Oil is the reason for war. Over the past two months Spanish involvement in the oil world has been predominantly fixed on the clean up operation following the oil tanker crash off the Costa de Morte in Galicia. Lies and untruths followed in the wake of news of the Prestige disaster.

First: when the ship sank, a logical question to ask might have been: Who owned the oil? It seems obvious that if the oil was being transported in such precarious conditions- in a boat without a double hull, under a veil of convenience- it was because whoever owned it wanted to avoid paying regular transport costs. The answer to the question is: a Swiss company called Crown Resources. However, Crown Resources is merely a front for the real owner and 100% holder of all the shares in the company, which turns out to be a Russian company by the name of Alpha Group. The same company is extremely important in Russia and is presided over by a man named Mikhail?.., who for many years employed a worker by the name of Vladimir Putin. Since then, Alpha Group has maintained friendly relations with their ex-employee. Some weeks ago- many months after the Prestige disaster- the Russian government put a significant quantity of its Siberian oil resources up for sale. Alpha Group acquired the reserves without having to increase their bid in the auction, due precisely to an agreement made with the Russian government whereby it obtained the oil for 60% of the issue price. This is a company that is powerful not only in Russia but also in the U.S.

Alpha Group was granted a one million dollar credit line by a bank named Export-Import Bank thanks to the efforts of a representative by the name of Dick Cheney, current U.S. vice president. Upon learning of the loans Alpha Group was assailed by generosity and donated two million dollars to a certain George Bush to finance an election campaign. Alpha Group also supported another election campaign in the past- that of Mr. Boris Yeltsin.

In the end the promised loans were never handed over to Export-Import Bank, because a Russian woman who cut a very powerful figure in the American government at the time, occupying the position of Secretary of State, completely opposed it. Her name was Madelaine Albright and she announced it was unacceptable to grant a loan to a company that was trafficking heroin on a regular basis. This was the company that owned the oil.

But the owner had a business partner in Switzerland who granted him premises in which to register the company Crown Resources. Said friend was none other than Marc Rich, a Spanish national. Around 1979 or 1980, Marc Rich was convicted and sentenced to prison in Spain for his systematic involvement in arms trafficking. He avoided prison with the help of a very influential friend in Madrid called Pío Cabanillas. It turns out that Rich later returned to prison in New York where he again faced charges of arms trafficking. This time he was pardoned by a plea presented to the courts by two important individuals, one of whom was Bill Clinton, the other, Juan Carlos I.

The second question is: who owned the boat? A family of Greek shipowners by the name of Coloutos. The family owns a very old fleet of boats that through lack of reinvestment has become a slowly sinking business. The family has reached a point whereby some family members have had to source work outside the family business, a non-too usual event. One of the family members working outside the family circle is employed in the European Union and currently occupies the position of personal assistant to Loyola de Palacio

The third question is: who owned the boats that went to the aid of the Prestige in order to avoid the catastrophe? This person is actually very well known for having been President of the Association of Spanish Business Enterprises for many years. He goes by the name of Fernando Fernández Tapias, or "Fefé"- a regular figure on the madrileño social scene, he is a business man par excellence, vice president of the Madrid Business Confederation, vice president of Real Madrid and business partner of Mr. Marc Rich in many of his enterprises. The day the boat sank, said gentleman was to be found hunting in the province of Toledo with Mr. Manuel Fraga Iribarne. It should be noted that this hunting trip was organised by the president of El Corte Inglés, who immediately informed the entire media that any mention of his name in connection with the trip would produce severe repercussions, in terms of a withdrawal of all future advertising.

