Wit's History

WIT formed in response to the looming war in Iraq and our shared feeling that living in the nation that produces and possesses the most WMD in the world makes us less not more secure. On the first day of "shock and awe," the Santa Cruz Police Department recognized our increased vulnerability to terrorist attack here in Santa Cruz County ("Law Officers Say They Are Ready for Peace or War" Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 20, 2003), naming Lockheed Martin as a likely target for terrorism. Soon after, our newly formed WIT requested that Lockheed Martin disclose what it was manufacturing at its Bonny Doon site. Both that request and a second one were ignored. As the Bush administration was continuing to use WMD as the pretext for a "pre-emptive" war on Iraq, WIT held a press conference on April 11 at the Santa Cruz County Government Building to release information about the WMD that Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors manufacture and sell to the U.S military and to other nations and individuals. Afterwards, about 60 residents and self-appointed inspectors marched to the Lockheed Martin gate in Bonny Doon to demand answers to our questions. We were denied entry. We installed a placard on the fence that surrounds the site indicating noncompliance with an attempted inspection.

WIT is working with our County Supervisor, Mardi Wormhoudt, our State House Representative, Anna Eshoo, and our County Office of Environmental Health to answer mounting questions regarding the practices of Lockheed Martin in Bonny Doon. WIT works in solidarity with Community Concerned About Lockheed Martin (CCALM) which is gathering information about toxic and hazardous materials trucked in and out of Lockheed Martin and used and stored on site in Bonny Doon.

Lockheed Martin History

Why Do We Care About Lockheed Martin?

Lockheed Martin is operating right here in Santa Cruz County at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company, Bonny Doon.

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest and wealthiest weapons maker and arms merchant. It received:

• $30 billion dollars in government contracts in fiscal year 2000-2001.
• $283+ million in fiscal year 2002 to provide Trident Missile system support and technical engineering services. The Trident II D-5 missile is a nuclear tipped first strike weapon carried on the18 Trident subs that roam the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Missiles launched from one Trident sub could destroy a continent the size of Russia.
• $200 billion (post 9/11) to build 3000 F-35 joint strike fighter planes by 2023
• $200+ million per each F22 and F16 fighter jet that it builds for the U.S and other governments.

Lockheed Martin continuously produces weapons of mass destruction that violate international law:

• Anti-personnel mines-condemned by international human rights law-are inherently indiscriminate, claiming more than 26,000 victims every year. The vast majority of these victims are civilians, often children, harmed or killed after the cessation of military conflict. Lockheed has refused to join the international consensus to not produce this weapon of mass destruction.
• AUP-3(M) Depleted Uranium systems. The U.S. is using depleted uranium shells in the war against Iraq, in violation of a UN resolution that classifies these munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Depleted uranium is cited as the most likely cause of the six to ten-fold increase in cancer in southern Iraq after the Gulf war of 1991.

Lockheed Martin is a dangerous neighbor:

• In 1986 the California Health Services Dept. sued Lockheed for illegal storage and treatment of hazardous wastes at its Sunnyvale plant. While Lockheed agreed to pay $1.3 million, it has since not cooperated with inspectors and medical doctors to investigate possible toxic contamination.
• In 1991 when selling surplus land in Burbank, CA, Lockheed spent an estimated $200 million to "cleanse" contaminated soil but recovered most of the cost from the Defense Dept. at taxpayers' expense.
• Between 1984 and 2000, workers at Lockheed Martin's enriched uranium plant in Paducah, Kentucky suffered extreme exposure to uranium and plutonium. They were told that uranium was non-hazardous; they were not told that some of the material they handled was contaminated and highly dangerous plutonium.
• In November 2002 the Los Angeles Times reported that a former Lockheed plant is the likely cause of per chlorate contamination (a toxic component of rocket fuel) of water wells in San Bernadino County. Lockheed Martin is trying to persuade the state and EPA to set lower standards for per chlorate in drinking water so it can save millions of dollars in clean-up costs.
• Lockheed has caused significant toxic contamination in Silicon Valley and elsewhere and has been sued by workers for exposing them to toxics in irresponsible ways. In Palo Alto Lockheed has a toxic leach site.
• Prior to the Lockheed merger with Martin Marietta, the company covered up the fact that it shipped radioactive waste to incinerators not permitted to accept radioactive waste.
• Currently, Lockheed Martin is disposing of its used rocket engines in Russia by a process so toxic it is outlawed in the U.S.