2008

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

View the rest of the article here: Chicago Tribune

On Monday, January 7th, Kick Boeing to the Curb member Brad Thomson will be appearing on “The 8th Day,” a radio show dealing with social justice issues hosted by 8th Day Center for Justice. The show will be addressing the issue of torture and he will be discussing Boeing’s role in the CIA torture flights.

“8th Day”
Monday, January 7th
10:00-11:00
WLUW 88.7 FM
Also available through live webcast: WLUW

**Update: The show, “Torture: Chicago, Guantanamo and Boeing’s rendition flights” is archived on 8th Day’s website.

We are excited to announce that Kick Boeing to the Curb has an upcoming fundraiser.  The bar Danny’s hosts a Peace Party once a month, donating half the bar sales to a non-profit group and this month, KBC will be the recipient organization.  There will be a DJ playing music all night and all you have to do is come dance, drink and socialize!

Here are the details:
Danny’s (1951 W. Dickens)
Monday, January 14th
10:00 pm-2:00 am
No cover

The funds we raise will be used to organize upcoming events,  publish informational materials, bring in speakers for teach-ins and conferences and help the organization in a number of other ways.

For years, United for a Fair Economy (UFE) has put out excellent reports about CEO compensation.  Over the past few years, they have focused on CEO compensation for defense contractors.  Below are links to .pdf files for their two most recent reports.

Executive Excess 2006

Executive Excess 2005

Here are resources for information on the CIA’s extraordinary renditions (torture flights) and the role Boeing plays in them.

Amnesty International: Below The Radar- Feature Section with general information about extraordinary renditions.

Have A Nice Flight- Village Voice article from February 4, 2007.

Flog is My Co-Pilot- Article appearing in Seattle Weekly on November 29, 2006 about the torture flights and Boeing’s involvement.

Also, read the article, “Boeing Unit to Face Suit in CIA Seizures” posted on this site.

Kick Boeing to the Curb is actively involved in the Coalition to Ground Boeing Torture Flights.

Boeing unit to face suit in CIA seizures

By Claudio Gatti

International Herald Tribune

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

NEW YORK: The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that a subsidiary of Boeing aided the Central Intelligence Agency in the forced transportation of three plaintiffs who say they were captured and flown to overseas prisons and in some cases tortured.

The civil suit is to be filed in San Jose, California, under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. This law specifies that U.S. government agencies and U.S. corporations can be held responsible for human rights abuses against foreigners resulting from activities in a foreign country.

The legal action against Jeppesen, a flight-support services unit of Boeing based in San Jose, will represent a fresh attempt to shed light on a practice known as extraordinary rendition, under which the CIA arrested, transported and interrogated terrorist suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“Evidence points to Jeppesen as a major player in the extraordinary rendition program,” said Steven Watt, staff lawyer for the ACLU.

“European flight logs identifying Jeppesen reveal that over a four-year period, the company was actively involved in the provision of flight and logistical support services to at least 15 aircraft which, European investigations confirm, were used by the CIA in its program of extraordinary rendition.”

Watt added, “The evidence here also points to Jeppesen contracting to profit from torture.”

Jeppesen referred any request for comments to Boeing. Tim Neale, director of communications at Boeing, declined to respond “because to do so would mean commenting on the work Jeppesen does for clients under contracts that call for confidentiality.”

“It seems to me you are asking a question about an issue that involves the U.S. government,” Neale said. “Jeppesen, as with the rest of the Boeing company, operates in accordance with the laws.”

Asked about Jeppesen’s role in the rendition program, Mark Mansfield, CIA director of communications, said, “We don’t comment on such matters.”

Companies like Jeppesen typically provide flight-support services like weather forecasts, flight plans, landing permits, overflight exemptions, refueling, ground handling of the aircraft, catering arrangements, hotel accommodations and payment of airport fees.

An investigation conducted by an Italian business daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, also independently found evidence that two of the three plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit and another individual who was also a victim of an extraordinary rendition were transported aboard a Gulfstream V and a Boeing 737 with the logistical support from Jeppesen.

The four men were Kassim Britel, a Moroccan-born Italian citizen; Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin who was mistaken for a terrorist and abducted from Macedonia; an Egyptian who had asked for asylum in Sweden; and an Ethiopian citizen with resident status in Britain.

