An innocent question: should government really be outsourcing national security intelligence gathering to homicidal right-wing extremists? (NYT on Blackwater/Xe)
The NYT has a hair-raising piece on the US government's ongoing love-hate story with the sociopathic private military-spying-anti-terrorism outfit formerly known as Blackwater. I'll assume for present purposes I don't need to introduce the reader to the problematic nature of the beast we're dealing with (otherwise see Dickday's introduction). But it is clearly someone to be avoided if possible. And I thought the close ties established during the Bush years had been or were being unwound. Wrong; "I just can't quit you" seems to be the administration line, which would be laughable if it weren't scary.
It is frightening enough to think of these trigger-happy cowboys tasked with protecting civilian government personnel in war zones. But the State Department's relationship with this company and others perhaps marginally more serious is the least worrying part of the story.
The C.I.A. and the State Department are both trying to reduce their dependence on outside contractors, but the administration is also struggling to deal with an overstretched military and spy service.
In the case of the C.I.A., outsiders still help carry out some of its most important jobs, including collecting intelligence in foreign countries, dealing with foreign agents, and taking part in covert programs.
Perhaps I should calm down. Maybe this is just a marginal
side of intelligence activity, these agencies every once in a while hiring
outside language, technical expertise. Why not? So what tiny percentage of the
intelligence budget goes to these unaccountable mercenaries?
Government officials have estimated that about 25 percent of the intelligence workforce consists of contractors, and as much as 70 percent of the entire intelligence budget goes to outside contracts. Yet these are rough estimates, and members of Congressional oversight committees lament that they cannot get reliable figures about the extent of intelligence outsourcing.
So we don't know - due to lack of oversight - how central the real mercenaries are to the more sensitive sides of intelligence activity. And I don't know how much the nutballs at Xe are involved. And I don't know how nutty the other private outfits in this burgeoning 'intelligence industry' are. So I'll just ask the theoretical questions.
- Should corporations who have a vested interest in creating More War and instability around the world be given the task of providing the information on which a nation assesses whether war is necessary?
- Should private corporations, whose main appeal is that they make agents less accountable for their actions to government and the justice system, be entrusted with the most sensitive and crucial of all of government activity - national security-related intelligence gathering?
- Should private military companies, whose very business model is premised on the poaching of the best qualified intelligence and military personnel, thereby reducing 'public sector' (how strange to use this term in this context) capability in these areas, thereby creating a need for private contractors, thereby becoming indispensable to government, even be allowed to exist?
- Are they even cost-effective?
It seems insane to be in the position of asking these questions in seriousness, frankly.
What's next?! Outsourcing the writing of all federal legislation to the special interest private industries by filling Congressional staff with industry hacks?! Oh, already done.
How about outsourcing vote-counting in national elections to private industry with partisan political allegiance, haha? Oh already done.
Or, hilarious idea, outsourcing the Treasury and the financial policy it administers to private mega-banks' CEOs and board-members? Oh, I see...
Okay, even crazier, how about we outsource health care to private 'insurance' companies whose business model is premised on finding a way to have people die before they can access health care? Oh...
On a more general note, if you're wondering why so much credence is given in the mainstream debate to insane ideas, it's because insane is the new normal. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is not king. He's pegged as a hallucinating lunatic and locked up.
There's also an issue with having mercenaries having access to our most coveted technology (the Pakistani Government may or may not secretly approve of our drone attacks on their territory, but they certainly like the idea of having drones themselves). Putting this technology on the hands of paid assassins is unthinkable.
Does Xe have access to nukes, too? Maybe the idea is to have Christian Crusaders who kill for a living take the place of A.Q. Khan and his friends, and provide pretexts for Middle Eastern arms races that provide more business for Xe to 'provide intelligence and security services' in the region.
Xe could easily blackmail the U.S. government with the secrets it knows, so I don't see prosecutions in their future, I see more contracts flowing their way as our foreign policy incinerates more innocent people in distant places every day.
August 22, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently the contractor-led targeted assassination program got nowhere. The article cites a 10 million dollar figure for the program. Maybe I'm paranoid, but that's a pretty big figure for ZERO assassinations, no? But you point out some more conflicts of interest and worries about the unintended further empowerment of these outfits that comes with even limited involvement in sensitive operations. I can't believe they did this...
It's like the mafia, once you're in you can't get out. Or so it seems.