Now I am going to deviate slightly from the topic. In November we were all very much affected by the images of several Argentinean children from the Tucumán province, suffering from malnutrition and on the point of death from starvation. Some of these kids died. At Christmas I had the opportunity to speak to an Argentinean journalist who went on to tell me that these children were not actually the first to die from hunger in Argentina. Rather, the same had happened in the province of Neuquén in 1996. In said province a significant proportion of the wealth is generated by oil exploitation activities. Recently an Argentinean company called Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, which operates a monopoly in the Argentina oil industry, merged with the company REPSOL. Since then it operates by the name of REPSOL-YPF. Around the time of the merger REPSOL decided to make half the YPF workforce redundant without compensation, consequently leaving the population in a precarious famine situation. The current president of REPSOL Alfonso Cortina is the son of Francoist minister Pedro Cortina, and brother to Alberto Cortina, who was another member of the hunting party in Toledo, together with Fraga, Fernández Tapias, and event organiser, el Corte Inglés.

The fourth point relates to the government?s announcement of an expert secretary of State responsible for resolving the Prestige disaster. The named secretary is a person called Rodolfo Martín Villa. Villa and I were both students around the same time. The only difference that separated us was that he was president of the Spanish Students? Union. In theory this union represented all the Spanish universities but in practice it was a union composed of Francoists. His position helped him to forge a political career later on, which led to him becoming Civil Governor of Barcelona among other things. In 1972, while Villa was still employed as Civil Governor, some friends and I decided to create a residents association in our neighbourhood called "la Izquierda del Ensanche" or ?the Eixample Left?. (...). Our association failed to receive recognition in the Statutes, based on Villa?s decision: "its not a question of statutes, but your name, you are called LEFT, it makes no difference whether it is Eixample, it?s still the LEFT ". And with this he denied our association authorisation. We launched an appeal hoping his superior would modify the result. His superior at the time was the Governing Minister (equivalent to a Minister for the Interior), and thus the appeal came to his notice. However we were unlucky with our appeal in the sense that by the time it reached Madrid, Martín Villa had become Minister of the Interior and it was defeated once again. This is the person who has been appointed official figure responsible for resolving the Prestige situation. He is also someone who has led a great financial career. When he was made president of ENDESA he bought the holding company with a monopoly to supply electricity in Chile. He realised that Chile had insufficient electricity production and resolved to construct reservoirs as a means of best resolving the problem. Having made his decision he chose to put his plan into action and thus called up a couple of geologists to indicate where the reservoirs should best be located. They answered by pointing to a map, signalling an area that happened to be territory occupied by a Mapuche Indian reserve and thus registered in the constitution. However Mr. Martín Villa, a man of minor scruples declared, "Mapuches out! I have to locate a reservoir? " and he offered the Mapuches alternative land which had the advantage of lying under cover of snow for nine months a year. Clearly they refused. In response to their protests Martín Villa had the police intervene to throw them off the earmarked land. But he was not the outright winner in the debacle. The Mapuches went on to sue Villa. One day upon arriving at the border of the country to pay a visit to his electricity company, he was advised not to cross the border because if he did he would be detained and taken directly into custody. This is the person charged with finding a solution to the Prestige disaster.

ON THE WAR IN IRAQ

In matters of war the public is always misled. We are never informed of what we should be. Seven or eight months ago a small peasant residing in Moncloa decided to convene a number of journalists and NGO representatives to join him in the act of destroying the last Spanish landmine. It is common knowledge that the same person approved an international treaty prohibiting landmines- a treaty signed by Spain but not by the U.S. Mr. Aznar thought it would be a positive move, electorally-speaking, to show that he supported the treaty and so he gathered together journalists and NGOs and took everyone off to a quarry close to Madrid to perform a symbolic gesture of destroying the last Spanish landmine. A few days later I was to have the opportunity to speak to a representative of a Spanish NGO who had been present at the event. He told me of how he had been talking to some of the military figures attending the event, who informed him of the fact that the symbolic landmine was not actually the last landmine, but far from it. The government was holding on to many more and this act was simply an election ruse. This is an issue of major importance, which I would have preferred to learn via the daily newspapers and their relevant reports. The first thing the newspapers would have told us is the name of the company that destroyed the mines: a company called Fabricaciones Extremeñas. We would also have found out the identity of the company responsible for manufacturing the mines? Another company called Explosivos Alaveses. And the owner of Explosivos Alaveses is none other than the owner of Fabricaciones Extremeñas, a company called Unión Española de Explosivos. The latter is currently owned by a Dutch-financed holding company. However seven or eight years ago, when it was still producing mines it was owned by a Spanish company called Ercros. At the time the head of Ercros was a man called Josep Piqué. The newspapers might also have told us that the president was actually destroying landmines that his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Josep Piqué, had once been involved in manufacturing and that his motivations were not business related (I don?t believe he ever acted out of such motivation) but political, in the sense that he was a front man for one of the most powerful criminals to ever come out of Catalonia: Javier de la Rosa.