“Without Jeppesen’s services, the planes would never have been able to make those flights,” said Francesca Longhi, the Italian lawyer for Britel, one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit. “If Jeppesen hadn’t serviced the CIA’s Gulfstream V, my client would never have been illegally deported to Morocco, where he has endured months of torture and years of illegal detention that is still going on.”

Longhi said Jeppesen was involved in what many legal experts, the British Foreign Office and a special European Parliament commission consider an illegal act under international law.

Britel was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan, where the authorities claimed that he was traveling on a false Italian passport, according to Longhi. Britel was handed over to about six men, Americans he presumes were CIA operatives, who forced him onto of a Gulfstream V jet, Longhi said.

During the nine-hour flight to Morocco, Longhi said, Britel was kept hooded, with his hands and feet bound. After landing in Rabat, he was taken to a special jail run by local intelligence. Eighteen months later, he was tried and convicted on charges of being a member of a local terrorist cell and for “participating in unauthorized meetings” - although he had not been in Morocco for five years.

Britel, 39, is in Aïn Borja prison, in Casablanca, serving a nine-year sentence. Longhi said his conviction was based on a confession that followed weeks of torture.

Neither the Moroccan Ministry of Justice nor the Ministry of Communications, contacted by Il Sole 24 Ore, answered a request for comment.

In Italy, Britel fell under suspicion in 2001 when a booklet containing a transcript of an Osama Bin Laden’s interview on Al Jazeera television and an electronic file with a statement of support for the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas were found in his home near Milan. But last September, the Italian authorities cleared him of any terrorism charges.

“The fact is that Britel never committed any crime,” Longhi said. “Not in Morocco, not in Italy, not anywhere.”

Before the CIA began extraordinary renditions, companies like Jeppesen were in the business of enabling wealthy people to fly smoothly around the globe.

After Sept. 11, 2001, according to human rights organizations and European investigating commissions, new customers appeared - charter companies operating planes on behalf of the CIA.

The first documentary evidence bearing Jeppesen’s name was retrieved in June 2005 by the Spanish Guardia Civil, when it investigated reports in a newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, of CIA planes flying into local airports. The Spanish authorities found that four planes - two Boeings and two Gulfstreams - had repeatedly landed and refueled in Mallorca and that they were serviced by two local companies on behalf of Jeppesen and Air Routing International.

Similar documents were uncovered in Portugal by a newspaper, Diario de Noticias, which found the name of Jeppesen in communications related to rendition planes that used the airports in Porto and Santa Maria de Azores.

Jeppesen UK was also named in British newspapers as the company that arranged for ground support services to a rendition plane that landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport in June 2004.

Specific mention of the Gulfstream V jet that European investigators and Longhi say was used to transport Britel to Morocco first surfaced in October 2001. On Oct. 23 that year, at the airport in Karachi, Pakistan, masked men handed an individual to a group of Americans who had just landed on a Gulfstream V executive jet.

Claudio Gatti is an investigative reporter for Il Sole 24 Ore.

Here are a few resources to get more information about Boeing and other war-profiteers.

Why We Fight(2005)- A great documentary covering the military-industrial complex, directed by Eugene Jarecki.

How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy?- William Hartung’s 2003 book addressing the politicians and corporations benefiting from the War in Iraq, including Boeing.

In addition to corporate watchdog groups and organizations opposed to the militarization of the border, citizens of Arivaca, Arizona have also been quite vocal with their opposition to the “virtual fence” which Boeing has begun constructing. Last year, Boeing was awarded a contract for the high-tech part of Homeland Security’s “Secure Border Initiative.” The first trial of this project has recently been implemented in Arivaca, which is why citizens there have been so opposed to the plan.

“It’s like Big Brother. It will place the whole town under surveillance,” says community activist C Hues. “The government will be able to watch and record every movement we make, 24 hours a day. It will be like living in a prison yard.”

Read the Reuters article here: U.S. Town Opposes “Big Brother.”

For more information on Boeing’s border contracts, read “High Tech Towers on the Border” and “Militarizing the Border” on this site.

Coverage of Kick Boeing to the Curb’s April 4th “Break-Up With Boeing” demonstration appeared in the most recent episode of Chicago Independent Television, a project of Chicago Independent Media Center. The piece features Dave-Leon Czolgosz, who also produced the video. In it, he describes the action organized by our group in addition to his opposition to Boeing, which is particularly interesting considering his father has worked for the corporation for the last 30 years. We thank Dave-Leon and Chicago Independent Television for including our demonstration in their anti-war coverage.

