Pregnant activist crashes glitzy arms industry dinner, urges guests ‘consider career change’

Screenshot from youtube.com/user/wwwcaatorguk

Published time: February 05, 2015 18:32
Edited time: February 05, 2015 21:50

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A pregnant political activist entered a glitzy arms industry dinner in Westminster, commandeered a microphone and warned assembled arms dealers and MPs that making profit “causing death and destruction around the world” is unacceptable.
After making her way to a microphone undetected, Anne Marie O'Reilly expressed concern her unborn child would face a world where arms dealers profit from human suffering and bloodshed.
The anti-arms activist’s unexpected intervention left the crowd somewhat stunned.
While O'Reilly's unassuming manner initially drew a warm reception, her criticism of the UK establishment’s links to the arms trade was followed by a long and awkward silence.
Before being escorted off stage, O'Reilly suggested arms dealers in the audience should reconsider their careers.

The UK arms industry, which profits from brokering arms deals with questionable regimes and conflict-ridden states worldwide, is backed and subsidized by the British government.
Tuesday’s annual dinner, which cost attendees £246 per head, was hosted by ADS – a trade body for British Aerospace, and other defense, security and space companies. The group represents a collective of the world’s 50 largest arms firms.
The opulent soiree was attended by Britain’s Business Secretary Vince Cable, the representatives of 100 arms firms across the globe, over 40 British MPs, 30 civil servants, and 30 Ministry of Defence (MoD) personnel.
Andrew Smith, of UK think tank Campaign Against The Arms Trade (CAAT), said the event was a hotbed of lobbying.
“The arms companies don't invite politicians because they want to be nice, it is because it's good for business,” he told RT.
“These arms companies couldn't sell their wares without the active support and promotion that comes from the UK government.”

Image from baesystems.com

CAAT was provided with a list of all MPs who attended the lavish dinner. The document also detailed their seating arrangements.
Tobius Elwood MP, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister, was seated at Cobham PLC’s table. The firm is one of the biggest arms companies in the world, and is headquartered in Dorset. Cobham has applied for arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UAE and Turkey, according to CAAT.
Margaret Curran MP, shadow secretary of state for Scotland, was seated at the table of US-headquartered arms manufacturer Raytheon.
Raytheon makes the targeting system for the Reaper drone deployed by the CIA and other states to conduct strikes across the globe.The firm has also been linked to manufacturing components for bombs deployed in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, who spoke at the event, sat at the top table beside Shadow Secretary for Defence Vernon Coaker and a group of ADS executives.
CAAT’s Andrew Smith said Cable’s decision to speak at the dinner was telling.
“The fact that a group like ADS is being addressed by Vince Cable MP, the Secretary of State for Business, is a sign of how powerful they are,” he argued.
Also present at the extravagant event were controversial arms firms Thales, BAE Systems and MBDA.
Thales is the eleventh largest arms firm in the world, and has sold military wares to some of the most oppressive regimes across the globe, according to CAAT.
BAE Systems, which had three MPs at its table, is Europe’s largest arms firm, and has also supplied multiple repressive governments. Among the regimes BAE Systems sells to are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Mubarak's Egypt.
MBDA is a missile company partially owned by BAE. It sold military wares to Muammar Gadaffi’s government in 2007, and its military hardware was deployed by Britain and France in the 2011 bombing of Libya. The company’s missiles are also thought to have been supplied to rebel groups in Libya, CAAT says.
Probed on the impact of Britain’s government-backed arms trade, Smith said the UK facilitates rampant human rights abuses abroad.
“When the UK sells weapons to regimes like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, it doesn't just provide military support, it also provides political support and a UK endorsement for the human rights abuses that are taking place,” he said.
Smith said it is “outrageous the government actively supports and promotes this deadly trade.”
“The fact that arms dealers were swilling champagne with over 40 MPs is a disgrace and shows the extent of the arms trade's connections and political lobbying,” he added.
READ MORE: ‘I won’t be used to peddle UK arms in Middle East’ – Prince Charles
On Tuesday, it emerged the Prince of Wales allegedly wants to end his role as a promoter of British arms in Gulf States.
The revelation was unveiled by an unauthorized biography documenting Prince Charles’ life, which was published on Thursday.

