I just got a Recruitment Call for the US Army FROM INDIA!

[spooked]

A guy from India (says his name is Shane with an Indian accent and the 3 second delay) just called me to make a pitch for the US Army! He wanted to know what I thought about the US ARMY and didn't I know it's a great opporutunity to "get into computers, electronics, technology and engineering", and wanted to know why I wouldn't want to join. I told him I wouldn't join if he gave me a million dollars. I then asked him how much HE was making an hour, cause I'd prefer to have HIS job!

He wouldn't give up, and asked me if I was between 18 and 35, and I told him, sorry, I'm in my 40s. He then said accusingly, as though I was lying: "You don't sound it...you SOUND like you're 22!"

Then he asks, giving up on me: "Is there anybody else there who would like to join the US Army?"

When I continued giving him a hard time about the war in Iraq, his last line was: "Why don't you just go over there to the US Army and work?"



CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?! Outsourcing US Army Recruitment? And how has George Bush* gone this long without a draft?!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh man!

I'd have asked how the weather is in Hydrabad, just to see what he answered!

[spooked]

8. Oh yes,

I kept repeating incredulously: YOU'RE calling me from INDIA to join the US ARMY!? He wouldn't deny.

There is something absolutely SHOCKING and DEMORALIZING about US military recruitment calls being outsourced to India.

[shadowknows69]

52. Push 1 on your touch tone phone to enlist in the Army

Push 2 to enlist in the marines......

[JDPriestly]

59. The currency valuations make it so cheap to hire Indians,

Chinese, etc. If we insist on fair adjustments to the currency, we will have triple digit inflation. We are caught in a "blizzard of lies."

[MadMaddie]

2. Yes and the American people do not know it...

* has outsourced recruitment of our military to foreign countries.....

Why is this not news?

[Quantess]

3. Pathetic.

That's so lame.

[MADem]

4. DEEEEEEEEEEEEssssssssssssss... perado!!!! Wha doncha come to yer senses?

That's the tune that came to mind when reading that!

It's pathetic! The low bid clearly won!!!

[barbtries]

35. well, that's news anyway

usually it's the bid from the crony that takes the contract. never mind the cost

[Demeter]

45. I'm Sure There's Cronyism Involved

Probably Pakistani general and leader Mussharaff's brother-in-law runs the call center.

[MADem]

56. You're right about that--maybe they're worried that they'll be caught in a

Continuing Resolution funding crunch, and they're trying to save money ahead of time!!!

[SOS]

67. It's a safe bet

that an American Bush crony got a huge contract, outsourced the work and pocketed a fortune for himself.

[Pab Sungenis]

73. Sure, the government "saved money" by contracting to India

but how much have we lost in tax revenue by Americans that contract put out of work?

It's time to look at Demand-Side Economics again. It works better than trickle down.

[DeSwiss]

5. This is absolutely mind-boggling....

:crazy:



K&R!!!

[dkofos]

6. Please call me.

[SpiralHawk]

7. "your tax dollars at work - smirk, smirk, smirk" - Commander AWOL

"But on the bright side, it keeps our republicon cronies out of the army -
smirk, smrik, smirk"

- Commander AWOL

[sarge43]

9. You should have asked him why he didn't "go over there to the

US Army and work?" It is taking foreign nationals.

Jesus on a moped; it's come to this.

[spooked]

13. Good answer...

And the really sad thing that hit me after he said pleadingly: "Why don't you just go over there to the US ARMY and work?" is that's their GOAL: for there to be NO OTHER JOB AVAILABLE TO US!!

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

10. The Joys of NAFTA.

I'm voting for whom ever is anti~Nafta. ~Might have to write it in, thou.

Nafta has been my personal wedge issue for quite awhile.

[Sonicmedusa]

16. No need to jump ship.....

Come to Dennis.

This is unbelievable!!!

I thought it bad when food stamp customer service was outsourced.

DUers....Demand our jobs back....But just say "NO" to recruitment jobs. With Dennis, there will be no need.

"I will repeal NAFTA and WTO"...Kucinich

Please see my Kucinch/outsourcing thread also on "greatest" page.

This is an outrage.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

21. I do support Dennis, hence Edwards.

I voted Edwards in the 2004 primary, due to what Dennis' group was saying to voters, Michigan here. I'm unsure where Gore stands on this issue, if he runs. Middle Class America is who needs to win this time around. No more Nafta, It's killing us.

