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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (15774)	7/26/2007 4:53:54 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 22250

Guess who's gonna cash in on the outbreak of Hispanic terrorism and the ongoing Israelization of the US: Unmanned Crafts Watch Battlefield, Border BY KEVIN HARLIN INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 4/3/2007 [...] The same small pilotless aircraft that watch over distant battlefields can help secure borders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security thinks so, anyway. So does Elbit Systems. (ESLT) The Israeli defense contractor supplies electronics found in warplanes, helicopters and tanks. But with terrorism threats and border control worries, the company sees civilian police and border patrol agencies as important customers. Elbit's unmanned aerial vehicles patrolled the U.S. border with Mexico last year under a contract that has since ended. It hopes new border security contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will put its UAVs there again. The Haifa-based company is part of a team led by Boeing (BA) that won what could become a $2 billion project to build a virtual fence of cameras, sensors and unmanned planes to monitor the United States' southern border. But Elbit is not banking solely on its pilotless planes. It makes a range of high-tech communications, navigation and target and control systems that go into fighter jets, warships and tanks in the U.S. and Israel. One of its fastest-growing businesses, its helmet-mounted systems, helps fighter pilots track targets day or night. Small Is Better "We've found out that sometimes being small is an advantage," the company's president and chief executive, Joseph Ackerman, said. "Being small, being close to the market and flexible, is an advantage." Israel accounted for 37% of Elbit's $1.5 billion in sales last year. But Ackerman called the U.S. the company's other home market. Sales in the U.S. accounted for 40% of revenue last year. The company has about 1,300 of is 6,000 employees at its Elbit Systems of America division, based in Fort Worth, Texas. But sales to Europe are growing quickly, too. The continent accounted for 15% of sales in 2006, up from about 6% or 7% three years ago, Ackerman said. Elbit signed a $32 million contract in 2006 to supply unmanned gun turret systems for the Portuguese military. Belgium ordered $58 million worth of the systems earlier this year. And in March, Elbit announced a $10 million deal to supply Lithuania with an integrated coastal radar and video surveillance system to thwart smugglers. Sales at the company, which formed in 1966, have grown each year for the past decade, even as overall military budgets have shrunk. It's the largest non-government-owned military contractor in Israel. For years, Elbit bet wisely that tighter budgets would force militaries to keep existing jet and helicopters flying longer. So it developed electronics systems that could expand older platforms' capabilities. Such upgrades are still a major part of its business. But about five years ago, Ackerman said, the company began shifting research and development toward electronics systems to support new jets, tanks and helicopters. It also began looking more to the civilian security markets. "The overall trajectory of defense budgets is not one of growth. On the other hand, the move to higher technology systems is clearly in fast growth," said UBS Israel analyst Joseph Wolf. Wolf said civilian sales probably won't be a major driver in the short term. But the area has potential. "If you can get the pricing right and downgrade the technology from the military grade, that's something that could be interesting," he said. The company's orders backlog is growing. It ended the year with $3.8 billion in orders in the pipeline, up 13% from a year earlier. And Elbit said it had another $1 billion in potential orders that were awaiting government funding. The company reported net income of $1.72 per share in 2006, up from $1.22 a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting $2.04 next year. Acquisitions Sales grew by 42%, passing $1.5 billion for the first time in spite of losses at Elisra Electronic Systems, an Israeli military contractor in which Elbit holds a 70% stake. But Ackerman said Elbit knew that Elisra would be a drag when it spent $70 million to buy its stake in 2005. The price reflected it, he said. He said this year would probably be another difficult one for that company. But Elbit is looking for improvement in 2008. Elbit is also looking to buy up the rest of Tadiran Communications, an Israel-based communications systems company. Elbit currently owns 43% and has filed for permission to buy the rest for $44.20 a share. If that $315 million cash-and-stock deal doesn't go through by April 19, it says it will instead try to add another 5% to 9.1% of shares to its holdings. And it is looking to absorb companies that would provide new technologies or access to markets. Ackerman played up the company's employees. It recruits from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which he called the MIT of Israel. Many of its students begin projects with the company even before graduation. And Israel's compulsory military service means that the company's employees also know first hand what armies need. "They see the problem from both sides. They can identify what really the customer needs and come up with a very specific answer," Ackerman said. "It's the loop between the operational requirements and the expertise." __________________________________ Again, I told you so: Message 22840998

To: sea_urchin who wrote (15774)	7/26/2007 5:54:43 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22250

The US's Mexican Pressure Cooker: Quiz: Once the US-Mexico border is sealed off, what's the maximum demographic pressure the MPC can sustain?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (15774)	7/26/2007 5:56:23 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22250

On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises US law officers and illegal border-crossers are under increased attack, as beefed-up patrols cut into smugglers' illicit trade. By Faye Bowers \| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Page 1 of 3 PHOENIX - The harder it gets to sneak illicit cargo – immigrants or drugs or other contraband – into the US, the more violence-prone the border has become, not only for border-crossers but also for law officers trying to halt the smuggling. The escalation in violent crime is most pronounced here in Arizona, where border-tightening measures have put a clamp on the preferred route of "coyotes" and smuggling rings. During the first three months of the year, roaming bandits, heavily armed and looking to hijack valuable payloads, waged at least eight attacks on illicit shipments of people or drugs traversing Arizona. Though no US border patrol agents have been killed, they've been assaulted more often by illegal immigrants this year – 112 attacks, an 18 percent jump – in the state, compared with the same three-month period a year ago. Along the entire US-Mexico border, there's been a 3 percent increase in such attacks. Recent federal raids at drop houses in metropolitan Phoenix, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have also turned up bigger and more sophisticated weapons caches, along with people suspected of illegal entry. "It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity – whether drugs or aliens – across. It's costing [the smugglers] more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence." The law-enforcement agencies that track crime along the border – county sheriffs' offices, ICE, the border patrol – report an uptick in almost every category of crime in recent months, a period corresponding to the US border crackdown. Few are surprised, however. "It is a lucrative underground business sector that no doubt is generating millions of dollars in profits, and some see this as worth fighting for, and even killing for," says Nestor Rodriguez, an expert on immigration issues, at the University of Houston. Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden says his officers are responding to and investigating a rising number of violent crimes related to border trafficking. His office tallies crimes reported by nine law-enforcement agencies that operate within county boundaries. In 2006, for example, 215 strong-arm or weapon-related robberies were committed against undocumented immigrants, according to Yuma County statistics. In 2005, there were 30 such robberies. In 2006, there were 199 assaults against undocumented immigrants, compared with 22 in 2005. [...] csmonitor.com