Javier de la Rosa?s life story is the stuff of fiction, but I will save myself by recounting only one chapter. It concerns Javier de la Rosa?s father- Antonio de la Rosa- who died 25 years ago. As normally happens, his funeral was celebrated and the relevant obituaries were published. Here normality ends. Curiously enough a couple of years after the death of Antonio a friend bumped into him on the street- a non too common occurrence. The friend went on to ask him what had happened, how could Antonio be alive and walking the streets when he had attended his funeral twenty years earlier? Antonio?s response was "the crime I committed took place so long ago that by now it has expired and I can show my face on the street again?. So with a father as shrewd as this it was inevitable that his son would grow up equally so. His son is none other than the shrewd individual who proposed Josep Piqué as Secretary of State.

The second item I want to explain concerns another character I believe is also worth identifying: Vladimir Putin, a man I have already spoken about. A few months ago there was an incident involving some Chechen terrorists - who invaded Moscow Theatre. The story had a happy ending (well, it remains to be clarified), but in any case, Mr. Putin sent in the army and cleverly left the matter there. There are two things that must be pointed out: 1. when Mr. Putin presented himself for presidential election in Russia, three years ago, predictions showed he had 5% of the vote; which is not quite enough to win the elections. Around the same time, three attacks coincidentally took place on three buildings in Moscow, killing 300 people. Putin, who was Prime Minister at the time came on television to announce that the attacks had been perpetrated by Chechen rebels and that if he succeeded in becoming President he would put a stop to these attacks; he declared he would take a hard line against the Chechens and promised the Muscovites a return to peace. Afterwards predictions shot up spectacularly, giving Putin 55% of the estimated vote, representing a percentage that could in fact win him the elections. Subsequently he was announced President of Russia. Shortly afterwards we learned that the three bombs had not been planted by Chechen terrorists but by the KGB, which Putin had headed up until a few months prior to the elections. This is the first item of information. The second item concerns the fact that the worst repression Chechens have suffered has been instigated not by Putin but by Yeltsin and especially by his Minister for Defence, who systematically bombarded the Chechen capital between 1994 and 1995. On one occasion a very specific form of repression occurred. He accused Chechens of entering a Russian factory site and destroying over a hundred tanks. He announced that the civilian Chechen community would have to pay for their support that was the spur to the terrorists actions. Afterwards we learned that the tanks had not been stolen at all but that the Defence Minister had deregistered them and had later sold them at a personal profit to Milosevic who employed them in the War in Yugoslavia. Yeltsin knew this, just like he knew to ask Putin to pass a new law when he came into power, called the final point law. Said law would release both Yeltsin and his Minister for Defence from any wrongdoing. Putin was only too happy to sign the law, as it would also free him from his biographical history, which was described in detail in Le Monde the day he acceded to the Presidency of Russia. During the period in which Putin was director general of the KGB he formed part of the Board of Directors of a Russian company with registered offices in Germany. The business mission of the company in question was assassinations on demand, which made Putin the head of a company of hired assassins who operated around the globe. This gentleman came to power as President of Russia. With his brave methods he then attempted to solve the Moscow Theatre problem by pumping poisonous chemicals prohibited by all international conventions, into the theatre. Then when everyone started to feel a bit "groggy" he sent in his soldiers to fire bullets into the heads of fifty Chechen terrorists. This, as far as I can see, amounts to assassination. World leaders congratulated Putin and King Juan Carlos sent him a telegram praising the firm way he handled the whole affair.

