tagged w/ War Profiteering
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Former top executives at Blackwater Worldwide say the U.S. security contractor sent about $1 million to its Iraq office with the intention of paying off officials in the country who were angry about the fatal shootings of 17 civilians by Blackwater employees, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Four former executives described the plan under the condition of anonymity, the newspaper said.
Iraqis had long complained about ground operations by the North Carolina-based company, now known as Xe Corp. Then the shooting by Blackwater guards in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in September 2007 left 17 civilians dead, further strained relations between Baghdad and Washington and led U.S. prosecutors to bring charges against the Blackwater contractors involved.
The State Department has since turned to DynCorp and another private security firm, Triple Canopy, to handle diplomatic protective services in the country. But Xe continues to provide security for diplomats in other nations, most notably in Afghanistan.
The former executives told the Times that the payments were approved by the company's then-president, Gary Jackson. They did not know if he came up with the idea.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/blackwater-said-to-approv_n_352980.htmlFormer top executives at Blackwater Worldwide say the U.S. security contractor sent... more
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As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.
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There IS no "progressive" wing of the Democratic Party, and there never has been. It's a sham. Let's just do a quick tally of bills that Feinstein and the majority of the Democratic party have supported:
-PATRIOT Act
-Iraq War Authorization
-Military Commissions Act
-Telecom Immunity
and so on, and so on. Obama voted for the last two, and voted to re-authorize the PATRIOT Act to boot. And don't get me started on Afghanistan.
Stop voting Democrat and we can ditch this bitch.As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations... more
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Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company's owner, Erik Prince, "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for "security services" in Iraq, according to federal contract data obtained by The Nation. The State Department contract is scheduled to run through September 3. In May, the State Department announced it was not renewing Blackwater's Iraq contract, and the Iraqi government has refused to issue the company an operating license.Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in... more
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Blackwater — I mean, “Xe” — is back in the news, more than six months after the mercenary firm was kicked out of Iraq by the Iraqi government for using “excessive force.” Baghdad gave Blackwater the boot for the company’s apparent role in the killings of 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. In that incident, Blackwater guards reportedly opened fire on a crowd after coming under attack.
According to affidavits filed in federal court on Monday, the company’s founder Erik Prince and his staff were engaged in a fantastic litany of crimes, almost too fantastic to be believed. At the top of the list: Prince and his proteges “murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities” regarding the Nisoor Square killings. The affidavits, part of a civil lawsuit stemming from Blackwater’s alleged abuses in Iraq, were signed by “John Doe #1″ and “John Doe #2,” both of whom claim to be current or former Blackwater employees. John Doe #2 wrote that he “fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this declaration.”Blackwater — I mean, “Xe” — is back in the news, more than six months after... more
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KBR said profit jumped 40 percent in the second quarter on contributions from a newly acquired construction company, an increase in work on several global oil and gas projects and better returns from government contracting work in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Houston-based engineering and construction firm and government contractor said net income rose to $67 million, 42 cents per share, from $48 million, 28 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2008. Revenue climbed 17 percent to $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion in the April-June period a year ago.
Wall Street analysts had predicted profit of 41 cents a share and revenue of $2.9 billion.
KBR shares rose 86 cents to $20.45 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Overall, I'm pleased with KBR's second quarter results,” said Chairman and CEO Bill Utt, in a conference call this morning to discuss the company's second-quarter results.
But the Houston-based company warned that its U.S. troop support work in Afghanistan will begin to wind down in coming months as other contractors take over and will also decline in Iraq amid planned American troop withdrawls.
The company, spun off from oil field services giant Halliburton in 2007, has been the exclusive provider of nonmilitary services to the U.S. Army in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan since 2001. In that role, it has served meals, done laundry, built lodging camps, delivered fuel and done many other tasks for American troops.
Under a new Pentagon contract, known as known as Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (Logcap) IV, KBR is competing for the same troop-support work with two other companies, Irving-based Fluor Corp. and Falls Church, Va.-based DynCorp International.
