Caterpillar.com

http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=37408&x=7

For more than 80 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making progress possible and driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2006 sales and revenues of $41.517 billion, Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and a wide and growing offering of related services

VICTORVILLE, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) sponsored robotic vehicle of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was awarded first place at the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. The "Urban Challenge" featured autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections and avoiding obstacles. The vehicles had six hours to complete the 60-mile course. The challenge is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Jean Ziegler, an expert on the right to food in the Geneva offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote Caterpillar that Israel used the bulldozers to raze homes and destroy crops, preventing the Palestinians from obtaining adequate food supplies and aggravating their "already precarious living conditions."

Caterpillar's actions "might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights, including the right to food," Ziegler wrote Caterpillar Chief Executive James Owens.

A copy of his May 28 letter was obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

Ziegler accused Caterpillar of supplying the Israeli military with armored bulldozers, but Caterpillar, which is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, said the bulldozers were standard-issue equipment that later may have been modified.

Israel used the bulldozers "to destroy agricultural farms, greenhouses, ancient olive groves and agricultural fields planted with crops, as well as numerous Palestinian homes and sometimes human lives, including that of the American peace activist, Rachel Corrie," Ziegler said.

Rachel Corrie, 23, has become a hero of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in the occupied territories.

A member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, she died last year in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza after being hit by a concrete slab that slid down a mound of earth.

The Israeli army said the bulldozer driver never saw her.

  Related Stories

Rachel Corrie Memorial Website

 

4/3/03: The Fog of War: Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel -- Alison Weir, Counterpunch

3/25/03: The Revolution of Rachel Corrie’s Memory -- Brian Wood

3/23/03: Gazan branch of Union of Health Work Committees to name new cultural center after Rachel Corrie -- Dr. Mona Al-Farra, Union of Health Work Committees-Gaza, Electronic Intifada

3/21/03: The Moments Before Rachel Corrie's Murder -- Joseph Smith in Rafah, Occupied Palestine

3/18/03: Memorials For Rachel Corrie in Rafah, Palestine and Olympia, Washington

3/18/03: Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel Corrie to her family on February 7, 2003.

3/18/03: Rest in Peace, Rachel Corrie -- Ramzy Baroud, CounterPunch

3/18/03: A War Without Balance: Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes -- Steve Niva, CounterPunch

3/18/03: The dead American -- Geov Parrish, workingforchange.com

3/17/03 International Solidarity Movement
Statement of the Murder of Rachel Corrie

3/17/03: The closest eye witness account on the murder of Rachel Corrie

3/16/03: Photo story:  Israeli military bulldozer driver murders American peace activist in Gaza, Palestine -- Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada

3/16/03: Evergreen Student Activist Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza -- Seattle IndyMedia

3/16/03: AUDIO  Interview with UK Activist in Gaza that Witnessed US Activist Rachel Corey's Murder by the Israeli Military -- Italy IndyMedia

3/16/03: American Woman Peace Activist Killed by Israeli Army -- Ibrahim Barzak, AP

3/16/03: Israeli Military Kills US Activist and IDF says it was 'regrettable accident' -- Arnon Regular, Haaretz

3/16/03: US Activist Rachel Corrie's Final Correspondence before she was killed by the Israeli Military 

3/16/03: ACTION  Send Letters to Congress Demanding US Condemn Israel and Investigate Israel's Illegal Occupation of Palestine
 
Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie,
maybe others will have heard nothing of it.  Regardless, I was 10 metres
away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went.
 
We'd been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the 2 bulldozers for about
2 hours when 1 of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with
demolition.  Rachel knelt down in its way.  She was 10-20 metres in front of
the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in
it's view.  They were in Radio contact with a tank that had a profile view
of the situation.  There is no way she could not have been seen by them in
their elevated cabin.  They knew where she was, there is no doubt.
 
The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it
went.  She knelt there, she did not move.  The bulldozer reached her and she
began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth.  She appeared to be
looking into the cockpit.  The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she
slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went. Her faced showed she
was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed.  All
the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the
crew about Rachel's presence.  We were in clear view as Rachel had been,
they continued.  They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath
the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit.  They
waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing.  They reversed with the
blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time.  Every second
I believed they would stop but they never did.
 
I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood
from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek.  She was showing signs of
brain hemorrhaging.  She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of
massive internal injuries.  She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person,
immensely brave and committed.  She is gone and I cannot believe it.

In another e-mail, Rachel wrote, "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my co-workers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not what they are asking for now. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me."

LIEBHERR> CATTERPILLER ALL HAIL THE FUHRER

Figures, just like the Rockefellers, Carnegie is also indicted with creating  the corrupt big lobbiest and corporate greed.  so be it.

If Americans want these people to be our leaders, then let them lead us into the NORTH AMERICAN UNION and quit your DAMN WHINING YOU CRY BABY'S.

YOU PUT THESE PEOPLE IN CHARGE, THEN WHEN THEY DO AS THEY TELL YOU THEY WILL DO, YOU AMERICANS, WHINE LIKE LITTLE P-SSIES.

WAAA

"'Caterpillar's actions "might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights, including the right to food," Ziegler wrote Caterpillar Chief Executive James Owens."'

Hey Americans, DDUUHHHH DO YA THINK?  STUPID AMERICANS AND THE GREEDY PEOPLE THEY ELECT TO LEAD THEM TO THE SLAUGHTER.

You get what you deserve Jackballs.

>>1
uh, what?

Its going to be something special to see how Big Corporations are going to control the elections.
 
I am actually interested to see how they actually "IGNORE THE US MILITARY AND THE MIDDLE CLASS VOTERS".
 
Sean Hannity, I have always been a big fan of yours and Fox News, but I am tired of you not give equal time to Ron Paul.
You know, Ron Paul, the man who actually BROKE ALL REPUBLICAN FUNDING RECORDS ON THE BACK OF  THE US MILITARY AND HARDWORKING AMERICANS.
 
All others are supported by BIG CORPORATIONS, ETC, AS YOU KNOW!!...
We all know that when Paul won the Fox News Poll, you laughed and said the Poll was silly.
 
For the People, By the People, Sean.