The hiring of mercenaries just gives the U.S. the illusion of clean hands

[bigtree]

Out of the $87 billion in President Bush's war request, $5 billion is intended to go toward security, training the new army, police and emergency personnel and establishing a judicial system.

According to the National Security Strategy for a New Century, published in 1999, the training of foreign armies was to become a prime component of current U.S. engagement strategy and policy. 209

President Bush says money will be spent to help the Iraqis form a new army to take the place of U.S. troops. In a year, Bush said, the Iraqi army will number 40,000. 210

According to a Coalition briefing in September, their original plan had been to train 27 battalions, three divisions' worth, over the course of two years. The force will be made up of a light infantry, some armor and artillery, and an air force with helicopters and C-130s, and a Coast Guard. 211

The Pentagon and the Bush administration now apparently believes it is possible to build the force within a single year by focusing on leader training and using some of the soldiers from the former Iraqi Army.

Recently, as he visited Iraq for the second time in three months, Paul Wolfowitz argued for the acceleration of the formation of a new Iraqi army, police force, border guard and civil defense corps. He also questioned why the Iraqi civil defense corps is projected to have 22,000 personnel instead of 100,000. 212

The administration is talking about requesting more money for the Iraqi army than has already been allocated. The top administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said the coalition was going "to turn sovereignty to the Iraqi people as quickly as practicable". 213

By September, he said, he expects more than 200,000 Iraqis to be recruited for the new Iraqi force. “This is after all their country, it is their future," he said.

The U.S. doesn't intend to leave the Iraqi army to its own devices anytime soon, however. They plan to establish U.S. supported military and national security institutions which they describe a necessary for "civilian control and oversight."

It appears that the U.S. military is going to create the same type of junta that they deposed. How will America regard this armed bunch several years from now when some enigmatic leader has consolidated power there, and goes against our interests; or against our renegade neighbor puppet government with their army, trained and armed by the America?

What responsibility will we have when they eventually act against Turkey; or the Kurds? Will this be a legitimate force for future action against Iran?

If our Congress cannot find the will to muster our forces it may opt again for the mercenary solution that we used to withdraw our forces from Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Haiti. Our country employs private military companies who train and disperse arms and military hardware to indigenous recruits, and construct insurgent forces all around the globe, for our own political or military ambitions.

Erinys, a British company with offices in the Middle East and South Africa, guards the oil fields. Employees of Erinys make $88,000 a year, plus benefits - triple what most soldiers make. A bodyguard can cost as much as $500 a day. 214

Armed employees of Custer Battles, a Virginia firm, guard Baghdad airport. 215 Global Risk, a British firm that offers "risk management" has the contract to provide armed protection for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led occupation power. 216

Vinnell Corporation, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation, was awarded a $48 million contract to train the nucleus of a new Iraqi Army. Vinnell's subcontracts its work to MPRI, Military Professional Resources Incorporated , SAIC, Science Applications International Corp; Eagle Group International Inc, Omega Training Group ; and Worldwide Language Resources. 217

Vinnell operates seven Job Corps centers for the Department of Labor. Beginning with our first Job Corps Center in 1979, Vinnell’s involvement with the Job Corps Program has steadily increased over the years.

Science Applications International Corp. has boundless affinity for this administration and their ambitions in Iraq. Based in San Diego, the company had two recent contracts totaling $166 million to upgrade the Royal Saudi Naval Forces' communications and command systems. 219

SAIC bills itself as the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the nation. SAIC takes in over $5.9 billion, reflecting a growth rate of 2 percent over the previous year's revenues of $5.8 billion. About two thirds came from the U.S. Treasury, mostly from the defense budget.

The top five executives at Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego made between $825,000 and $1.8 million in salaries in 2001, and each held more than $1.5 million worth of stock options.

Gen. Wayne Downing (U.S. Army retired), a SAIC consultant 220 served as a lobbyist before the war for the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress and its head, Ahmad Chalabi. Downing also served on the board of the PNAC dominated, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.

Ret. Gen. William Owens, another former high-level military officer who sits on the boards of five companies that received millions in defense contracts, last year served as president, chief operating officer and vice chair of SAIC. Owens is also member of the Defense Policy Board which advises defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Center for Public Integrity has reported that, of the 30 Defense Policy Board members, nine have ties to companies that won more than $76 billion in defense contracts last year.

Former SAIC executives include Retired Admiral Bobby Inman Secretary Melvin Laird, ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense WilliamPerry, and former CIA Director John Deutch.

SAIC also runs the "Voice of the New Iraq", the radio station established on 15 April 2003 at Umm Qasr that is funded by the US government.

SAIC was awarded a contract from the GSA Federal Technology Service to deliver telecommunications support services and integrated solutions for federal departments and agencies nationwide. SAIC ordered equipment that was incompatible with existing systems in Iraq. It asked for help from VOA, and was forced to rely on a dubbed network news programs.

SAIC was hired recently to investigate what called Johns Hopkins University called serious security flaws in Diebold’s new voting machines. The credibility of that report is flawed from the start by the company’s political and business ties to this incestuous Bush administration. 221

SAIC's Steve Rockwood boasts: "SAIC can be the window into the government for small businesses."