Recently, two major contracts in Afghanistan were awarded to the other contractors. Utt said today that KBR will not challenge the Army's decision on the contracts, but after being briefed by the Pentagon, believes the awards went to other companies because the government feels pressure to divide the work among several companies rather than giving it to a single provider.KBR said profit jumped 40 percent in the second quarter on contributions from a newly... more
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In this Briefing, we look at how the US's agricultural reconstruction work in Afghanistan and Iraq not only gives easy entry to US agribusiness and pushes neoliberal policies, something that has always been a primary function of US development assistance, but is also an intrinsic part of the US military campaign in these countries and the surrounding regions.
Seen together with the growing clout that the US and its corporate allies exercise over donor agencies and global bodies - such as the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres, which influence the food and farm policies adopted by the recipient countries - this is an alarming development.
These are not unique cases born from unusual circumstances, but constitute a likely template for US activities overseas, as it continues to expand its "war on terror" and pursues US corporate interests.
[Excerpt:]
Multinational companies move into farming
Soya has never been grown in Afghanistan and it doesn't form part of the country's culinary tradition, but a new programme, supposedly devised to combat malnutrition, plans to change all that. 1 USAID has funded Nutrition and Education International (NEI), set up by Nestle, to teach Afghans to sow and eat soya beans. 2 NEI is linked to the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH),3 which was founded by the American Soybean Association (ASA) in 2000,4 to organise the distribution of free soya milk to pregnant women and infants throughout the developing world. WISHH works with the North American Millers' Association (NAMA), whose members include global giants ADM, Bunge Milling and ConAgro. In Afghanistan NEI works with Stine Seed Company, Iowa, and Gateway Seed Company, Illinois, both of which supply it with genetically modified Roundup soya and Roundup-Ready herbicide to be sold on to the farmers. According to NEI, it distributed two tonnes of genetically modified soya seed in Afghanistan in 2005.In this Briefing, we look at how the US's agricultural reconstruction work in... more
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As the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a new report from The New America Foundation finds that U.S. arms transfers are undermining human rights, weakening democracy and fueling conflict around the world.
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/u_s_weapons_war_2008_0
The report finds that of the top 25 U.S. arms recipients in the developing world during 2006/07, more than half (13) were either undemocratic governments or regimes that engaged in major human rights abuses. Transfers to these countries totaled more than $16.2 billion in 2006/07.
In addition, of the 27 nations engaged in major armed conflicts in 2006/07, more than two-thirds (20) were receiving arms and training from the United States.
U.S. arms transfers are undermining human rights, weakening democracy and fueling conflict around the world. U.S. arms sales reached $32 billion in 2007, more than three times the level obtained when President Bush first took office.
War, Terror, Catastrophe: Profiting From 'Disaster Capitalism'
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/reviews/profiting-disaster-capitalism
"It does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchal society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. The war is waged by the ruling group against its subjects, and its object is not victory, but to keep the very structure of society in tact." - George Orwell, from 1984
WAR PROFITEERING
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=War_profiteering
Cheney, Halliburton and the Spoils of War
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=6288
War Profiteering Starts at the Top
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7308
The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/
"Not only has the Bush administration been arming questionable regimes, but they have been using our tax dollars to make it possible," During the Bush years, the United States disbursed over $108 billion in security assistance funding, nearly $40 billion of which was for programs that did not even exist when George W. Bush took office in 2001. All of these new programs are authorized and implemented by the Pentagon, and all of them are markedly less transparent and accountable than traditional security assistance programs supervised by the State Department.
Amongst the U.S. arms clients profiled in the report are:
• India and Pakistan, which are in an increasingly tense standoff over the role of Pakistani nationals in the recent terror attacks on Mumbai;
• Georgia, whose ongoing tensions with Moscow in the wake of Russia's recent invasion will be a top issue for the incoming Obama administration;
• Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of small arms destined for the country's security forces have gone missing;
• Israel, where the use of U.S.-supplied cluster bombs in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon has sparked controversy;
• Nigeria, where recent violence between Christians and Muslims in the north of the country claimed over 400 lives;
• Thailand, which is engaged in a longstanding war against separatist movements in its southern region even as it has undergone its third change in government in three years; and
• Colombia, where State Department claims of improvements in human rights have been belied by an ongoing campaign of murders against trade unionists and human rights activists.
"We must repudiate the structure of economic privilege and the tyranny of war makers" - George McGovern 1975
Meanwhile...