In 1931 Great Britain ceded independence to Iraq, slicing up what was historically Iraqi territory in the process and awarding only the larger part independence. The smaller part was refused independence for another thirty years (1961). This part is known as Kuwait. Britain?s severing policy in effect meant that Iraqi access to the sea to extract oil was blocked. Since 1931 this matter was a source of historical complaint by subsequent Iraqi governments. However it was not afforded any major importance until 1961 or 1962 when Kuwait regained independence- following this event the then President of Iraq Abdel Kharim, claimed it for Iraq. Nothing more than a claim was ever made. Later Hussein (1990) (let it be clearly understood that Saddam Hussein is an entirely cold blooded criminal and murderer, and I am not attempting to defend or praise him in any way) decided to follow through with the annexing of Kuwait. On the 30th of July 1990 he telephoned the US Ambassador to Baghdad (because despite everything he knew what he was getting into) and he said "Ms. ambassador, I?m thinking of invading Kuwait tomorrow, what do you think?). The lady ambassador?s reply was that that particular day happened to be the 31st of July which was the date she traditionally took her annual holidays, just like Saddam. Hussein interpreted said reply as north American authorisation to invade Kuwait and the following day a war began which saw Kuwait become part of Iraq within two days. But despite the lady ambassador being on holiday, the president back home- a certain George Bush senior- was still working, and the Kuwait affair, among others, was something that particularly concerned him. So when he learned that it had been invaded, he suffered what I like to call "an international rights crisis". He declared that international laws concerning Kuwait had to be respected. He could just as easily have suffered a crisis of international rights in relation to the Sahara region?s occupation by Morocco, or in relation to Palestine, which was occupied by Israel or East Timor, which was occupied by Indonesia but clearly he didn?t. The reason: Kuwait had oil and the others hadn?t. Mr. George Bush senior is an oil man. Before he became president of the US government he was acting vice president, performing presidential functions due to the fact that for many years a Hollywood actor who laughed a lot but understood very little occupied the presidential role. Bush had previously been ambassador to China, and the director general of the CIA (which is no lowly position) and he had also been involved in business- the oil business to be exact. His partner was a man called James Baker who would later go on to become secretary of state and help his friend through the Gulf War. All the above combined to exact a special preoccupation in George W. Bush for oil. It also ran in his family. His father and grandfather (who was in prison in connection) and his great grandfather had all been involved in oil. The Bush family comes 7th in the list of U.S. families with the biggest interest in the oil world. The Bush family is the family that started the Gulf War. Outcome: 270 American soldiers dead, 270,000 Iraqi soldiers and a million children dead as a result of sanctions on medication and basic food for over ten years. Saddam Hussein was never deposed and Kuwait never became a democratic state as was promised. What was intended was achieved: the stationing of North American troops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for over ten years (where they still remain), to keep watch on the oil extracted by these countries. This was the first phase: the attempt made by George Bush senior. He was succeeded by president Bill Clinton, who throughout his mandate as president showed no special interest in the whole oil area; it is common knowledge that he devoted his time to other types of activity and that oil was therefore not a fundamental matter. The years passed and the oil situation remained more or less stable, until Clinton was unable to present himself for election a third time. New elections took place in the U.S. and Al Gore was the victor. But, given that he was not the man the establishment wanted, the votes in Florida were tampered with, the elections were rigged and a man with 138 death sentences behind him as governor of Texas, went on to take up the position of president of the Government. The debate on the legality of issuing a death penalty remains very much alive, while the view on signing one certainly points to it being a crime. This means that firstly we have George Bush acting as illegitimate president of the U.S. and secondly acting as an assassin 138 times. To complete the description we should add that, like his father, he had a special interest in the oil industry. He too had an oil business- not with James Baker who was his father?s partner, but with a partner who turns out to be the brother of a certain Osama Bin Laden. Later on Bin Laden is accused of destroying the twin towers and Bush says this cannot be allowed to happen, that he will bomb the whole area in which these criminals are hiding. The months that have passed since then have shown that for the most part the terrorists were to be found hiding in Florida, California, Salou and- we?ve just been informed- in Gerona. But as Bush couldn?t realistically bomb California or Florida, he decided to bomb Afghanistan and an entire unfortunate population that had nothing to do with the matter. More people have been killed as a result of bombing missions in Afghanistan than died in the September 11^th attacks and Bush has yet to express a single word of remorse. He achieved what he set out to, which was not to find Bin Laden (this was not an objective because had he been found alive, he would have spilled the beans, and things would have been horrendous for Bush). However he did manage to position North American troops in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and ...kistan. Now troops stationed in these locations are keeping a close eye on oil extraction in the Caspian Sea, the second most important oil reserve in Asia. This remains highlighted in a recent photograph of three smiling presidents in front of a pipeline running between friendly Western nations that will transport oil to the west. This was Bush?s intention when he began the war in Afghanistan. It had nothing to do with September 11th.