The Iraqi Development and Reconstruction Council, was set up to operate as an independent, non-political body to advise an Iraqi transitional authority. IDRC would rely on the existing "backbone" of Iraq's trained civil servants to continue basic services but also act as an agent for progress. 222

"There is a wealth of human resources in Iraq,” said Nisreen Sideek, Minister of Reconstruction and Development from the city of Erbil in a State Dept. release.

The council is made up of about 130 Iraqi volunteers who are now assigned to Iraq's ministries in Baghdad and across the region. They offer technical experience in a wide range of fields from agriculture to health affairs

According to Middle East Reference.org., the senior members of IRDC hold positions at each of 23 Iraqi ministries, where they work closely with US and British officials under Paul Bremer, the head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

Members of the IRDC are officially employed by SAIC, whose vice-president until 2002 was David Kay, the WMD hunter. Kay was coordinator of SAIC's homeland security and counterterrorism initiatives.

The Center for Public Integrity reported that the contracts all appear to last for one year and call for all of the work to be directed by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Feith's top deputy at the Pentagon is Christopher "Ryan" Henry. Henry was a corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development at SAIC until October 2002.

Worldwide Language Resources, headquartered in Maine, is proud of the services it provides in support of U.S. colonialism around the world. Their website boasts of their experience with the U.S. and of combined operations in Africa, Bosnia, and Kosovo in providing interpreter and translator support to Headquarters KFOR in Pristina, Kosovo, and support of Central Asia operations. 223

“War is our business,” says owner Larry Costa in an article by Eileen M. Adams of the Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine. “As long as there is terrorist activity, we’ll have business.” 224

“There has been slow, steady growth,” Costa said of his enterprise.

WLR Kosovo operations include a cell of cleared Albanian and Serbian interpreters in support of KFOR Psychological Operations and J2X intelligence. WLR has also supported the NATO Political Advisors (POLAD) office in delicate and sensitive hostage negotiations. WLR project managers have both intelligence and Special Operations experience in doctrine and standard operating procedures.

WLR has provided interpreters for four consecutive Partnership For Peace combined exercises with participants from over 25 NATO and former Warsaw Pact nations.

Costa now maintains a database of about 7,000 linguists – 80 percent in the United States and 20 percent scattered around the world.

“We’re filling a direct need by the military,” he said in the Sun article. No argument there. The need for individuals who can bridge cultural and language barriers cannot be overstated.

You just hope that they can get past shouted orders to indigenous populations and are able to utilize the language of respect and cooperation.

"If something is needed, and we have it, they call us." says CEO Paul Lombardi of DynCorp, which has donated approximately $70,000 to the Republican party. 235

As Dave Baum from Wired Magazines reported, "The DynCorp outfit contracted to train the new Iraqi police force. Government contracts account for 98% of DynCorp's business. DynCorp contracts with more than 30 U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense, State Department, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Prisons, and the Office of National Drug Policy. 236

About half of DynCorp's revenue comes from the Pentagon and many of its employees are retired military men. The rest of the contracts are mostly with civilian government agencies; more than 20,000 employees in more than 550 locations.

Baum notes that DynCorp troops bodyguard Afghan president Hamid Karzai. DynCorp manages 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.

During the Persian Gulf War, DynCorp employees serviced and rearmed American combat choppers, and DynCorp shipped and deployed equipment and ammunition to the Middle East in preparation for war with Iraq.

DynCorp inventories everything seized by the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Program, runs the Naval Air Warfare Center at Patuxent River, Maryland, and is producing the smallpox and anthrax vaccines the government may use to inoculate everyone in the United States.

The de-mining of Bosnia has been contracted out to DynCorp. The International Police Task Force that is training the native police in Bosnia & Haiti are DynCorp employees. Many of the U. N. peacekeepers in Kosovo are civilian DynCorp employees. DynCorp also operates in Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, and Columbia, managing the United States government's counter narcotics aviation program, contracted to DynCorp Aerospace Technology for approximately $99 million.

DynCorp has been criticized in the past for its involvement with Plan Colombia, which entailed spraying herbicide on cocaine plants in Colombia. A class action suit was filed against DynCorp by a group of Ecuadorean peasants claiming that the chemicals have drifted across the border, killing children, and destroying legitimate crops.

"U.S. taxpayers are unwittingly funding private wars with private soldiers.", said Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill.

One concern is that the employees of DynCorp operate without any government oversight. The overriding risk is that the corporation's bottom line may take precedence over military priorities.

DynCorp was compelled to drop its planned appeal of an employment tribunal's ruling that the corporation unfairly dismissed a woman who outed the corporation-supplied U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia for participating in child prostitution and associating with Balkan prostitution rings, in order to gain the $50 million U.S. State Department contract to provide the police officers to Iraq.

In a separate lawsuit Dyncorp settled out of court with another former employee, Ben Johnston, a mechanic, who alleged the firm's staff engaged in inhumane behavior and bought women, forged passports and traded illegal weapons. U.S. personnel recruited by the firm to work in Iraq will reportedly have to pledge not to get involved in human trafficking. 237

The employment of these private armies insulates the U.S. from the potential sacrifices of American life and limb that might otherwise restrain our increasing domineering world aggression. These mercenary forces don’t release us from the responsibility for their unlawful abuses and slaughters, however. They just give the U.S. the illusion of clean hands. We are the merchants of their misdeeds.


These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm

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