"We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules CarlysleAs the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,... more
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In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon's "bed-in" phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message.In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel... more
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Barry McCaffrey is both promoting and profiting from war in America. People die so this man can make another buck? How does one man gain so much power?Barry McCaffrey is both promoting and profiting from war in America. People die so... more
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It was not just oil they went into Iraq to get. There is only one word to describe this: evil. And make no mistake about it, they got the water too.It was not just oil they went into Iraq to get. There is only one word to describe... more
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The Bush Family Business
For four generations now, the Bush family has been involved in supporting the country's enemies (most notably the Nazi Party in Germany) and robbing the country blind.
The family was directly involved and profited from the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s and has participated in security fraud as well.
With this understanding as a background, the Iraq War can be viewed as their "masterpiece."
The Bush family and its associates have stolen countless billions of dollars in the course of the war. In fact, one of their motivations for pushing the war in the first place was the opportunity for theft.
Chances are the destruction of World Trade Tower Seven, the home of crucial and now lost forever SEC and other federal law enforcement evidence and case files was carried out to cover their tracks.
The Bush Family Business
For four generations now, the Bush family has been... more
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Bucking the wishes of top Pentagon officials, Bush is pushing one of the largest military buildups in history.
Will Congress back this senseless spending? Is this about our safety or is the administration using our fear of being attacked to gain wealth on huge military spending contracts (again)?Bucking the wishes of top Pentagon officials, Bush is pushing one of the largest... more
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A message from Congressman Dennis Kucinich. July 22 2008
log on to: http://kucinich.us to sign the petition. A message from Congressman Dennis Kucinich. July 22 2008
log on to:... more
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Blackwater Worldwide said Monday that it planned to shift away from the lucrative security contracting business because U.S. government scrutiny and negative media attention had made the business too costly.
Blackwater executives say that they have unfairly become a symbol for all contractors in Iraq and that the company has become a flash point for those opposed to the war. It plans to focus on training, aviation and logistics.
Blackwater has been under intense scrutiny since September when its security contractors opened fire in a crowded Baghdad intersection while responding to a car bombing. Seventeen Iraqis were killed, prompting congressional hearings and an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
In 2005 and 2006, security jobs, including guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq and helping to secure New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, represented more than 50 percent of the company's business.
Security now represents about 30 percent of revenue, and Gary Jackson, president of Blackwater, said it would go much lower.
"If I could get it down to 2 percent or 1 percent, I would go there," he said, adding that "security was not part of the master plan, ever."
Blackwater Worldwide said Monday that it planned to shift away from the lucrative... more
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Heard about the thousands of farmer suicides in India? Well, Iraqi farmers may be next thanks to the work of U.S. diplomat Paul Bremer and his Monsanto friends.
Anyone hearing about central India's ongoing epidemic of farmer suicides, where growers are killing themselves at a terrifying clip, has to be horrified. But among the more disturbed must be the once-grand poobah of post-invasion Iraq, U.S. diplomat L. Paul Bremer.
Why Bremer? Because Indian farmers are choosing death after finding themselves caught in a loop of crop failure and debt rooted in genetically modified and patented agriculture -- the same farming model that Bremer introduced to Iraq during his tenure as administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American body that ruled the "new Iraq" in its chaotic early days.
In his 400 days of service as CPA administrator, Bremer issued a series of directives known collectively as the "100 Orders." Bremer's orders set up the building blocks of the new Iraq, and among them is Order 81 [PDF], officially titled Amendments to Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Law, enacted by Bremer on April 26, 2004.
Order 81 generated very little press attention when it was issued. And what coverage it did spark tended to get the details wrong. Reports claimed that what the United States' man in Iraq had done was no less than tell each and every Iraqi farmer -- growers who had been tilling the soil of Mesopotamia for thousands of years -- that from here on out they could not reuse seeds from their fields or trade seeds with their neighbors, but instead they would be required to purchase all of their seeds from the likes of U.S. agriculture conglomerates like Monsanto.
That's not quite right. Order 81 wasn't that draconian, and it was not so clearly a colonial mandate. In fact, the edict was more or less a legal tweak.