What is certain is that this pipeline will be manufactured by a North American company by the name of Haly Burton; a company which up until 3 years ago was headed by Dick Cheney, current U.S. vice president. It should also be noted that a while ago we learned of the existence of what comes under the banner of ?American Schools?, in Panama and the U.S. Basically these are schools attended by criminals who have the potential to go on to become coup plotters and who are trained by the North American army in various countries in Latin America. I have learned that the U.S. has just finished building a second such ?American School? in an operating plant in Hungary and that there they are training Asian soldiers who may one day end up supporting dictatorships and coups in their respective countries. And the American School in Hungary reflects the changes that have evolved in the administration over time. Today the school employs only North American instructors, and infrastructure (houses, food, petrol, etc.) has been privatised and outsourced to a North American company by the name of Haly Burton.

The Gulf War represented the first phase of war, Afghanistan the second and now we await the third phase. This matter has yet to be disclosed as a result of the reluctance that Bush seems to have encountered.

In any event, Bush is very much looking forward to starting a third war. What is clear is that his activities have nothing whatsoever to do with peace for the Iraqi people, who are only beginning to emerge from a Saddam-led dictatorship. Nor do they relate to the Afghanis, who were released from the Taliban regime (because if anyone looked at their current situation, he or she would realise that the Afghani people are worse off now than they ever were under the Taliban). What matters is winning the oil, because the U.S. needs oil. Strictly it doesn?t need oil, as it has Texas and other enormous reserves in Alaska but it wants to keep these until the rest of the world?s reserves have been exhausted and it can then supply oil at the price it dictates. At the moment this is what matters. Mexico (cancelled foreign debt) and Venezuela are also relevant (one point: some months ago there was an ephemeral coup d´Etat in Venezuela, which resulted in Carmona coming to power. Carmona was the president of the Association of Venezuelan Business Enterprises and just fifteen days prior to the coup d?Etat he had visited G. Bush senior). The other interest in Latin America lies in Ecuador, a country the U.S. wants to reach by crossing Columbia, with the excuse of a plan to eradicate the cultivation of drugs. The same excuse affords the U.S. a reason for entering Ecuador, checking out Colombia and keeping an eye on Brazil, which is turning into a dangerous country.

