Land Rover: Official Car of Guerillas

[Momo]

Any press is good press, except apparently at Ford...


SUDANESE TRIBUNE


Ford halts Land Rover sales in Sudan
May 1, 2007 (DEARBORN, Mich.) — Ford Motor Co.’s Land Rover vehicles are no longer being sold in Sudan after the Securities and Exchange Commission asked the company about reports that some Land Rovers may have been used by military or paramilitary organizations in the African nation.

The SEC on Tuesday released a letter dated Jan. 5 from Don Leclair, Ford’s chief financial officer, who was responding to a Dec. 15 letter of inquiry from Cecilia D. Blye, chief of the SEC’s Office of Global Security Risk.

An SEC spokesman said such correspondences are not released to the public for at least 45 days, following the completion of their review by the agency.

Leclair’s letter says the company’s Land Rover subsidiary had reached an agreement "in recent months" with its United Kingdom-based distributor that handles all sales to Sudan "that no further sales of Land Rover vehicles will be made into Sudan for any purpose."

"Any such sales were lawful," he wrote, and the distributor advised Ford "that the bulk of the small sales volume in Sudan had been directed to the Ministry of the Interior for humanitarian purposes and that other governmental sales had been largely for agricultural development purposes."

Leclair’s letter was in response to the letter from Blye that says, in part, the SEC is "aware of published reports alleging links between Sudan’s Ministry of Interior and activities of the janjaweed militia in Darfur. We also are aware of published reports that the janjaweed and Sudanese military forces use machine gun-mounted Land Rovers" during incursions against civilians in Darfur, a region in western Sudan.

Blye asked Leclair to address the potential affect that such reports could have on Ford’s reputation and share value. Federal regulators have pressed Ford for information about its business in Sudan and Syria, which are under economic sanctions or other controls for being classified as state sponsors of terrorism.

"These reports have not had a material impact on our reputation or share value," he replied, noting that despite news reports and public SEC filings on the matter, "we did not receive any significant inquiries from our investors or the general public."

(AP)

[LaneRover]

A friend of mine was in an African Country during an attempted coup and one month later another coup (they realized that it almost worked the first time). She said that the group attempting the coup grabbed whatever vehicle they could find and mounted machine guns in them. She said it was a bit sureal to see Unicef and other AID organization logos on trucks with machine guns.

Telling Ford not to sell Land Rovers in the Sudan because the rebels used them is quite silly as I kind of doubt that the rebels walk into a dealership and buy them new.

[ducttape]

Telling Ford not to sell Land Rovers in the Sudan because the rebels used them is quite silly as I kind of doubt that the rebels walk into a dealership and buy them new.
LOL, I can just imagine a machine gun mounted on a Land Rover with a 'baby on board' sign in the window.

Economic embargos usually have a way of not always accomplishing what they are intended to do. All the Sudanese soccer moms will now drive Fiats or something, and all the LR will end up on used lots to be bought up by who knows what sort of unsavory fellow or, worse, just commandeered at gun point. (There goes my reputation... My friends usually ask me "you bought that?!?" Now they might guess I'm a Sudanese rebel.)

Buffet just this year said he will not divest of China oil because it will have little effect. I say telling Ford to not sell, while it will dry up the LR available on the street for stealing, will have little effect too in solving the problems in the Sudan. IF they are always stolen, people will stop buying them. IF there are less of them, people will steal something else. IF people who can afford whatever brand of car are 'inconvenienced' enough, maybe they will press for proper reforms so as to give the guerillas a little less to guerilla about.

Personally, I don't think I would walk in to a dealership and buy one today. Maybe I should give thought to moving to a country where you can just take them off the street with little recourse.

[jp-]

I see a new ad campaign.

"Land Rover, for the guerrilla inside you."