{"id":997379,"date":"2023-02-18T14:15:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T14:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion\/raytheon-protest"},"modified":"2023-02-18T14:15:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T14:15:48","slug":"our-freedoms-shrink-as-our-military-expands-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/02\/18\/our-freedoms-shrink-as-our-military-expands-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Freedoms Shrink as Our Military Expands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe Merchants of Death even own our sidewalks. That\u2019s what we were told when we arrived at Raytheon Technologies<\/a> in Arlington, Virginia, on Valentine\u2019s Day, February 14th, to issue a \u201cContempt Citation\u201d for Raytheon\u2019s failure to comply with a subpoena<\/a> issued last November by the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal<\/a>, a People\u2019s Tribunal scheduled for November of 2023.\n<\/p>\n \n\tRaytheon knew we were coming. The police were waiting and would not permit us to enter the enormous building even though other businesses and a public restaurant resided inside. \u201cYou\u2019re not allowed in,\u201d the police said. \u201cThe owner of the building said no to you.\u201d Others were free to enter for lunch or to conduct business. The officers were polite. Respectful. \u201cWe are only doing our job,\u201d they said, seeming more like a hired corporate police force than a public police force.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd you cannot remain on the sidewalk,\u201d the police said. We responded that it was a public sidewalk. \u201cNot anymore,\u201d the police said. \u201cRaytheon bought the sidewalk. And the sidewalk across the street.\u201d When asked how a private corporation can buy a public sidewalk, the officers shrugged not knowing the answer. \u201cYou can move down there,\u201d they said, pointing to a corner across the busy street.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe asked to see a deed proving this bizarre acquisition of public property. Lo and behold, the police dutifully produced a deed stamped by the recorder of deeds office indicating Raytheon did in fact own the sidewalk all the way to the street.\n<\/p>\n \n\tUsing U.S. tax dollars, including the dollars of those of us who stood there, Raytheon bought up the very freedom they claim they\u2019re building weapons to defend. Freedom of speech and assembly is drastically reduced when corporations as powerful as Raytheon control the halls of Congress, the Pentagon, the White House, and our corporate media.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn fact, in the belly of the beast of the Raytheon building was the corporate media itself, an ABC television affiliate which refused to talk to us last November. When we had approached an ABC spokesman outside, they refused to admit they worked for ABC despite wearing ABC attire. From corporate wars to corporate police to corporate media, all in one monstrous, taxpayer-funded building.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2023, approximately $858 billion<\/a> will be taken from the paychecks of US citizens to help squelch our most fundamental Constitutional rights of privacy and assembly.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAcross the street from Raytheon, we unfurled our banners and carried our signs. We held Raytheon in contempt for refusing to comply to a subpoena issued by the people of the world. We noted their shame of their own corporate behavior such that they purchased police and public sidewalks to keep public scrutiny away.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA young woman approached, noticing our signs. She was an Afghan refugee who had been there during the invasion. She and her family had suffered immensely from the US bombing. Her father barely made it out alive. She was crying as she spoke. Off to the side, a man in a suit carefully took pictures of each of us. We were photographed everywhere we went this Valentine\u2019s Day.\n<\/p>\n \n\tTo evidence Raytheon\u2019s complicity in war crimes, we read the names of the 34 victims\u201426 of them schoolboys\u2014killed in the horrific 2018 bombing of a school bus in Yemen. The bomb, a 500-pound Paveway<\/a> laser-guided bomb was made by Lockheed Martin while Raytheon was responsible for the infrared system which targeted the bus.\n<\/p>\n