3 Haitian Journalists Assaulted by DynCorp Thugs Hired By USA

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBI75FCDEE.html

Three Haitian Journalists Assaulted by Bodyguards of Interim President
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A rare public appearance by Haiti's interim president turned violent Monday when his bodyguards, apparently Americans contracted by the U.S. State Department, beat up several journalists at the country's central courthouse, the journalists said.

At least two Haitian journalists were assaulted by security contractors and police as they tried to enter the Supreme Court to cover an appearance by interim President Boniface Alexandre, who was presiding over a ceremony for the yearly reopening of the courts after the summer holidays.

A reporter for independent Radio Metropole, Jean Wilkens Merone, said he was cursed at and beaten inside the courthouse by another guard. He said at least one other journalist also was struck.

The head of presidential security, Vladimir Champagne, said the journalists who were beaten had arrived late for the ceremony and tried to force their way through security.

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1. The Dogs of War - mercenaries

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DynCorp

According to CorpWatch.org (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=18): The U.S. State Department awarded DynCorp a multimillion-dollar contract to advise the Iraqi government on setting up effective law enforcement, judicial and correctional agencies. DynCorp will arrange for up to 1,000 U.S. civilian law enforcement experts to travel to Iraq to help locals "assess threats to public order" and mentor personnel at the municipal, provincial and national levels. The company will also provide any logistical or technical support necessary for this peacekeeping project. DynCorp estimates it could recoup up to $50 million for the first year of the contract.

Already armed DynCorp employees make up the core of the police force in Bosnia. DynCorp troops protect Afghan president Hamid Karzai, while DynCorp planes and pilots fly the defoliation missions over the coca crops in Colombia. Back home in the United States Dyncorp is in charge of the border posts between the US and Mexico, many of the Pentagon's weapons-testing ranges and the entire Air Force One fleet of presidential planes and helicopters. The company also reviews security clearance applications of military and civilian personnel for the Navy.

DynCorp began in 1946 as a project of a small group of returning World War II pilots seeking to use their military contacts to make a living in the air cargo business. Named California Eastern Airways the original company was soon airlifting supplies to Asia used in the Korean War. By 2002 Dyncorp, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, was the nation's 13th largest military contractor with $2.3 billion in revenue until it merged with Computer Sciences Corporation, an El Segundo, California-based technology services company, in an acquisition worth nearly $1 billion.

The company is not short on controversy. Under the Plan Colombia contract, the company has 88 aircraft and 307 employees - 139 of them American - flying missions to eradicate coca fields in Colombia. Soldier of Fortune magazine once ran a cover story on DynCorp, proclaiming it "Colombia's Coke-Bustin' Broncos."

US Rep. Janice Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, told Wired magazine that hiring a private company to fly what amounts to combat missions is asking for trouble. DynCorp's employees have a history of behaving like cowboys," Schakowsky noted. "Is the US military privatizing its missions to avoid public controversy or to avoid embarrassment - to hide body bags from the media and shield the military from public opinion?" she asked.

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