That is how the Latin American outlook appears. Now let us move on to another key area with plenty of oil: Saudi Arabia, a country that the U.S. has lately been less inclined to trust. Although appearances reflect a lack of trust, practice reveals that Saudi Arabia continues to be the principal buyer of arms from the U.S. The lack of trust may be explained by the support shown for groups such as Al Qaeda in addition to the question of succession, which is on the brink of becoming very relevant. In 1952, when Saudi Arabia gained independence, Abdel Asís was declared King. The law clearly stipulated that his successor would have to be chosen from among his offspring, a fact that failed to ignite concern, given that he fathered 37 children. This meant that all subsequent Kings were chosen from among a series of brothers. King Fad currently reigns (although whether one can say he actually reigns is not certain, as he is in Marbella where King Juan Carlos visits him regularly) and his successor should be son Abdullah, aged 77. The next youngest is his sultan brother, aged 75. Thus the line of sons has petered out, and now it is necessary to move on to the generation of grandsons. Bearing in mind that each of the 37 sons had an average of 30 children, we are talking in the range of 900 or a thousand grandchildren who are all in a position to make a challenge for their inheritance.

Let?s eliminate the 500 granddaughters who effectively do not count and we are left with 500 grandsons all aspiring to the throne of Arabia. Infighting works to each one?s advantage. Lately two died by killing one another, which is not an unlucky event for those that remain given that it reduces the number of potential candidates. Arabia?s political situation does not appear extremely stable for the future and as a result the U.S. intends to use a pawn: Iraq, the second most important source of oil after Saudi Arabia. However they do not have things all their own way, evidenced by the fact that, as yet they haven?t found a replacement for Saddam (another reason for the war to be postponed). Saddam?s opposition covers three levels: in the north we find the Kurds. The Kurds are problematic due to their links with Turkey. Turkey (one of the U.S.?s friendly nations and a strategically important one at that) has been massacring Kurds for quite a while now. In the northern strip there is no organised opposition as this is the zone over which Saddam had most control and it has since been wiped out. At the very most there are generals that are as cold blooded as Saddam, jealous of his power, and covetous of acceding to the presidency. And in the southern zone there is a majority of Shiites, who would form an alliance with Iran, something else the U.S. wants to avoid. All the above translates as the absence of a replacement.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE WAR

Let?s talk about preparations for the war in general- a topic that relates to many areas.

Firstly it relates to money. Each year we spend a great deal of money making provisions for war. In the last two or three years in particular, global military spending reached $900 billion. As a benchmark let me mention some information released by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation), which we have all heard but which we?d often prefer not to be reminded of: every day one hundred thousand people die as a result of hunger. The FAO says that these people do not die from lack of food, that the world produces enough food but it is produced in regions where it is not needed. In contrast those that need it don?t get it. For this reason an emergency fund was set up to bring food to the people who need it but can?t access it. In the midst of such a frightening situation, rich countries fail to respond to the FAO?s request for $50 billion to eradicate hunger, but it is fully capable of spending eighteen times more than this figure in the arms race. I want to state clearly that the Spanish State is an active participant in the arms race. NATO has accused Spain of concealing arms spending in other ministerial areas. The by now famous combat airplane that crashed in November was constructed in part, in Spain, however at no time was said spending recorded in the accounts of the Ministry of Defence. At the outset it was entered in the accounts for the Ministry of Industry and later when this Ministry was no longer operating, it was recorded in the accounts of the Ministry for Research. Each year we attempt to calculate the real cost of defence spending, which involves taking the Ministry of Defence figure and adding amounts hidden in other ministries. I can tell you that in 2003 Spanish defence expenditure accounted for 7600 million pesetas per day, a figure I can verify to the last peseta. This is the first point: we make provisions for the war through money.