August 22, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
The CIA has a history of outsourcing things like assassinations to the Mafia. For instance, they had bright ideas like poisoning Castro's cigars, or dropping botulinum pills into his coffee, and of course the Mafia would be the perfect 'executors' of these plans.
We know they did this, because it's in the Church Commission testimony. We desperately need another Church Commission to find out where those ten million dollars went. However, my only hope for this is if the left actually breaks the Democratic party into shards, and Obama and his centrist faction are left with the smaller piece, and the GOP continues its remarkable implosion.
Obama voted to strip one of the few remnants of the Church Commission's mechanisms for control over the spy agencies when he voted to 'update' it in that farce of a vote last year (securing his right flank).
Only if the Democratic Party breaks in two. You can see, from this link, that the progressive Dems are getting restive with these free passes Obama (or Holder) keeps issuing to our criminal CIA, NSA, Xe, et cetera:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/nadler-obama-violating-la_n_265124.html
August 22, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, I was referring to FISA there, which was a product of the Church Commission. Obama's vote there showed that if he is a true friend of the rule of law, he disguises it well.
August 22, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your best ever, obey-wan.
I would respectfully try to correct one point you made in #3: "...private military companies whose very business model is premised on the poaching of the best qualified intelligence and military personnel..." I would say "most effective," rather than best. Given that they have had free reign essentially, little oversight, and zero accountability legally, they have been effective as far as their desired outcomes. They also seem to me to enjoy their work, which is sick in itself, if true. With the enormous financial advantages the mercenaries enjoy, how many government employees wouldn't defect to the Xes of the World?
Jeremy Scahill, i believe, has posted about other companies that primarily do contract interrogations, you might look at his site for their names.
http://rebelreports.com/
During the campaign, Clinton was bullish on Private Contractors, Obama was bearish, but then came slowly around to the "Who will we replace them with?" position.
Also remember that the private companies are not simply full of rogue-acting Americans; their ranks are full of many different nationalities. It sorta takes away the notion that The War on Terror Fighters are fighting for American values, unless we get really cynical about what the values of America really are.
"The bidness of America is bidness." --Molly Ivins
Most of your questions answer themselves, of course. I have thinking about our American version of the House of Lords, wondering about reorganizing the rules about terms, etc. Another subject, another day. But how many, both Dems and Republicans in the Senate, or their spouses, have major ties to insurance, pharma, weapon and armament production, etc. A lot. And how many get lobbying gigs once they are no longer in the Senaate (or the House, for that matter)? Lots.
You do your gig in government; military, congress, whatever, then you go make the Big Bucks. We've been railing against it for decades, but here it still is.
August 22, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Wendy. On the effective vs qualified thing - yes. That's kind of the problem. But the incentives of these corps is diametrically opposed to the public sector military. (HOW THE HELL DID WE END UP HAVING TO SPECIFY 'PUBLIC SECTOR'?!) Their incentive is to perpetuate war. And they're damn 'effective' in doing that with their random shootings, abusive interrogations, willy-nilly drone killings. I can't believe we've birthed this industry. Once its born, entropy kind of takes care of the rest. Seems unstoppable at this point. Everyone recognizes the problem and throws up their hands...
August 22, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
They have caused so much of the world to hate us even more. Remember what all happened after the "killing and burning of the four military contractors" who were then hung on the bridge?? This country went nucking futs, and the military took no prisoners. It is when so many more atrocities were committed by the lowly GIs against Iraqi civilians!!!
If it is true about collective conscious manifesting reality, Lord help us. We have really created a burning mess. Again, I say, maybe it's time to give it all back to the cockroaches and dolphins, and let some other paradigm reveal itself in a few hundred millenia.
Some of us have to pay attention to things like this, and constantly find new reasons to discover the teeny tiny bits of hope that are extant; but it's hard, isn't it?
And my big question: with breaking news by tom ridge about the nexus of politics and terror threat levels, and new info on detainee abuses, and Private Enemy Exterminators: will most of the public give a rat's ass? I would bet not; to me, all of it is summed up thusly: TOM DELAY IS APPEARING ON DANCING WITH THE STARS. And there ya have it.
August 22, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for this obey (I think?)
You really couldn't make this shit up. How long is it before we simply abide a corporate board of directors rather than a United States Congress?
"Outsourcing our intelligence" may very well define this period in the history books when people look back to see when America surrendered its democratic republic.
Keep up the good fight!
August 22, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, if we could outsource government to, like, Denmark, I'd be all for it...
