Abuses, Private Military Contractors and US Democracy
Cross posted at
TexasKos
[This is slightly revised repost. If you saw the original, you probably don't need to read this one]
Abu Ghraib, Falluja , extraordinary rendention, Gitmo. There are many things that tie these black stains on our national honor together. One of the most undereported is the role of PMC, Private Military Contractors.
The REAL Bush Doctrine, of course, is not preemptive war as a tool of national security policy. It is much broader than this. It is the breathe-taking claim that as the only Superpower we are above all law. Moreover this claim is directly linked to the further claim that the president is even above the Constitutional framework. PMC's play a powerful role in this doctrine internationally and domestically.
A 2004 report from a group called BRITISH AMERICAN SECURITY INFORMATION COUNCIL puts it this way:
Link Because they are available for hire, these companies are the ultimate neoliberal re-invention of the state, putting armed force at the direct service of those who can pay for it.
We know that there were "contractors" at Abu Ghraib
At Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, such men relied upon their anonymity--the prison's commanding general says that they refused to identify themselves to her--to deflect blame for their torture and rape of Iraqi inmates onto such minions as Private Lynndie England. http://www.commondreams.org/...
In Falluja
"Blackwater sent my son and the other three into Falluja knowing that there was a very good possibility this could happen," says Katy Helvenston, the mother of 38-year-old Scott Helvenston, whose charred body was hung from the Falluja bridge.
"Iraqis physically did it, and it doesn't get any more horrible than what they did to my son, does it? But I hold Blackwater responsible one thousand percent....."What we have right now is something worse than the wild, wild west going on in Iraq," Callahan says. "Blackwater is able to operate over there in Iraq free from any oversight that would typically exist in a civilized society....."
Over a thousand people died because of what happened to Scotty that day," says Katy Helvenston. "There's a lot of innocent people that have died." While this suit doesn't mention the retaliatory US attack on Falluja that followed the Blackwater killings, the case is significant because it could blow the lid off a system that allows corporations to face zero liability while reaping huge profits in Iraq and other war zones..."
[ You really have to read this one completely, it will blow you away ] http://www.thenation.com/...
As key participants in extraordinary renditions
"The U.S. government's use of private military contractors to conduct interrogations in Iraq and to transport suspected terrorists creates "rule-free zones" and allows abuses to go unpunished, Amnesty International charged Tuesday"
http://www.latimes.com/...
At Gitmo
"Two private military contractors are being investigated for their role in torture allegations at the Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq: CACI International, Inc. from Arlington, Virginia, and Titan of San Diego, California. CACI supplied at least one interrogator while Titan supplied at least two translators named in a 53-page classified internal Army report written by Major General Antonio Taguba that have dominated news coverage all over the world.
A total of four men -- Steven Stephanowicz, John Israel, Torin Nelson and Adel Nakhla -- are named in the report. All of them were assigned to work with the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade"
http://www.democracynow.org/...
They are also guarding American military bases stateside.
"Private security guards were hired to fulfill roles previously performed by military employees. Yes, $733 million has been paid to hire rent-a-guards to guard 57 Army installations. And that's just the Army."
http://www.dailykos.com/...
They were also present to provide security in New Orleans.
Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms.
They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.
http://www.truthout.org/...
They also consult with corporations who are having "labor problems".
Private security companies today have kept that union-busting tradition alive and well. As corporations faced with labor disputes turn more and more to so-called permanent replacement workers, guard firms are utilized to crush militant opposition from unions. A rapidly expanding subset of the industry specializes in strikebreaking.
http://mediafilter.org/...
Why this explosion of PMC's? Simple, they are not accountable international to anyone's law. So far, not one contactor has faced charges for his role in the Abu Ghraib horrors.
"An internal Army report written by Lieutenant General Antonio M. Taguba investigating abuse at Abu Ghraib prison recommends disciplinary action against two contractors, one an interrogator and one a translator; it names another translator as a suspect.
Taguba found that the two contractors he recommends for reprimand gave orders that they knew would lead to physical abuse and torture and lied to investigators. While the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been reprimanded and/or court-martialed, to date no criminal charges have been brought against the contractors."
http://www.cfr.org/...
The same logic applies to their invovlement with "extraordinary rendition". They are not answerable to Congress, to the courts or to the American people. Only to their employer. In the case of Abu Ghraib and rendition, only to the President.
They are also a source of patronage for our Great Decider. Case in point, the most infamous of them, Blackwater.
The company and its secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder, Erik Prince, position Blackwater as a patriotic extension of the US military, and its employees are required to take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution....
Still, Blackwater has friends in high places. It's a well-connected, Republican-controlled business that has made its fortune because of the Bush Administration. Company founder Erik Prince and his family have poured serious money into Republican causes and campaign coffers over the past twenty years.