[ellenfl]

30. one of the reasons i am not a big clinton fan . . . either of them. eom

[libnnc]

11. No way....I'm speechless...

It doesn't get any crazier than that. Get in touch with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC.

I mean, really. That's worthy of a Countdown story for sure.

fucking insane...:wow:

[LiberalFighter]

12. Go over to the US Army and work? Work? Work?

[spooked]

18. That's EXACTLY what he said!

TO WORK!

He actually called me twice! I thought the phone call was over after I said "Computers!? Technology!? ...Don't you know WHAT the US Army is doing in Iraq?!" I then went on about the dangers of being exposed to depleted uranium...

The line went dead (or so I thought) and I hung up. Then he called me back 2 minutes later. "I was talking to you. Why don't you want to join the US ARMY..." Even after listening to me rant, he wouldn't give up.

[LiberalFighter]

19. You need to file a complaint. That is harrassment

[cascadiance]

14. Why is this that surprising? The GOP also outsourced some of its call centers too to India

along with it's vault of voter data, etc...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,117930-page,1/article.html

[EVDebs]

28. Or more plausibly, to 'cage' voters, not "get people to the polls"

the article is titled,

GOP Voter Vault Shipped Overseas
Massive database holds info on millions of voters, and is used to get people to the polls

I would think that Greg Palast might want to investigate this...

""PC World has recently learned that the major development work on the Voter Vault was done in India. Though the RNC began work on a national database of voters in the mid-1990s, the Voter Vault wasn't ready to be put into the field until the 2002 elections. Two years prior to the 2002 elections, the RNC hired Advanced Custom Software (ACS) of Seattle to build a Web-based database to help campaign workers target likely Republican voters. According to information posted on Elance.com, an online directory of outsourcing firms, ACS subcontracted development of the database to Compulink Systems of Maharashtra, India.""

[tblue]

15. We really oughta hook up the "illegal" immigrants with the Indian telemarketing companies. Heck,

that's where the jobs are! And they're good jobs, too.

Even our damn gov't is outsourcing workers.

[Spazito]

17. Wow......just......WOW!

:wow:

[Fridays Child]

20. You've just got to write Lou Dobbs about this.

Seriously.

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?9

[dflprincess]

29. And send a LTTE to your local paper

this is just nuts.

[Hekate]

32. And Keith Olbermann. Both would be outraged in different ways.

Lou could go on about the outsourcing of the middle class and Keith could give the Army a "Worst Person" award.
:D

Hekate

[MADem]

57. I don't watch him often, but damn...that would be something to see--he can get a full head of

steaming OUTRAGE going when he wants to, and I would wager this would set him off like a teakettle under a roaring flame!

[YOY]

22. That is f***ed up on so many levels

So many levels...

[DianaForRussFeingold]

23. I would have told HIM To join because he could be stationed closer to home than you would

:eyes: India is in both the eastern and northern hemispheres. It's positioned on the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It's bordered by the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Mannar, Indian Ocean, and the countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Burma :grr:

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Why doesn't the Army recruit in India.

They've taken our jobs and lifestyle, so it's their freedom they're defending.

That's kind of ironic, you know. Visualize an American soldier dying in Iraq to protect an Indian's right to our jobs.

[spooked]

25. Well exactly!

This guy is trying to get us to join the US ARMY to defend HIS JOB!

I kept asking him how much HE made an hour, and saying I would love to have HIS job instead...he never did tell me...

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. I think our country is being dismantled.

Between privatization and outsourcing, there really won't be any common ground. By the time the 50 states secede, it will just be a formality.

[MADem]

58. The Gal-eee-forrr-neee-ans will be the luckiest of the fifty. They've at least got

what, the sixth largest economy in the world?

I hope we can gather up the pieces and put it back together again....

[The Backlash Cometh]

66. New York is screwed.

There will be far too many competing Wall Streets. I picture one cropping up in California, and the other in New Jersey. Bottomline, the one that's most honest, will win.

[mitchum]

27. Your tax $$$$$ at work; think of it as..."foreign aid"

[Edweird]

31. That's actually kinda

funny. I know our country is going to hell in a handbasket. Believe me, I feel it just as bad as, if not worse than, most here. But this sounds like a Mike Judge skit. It also speaks to the terrible condition our armed services are in, as well as the failure of our country's "leadership".

[orleans]

33. how do you know he's from india? did you ask or are you

assuming?