August 22, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or perhaps, let's say, outsource Grassley's intelligence we could .... oh, wait, it's already been done, and he now talks through his ass channelling the Insurance Industry that owns him - just like all the others who have surrendered their intelligence and their integrity to those who have rented them on the buyer's market that is Washington politics.
Outsource government to the Danes? Nah! Let's first try outsourcing present government to the care and control of true REPRESENTATIVES of the people who elect them. Wot a concept!
August 22, 2009 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
If a powerful person says something, anything really; it is understood to be meaningful
The 'truth' of the statement carries no credence (irony intentional here) at all with MSM. Hell the President of the United States said it--must be some truth in that statement.
A man with his own tv shows says the world is flat, the sun goes around the earth, a dome separates us from more water than we could ever conceive, the earth is six thousand years old...well talk about the gospel.
August 22, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Humans are incapable of overturning the deeply entrenched system that enslaves them. A system designed to enslave others, with laws to assure, the system of masters and slaves continuation.
The ONLY hope.
(2 Corinthians 10:4-5) . . .For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things.
August 22, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.
hahahahah
August 22, 2009 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
You hit the nail on the head.
It brings comfort to know someone will bring judgment.
When all inhabitants of Earth come to the realization that ALL, must be held accountable, then maybe civilization will advance.
The fact that some people believe there is no accountability, they go from bad to worse because there is no one powerful enough, to stop them. Or would we not have done so already?
IS DickC, the dark prince?
When the people as a united throng, follow a set course of what is acceptable behavior, then the World will have peace.
How else could we achieve uniformity, without everyone following the same rulebook?
If deciding right from wrong were individual choice, would we really ever have peace?
What other choice do we have? Accept that some powerful omnipotent one, has to step in and intervene, or mankind will struggle with powerful forces not relinquishing control.
It all starts with the man in the mirror. Either conform to be approved or act in accordance to your own desires just as the dick c’s, and all the other selfish moneygrubbers, who also act according to their own desires.
I wish there was an alternative, but having looked for other solutions I am convinced there is no other way, but the WAY.
(Acts 19:23) . . .At that particular time there arose no little disturbance concerning The Way. . .
The Way to live; Is LOVE
Love of God and neighbor.
Where do we learn of this LOVE? Is it taught in the schools, is it taught in the Halls of Congress?
August 23, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Something has gone awfully wrong with the normal Social system of epistemic division of labor. In any system you've got to have elites who are the authority on given kinds of questions, scientists for the non-evident stuff, the press for the immediate stuff, cultural elites on the general moral questions. You just can't have communication - or language - without it. I can't tell the difference between an elm and an oak, or so goes the usual example, but we let the botanist (or whatever you call those tree-people) arbitrate if there's a debate. But that whole structure has been eroded now. Sure, you've always had loonies, but when's the next time you're going to listen to an economist without looking at his party affiliation? When do you not double- or triple-check any significant press report? Is threatening genocide on some Middle Eastern country morally acceptable or not? Golly, depends on who you're talking to. Babel isn't some funny scene where people speak ostensibly in wierd tongues. It's this. Everyone speaking the same language but no one has a clue what the other guy is talking about...
Don't know where this is taking me, but you've got me thinking Dick...
August 22, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's fine to buy equipment from private sources and maybe to outsource certain activities like cooking food for soldiers. But anyone who carries a gun (or other implement designed for killing people) should be employed directly by the US government. If we can't get enough people to volunteer for military/intelligence service, we should have a draft. And if people insist on not being drafted, then we should reduce the number of military/intelligence operations we conduct. Outsourcing killing to the private sector should never be an option.
August 22, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
that's crazy talk....
August 22, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
As I re-read my post, I think you're right! It sounds like I'm arguing that the government should have a monopoly on killing people.
Can death panels be far behind?