What Order 81 did was to establish the strong intellectual property protections on seed and plant products that a company like the St. Louis-based Monsanto -- purveyors of genetically modified (GM) seeds and other patented agricultural goods -- requires before they'll set up shop in a new market like the new Iraq. With these new protections, Iraq was open for business. In short, Order 81 was Bremer's way of telling Monsanto that the same conditions had been created in Iraq that had led to the company's stunning successes in India.
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Insidious bastards.
Heard about the thousands of farmer suicides in India? Well, Iraqi farmers may be next... more
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Federal agents raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation into a deal that allowed a local sheriff's office to store high-powered assault rifles at the company's armory in Moyock.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Thursday that investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Blackwater's armory Tuesday as part of the investigation. She said she did not know whether the weapons in question were seized.Federal agents raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation into... more
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"With no universally applicable laws to reign them in, firms like Blackwater are free to pick and choose which ones they'll follow. Sometimes, when convenient, those laws appear to include the ones passed down from the Prophet Muhammad."
Excellent quote from Bruce Falconer's blog post over at Mother Jones yesterday, trying to make sense of the nonsense that results when a semi-legal entity like Blackwater faces responsibility in the courts. "With no universally applicable laws to reign them in, firms like Blackwater are free... more
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A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide echoed with the grunts of Navy sailors, a day after a federal judge ordered the city to let classes begin.
The 24 trainees batted and punched each other Thursday as they learned basic strike tactics in a corner of the 61,000-square-foot converted warehouse in an industrial area near the U.S.-Mexico border.
For the next three weeks, they’ll practice shooting inside a 25-yard indoor firing range and learn to wear sidearms safely while wriggling through ship hatches and up narrow ladders installed in white metal cargo containers stacked along one wall of the building to simulate a ship. Trainers from Blackwater will quiz them on distinguishing small boats carrying cargo from those carrying bombs.
p.s. picture was seprate from the article.A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor... more
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American actor John Cusack has called John McCain 'a clone of George W. Bush' that would follow in his footsteps and continue his policies.
"I know my opinion doesn't matter more than anyone else's, and I just make films,'' he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. "But I do feel you have to speak out, and that's what I'm doing.''
In a 30-second video, Cusack offers a "pop quiz'' to voters, asking them among other things: "Who supports keeping our troops in harm's way in Iraq but not the bipartisan G.I. bill of rights to support them when they return home?''
McCain and Bush both do, Cusack says, adding, "Bet you can't tell them apart.''
In his latest film, the war satire War Inc. Cusack makes no secret that he believes the Iraq war was created to profit private businesses like Blackwater Worldwide (whose founder is also part of missionary group), Bechtel Corp. and others that hold war-related contracts worth millions of dollars. (See BBC'S Panorama programme: "Daylight Robbery" -brodcasted on June 2008 for more).
"I'm not going to pretend this thing in Iraq was some kind of free market utopia to spread the gospel of democracy through the Middle East,'' he says.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hdSPw68oY4IS0oUJEDdv1rTeZrpAD918788O0American actor John Cusack has called John McCain 'a clone of George W. Bush' that... more
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** OUR TROOPS ARE STUCK IN IRAQ, WHILE AMERICAN MEDIA AND OUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE MISSING IN ACTION **
By Jane Corbin
BBC News
A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.
For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.
A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.
The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.
War profiteering
While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.
To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.
The president's Democrat opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.
Henry Waxman who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, its egregious.
"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."
In the run-up to the invasion one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth seven billion that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company, which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.
Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.
Missing billions
The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defense in 2004.
He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.
They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.
Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.
Judge Radhi al-Radhi of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity investigated.
He said: "I believe these people are criminals.
"They failed to rebuild the Ministry of Defence , and as a result the violence and the bloodshed went on and on - the murder of Iraqis and foreigners continues and they bear responsibility."
Mr Shalaan was sentenced to two jail terms but he fled the country.
He said he was innocent and that it was all a plot against him by pro-Iranian MPs in the government.
There is an Interpol arrest out for him but he is on the run - using a private jet to move around the globe.
He stills owns commercial properties in the Marble Arch area of London.
** OUR TROOPS ARE STUCK IN IRAQ, WHILE AMERICAN MEDIA AND OUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE... more
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