[spooked]

34. I asked him

and he wouldn't tell me, and then in conversation I said things like "You're calling from India..." and "Why would you be calling ME from India to ask me to join the US ARMY..." and he wouldn't answer because he WAS calling from India. You can just tell when you pick up the phone and there's that pause and click, and the heavy accent...NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

[sanskritwarrior]

36. I'm in the Army

and even did a stint as a recruiter, and I'm not calling you a liar, but I don't believe this happened............I know how much money Recruiting Command gets and I know many many recruiters and I have never heard of such a thing and if anyone would know that recruiting jobs were outsourced it would be recruiters........

Again not calling you a liar, but I do not believe that was an official recruiter that called you.

[spooked]

37. I have been trying to find some information to back this up...

Here is an article on Army recruitment outsourcing:

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/17750-1.html

Army tests RCI with recruitment outsourcing

By Joab Jackson
Staff Writer

Professional services provider Resource Consultants Inc., Vienna, Va., won a $71.9 million contract with the U.S. Army’s Recruiting Command to recruit citizens for military service, making it the first private company to undertake this task, RCI announced Jan. 23. If successful, the Army could outsource all of its recruitment.



Here is more information on Resource Consultants, Inc. (RCI), and they do have international offices:

http://www.tmbhq.com/Team_RCI.htm

The company is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia and operates from over 100 branch offices and field locations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. With over 23 years of experience, RCI employs over 3,153 full time personnel and is projecting fiscal year 2003 revenues of $274 million.

RCI has been very successful in the highly competitive professional services marketplace, and was recently named as the 40th largest Federal Government Prime Contractor. Currently. RCI holds the U.S. Navy's largest C4ISR systems engineering, design, and installation contract, a $491 million contract that supports the Nation's worldwide command, control and communications infrastructure.

In another ongoing assignment, RCI is assisting the FBI in an Agency restructuring effort that focuses on new missions and operational paradigms for the post 9-11 timeframe. In early 2002, the company was selected by the U.S. Army to become the first private company to recruit soldiers into the Army. This $72 million contract is as part of a congressionally mandated test to determine the viability of replacing active duty Army recruiters with private sector recruiters.

[orleans]

39. unfucking real, isn't it? holy shit! the audacity of this government!

OUTSOURCING ARMY RECRUITMENT CALLS!

i'm bookmarking this thread--not sure for what but i want to hang onto it.

between shit like this and last night when i read a post by a woman who said her husband is a doctor and can't get insurance!

WHERE DID MY COUNTRY GO?
my god...

[sanskritwarrior]

41. I do know there are civilian recruiters

most of them are ex-military, the whole problem with India being used as an outsource recruiting site is the security clearance issue. It's not something one can wave away and say "no big deal", for an Indian to be conducting recruiting operations that Indian would need a background check, full scope, an SSBI, as well as be granted at least a Secret security clearance,an interim clearance would do no good...........Our government is fucked up, but not that bad yet.........

[jmowreader]

65. Except the Indian telemarketer wouldn't need any of that

It's not like you can give the guy your credit card number and have a Job In The Army show up in your mailbox. About all you could do via telemarketing is set up an appointment with your nearest recruiter...so why COULDN'T you do it from India?

[sanskritwarrior]

69. Again it comes down to the security clearance issue

an Indian cannot qualify.........

[spooked]

70. Exactly...

I wish I'd asked him: "Ok, so what do I do next if I do want to join?" I get the feeling he would have asked for my zip code and directed me to the nearest Army recruiter's office to sign on the dotted line.

[Gabi Hayes]

76. did you see that guy called you a LIAR?

would you please address that? but without the guts to come right out and say it. sounds pretty cowardly to me

If I was being called a liar, I'd be REALLY REALLY pissed!

especially is a so-called progressive called me a LIAR.

please don't let this go unchallenged

I'm furious

[sanskritwarrior]

79. Actually I did not call that individual a liar

I do however believe it near impossible that an Indian has the security clearance neccessary to be involved with Army recruiting.......It's just highly unlikely and would raise red flags within Recruiting Command, red flags that I should have heard of from my friends that are recruiters.

And you my friend are looking to start trouble.

[Gabi Hayes]

81. before you edit your post, read it again. don't try to back off what you said.

here: so you don't erase it:

''and I'm not calling you a liar, but I don't believe this happened''

so you must think he's 'not telling the truth, somehow wildly mistaken, or suffering from hallucinations'

pretty cheesy way to NOT call somebody a liar, isn't it?

you're the one starting trouble

my 'friend'

what are you going to do, shoot me?

