Pentagon Contracts: German Scientists Accused of Naivete

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-universities-under-fire-for-taking-pentagon-contracts-a-935704.html



German research institutions have accepted more than $10 million in contracts from the Pentagon since 2000 to cover seemingly benign topics like congenital tumors. But it appears some of these projects also have controversial military applications.

Pentagon Contracts: German Scientists Accused of Naivete
By Lena Greiner
November 26, 2013 – 01:35 PM

What could a person possibly have against the desert locust? These peaceful creatures nourish themselves with leaves and fruit, and they like sunlight and the company of others -- thus their penchant for traveling together in swarms in the broad daylight. But there are mavericks among these locusts -- ones that travel alone and at night. From 2008 to 2011, a research group led by Dr. Uwe Homberg at Germany's University of Marburg sought to unlock the mystery of how the insects that fly at night orient themselves in the dark.

The research seems innocuous enough on the surface, but in hindsight, university President Katharina Krause isn't happy about it. Contacted by SPIEGEL ONLINE, she said she would have "seriously urged against taking on the project given the clear military-oriented expectations of the funder." The client was the United States Defense Department. For €143,600 ($194,600), the Americans reportedly sought to determine ways to orient and steer drones and weapons based on the behavior of the desert locust during night flight.

German public broadcaster NDR and Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung first reported on Monday that 22 German universities and research institutions have received more than $10 million from the US Defense Department's budget since 2000. The article states that the sponsored projects cover both basic and defense research, including explosives. The Ludwig-Maxilian University of Munich, for example, received more than $470,000 in 2012 to find ways to improve military explosives.

The funding raises a number of serious questions in Germany about the relationship between the Pentagon and the country's institutes of higher education and research. Are they helping the US to develop killing machines? And are some German universities violating their own so-called civil clauses dictating that any research they conduct should be exclusively for civilian purposes?



unhappycamper comment: "Are they helping the US to develop killing machines?" Yes.