August 22, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know whether to cry or just gnash my teeth. The trend toward corporate dominance of public policy continues unabated. It's always been there with private armies accomplishing corporate objectives around the backwaters of the world, with spotty news coverage here at home. In some ways it's no different than the special class of citizens who controlled the Roman Empire's 'foreign policy', yet it is growing more, not less obvious that the interests being served are not those of 'we the people' and more those of 'we the corporations'. As you note, they draft our laws in the first place as corporate lobbyists. Only fools would expect their actions to be anything other than self serving, yet many are lulled into a sense of complacency as long as their cell phone service doesn't cut out on some back road, and their cable TV continues to deliver pap to their homes, and a MacDonald's/Subway/Starbucks is never more than 5 blocks distant. There was a time in my life when corporations were identified, and alligned with the nation where they were incorporated and headquartered. Today with international interests, subsidiaries headquartered around the world, (I'm particularly interested in the activities of Blackwater/Xe's subsidiary, Greystone Limited, based in the offshore banking haven, Barbados - What do you think the primary function of such an offshore division is?), and corporate economies that exceed that of entire nations in scale, such national allegiances are quaint reminders of a world that is no more. Money, being ever fungible, slips and slides around the globe, with little chance of any nation ever getting a handle on how much $ is being hidden by these corporations. Who is the master and who is the servant? The answer seems obvious to me that the world's sovereign nations have become the overt servants to the multinationals for fear they relocate to some tax haven abroad, much as the shipping industry quickly discovered the advantages of Liberian registry back in the 50s. The only reason corporations don't abandon the US completely is a matter of public relations, as we still represent the largest economy on the planet, and our buying clout apparently still counts for something. Once the PR has been taken care of however, all bets are off.
The surrender of foreign, (or domestic), intelligence and security to corporations, and particularly to Blackwater/Xe should rightfully strike fear, apprehension, and loathing into the heart of every American, (or foreign citizen for that matter. The practice of outsourcing such activities represents how far we've divorced ourselves from reality in favor of plausible deniability. In the words of Jeffrey Goines, of the film 'Twelve Monkeys', "Fuck the bozos", lest we be fucked instead. Rant over. Important blog pug, thanks.
August 22, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on Miguel. I do not wish this discussion to fade away. When Obey's runs out, BLOG THIS FOR CHRISSAKES. (blesses himself and all those who agree with Obey)
ha!!!!
August 22, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
It does bear revisiting repeatedly until Americans really grok what's going on with the corporate dominance of public debate. Reminds me of this one.
August 22, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I should really outsource this blog to you, Miguel! It's the age of denial on the one hand the age of deniability on the other. But it's a peculiarly American phenomenon. You don't get the same complacency in Europe. And part of it is their awareness of the limits of their own control. In the States, there's the lively myth of the Autonomous American - we control our own destiny. Sure, the system is gamed, but if you get a boob job and work hard, well you're Erin Brokovich and save the world. Sure, Washington is corrupt, the press bought and paid for, but I have my own mind, my hand on the voting button. Hollywood is all about national redemption through the heroism of the little guy against the system. It's the lulling security in the idea that, when it really counts, I'll stand up and be counted, but for now the couch is comfortable and there are hot wings to be eaten...
Seriously, Miguel, this stuff isn't my comparative advantage. Blog it! Again!
August 22, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pug, we all need to keep hammering this stuff home till people catch on that the so called free market isn't so much free as it is a rigged game for those who have the dough to get into the game at all. Then we might have a chance. Maybe.
August 24, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
What’s next? Opposition Party members will be deemed ENEMIES OF THE STATE.
Are we witnessing the emergence of an American rightwing Stasi, to assure the REAL intent of the FOUNDING FATHERS?
How soon before a Political assassination occurs in America?
Example of interference in Lebanese politics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafik_Hariri
August 22, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly! It's part of why I reaally can't get worked up about a random idiot with an AR huffing on a side-walk. He's not who I'm worried about. If there's a threat, it's these private armies we are helping to build, which we have trained, yet which have no allegiance except to themselves. What is an army doing in the hands of a man like Prince?!
August 22, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
This trend scares the bejeezus out of me. Not just truly egregious examples such as backwater, or the outrageous reliance on private intelligence sources (where are their allegiances) but also the insidious dependence of our military's operations on private contractors. Everything from simple logistics (food, water, garbage) to complex computer systems. We have whole fleets that cannot run without on board contractors who can quit at anytime and do not have any obligations to follow command. Just last week we learned that our advanced drones are being flown by mercenaries. WTF?
I recogonize that a certain amount of contracting has been with us since the beginning (i.e. merchant marines), but advanced weapons systems? What next hand over the nuclear stockpile? It seems to me subcontracting started with a gusto when Cheney was secetary of defense and then continued unabated throughout clinton and W. (this is how Cheney made his fortune). This is not a healthy development.
