'Wash Post': U.S. Secretly Funds Private Security 'Army' in Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003599895

'Wash Post': U.S. Secretly Funds Private Security 'Army' in Iraq

By E&P Staff

Published: June 16, 2007 8:00 AM ET

NEW YORK In a front-page in today's Washington Post, Steve Fainaru reveals, "Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives."

The report by the veteran Iraq reporter continues, "While the military has built up troops in an ongoing campaign to secure Baghdad, the security companies, out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase, the officials and company representatives said. One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year, according to previously unreleased statistics; one security company reported nearly 300 'hostile actions' in the first four months.

"The majority of the more than 100 security companies operate outside of Iraqi law, in part because of bureaucratic delays and corruption in the Iraqi government licensing process, according to U.S. officials. Blackwater USA, a prominent North Carolina firm that protects U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, and several other companies have not applied, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater said that it obtained a one-year license in 2005 but that shifting Iraqi government policy has impeded its attempts to renew.

"The security industry's enormous growth has been facilitated by the U.S. military, which uses the 20,000 to 30,000 contractors to offset chronic troop shortages. Armed contractors protect all convoys transporting reconstruction materiel, including vehicles, weapons and ammunition for the Iraqi army and police. They guard key U.S. military installations and provide personal security for at least three commanding generals, including Air Force Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Scott, who oversees U.S. military contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The article can be found at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1123641&mesg_id=1123641

[acmavm]

1. This is a good way to also keep the casualtiy figures low. They report

US military deaths. They don't have to report the deaths of the human scum who volunteered to go fight and kill the inhabitants of a once-sovereign nation for big bucks.

I have no sympathy for anyone connected to these scum.

[tanyev]

2. They could have written this story several years ago.

Better late than never, I guess.

[MADem]

8. You got that right. It's only a "secret" to the Anna Nicole/Paris Hilton crowd

It's no secret to anyone who pays attention, and certainly no secret to the families of the dead contractor-military personnel.

The fact that the story has been -- AT LAST!!!! -- written is important, though. It lets us know just how weak the Monkey's grip is on the Corporate Media and Corporate America in general, nowadays. Stories like this could be a sign that they are starting to think they've made all the dough they're gonna make, and it's time to take the money and run.

[G_j]

3. we knew this was happening

but it's easy to forget because it is rarely if ever discussed in the media.


:-(

[seemslikeadream]

4. but they only do laundry

what's the harm :eyes:

[MADem]

9. Heh, wearing DRAGONSKIN vests... nt

[whistle]

5. Of Bush's $100 billion supplemental 85% goes to contractors

....but the Pentagon doesn't have to account for or even be audited on that distribution. They falsify the records and give the impression that much of these funds are for Iraqi aid and rebuilding, but that is a lie.

[malaise]

6. A short time after my nephew returned from Iraq his wife wanted him

to join these contractors. She told him the money was good and she wanted her own house. We had a family meeting and told her he was going nowhere near Iraq ever again and that if she wanted to leave she could leave his daughter with him and find herself a contractor to buy her home.

She knew we would bring out the dozens of family lawyers to ensure that he kept their daughter. Thankfully good sense prevailed. They moved into my sister's absement apartment and both of them went back to college.

We would have written him off and told him just that.

[blueworld]

7. I feel much better now

I was going to get irate that my tax money is being spent on so many secret, illegal arrangements, and then I remembered it isn't my money, it's my descendants' college funds.:patriot:

[SpiralHawk]

10. "can't blame the for making the big bucks" - Commander AWOL

"War is Massively Profitable for republicon cronies
Too bad about the WMD lies and shit, and all the dead people, and the US Constitution and other shit
But republicon crony profits come first"

- Commander AWOL & Dickie Five Military Deferments Cheeney

[yellerpup]

11. Only a secret if you don't want to know.

Defund Halliburton and the war is over.