The St. Petersburg based activist group St. Pete for Peace has announced they will be leading a protest against weapons manufacturer General Dynamics this Wednesday afternoon for selling military equipment to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The BBC reports that in May 2008, General Dynamics inked a $165 million contract to equip the Libyan army's elite second brigade with sophisticated communications systems. That second brigade has been led by Qaddafi's son Khamis.
However, General Dynamics is hardly the only U.S. or British company that began doing business with the country after George W. Bush dropped sanctions against Libya in 2004, after Gaddafi announced that he intended to give up his WMD and expressed an eagerness to join in on the war on terror.
The Huffington Post has reported that some of the biggest oil producers and services – including BP, ExxonMobil, Hailburton, Chevron – along with defense corporations Raytheon and Northrop Grunman, came together to form the US-Libya Business Association in 2005.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.