Secondly: we make provisions through people who perform manoeuvres and simulations. There are twenty six million people registered in the armed forces in the world, without taking into account paramilitaries, guerrillas, police etc., I?m counting only military personnel. The UN has estimated the number people required to avoid war and ensure peace. In my opinion we don?t need any but the UN has estimated that the number required is 400,000. Thus I would like to see 25,600,000 people go home, thus leaving the required 400,000, who in time, we will also be in a position to think about sending home. Recently the Spanish State missed an amazing opportunity to limit the number of soldiers by converting to a professional army. How many soldiers have we? Our army is made up of 170,000 individuals, which is clearly out of proportion. If the UN estimates that 400,000 are sufficient for the entire world, then how do we need 170,000? I recently heard some interesting statements from a man that was presented as Head of Recruitment and Personnel for the Armed Forces. He was asked why we needed 170,000 and he answered "firstly it?s a question of status and secondly it?s about safeguarding national sovereignty (which is complete idiocy if you consider that all Aznar does each morning is call Bush to find out what his chores for the day are. If he dares do something he has not been given permission to, like he did the day he got on the boat in the Yemen, he will be told to go home immediately like a good little boy), and to take part in international peace-keeping activities. Spain has been taking part in international peace efforts for over 10 years and throughout this period, 20,000 soldiers have been involved (in actual fact 10,000 were involved on two occasions). So exactly what purpose do the other 150,000 troops serve? In Spain there are 50,000 army officers, who have all trained to become military personnel and of course we have to support them. But honestly, what kind of officer only commands two soldiers? This is where we hit on the reason for keeping 100,000 soldiers: to satisfy the 50,000 officers and to act as peacekeeping troops (20,000). Now see where the figure of 170,000 military personnel comes from, as officially recorded by the government. Troops are involved in other operations besides peacekeeping missions: four years ago during the War in Kosova, the albanian-kosovars escaped persecution from the Serb army and fled to Albania as refugees. Albania is the poorest country in Europe. As a result refugees required international aid, which was swiftly supplied by the Spanish army. They performed one of the more prestigious tasks in the operation in that they were responsible for constructing a refugee camp in the second major town in Albania. I remember seeing a picture on TV of old people being accompanied by soldiers in the refugee camp. This camp housed 5000 people at a cost of 7 billion pesetas.

Machine guns blinding you and bombs exploding your eardrums are the not unlikely consequences of military life for the 500,000 trainees who devote their lives to this labour. In the Spanish state it works perfectly smoothly. With each new course intake, university heads (at least those in Catalonia) protest against the 45% public finance spending on scientific investigation that goes to military investigation. This is a horrific fact. The 45 % accounts for between 220,000 and 250,000 million pesetas per annum. From 1986 until 2002, 90% of this money was spent on a single research project- building the Eurofighter combat aeroplane- a project on which Spain participated and which acts as an example to all of us. The Eurofighter crashed a few months ago.

Four countries collaborated on building the plane: Great Britain (37%), Germany (33%), Italy (17%) and Spain (13%). As such we were the smallest partner and were given responsibility for building the smallest part: the tail and left wing. In fact the plane?s overall stability was called into question- as evidenced in November- bearing in mind Italy was assigned construction of the right wing. Despite this, Spain continues to spend 220,000 million pesetas on military investigation. The fourth element is arms manufacturing. How can we describe the arms industry? It is an industry characterised by a concentration of power: in the U.S. there are three arms companies that between them account for 60% of the supply to the Pentagon. These companies have absurd levels of political influence. At a congress I attended in Paris, the North American speaker explained how he had devoted his life to studying the lives of the thirty or so people in congress and the senate who comprise the defence commission. Of these individuals, all had a double salary without exception. They receive a salary from the senate or congress, in addition to an income from one of the three arms companies in return for supporting arms purchases and approving proposals. So it is no wonder that when the U.S. government decides to bomb a particular location its decision is always backed by at least 30 senators and congressmen, who applaud and praise Bush senior for his actions. The European context is also characterised by a concentration of power (to a lesser extent).

