[R-G] Victory for the Raytheon 9

[Anthony Fenton]

Victory for the Raytheon 9  	
David Morrison, 8 July 2008
http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/5100/8/

ImageOn 11 June 2008, 6 people, who had occupied the offices of  
Raytheon in Derry and destroyed computers, were acquitted of criminal  
damage by a Belfast jury.  Raytheon is a huge US arms manufacturer,  
with sales of $20 billion in 2006 and over 70,000 employees  
worldwide.  It makes Patriot, Tomahawk, Cruise and Sidewinder  
missiles, and much more besides.

The action which gave rise to the criminal charges took place on 9  
August 2006 during Israel’s war on Lebanon, in which well over 1,000  
Lebanese civilians were killed by Israeli bombing and shelling.  On 30  
July 2006, an Israeli aircraft targeted a residential building in Qana  
in southern Lebanon with a Raytheon-supplied “bunker buster” bomb.  As  
a result, 28 civilians, from two extended families, the Hashems and  
the Shaloubs, were killed.  The dead included 14 children.

This event led to 9 members of the Derry Anti War Coalition occupying  
Raytheon’s offices in Derry ten days later.  They remained there until  
forcibly removed by police in riot gear about 8 hours later.

Substantial damage was done to Raytheon property:

“Documents found on the premises were thrown from the windows to  
supporters outside.  After our supporters were moved away by the  
police, computers, already damaged, were hurled out.  Our main target  
was the mainframe: we knew that putting this out of action would  
disrupt Raytheon’s ordering system and thus hamper production,  
including production of missiles.  The mainframe was decommissioned  
with a fire-extinguisher.”

This account is taken from The Raytheon 9: Resisting war crimes is not  
a crime, an excellent pamphlet about the affair by Eamonn McCann, who  
took part in the occupation.

The action eventually led to 6 of the participants appearing before a  
judge and jury in Belfast in May 2008, charged with criminal damage  
and affray.  On 4 June 2008, after the prosecution had put its case,  
the judge expressed the opinion that there was no case to answer on  
either charge.  However, the prosecution appealed to a higher court  
and won with respect to the criminal damage charge, which then had to  
be put the jury.  A few days later, the jury found all the accused not  
guilty on the criminal damage charge.  The charge of affray was  
dismissed by the judge without it being put to the jury.

The trial went largely unreported in the local Northern Ireland media,  
and in the Dublin and London media.  The same is true of the verdict,  
even though it has sensational implications.  The defence argued that  
the accused had undertaken their action in order to prevent war crimes  
being perpetrated in Lebanon by Israel using Raytheon-supplied  
weapons.  In the words of Eamonn McCann in a statement afterwards, by  
finding the accused not guilty:

“The jury has accepted that we were reasonable in our belief that: the  
Israel Defence Forces were guilty of war crimes in Lebanon in the  
summer of 2006; that the Raytheon company, including its facility in  
Derry, was aiding and abetting the commission of these crimes; and  
that the action we took was intended to have, and did have, the effect  
of hampering or delaying the commission of war crimes.” [1]

In other words, in the opinion of the jury, having heard the evidence,  
it was reasonable of the defendants to believe that Raytheon was  
engaged in criminal activity by supplying Israel with armaments and  
that they were justified in perpetrating criminal damage on Raytheon  
property in order to hamper this criminal activity.  In his statement,  
Eamonn McCann called

“on the office of the Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution  
Service, in light of this verdict, to institute an investigation into  
the activities of Raytheon at its various plants across the UK, with a  
view to determining whether Raytheon is, as we say it is, a criminal  
enterprise.”

Gagging order
The Raytheon trial would normally have taken place in Derry, where the  
offences alleged were committed.  However, on 14 September 2007, the  
prosecution requested a change of venue, on the grounds that protests  
outside the court might intimidate jurors, and coverage in the local  
media might prejudice them.

At this time, the presiding judge, the Derry recorder, Corinne  
Philpott, banned publicity about the case, but in such general terms  
that journalists present didn’t know what they were allowed to report  
and what was banned.  There was no reporting of the application for a  
change of venue.  On 10 December 2007, Judge Philpott imposed a  
blanket ban on reporting in Northern Ireland of any matter relating to  
the trial, including anything at all relating to Raytheon.  The  
objective seems to have been to prevent publicity in Northern Ireland  
about Raytheon’s arms business, which might make a jury incline to the  
view that damaging its computers was a good idea.

There was no attempt by mainstream media organisations in Northern  
Ireland or elsewhere to have this extraordinary gagging order lifted  
or modified, despite the fact that their work was being hampered by  
the ban.  For example, the Village magazine reported on 29 February  
2008:

“Suzanne Breen (formerly of Village, now writing for the Sunday  
Tribune) has been referred to the Attorney General for possible  
contempt in an article published on 18 November in the Sunday Tribune.  
She had mentioned possible witnesses from the USA and Lebanon, and  
that, if convicted, defendants could face lengthy jail sentences.

“Also RTE has ordered Belfast independent production company Below the  
Radar to delete sections on Raytheon from a film about Ireland and the  
arms trade transmitted on 14 January. The effect of the ban is that  
all discussion of Raytheon’s presence in Derry has been shut down.” [2]

However, a legal challenge to the order was launched by Shane O’Curry  
of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign.  As a result, the Belfast  
recorder, Judge Burgess, modified the order in late February 2008 to  
limit the ban to the usual one on pre-trial reporting of material  
directly relevant to the trial.  It could then be reported for the  
first time that the Derry recorder had acceded to the prosecution’s  
request to move the trial from Derry to Belfast.

Notes

[1]  www.ukwatch.net/article/raytheon9_acquitted
[2] www.village.ie/Ireland/Northern_Ireland/Media_gag_over_Derry_arms_factory_occupation/