Sure right now those firms are largely American (or commonwealth) but they are rapidly becoming international. What do we foresee in 20, 30 years? What happens if the dollar crashes and the only ones who can then afford their services are Oil rich Sheiks or expansionist Chinese looking for more resources? I am not saying that this will happen but stranger things have happened (and history is riddled with notorious mercenaries from Alcabaides forward). Merely by allowing the infrastructure of dependence to develop is to jeopardize national security.
Zip's around today so I would love to hear his take on this.
p.s. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is not king. He's pegged as a hallucinating lunatic and locked up.
That my friend, I am stealing.
August 22, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'd like to hear Zip on this too! I think he's disappeared again...
What's that Russell Crowe movie about private military corps? When the dirty secret comes out - 60 billion dollars!! - I really thought hollywood should do a better job of keeping up with reality...
August 22, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coincidentally, I have been writing a story called "Atomic Bomb Attorney." The story is about the sub-contracting of nuclear warheads to corporations for use against "existential threats."
I've had the suspicion for years that the keys to the government have been sold and copied. I have hair-raising stories from my deployment about contractors running the show in Iraq. L3 Titan especially.
I want health insurance and care reform so badly because it would rein in the MIC. General Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket" while storm clouds were building over Germany a second time. There is simply too much money in plunder for the grunch to walk away from voluntarily.
August 22, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't wait to read your story.
Curious, can you point me to any Iraq stories? L3 Titan? I would be very interested to read them.
August 23, 2009 4:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, Obey. You really know how to generate a discussion.
There is no longer latent rage in this county.
It's been unleashed and there are two sides fighting for its favor.
One side stokes a rising tide of irrational fear and outrage by starving it of truth.
The other side stokes a rising tide of rational fear and outrage by feeding it truth.
You're in the latter category.
August 22, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Gary, if only that rational tide were rising...
August 22, 2009 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is. It's how we got Obama elected by such a large margin. But we have to create a sustainable democracy and just recently, it nearly died on the vine. Fortunately, it will take more then 8 years to undue 230 years of independence.
August 23, 2009 1:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have an acquaintance who has been in the CIA 25 years or so. I know the acquaintance well enough to wonder from where his $ 2.0 million house came.
It must be a CIA cultural thing. But then nobody is watching that huge CIA budget.
August 22, 2009 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Robert Baer (former CIA agent) just said on NPR "the CIA is demoralized, they are shut up in compounds in Kabul, the military is running the wars, the CIA is broken, so a full investigation can't harm it further."
And: "We know crimes were committed. The CIA must obey the law. The outsourcing [of the drones] is unprecedented. Investigate it. Don't let anyone off with the 'Nuremburg defense.'"
I hear ya, Bob. Does Holder? Does Obama?
August 22, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The latest mock execution stuff is hard to look past. But it is nothing compared to the real executions that occurred as a result of the Bush and Cheney torture brigade.
I mentioned this on DK: from the mountain of war crimes evidence, has Holder-- under the direction of the Obama white house--endeavored to carve out and create a much narrower "few bad apples" narrative just to appease the masses?
August 22, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of which, the '04 CIA IG report on torture is supposed to be released Monday, right? It should contain some real bombshells judging from how hard the admin is trying to suppress it. Speculation has it that this report was the reason Holder called for investigations at all (and even at that, wants them limited to those who went beyond the torture memos thereby codifying torture as legal). What are the chances that it will be released in full?
August 23, 2009 3:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe I'm giving the shortest answer I've ever given. NO! IT SHOULD NOT It should give the Blackwater CEO access to a public defender, and that's about it.
August 22, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
All this uproar about those nasty "contractors" is rather amusing to those of us that have "been there and done that". It's fun to reminisce about the good old days of Iran/Contra and how Foggy Bottom,CIA\Southern Airways and a few more like Col. North and Gen.Secord were fighting for Truth, Honor and Apple Pie! Lest we forget those fun filled days in Chile when we help "get out the vote"..LOL It is comforting to see that "business as usual" is still alive and well in Obamaland.
August 22, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recall that after Katrina, hundreds of “contractors” were sent into N.O. It was widely reported that at least one citizen was killed by private contractors (their story of being under fire was called into question though no investigation ever took place). The same trigger-happy crusaders on American soil with total impunity. Under what authority can hired mercenaries be used in America? Does contracting military security work out bypass Posse Comitatus? Even Israeli mercenaries were patrolling N.O.