[sanskritwarrior]

85. I don't believe this happened

I do not believe an official recruiting call was made from a person in India......prank call, false call, not official recruiter are all likely scenarios.......I called no one a liar and no I have no need to do anything to you, your hyperventilating hyperbole does enough........I said nothing about the OP, you assumed I did.......end of story.

[jmowreader]

88. Obviously the guy in India isn't an "official recruiter"

I would imagine that there is a button on a telemarketer's console that, when pressed, redirects your call to another operator.

If someone admitted interest in joining the army to a telemarketer, said telemarketer could just press this button to redirect your call to Sergeant Jones of the US Army Recruiting Command, who is a full-fledged recruiter with all necessary clearances. The guy in India wouldn't even need to know the name of the person he called.

However, given this, I wonder if hiring a telemarketing firm to try to sell the Army is really the right way to go. Everyone HATES telemarketers, including most of the people who are. The response rate for telemarketing is probably between two and three orders of magnitude lower than the (abysmal) response rate for junk mail, and that's for products anyone can have. Not everyone can be in the army.

If I was on the Army Recruiting Command advertising team, I'd order 100,000 green condoms with "Protect America--US Army" and USAREC's toll free number and URL printed on the packages. And then I'd put them in bars to be given away free to all. I figure anyone who'd get offended by the Army advertising on condom packages would curl up and die about three seconds after they went into a permanent-party barracks for the first time.

[Glimmer of Hope]

50. Is this one of Dick's companies?

[LuckyLib]

54. And if we were to dig a little deeper, we'd find a Carlisle, Halliburton, or Daddy Bush

crony behind the scenes at RCI. This is very good money and it would be interesting to know who is really making the profit.

[haele]

92. RCI is a subsidiary of SERCO, which is a global British service company.

If you click on the RCI website in the federal database, it takes you directly to the SERCO US site.

The way all these companies are linked up is getting pretty scary.

Haele

[Bozita]

38. Got a feeling our military will pay ANY headhunter for delivering a recruit

Free markets, you know.

This is just nuts.

[Sonicmedusa]

40. Maybe this is just one of those jobs (decent) Americans won't do.

[DFW]

42. As JFK would NOT have said..........

"Ask not what your curry can do for you. Ask what you can do for your curry!"

[Telegram Sam]

43. I too got a call from India...

...the guy said his name was Shanejaya and told me that joining would be a great way to get into hula-hoops. He started to give me this song and dance so I told him his singing sucked and hung up the phone.

[tom_paine]

44. Now THAT is emblematic of Imperial Amerika as it stands today

A disgrace to the Old American Republic (1776-2000, now in ICU may live or die no one knows) that came before it.

[The Count]

46. Ironically, your handle reflacts my reaction to this (probably yours too)

How very rich!

[spooked]

48. Yes, SPOOKED describes it well!

That's how I've been feeling since 9/11.

[Mend]

47. Tell him you will join the Indian Army...fight the British, down with the Raj.

[madrchsod]

49. may the "senator from punjab" knows.

just how did a company in india get the us army contract....?

[1776Forever]

51. Oh My God! I was laughing through tears! Makes one sick!!!!!!!!!!

With IBM and many others sending jobs - and I don't mean $5.00 an hour ones according to the NYT's over to India and China we are becoming a non nation!!!!!!!!!! Wake up you idiots! I just saw an aticle today in the NYT's that said that companies like Kellogg and other cereals makers are looking into Chinese imports in their food products!!!!!!!!!! Can I scream now please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????:banghead:

[klook]

53. We have to call them from over there

so we won't have to call them here. If we call them here we're letting the terrorists win. Or something like that.

[helderheid]

55. Check it - Website that talks about this:

http://wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/us-army-recruitment-center-in-bombay/

[DFW]

60. I took the liberty of passing this on to a friend

He is a high-up in the DNC and has passed it on to their people who investigate stuff like this for accuracy.

If it is indeed accurate and verifiable, I think we'll be hearing about it from DC, and the US military may
soon cease asking what our curry can do for us.

[spooked]

62. Thanks for doing that

I do hope thay can trace the source...

[DFW]

72. If it can be done

Believe me, they'll do it. It'll be a powerful embarrassment
for Cheneybush if it's verifiable, so they'll get to the bottom
of it soon enough.

