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While Stock Market Suffers Greatest Loss Since Great Depression, Weapon and Surveillance Industries Thrive

HeadlineSep 27, 2001

While the dead and missing toll rose toward 7,000 people and the stock market suffered its largest week’s loss since the Great Depression due to the terrorist attack on the symbols of U.S. economic and military power, the stock of the weapon and surveillance industries has zoomed. This is a piece by Tom Turnipseed that appeared on Common Dreams. Stock values rose 39.9% for Armor Holdings, Inc., who specialize in bullet-resistant vests and flak jackets to armored vehicles and sells them to government agencies and multinational corporations; to 21% for Northrop Grumman Corporation, who sell weapons like B-2 stealth bomber warships and battlefield surveillance systems; Raytheon, meaning light of the gods, whose stock rose 37% and who sell 66% of their aerospace products to the U.S. Department of Defense; L3 Communications Holdings, whose stock gained 35.8% because they make specialized communication systems for satellite, avionics and marine communications. Alliant Techsystems’ stock rose 23.5% last week because they sell about three-quarters of their gunpowder, smart bombs, tank mines and rocket propulsion systems and other warmaking products to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, the fear of terror syndrome caused security companies’ stock on Nasdaq to soar. Invision Technologies rose 195.5%. They offer magnetic resonance imaging to check baggage and risk analysis. Visage Technologies went up 175.8% because they develop biometric technologies such as face recognition and fingerprint imaging with instantaneous surveillance applications.

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