Anti-war protesters "raided UK arms factory"

In the early hours of Saturday morning nine activists were arrested at the EDO weapons factory in Brighton, UK. As reported to the Smash EDO campaign, computers and filing cabinets were hurled out of top floor windows as six protesters broke in to the factory in the early hours staging a “citizen's decommissioning” of the EDO-MBM/ITT arms factory in direct response to the killings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military.

Statements from the protesters appear on indymedia.org.uk

Elijah Smith, one of the protesters that broke into the factory, said ““I'm looking at the world scene and I'm getting more and more horrified. I've been looking at the law and I don't feel I'm going to do anything illegal tonight, but I'm going to go into an arms factory and smash it up to the best of my ability so that it cannot actually work or produce munitions and these very dirty bombs that have been provided to the Israeli army so that they can kill children. The time for talking has gone too far. I'm not a writer, I'm just a person from the community and I'm deeply disgusted.”

UPDATE 18-01-09:

Video reportage from Brighton Argus

In The Guardian:

DCI Graham Pratt of Sussex police said: "Windows had been smashed and offices turned over in what I would describe as wanton vandalism, but with machinery and equipment so targeted that it could have been done with a view of bringing business to a standstill. The damage is significant and the value substantial."
EDO MBM is the sole British subsidiary of US weapons company EDO Corp. From its Moulescoomb base it manufactures laser-guided missiles that have been used extensively in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Somalia.
The weapons were reportedly used by Israel against Lebanon in 2005, and have also been allegedly used in the occupied Palestinian territories.