An analysis of Prince's contributions prepared for The Nation by the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that since 1989, Prince and his wife have given some $275,550 to Republican campaigns. Prince has never given a penny to a Democrat. While it is not unheard of for a successful business to cast its lot entirely with one party, it has clearly paid off. http://www.thenation.com/...
They allow the President to engage in foreign policy adventures, but leave no official US footprints.
For the U.S. government, however, the security firms' low profile is a distinct advantage, helping avoid unwelcome publicity when things go wrong in semi-covert operations around the world.
http://www.sfgate.com/...
They reduce the pain of war: the people dying are paid "contractors" , many of them not even from the US. Result: less public pressure to use force discriminately. It also helps if you make sure that the flag-draped bodies of our honored dead are kept out of the limelight of the nightly news.
* "U.S. military and government officials are attempting to avoid paying the political cost in the United States of the war in Iraq by hiring poor Latin Americans to do part of the fighting and the dying in place of U.S. citizens. Whether one supports or opposes the U.S. war in Iraq, one can agree that it is the U.S. military that ought to bear the burden of fighting a war that the United States initiated.
Allies may join in and send their own troops in support if they so choose. But U.S. contractors working for the Pentagon shouldn't be recruiting civilians in Latin America to bear the burden of carrying out a U.S. military mission."
* "When a U.S. soldier is wounded or killed in combat, his or her family, neighbors and community feel the weight of the war and ask themselves, Is it worth it? In a democracy such as the United States, it is important for citizens to share the burden related to military action abroad, feel the impact and make the judgment about whether it's worthwhile. (http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/default.aspx)
When you step back and look at all this several concerns scream out at you.
First, King George the Bush is rendered even more out of touch when he need not even make the pretense of consulting anybody, not Congress, not the American people, not the allies when he wants to stir the pot of international violence with a little "deniable" action by his favorite PMC's.
Second, the appearance of PMC's like Blackwater on the streets of New Orleans, the use of such groups as "labor relations" specialist does not make me sleep more soundly at night.
Third, since there is no co-ordination between these PMC and the American military, more incidents like Falluja can and will happen.
Fourthly, these outfits are not necessarily less costly. Can you say no-bid long term contracts?
Wackenhut Services Inc.[ the same firm with the troubled prison guard history!], a company working under a no-bid contract, insists that most problems the GAO cited were with firms that won the competitive bids, not those who received the sole-source contracts.
"The comments that are in that report - all of the misrepresentation, all of the failure to properly train - pertain almost specifically and uniquely to the competitively bid piece," says Wackenhut CEO James Long. "My guess is they hopelessly underbid it, couldn't run it without losing their tail, and had to start cutting corners."
But the GAO said it found problems with each company's work.
"The problems were across the board," says Michele Mackin of the GAO. "We found a lack of oversight. The Army really relied on what the contractors said they were doing and provided very little monitoring." http://www.csmonitor.com/...
Fifthly, they can cause us real foreign relations problems and we can't stop them. For example:
Did I mention the shotting down of a missionary mother and her child by one of these unaccountable outfits?
However, as the tragic downing of the missionary plane over Peru has demonstrated, the actions of private contractors can damage U.S. foreign relations and undermine policy objectives. Public consideration of the risks and benefits of U.S. military operations is fundamental both to democracy and to the success of policy initiatives.
http://paolonalin.ionmetrix.com/...
Some final thoughts from my research:
PMC's didnot start with George, he just took them to the next level and beyond. We can't get rid of them entirely. The Armed forces are too small and the weaponry too specialized. They will be required to perform some support duties for us. We should find ways under law to hold them accountable to the same high standards of our citizen fighting forces.
We should not have them in situations where their conduct can create foreign policy problems for us. It is about accountability, the hallmark of a functioning democracy.
The Congress MUST reassert authority over these forces. The temptations they present for mischief, domestic and foreign is simply too great.
["Under a shroud of secrecy, the United States is carrying out military missions with people who don't have the same level of accountability," says Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading congressional critic of privatized war. "We have individuals who are not obligated to follow orders or follow the Military Code of Conduct. Their main obligation is to their employer, not to their country." http://www.publicintegrity.org/...]
There are some signs of hope:
There is an ongoing law suit over the Falluja that offers some hope on this score. You really shold read this piece, but only if you have a srong stomach for duplicity . See http://www.thenation.com/...
In the end, this is all about the NeoCon narrative which is at present the soundtrack of our lives, at least of our Government's policies.
A cabal of arrogant idelogues, enamoured of the private sector, turns more and more public functions over to the vagaries of the Corporate marketplace, with no provision for public accountability. The average American is lead to believe that this means more economic and efficient government. It doesn't. It has come to mean cronyism, favoritism and public policies that do not serve the common good.
We must fight back, our lives and the future of our children depend on it.