The CIA's Privatization of War Has Been an Unmitigated Disaster

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/cias-privatization-war-has-been-unmitigated-disaster


Call it the Jason Bourne strategy.

Think of it as the CIA’s plunge into Hollywood -- or into the absurd. As recent revelations have made clear, that Agency’s moves couldn’t be have been more far-fetched or more real. In its post-9/11 global shadow war, it has employed both private contractors and some of the world’s most notorious prisoners in ways that leave the latest episode of the Bourne films in the dust: hired gunmen trained to kill as well as former inmates who cashed in on the notoriety of having worn an orange jumpsuit in the world's most infamous jail.




The first group of undercover agents were recruited by private companies from the Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs and then repurposed to the CIA at handsome salaries averaging around $140,000 a year; the second crew was recruited from the prison cells at Guantanamo Bay and paid out of a secret multimillion dollar slush fund called “the Pledge.”

Last month, the Associated Press revealed that the CIA had selected a few dozen men from among the hundreds of terror suspects being held at Guantanamo and trained them to be double agents at a cluster of eight cottages in a program dubbed "Penny Lane." (Yes, indeed, the name was taken from the Beatles song, as was " Strawberry Fields," a Guantanamo program that involved torturing “high-value” detainees.) These men were then returned to what the Bush administration liked to call the “global battlefield,” where their mission was to befriend members of al-Qaeda and supply targeting information for the Agency’s drone assassination program.

Such a secret double-agent program, while colorful and remarkably unsuccessful, should have surprised no one. After all, plea bargaining or persuading criminals to snitch on their associates -- a tactic frowned upon by international legal experts -- is widely used in the U.S. police and legal system. Over the last year or so, however, a trickle of information about the other secret program has come to light and it opens an astonishing new window into the privatization of U.S. intelligence.

[bemildred]

1. K&R.

Too many dumb Hollywood hero movies, and they think it's all real and simple like that.

[bemildred]

6. And I think this guy is right, it's what I think, the over-reach is driven by desperation

to show some efficacy for the resources invested.

In the NSA case, I used to do a lot of databases, wrote and re-wrote custom data-management software, and I can testify that the number of people who want to have big piles of data far exceeds the number who will then figure out something useful to do with it, once they have it. And what the NSA is doing has smacked of that to me from the beginning.

If I was running a data vacuum like they are, I'd be trying to keep as little as possible, but then I'd have something specfic in mind. They are looking for anything, so get a big mess, and don't find much, all the effort goes into grabbing as much as possible and storing it.

[newfie11]

2. K&R

[stillwaiting]

3. It seems to have been a resounding success for merchants of war though.

And, really, does anything else really matter in newAmerica these days except for profits for a minority percentage of the population?

When will the people stop being so damn apathetic? It's very depressing.

I don't talk politics as often as I should in my day to day life, but the times that I do very few people want to engage in that conversation. I have begun shaming (attempting to anyway) people in my life that flat out refuse to pay attention to anything that happens in their federal/state/local governments. I do so carefully with reminders about what it means to be a CITIZEN of a great country, and what that responsibility entails. It gets them thinking for a bit anyways.

People still prefer talking about entertainment, sales/shopping, etc. Things won't begin turning around from our race to the bottom until that changes.

[marmar]

4. k/r

[Jesus Malverde]

5. The bomber who took out a bus load of Israelis in turkey was said to be a penny lane grad.

They never dug too deeply there.

[Ikonoklast]

7. And maybe, just maybe he was doing as told.

Sacrifice a few lives in order to keep the pot boiling, gives certain politicians justification for more oppression, and keep the voters frightened.


And the worldwide multinational MIC profits from it all.


What's a few dead tourists?