Open letter 1: To Professor Snowden

Open letter 1: To Professor Snowden, when he was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (2009–10) 

Dear Professor Snowden 

I am just writing, as an individual, to say I think it very disturbing that an organisation like the IET should find Mr Olver a suitable person to talk about ‘Ethical leadership’. 

Dick Olver is the Chairman of BAE Systems, one of the world’s largest arms firms. In the last few years BAE Systems has got rid of all its non-military activities – the more conflict there is in the world the better the bottom line. Mr Olver likes to talk about ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ but the equipment his firm produces is for killing people. 

Read the whole letter in archives.

Will the next IET defence lecture relate to true defence, not slaughter?

The writer of the letter to Professor Snowden attended the 2010 defence lecture on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles which “provided a rare opportunity to hear Air Commodore Tom Cross, the senior MOD proponent of a significant defence capability”. 

Like the related article in the IET’s magazine, only technical issues were raised; no mention was made of the immorality of these barbaric civilian-killing drones. See: Legal action taken on behalf of civilian victims of CIA drone attacks and the Drone Campaign Network.