Merchants of Death

➡️ MERCHANTS OF DEATH War Crimes Tribunal - November 12, 2023

Organised by three exemplary campaigners from the peace movement – Kathy Kelly, Nick Mottern, and Brad Wolf, this war crimes tribunal aims to hold accountable U.S. weapons manufacturers who knowingly are producing, selling, and making enormous profits from an industry which is responsible for the deaths of thousands in armed conflicts around the world.

Beginning in November 2023, with the final verdict to be released in January 2025, the event has brought together some of the most well-known organisations in the peace world, such as World Beyond War, Code Pink, Ban Killer Drones, PAX Christi USA, Veterans for Peace, and indeed ourselves here at Better World Info.

The tribunal members are celebrated attorneys, political activists, human rights defenders, law professors, combat veterans, and diplomats. Many of whom have witnessed and suffered first-hand the tragedy of war and the devastating humanitarian consequences.

The Merchants of Death tribunal will hear evidence through a series of testimonies and interviews which will be later be reviewed and a verdict rendered. War crimes, crimes against humanity, and the violation of U.S. Federal law are the potential charges which could be faced.

So far, subpoenas have been served to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics. They must provide to the tribunal' all documents revealing their complicity in aiding and abetting the United States government in committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, bribery, and theft.'

The U.S. War Machine

The global arms trade is big business. U.S. arms sales to foreign governments rose by 49% to $205.6 billion in 2022. The U.S. is by far the world's biggest arms exporter. These weapons are fuelling conflict, death, misery, destruction, repression, displacement, human rights abuses, and global instability.

The U.S. is also the biggest supplier of military financing to Israel, who receive $3.8 billion annually. In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, which erupted in October 2023, President Biden has requested at least $14.3 billion in additional military support for Israel.

The U.S. Military-Industrial-Complex urgently needs to be controlled, regulated, and held accountable. Human lives are not merely collateral damage in the race for more profit and power. If this group of peace activists can achieve a guilty verdict, they can hope to set a precedent for curbing this business of death in countries all over the world.

The Verdict - Guilty

The Tribunal received no responses to any of the issued subpoenas, after which Citations of Contempt were sent to each of the defendants.

On January 16, 2025, the Tribunal concluded that the "current and former executives of the four defendants aided and abetted war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, as well as other international humanitarian law (IHL) principles, with large-scale sales of their weapons, generating enormous profits for their companies."

They also concluded that the "defendants' executives are guilty of aiding and abetting the U.S., Israeli and Saudi Arabian governments in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide as outlined in the Rome Statute of the ICC, as well as in their violations of IHL."

The guilty verdict was extended to the violation of numerous domestic U.S. laws.

Going forward, the Tribunal has made recommendations to "repair, reform, and restructure U.S. foreign policy and eliminate the corporate takeover of U.S. foreign policy and its war-making power."

For related topics, check out our guides to Conflict Regions, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nuclear Disarmament, the Military, ABC Weapons, and Peace.

Author: Rachael Mellor, 02.08.23 licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 (updated 16.01.25) -  Suggestions for improvement

For further reading on the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal see below ⬇️