To view the 9 minute segment click here: Episode 27 (part 1)

While exact estimates of Boeing CEO Jim McNerney’s compensation for 2006 differ, the lowest estimate is almost $14 million.  Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune has reported that his compensation was over $20 million last year.

So while McNerney takes home millions of dollars, Boeing has received local and state tax breaks, along with multi-billion dollar contracts to fuel an unjust and unpopular war.   This is a clear example of the kind of corporate abuse of power that is all too common, particularly within the military business.

Major press articles about McNerney’s compensation:

Market Watch
Chicago Business

Here is the text for the flier we are passing out at the May Day immigrants rights march today.

US OUT OF IRAQ!

BOEING OFF THE BORDER!

How are war and immigrant rights connected? One clear answer is through the power of US corporations. The lives of people are being handed over to companies like Boeing and Halliburton. Many people see Boeing as just an airplane manufacturer, but this Chicago-based company is making billions of dollars off of Bush’s War in Iraq and the racist attacks on immigrants.

Bush’s “War on Terror” could more easily be seen as a war on people. In the U.S., this has meant attacks on the rights and freedoms of immigrants and people of various nationalities. Around the world, this has meant invasion, occupation and bombing in cities, towns and villages in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

In September 2006, Boeing received the first part of a multi-billion dollar contract to build a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border. This high-tech fence is part of Homeland Security’s “Secure Border Initiative” that consists of more border police, ground vibration sensors, lasers, satellites and unmanned aircraft. This project funded by Homeland Security is in addition to the $20 billion worth of military contracts Boeing received last year.

It is time to hold Boeing, and companies like them accountable for their part in making war, racism, and mass destruction possible.

Protest AT BOEing Headquarters

today MAY 1, 2007 4:30PM

100 N Riverside Plaza

Earlier this month, Boeing tested their 98 foot tall mobile sensor towers that are an integral part of “SBINet,” which is Homeland Security’s project to use advanced technology to militarize the border.  Boeing was given the initial contract of $2 billion, but the project is likely to cost at least $8 billion, with estimates as high as $30 billion.  (Washington Technology)

These towers are equiped with cameras, radar and wireless communication systems and are part of an intensified assault on immigrants.  The SBINet project also incorporates the use of other military technology, including unmanned aircraft.  Nine of these towers are scheduled to be deployed by May 31st, covering 28 miles of the border in Southwest Arizona.  This is an important step in what is called, “Project 28,” the first implementation of SBINet.

Instead of dealing with the real issues related to immigration, government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security would prefer to spend billions of tax dollars on military technology.  Meanwhile, corporations like Boeing are all too willing to capitalize on hot-button issues and profit off of increased militarization.

To quote Frida Berrigan, “To craft truly effective, humane and ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform, the president will have to do a lot more than show up once in a while. He has to learn that the border is not a war zone, Mexicans are not combatants, and military contractors are not the solution.”

To take action against Boeing for profiting off of Bush’s militarization of the border, come to the picket on May 1st.
For more info:

Boeing Tests Tower

ITPro News

Information Week

Also, to read Boeing’s statement and to see a picture of the tower, visit their website: Boeing

To get involved or to get more information, contact Kick Boeing to the Curb at KickBoeingtotheCurb@gmail.com.

Below is a link to a recent article by Frida Berrigan with Foreign Policy in Focus. The article addresses the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the position Boeing is in to profit extensively from it.

Here is a quote from the article:
“As with so many other pressing issues — from terrorism to oil dependency — the White House is turning to the military industrial complex for a solution. SBI is the plan of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to erect a “virtual fence” of monitors, sensors, unmanned planes, and communications to help border agents catch illegal immigrants crossing the southern border.

In September 2006, DHS awarded initial contracts — worth upwards of $2 billion — for the high-tech surveillance technology along border region to weapons giant Boeing.”

Clearly, Boeing is set to make billions of dollars off of this “virtual fence.” The question is exactly how many billions they will make. According to Berrigan’s article:

“Last November, Richard Skinner, the inspector general of DHS told lawmakers that estimates for this advanced surveillance network are all over the map: from the low end of $2 billion to a high of between $8 billion to $30 billion.”

To read the entire article, click here: Militarizing the Border