tagged w/ Private Contractors
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Much of the spending has to do with private contractors hired at taxpayer expense.
http://tiny.cc/lj94fMuch of the spending has to do with private contractors hired at taxpayer expense.... more
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The BBC reports on a senate Armed Services report, which highlights the negative affects of hiring private contractors in Afghanistan. The biggest criticism from the report, states private hires meant warlords connected with the Taliban were receiving funding.
President Hamid Karzai, criticised the use of private security companies in August, with the Democratic Senator Carl Levin saying it risked success in Afghanistan.
In addition to funding warlords, private security firms were seen a problem for hiring new recruits to the Afghan national army.
"The report paints a disturbing picture of how some of those hired have little training or experience in firing weapons, while other contractors are warlords with known links to the Taliban [...] The report also says that - by funding warlords with their own private militias - the US is undermining its declared aim of creating a more stable Afghanistan."-BBC
The private firms state when it comes to hiring security staff in Afghanistan they don't have a whole lot of choice from hiring nationals who work for warlords and someone imported from elsewhere who might get targeted. Senate blamed the Congress for going for the cheapest solution, which has caused these problems.
"The latest report follows July's Congressional inquiry, which said that trucking contractors paid tens of millions of dollars a year to local warlords for convoy protection."-BBCThe BBC reports on a senate Armed Services report, which highlights the negative... more
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Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.
After eight long draining years, I have to wonder if our government even understands what it is to end a war anymore. The end of a war, to most people, means all the troops come home, out of harm’s way. It means we stop killing people and getting killed. It means we stop sending troops and armed personnel over and draining our treasury for military operations in that foreign land. But much like the infamous “mission accomplished” moment of the last administration, this “end” of the war also means none of those things.
50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and they are still receiving combat pay. One soldier was killed in Basra just last Sunday, after the supposed end of combat operations, and the same day 5,000 men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood were deployed to Iraq. Their mission will be anything but desk duty. Among other things they will accompany the Iraqi military on dangerous patrols, continue to be involved in the hunt for terrorists, and provide air support for the Iraqi military. They should be receiving combat pay, because they will be serving a combat role!
Of course the number of private contractors — who perform many of the same roles as troops, but for a lot more money — is expected to double. So this is a funny way of ending combat operations in Iraq. We are still meddling in their affairs and we are still putting our men and women in danger, and we are still spending money we don’t have. This looks more like an escalation than a draw-down to me!
The ongoing war in Iraq takes place against a backdrop of economic crisis at home, as fresh numbers indicate that our economic situation is as bad as ever, and getting worse! Our foreign policy is based on an illusion: that we are actually paying for it. What we are doing is borrowing and printing the money to maintain our presence overseas. Americans are seeing the cost of this irresponsible approach as our economic decline continues. Unemployed Americans have been questioning a policy that ships hundreds of billions of dollars overseas while their own communities crumble and their frustration is growing. An end to this type of foreign policy is way overdue.
A return to the traditional American foreign policy of active private engagement and non-interventionism is the only alternative that can restore our moral and fiscal health.Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq... more
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"Since the end of the Cold War the US government has become extremely comfortable with contracting out certain military functions to the private sector, and therefore doesn't consider these contractors to be part of the American commitment," says Peter Juul, a researcher at the Center for American Progress. "They're off the books and don't really count, even though you have to pay for them.""Since the end of the Cold War the US government has become extremely comfortable... more
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mae37
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added this
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2 years ago
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Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: "A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,' and that Prince's companies 'encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'"
Surprise, surprise- the leader of a private paramilitary organizations turns out to be a homicidal egomaniac with a God complex. Who would have thunk it?Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: "A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who... more
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Thousands of private soldiers operate in Iraq alone... and many more around the world. These individuals, known as private security contractors, are changing the face of modern warfare everyday while their world has remained mystery to those at home. Shadow Company is the groundbreaking investigative feature-length documentary that seeks out and reveals the origins and destinations of these modern-day mercenaries.
Who are these security contractors?
What do they do?
Why do they do it?
.Thousands of private soldiers operate in Iraq alone... and many more around the world.... more
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In an exclusive interview with Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calls on Sen. Barack Obama to cancel the private military firm Blackwater’s Iraq contract if Obama is elected president. Serious questions remain about what Obama will do with this massive private shadow army in Iraq.In an exclusive interview with Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill,... more
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lecoke
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added this
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3 years ago
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