(Hat tip to
http://agonist.org)
This makes me awfully uneasy, understandable as it is under the circumstances. How many more legacies will Bushco leave us before we get them out of office?
Under assault by insurgents and unable to rely on U.S. and coalition troops for intelligence or help under duress, private security firms in Iraq have begun to band together in the past 48 hours, organizing what may effectively be the largest private army in the world, with its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence.
...
"A private armed contractor now has the job of keeping Paul Bremer alive -- it can't get much more mission-critical than that."
Some Defense Department officials are concerned that private commandos are not subject to adequate oversight. There is no government vetting of contract workers who carry weapons. "The CPA has let all kinds of contracts to all kinds of people," said one senior Defense Department official who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. "It's blindsided us."
...
"Each private firm amounts to an individual battalion," said one U.S. government official familiar with the developments. "Now they are all coming together to build the largest security organization in the world."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59516-2004Apr7.html