The final topic is the arms trade. This is a North - South business. The arms are manufactured and generate profits for countries in the north, while they are paid for and cause suffering to countries in the south. Hence the not uncommon suspicion that lots of arms pay for lots of drugs and vice versa (though the suspicion is difficult to prove). The second item is non-transparency: this business is far from clear-cut. Both the type of product and its final destination tends to be shrouded in mystery. For example, a combat helicopter is constructed. It is then delivered as a civil helicopter and a couple of months later a delivery of missiles arrives. When the missiles are attached the helicopter becomes a combat weapon. Theoretically the missile is the only item that has been sold as an arm. Sometimes this process is much cruder. I was in Madrid doing some research on Spanish companies? activities when I came across a company that was involved in systematic gun selling. Their sales were presented as sales of DIY tools such as Black & Decker. There is also a lack of transparency when it comes to arms destinations. Obviously the recipients are countries that are at war. However, sellers don?t especially like announcing they are providing support to countries at war, therefore they dissimulate their activities. The most shameful period was that between 1980 and 1988 when the war between Iran and Iraq raged and which culminated in 2 million deaths. The UN issued an embargo forbidding arms from being sent to Iran or Iraq during the war. When the war ended in 1988 the UN looked at whether the embargo had been respected- findings showed it hadn?t. It published 3 lists of charges, which included the countries that had not complied, by:

- sending arms to Iraq
- sending arms to Iran
- sending arms to both simultaneously.

The third list was the longest and featured 37 countries, among which were the U.S., the U.S.S.R., France, England, Italy, Germany, Spain and Sweden, the latter proving somewhat of a surprise. The only thing that set Sweden apart was that they investigated the matter by looking into where sales had gone. Their findings showed that a company that very few people were familiar with had sold arms. However all would have recognised the principle shareholder in said company. This shareholder was in fact a very famous Swedish company called Dinamit Nobel (established by Alfred Nobel who, to try and ease his guilt, created the Nobel peace prize. This meant that Nobel?s descendants were acting in a very contradictory fashion as regards peace efforts). There were no investigations in any of the other countries and in the Spanish case a document written by the government of Jordan came to light explaining that Spain was sending arms there. It is common knowledge that Jordan had neither money nor fighting and that it was purely acting as a smokescreen. The same applied to Syria. These cases only go to show that Spain is an extremely active participant in the global arms trade. The European parliament published a resolution condemning Spain for its policy of selling arms to the third world (despite the Spanish government wanting it to dissimulate) and branding its policy as very aggressive. Spain is not the first, second or third biggest arms seller in the world (it?s more like the 8^th or 9^th) and ahead of Spain in the list are countries like Germany, England, and the U.S., who sell extremely technologically advanced arms. They also sell arms to first world countries. Countries like Spain and China appear further down the list. These are countries that manufacture simple arms that will ultimately go to countries wars there are wars, that is, the third world. Spain has sent arms to (a recorded fact) 85 countries in the third world. I will end with two specific cases:

A couple of years ago, the UN passed a resolution which found the then president of Indonesia, general Suharto, guilty of genocide for massacring 300,000 people in East Timor. I had the chance to speak with the Spanish ambassador at the UN and he explained how he had suffered by not being able to take an active part in condemning Suharto. Instead he had to abstain from the vote. Hours beforehand he had received a call from the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Madrid, who was a PSOE party member at the time, who ordered him to abstain. When he asked why, he was told that "construcciones aeronáuticas"- the main armament construction company in Spain- had a subsidiary in Jakarta and the government did not want the ambassador to jeopardize their business. Moving swiftly on to the PP, a year ago, the head of the Kurdistan rebels was captured in Turkey by the Israeli MOSAD and was sentenced to death. However he was not executed. A funny coincidence is that the day the legal case that would sentence him to death began, Rodrigo Rato and Phillip de Bourbon landed in Turkey accompanied by 25 Spanish arms industrialists to sell the Turkish government all the arms it wanted to continue massacring the Kurdish population. This is how Spain is taking part in the war.