Raytheon Campaign calls for Whistleblowers

PEACE ADVOCATE JANUARY 2022

By Paul Shannon and Brian Garvey

On Thursday January the 13th members of the Raytheon Antiwar Campaign joined with local activists in Andover Massachusetts to call for employees at the Missiles & Defense facility to step forward and become whistleblowers. It was the second time in the past month that the campaign stood in solidarity with area activists. The Veterans for Peace and the Merrimack Valley People for Peace hold a weekly vigil every Thursday to raise awareness and protest Raytheon’s role in driving conflicts and profiting from war.

Carrying signs with messages like “Raytheon: Good People, Bad Products” the campaign made a special plea to any employee who has access to internal company deliberations which, if revealed, would undermine the company’s ability to continue its involvement in war crimes in Yemen. The timing of the demonstration coincides with increased attention from the Boston Globe, which has published several articles on Raytheon’s political influence in recent weeks focusing on their donations to election-deniers, their influence over the ever-increasing military budget, and their role in developing new, dangerous hypersonic missiles.

As the mainstream media begins to pay closer attention to the military-industrial complex in our own backyard, whistleblowers are beginning to come forward.

Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies have been blockading and bombing the nation of Yemen for almost 7 years. The Saudi Royal Air Force uses Raytheon bombs and missiles to enforce the blockade that is starving Yemen. The war induced famine has turned Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Estimates from the United Nations World Food Program warn that due to conditions created by the war a Yemeni child may be dying every 75 seconds.

Whistleblowers have a long history of making a difference by sharing their truth. If you have information that could shed more light on Raytheon’s role in Yemen you can go to http://whistlebloweraid.org/contact for help or contact us at yementruth@protonmail.com