[spooked]

61. OMG...Take a Look at INDIA'S #1 JOB POSTING SITE!

While we're at it, just take a look at "India's #1 Job Site"!

http://www.naukri.com/
THOUSANDS of JOBS available in India working for companies such as:

Honeywell, headquarters in Morristown, NJ
Fidelity, headquarters in Boston
IBM, headquarters in Armonk, New York
Wells Fargo, headquarters in San Francisco
Unisys, based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Prudential, headquarters in Newark, NJ
Grolier, headquarters in Danbury, CT
Verizon, headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ
Oracle, headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

[mzmolly]

68. OMG, that's a thread in and of itself.

I'm in Minnesota, many of the companies on that list, were jobs that were located in our Metro area.

:(

[nolabels]

71. I don't know or care if it sounds like a broken record but................

from what i have observed in my few years being here on earth is that Corporations are the most evil thing ever invented.

What makes the Big Evil Corporation, Inc. different from other corporations?
http://schulson.com/bec/aboutbeci.html

[sanskritwarrior]

75. I'm failing to see the outrage

[Gabi Hayes]

77. what a surprise

you're 'fighting' to support corporate globalism

of course you're not outraged

be all you can be

[sanskritwarrior]

78. I politely asked a question

I failed to see the outrage in the post I was responding to, there is no need to be rude......I was asking a question hoping to get an explanation..........

[Gabi Hayes]

83. what does it take for you to see outrage? somebody questioning their CINC?

that post looked pretty outraged to me.

[sanskritwarrior]

86. A list of companies

is not outrageous, so again I fail to see the outrage, so far no one has come by to give it to me, so as far as I can see there truly is no outrage.......now if you wish to explain it to me that would be helpful, otherwise you're just being impolite.

[sanskritwarrior]

80. Be all you can be is so 1992

we have progressed through Army of One to Army Strong.......Better add campaign than we have had in years....... ;)

[nolabels]

87. What should we be doing while we are stuck in outrage overload?

When i was a teenager (thirty-some years ago)i had figured out on my own that this was no world to be bringing up offspring. My intuition has always served me well and this was no exception. What the hell do you actually really mean when you say that you fail to see the outrage. I don't think there is a way to show how the many disenchanted cynics should react but i do know you will get what expect (to some extent)when ever you really look for it.
Life in our short lived petri dish is kind of funny isn't it :shrug:

Btw, just here to see it to the end, whatever that might be like :freak:

[spooked]

90. It's more of SHOCK than Outrage

It's more like "OMG Check out India's #1 Job Site!"

We've all heard about American jobs going to India, but to get a call from SOMEONE from India trying to SELL me the US ARMY as a great place to "WORK", and then to suddenly get an inspiration to check out just WHAT KIND OF JOBS ARE AVAILABLE in INDIA, and then to see ALL OF THE JOB POSTINGS IN INDIA by so-called American Companies, Mom and Apple Pie companies where decent hardworking Americans have lost their jobs...

I'm too SHOCKED to be outraged!

[mzmolly]

63. Bizarro world ....

*shakes head*

[eppur_se_muova]

64. "Could I join your army instead? Ours is in bad shape." nt

[DemMom08]

74. Lower Than Low ! ! !

This is typical of the Bush administration allow the outsourcing of American jobs to a foreign country. However it reaches a new low when the job that is outsourced is recruitment for our armed forces. Just HOW PATRIOTIC would they expect someone to feel when they get a call from someone who is CLEARLY NOT an American and most likely NOT in America. Does anyone inside this administration think these things through ??? DUH !!! Oh Yeah DUB - YA : ) : ) : )

[Gabi Hayes]

82. spooked, pls check your PMs

interesting that all but one person here believe your account

why is that?

[sanskritwarrior]

89. Probably cause one person in this thread has been a recruiter before

and knows the protocols..........But don't let that nugget of reality stop your tinfoil parade........ :patriot:

[kineneb]

84. wouldn't be surprised at all, USGov tried to recruit 65 yr old f/translation

this is not a joke, they tried to recruit my step-father for Farsi/Dari translation services. One, he is over 65, and two, one of their locations was "in country" (Iraq). He politely told them "what part of NO do you not understand?"

[haele]

91. I recently recieved a call from a lady with a very thick Indian accent -

claiming she was calling me from the U.S. government about some program that undoubtedly had to do with money. The caller I.D. was from Georgia.
As I was getting ready to do some driving at the time, I told her to call me back later - even if the call was from the U.S. Government, I don't take it when I'm driving the 805.

Haele