IRS: Americans should expect delays in tax refunds this year

Published time: December 19, 2014

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen.(Reuters / Joe Raedle)

Budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service will likely delay tax refunds, hinder taxpayers services, and hamper enforcement efforts, according to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
Koskinen said during a press conference before the beginning of tax-filing season that about half of people who call the IRS for assistance with their taxes will not be able to reach an employee, based on staffing levels. Fewer agents will mean slower auditing, leading to later refunds than in past years.
"Everybody's return will get processed," Koskinen said, according to AP. "But people have gotten very used to being able to file their return and quickly getting a refund. This year we may not have the resources, the people to provide refunds as quickly as we have in the past."
 
READ MORE: IRS head warns of 'miserable' 2015 tax-filing season
 
The IRS says that in recent years it has been able to offer tax refunds within three weeks after electronic filing. Refunds averaged about $2,800 this year.
Yet budget cuts will prolong that period, Kosinen said, as the IRS has instituted a hiring freeze and eliminated most overtime.
The IRS budget was cut by $346 million for the fiscal year that ends in September 2015. The $10.9 billion budget is $1.2 billion less than the agency was allotted in 2010, according to AP.
Conservatives in Congress have worked to cut IRS funding in order to weaken implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Thanks to the law, taxpayers will have to report on their tax returns whether or not they have health insurance and if they receive tax credits to help pay insurance premiums.
Yet Kosinen said political games with the IRS funding won’t have the intended effect, as the agency must enforce the law meaning that other areas, like taxpayer services and enforcement, will suffer.
"In some ways, these budget cuts are really a tax cut for tax cheats," Koskinen said.
"Because to the extent we have fewer people to audit and enforce the tax code, that means some people cutting corners on their taxes or not complying are going to get away with it, and that is a decision that Congress has made."

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, warned that funding cuts will mean "correspondence will continue to pile up and taxpayers will wait longer and longer for a response."
"Starving the IRS hurts more than just the agency's workforce, it hurts all taxpayers," Kelley said.
Koskinen had previously expressed dismay over what awaits taxpayers and the IRS next year.
The 2015 tax filing season “will be one of the most complicated filing seasons we’ve ever had,” Koskinen cautioned last month at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants National Tax Conference in Washington, DC. “All we can do is try to maximize our services as well as we can; as well as we can is still going to be miserable. You really do get what you pay for.”
The tax-filing season will begin on time next month, Koskinen said, though the IRS has yet to set an exact date based on last-minute tax legislation passed by Congress this month.

Global Partners Pledge $240 Million to Fight Neglected Tropical Diseases (Another that makes me go hummmm)

Uniting to Combat NTDs, a partnership of foundations, global health organizations, and pharmaceutical companies, has announced commitments totaling $240 million to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that disproportionately affect the world's most vulnerable populations.
A new commitment of $120 million by a group of the partners of will be used to combat soil-transmitted helminths (STH), intestinal worms that are among the most common cause of infections in poor children. The funding includes commitments of $50 million from the Children's Investment Fund Foundation to provide technical assistance to national deworming programs; $50 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore the feasibility of interrupting transmission and mitigating the risks of drug resistance; $8 million over five years from the Buenos Aires-based nonprofit Mundo Sano to test strategies for deworming and develop combination treatments; and $4.5 million from Vitamin Angels to scale deworming with Vitamin A distributions and  implementation support.
In addition, Dubai Cares will design programs that integrate nutrition, deworming, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions in schools; WaterAid will deliver WASH programs in NTD-endemic areas; and the World Food Programme will work to ensure deworming interventions are provided as part of school feeding programs.
The World Bank also announced that it is committing $120 million from the International Development Association, its fund for the poorest countries, to support NTD control and elimination programs across Africa, including support for school-based deworming programs.
Spearheaded by the Gates Foundation and launched two years ago to support efforts to meet the World Health Organization's control, elimination, and eradication targets for ten specific NTDs by 2020, the Uniting to Combat NTDs effort also includes the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UK Department for International Development, more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, and a number of nongovernmental organizations. In conjunction with the announcement of the new commitments, the partnership released a report highlighting the progress made over the past two years.
"We're taking the 'neglect' out of neglected tropical diseases, thanks to the commitment of partners from across the public and private sectors," said Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates. "Pharmaceutical companies are providing drugs free of charge, endemic countries are scaling up integrated screen-and-treat programs for multiple diseases, and donors are delivering essential funding. If we stay focused, we can reach the London Declaration's 2020 goals and help provide millions with access to health."

"Global Partners Are Taking the 'Neglect' Out of 'Neglected Tropical Diseases'." Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases Press Release 04/02/2014.