The corporate and political connections of Prince are telling. But so is the Christian connection (The Nation):
From Empire Burlesque:
I started to question the legality of what are basically contract killers, but had to laugh at myself for even thinking that was a relative question. 9/11 changed everything, and when it comes to homeland security, whatever we do is what is legal. Our hired guns go on a mad murderous crusade in Iraq but we are "without cause" to cancel its contracts. Besides, they changed their name, didn't they?
August 23, 2009 1:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Xe, LLC, versus Blackwater, yes. Still murderers, though.
August 23, 2009 2:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
From Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine:
Disaster Capitalism in Action
C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Al Qaeda Operatives
Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, August 20, 2009
Blackwater CIA Xe
"The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
"Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects....
"It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations. Officials said that the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune."
August 23, 2009 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Amazing. I wonder if they delivered their $millions in a paper bag. I know the CIA can do what it wants but is there no accountability? Now, they are transferring the security contractors over to Afghanistan along with the troops. Well, at least they're giving them cultural sensitivity training!
The more you learn about individual blunders, abuses and crimes by Bush/Cheney, the bigger the picture of a vast interconnected program supporting this crusade against Muslims, the Great War of Civilizations. Maybe it wasn’t WMD they were searching for in Iraq but the funds and even greater justifications to continue and expand the crusade into the distant future. Massive amounts of US taxpayer money paid out to friends of the administration and $billions in Iraq that just disappeared.
I understand the reluctance to release photos and documents and let trials go forward. One investigation might spread and unravel the whole thing. For example, if civilian contractors were deeply involved in the torture and that becomes a thread in an investigation, it might lead to looking at contractor involvement overall and the question of using them to avoid culpability. It’s easy to see why no one wants to stir up that hornet’s nest.
August 23, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention, a small piece of this vast international puzzle, the invasion of Afghanistan, is a product Obama still wants to sell us.
If it were part of Xe's/Cheney's insane crusade,and widely known as such, Obama would be rightly despised.
Obama either does not know what the hell he is doing, or he is as devious an operator as they come. Not much unlike the guy he was supposed to replace.
August 24, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes I think we need to look at what is obvious to everyone. The answers are not as complex as we might believe them to be. Can we get the public to understand the problems. Well, right now, the argument is about how government cannot do anything right and private companies can do things more cheaply.
In the case of the MIC, this theory obviously doe snot apply as everyone is aware that the contractors are paid a hell of a lot more then the soldiers. It's common knowledge. But the public has not really allowed the truth of this arrangement to be digested.
These contractors are paying these soldiers with our money. It's still tax money being paid to these soldiers of fortune and we are not merely paying the soldier his wages, but the entire organizational structure is funded by taxpayers. These organizations, as far as we know [and THAT's a very chilling consideration] are only supported by the USofA and our taxes.
Zip is sending up an importnat flare here, though. Who the hell is L3 Titan? IF we are observing Blackwater getting thrown under the bus, will they be the entity to fill the void?
Long ago, I posted a buit about how the military used to be the training ground for our young, in that people learned cook, construction, aviation, mechanics, etc. in the military and then brought those skills along with self-discipline into the private sector. Today it all beging and ends int he private sector. I trust the government a lot more then I trust the private sector and I find the UN bashing a defensive maneuver by the multinational corporations to prevent their being controlled by any single governing entity. If there was a global gov't where could these snakes hide?
August 23, 2009 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know, almost all of the security contractors are former military. I've even heard of some fighting to get out of the military so they could hire on as a contractor in the same area. It is big money comparatively (in the Nation article above, one in New Orleans is complaining that he only gets $350 + per diem a day over here like it is slave wages). Think about the revolving door in DC and you can see where the pattern for this is developed. Prince's political connection were key to getting his $billion contracts. The Government is a hand in the private sector glove.
August 23, 2009 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
In view of re-awakened concerns about the possibility of treason
in the course of oil procurement, the eponymous yet prophetic
rockband, Stop With the Camels Already, layed down
factual tracks, playing against the media’s spurious swindlers
and striking a diatonic chord with The People,
analogous to the interval
between Xe meditated murder
and the company soon
to be known as eX.
August 23, 2009 2:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
ex as in short for ex terminate?
August 23, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, that could be if they are found guilty, but I was thinking in terms of dis-banded eX-patriates...
Cancelled contractors.
Private contractors hired to kill and unbound by law are a disastrous idea. Also, what Don Key said - most of them are eX-military. That's probably how they turned their name around, and their morals.
August 23, 2009 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink