Security |
Slick new corporate security operations around the world have replaced the mythical soldiers of fortune like "Mad Mike" Hoare, "Black Jacques" Schramme, and Bob Denard, mercenaries who drank hard, womanized, and wreaked havoc throughout Africa in the wars that followed independence from colonial rule. Today's mercenary is more likely to wear a business suit or stand guard outside over an oil pipeline. Companies like Defence Systems Limited guard British Petroleum's pipelines in Colombia, Dyncorp polices the Mexican border while Military Professionals Resources Incorporated trains US soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq in live-weapons fire. |
| Analysis: Dogs of War: Inherently governmental? by David Isenberg, United Press International May 9th, 2008 Amid all the polemics over the use of private military and security contractors by the U.S. government there are two words one rarely sees, but they lie at the very heart of the debate: "inherently governmental." |
 | U.S. Congressional Wartime Commission Targets Armed Contractors by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 23rd, 2010 This week, almost a decade after the U.S. "War on Terror" began, the Commission on Wartime Contracting held two days of hearings into the role of private contractors in conducting and supporting war. The Congressional witness table included Aegis, DynCorp and Triple Canopy. Curiously, Blackwater was not called; and the CEO of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions failed to appear. |
| US/AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN: U.S. Is Still Using Private Spy Ring, Despite Doubts by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times May 15th, 2010 Top military officials continue to rely on a secret network of private spies set up by Michael D. Furlong, despite concerns about the legality of the operation. A New York Times review found Mr. Furlong’s operatives still providing information, with contractors still being paid under a $22 million contract, managed by Lockheed Martin and supervised by a Pentagon office. |
| US: Senators Call For Changes to Troubled, Costly Afghan Police Training Program by Ryan Knutsen, ProPublica April 15th, 2010 State and Defense department officials took a tongue-lashing today, trying to explain to a Senate subcommittee how the government has poured $6 billion since 2002 into building an effective Afghan police force with disastrous results. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Policing Afghanistan: How Afghan Police Training Became a Train Wreck by Pratap Chatterjee, Tom Dispatch March 21st, 2010 The Pentagon faces a tough choice: Should it award a billion-dollar contract for training the Afghan National Police to Xe (formerly Blackwater), a company made infamous when its employees killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007, or to DynCorp, a company made infamous in Bosnia in 1999 when some of its employees were caught trafficking young girls for sex? |
| NIGERIA: Ex-militant leader heads SPDC’s patrol team by Chris Ejim, Nigerian Compass January 8th, 2010 Authorities of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have unveiled a new security strategy for securing oil pipelines and platforms within the Niger Delta region. Shell has appointed former MEND militant commander, Eris Paul, and his company, Eristex Pipeline Patrol, to secure oil facilities in the Southern Ijaw area of the Delta. |
| US: Judge dismisses all charges in Blackwater shooting by Associated Press, Los Angeles Times December 31st, 2009 A federal judge has dismissed all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in a deadly Baghdad shooting. |
| IRAQ: The Pentagon Garrisons the Gulf: As Washington Talks Iraq Withdrawal, the Pentagon Builds Up Bases in the Region by Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com November 22nd, 2009 Despite recent large-scale insurgent suicide bombings that have killed scores of civilians and the fact that well over 100,000 U.S. troops are still deployed in that country, coverage of the U.S. war in Iraq has been largely replaced in the mainstream press by the (previously) "forgotten war" in Afghanistan. Getting out of Iraq, however, doesn't mean getting out of the Middle East. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractor http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/afghanistan.contractors/ September 3rd, 2009 This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel." |
| AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractor http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/afghanistan.contractors/ September 3rd, 2009 This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel." |
| AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractor CNN.com September 3rd, 2009 This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel." |
| US: New Hire Highlights Altegrity's Growing Ambition by Thomas Heath, Washington Post August 17th, 2009 For more than 12 years, Falls Church-based USIS quietly scrutinized the backgrounds of individuals who needed security clearance to work in the U.S. government or in the private sector. Now re-named Altegrity, the company has ambitions of securing government contracts for much more than investigation and data-collection. |
| US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contract by V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post August 12th, 2009 A Defense Department auditor, appearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, testified Tuesday that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait. |
 | Mission Essential, Translators Expendable by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch August 11th, 2009 Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel supplies over 2,000 translators to the Pentagon in Afghanistan, who play a critical role in protecting local and military lives. These interpreters are a key communications link. But if they are wounded or killed, they are often left to fend for themselves. This special features video of CorpWatch interviews with three Afghan whistleblowers, recorded in country in April. Click through to hear their story. |
 | Damming Magdalena: Emgesa Threatens Colombian Communities by Jonathan Luna, Special to CorpWatch July 21st, 2009 Near the town of La Jagua, overlooking the Magdalena River, the landscape is dotted with concrete markers declaring the land, river, and everything else a “public utility” that Colombia has given to the energy company Emgesa as part of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project. A construction permit was granted in May, with the dam scheduled for full operation by 2014. |
| PAKISTAN: Attack in Pakistani Garrison City Raises Anxiety About Safety of Nuclear Labs and Staff by Salman Masood, New York Times July 4th, 2009 A suicide attack Thursday in Rawalpindi was the first that singled out workers of Pakistan’s prized nuclear labs. Military analysts said they were from the Kahuta Research Laboratories, where weapons-grade uranium is produced. The lab was once run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program and one of the most successful nuclear proliferators in history. |
| FRANCE/UAE: Gulf base shows shift in France’s focus by Ben Hall and Andrew England, Financial Times May 25th, 2009 France's new naval base in Abu Dhabi, its first overseas military base in 50 years, has sparked a round of lobbying on behalf of lucrative business for French companies including Dassault, the military aircraft maker, and a consortium of Total, GdF-Suez and Areva, which is bidding to build two nuclear power stations in the UAE. Dassault is hoping to sell as many as 60 of its Rafale fighters to the UAE. |
| US: Contracting Boom Could Fizzle Out by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post April 7th, 2009 The surge in the U.S. military contracting workforce would ebb under Defense Secretary Gates's budget proposal as the Pentagon moves to replace private workers with full-time civil servants. The move could affect companies such as CACI and SAIC. "We are right-sizing the defense acquisition workforce so we can improve our contract oversight and get a better deal for the taxpayers," said the Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy. |
| IRAQ: Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobs by Rod Nordland, New York Times April 3rd, 2009 Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq, but by next month many of its private security guards will be back on the job here. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s new contract. |
 | Policing Afghanistan: Obama's New Strategy by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch March 23rd, 2009 A new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan will be unveiled by President Barack Obama this week. It plans to ramp up the training of the Afghan army and police at a cost of some $2 billion a year. Private contractor DynCorp is already lining up to bid for some of the lucrative contracts. This article provides an overview of key reports assessing the training of the Afghan police, and DynCorp's role, to date. |
| UGANDA/IRAQ: Why 10,000 Ugandans are eagerly serving in Iraq by Max Delany, Christian Science Monitor March 6th, 2009 Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, 10,000 Ugandans risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms in Iraq for as little as $600 per month. Many are looking to go to Afghanistan as the Obama administration increases contracts there. |
 | GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy, Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit by Erin Rosa, Special to CorpWatch March 1st, 2009 While the nation’s economy flounders, business is booming for The GEO Group Inc., a private prison firm paid millions by the U.S. government. Behind the financial success and expansion of the for-profit security company, there are increasing charges of negligence, civil rights violations, abuse and even death. |
| Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases by Laura Carlsen, Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy December 30th, 2008 |
| Popular Uprising Against Barrick Gold in Tanzania sparked by killing of local by Sakura Saunders, ProtestBarrick.net December 14th, 2008 Why would "criminals" set fire to millions worth in mine equipment? How was it that these "intruders" had an estimated 3,000 people backing them up? In what appears to be a spontaneous civilian movement against Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner, thousands of people invaded Barrick`s North Mara Gold Mine this week in Tarime District and destroyed equipment worth $15 million. |
| TANZANIA: Intruders attempt to seize North Mara mine Guardian (Tanzania) December 13th, 2008 A person was shot dead when thousands of gold seekers invaded Barrick`s North Mara Gold Mine in Tarime District and destroyed equipment worth 15 million US dollars. |
| TANZANIA: Villagers storm Barrick gold mine: Inflict much damage, FFU police deployed to disperse them This Day (Tanzania) December 13th, 2008 Thousands of villagers raided the North Mara gold mine owned by Barrick Gold Corp on Thursday night and caused damage to various mining equipments worth more than $16 million (approx. 21bn/-). |
| US: Plea by Blackwater Guard Helps Indict Others by GINGER THOMPSON and JAMES RISEN, New York Times December 9th, 2008 On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed its case against five Blackwater private security guards, built largely around testimony from a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad traffic circle. |
 | One Million Weapons to Iraq; Many Go Missing by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch September 22nd, 2008 An Alabama company controlled by a billionaire Kuwaiti family is the biggest supplier of guns to Iraq. These weapons were paid for by the Pentagon which has lost track of them. A new Amnesty international report says that such unrestrained global arms trading schemes may have catastrophic human rights consequences. |
| GEORGIA: US military trained Georgian commandos by Charles Clover in Moscow and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Financial Times September 5th, 2008 The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia’s army assault in South Ossetia in August. |
| IRAQ: Iraq Case Sheds Light On Secret Contractors by Siobhan Gorman and August Cole, Wall Street Journal July 17th, 2008 Court documents and interviews with whistleblowers shed light on persistent problems in the operations of private military and security company MVM, Inc., a top provider of secret security to U.S. intelligence agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
| US: Arms Dealer Had Troubled History
by ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times June 25th, 2008 When the Army last year awarded a contract worth up to nearly $300 million to a tiny Miami Beach munitions dealer to supply ammunition to Afghanistan’s army and police forces, it was in spite of a very checkered past. |
| US: Cover-Up Is Cited on Illegal Arms
by ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times June 24th, 2008 A military attaché has told Congressional investigators that the American ambassador to Albania endorsed a plan by that country’s defense minister to remove evidence of illegal Chinese origins on ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company. |
| Over the Counter Intelligence by Philip Mattera June 13th, 2008 |
| An Afternoon with L-3 Communications/Titan by Tonya Hennessey April 30th, 2008 |
| AFGHANISTAN: Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans
by C. J. CHIVERS, The New York Times March 27th, 2008 With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces. Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. |
| IRAQ: Authorities Identify Remains Of Two American Contractors
by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post Foreign Service March 25th, 2008 U.S. authorities have recovered the remains of two American contractors, the latest grim development in one of the longest-running hostage dramas of the Iraq war. |
 | Ecuador's Yasuni Park: Oil Exploration or Nature Protection? by Agneta Enström, Special to CorpWatch March 20th, 2008 Permission for Petrobras of Brazil to drill for oil in Yasuni National Park, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, has been suspended, but some damage has already been done by Swedish construction giant Skanska. Unless new money is found to protect the forest, exploration may resume. |
| US: Holes in the Wall
by Melissa del Bosque, The Texas Observer February 18th, 2008 As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched. |
| IRAQ: 2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions by JAMES RISEN, New York Times January 10th, 2008 In 2005 Blackwater accidentally dropped teargas on US soldiers, which has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes. |
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IRAQ: Bosses didn't want to expose Iraqi police corruption by Henry McDonald, Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian December 24th, 2007 "It appears that ArmorGroup, by taking on extra staff ... and quickly making some redundant, is essentially transferring the risk inherent in such contract work to employees while making fat profits for itself," his MP, Dr Phyllis Starkey, told the House of Commons earlier this year. |
 | The Gunmen of Kabul by Fariba Nawa, Special to CorpWatch December 21st, 2007 The booming private security industry in Afghanistan has been the target of a number government raids in the last few months. One of the largest contractors -- United States Protection and Investigations (USPI) from Texas -- has been accused of corruption. |
| US: Border Fence Work Raises Environmental Concerns by Randal C. Archibold, New York Times November 21st, 2007 Environmental groups, elected officials and local Indian tribes criticize the Department of Homeland Security over environmental concerns related to fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. |
| US: Army may ban security firm from contracts; Executive accused of using information gained during affair by Matt Kelley, USA Today November 12th, 2007 The Army has threatened to ban a private security firm in Iraq from government work because an executive allegedly got inside information to win $2.5 million in contracts, Army records show. |
| PERU-IRAQ: A Year in Hell for 1,000 Dollars a Month by Ángel Páez, IPS News November 7th, 2007 Poor well-trained ex guerrillas from Peru are easily recruited for security contract work in Iraq. |
| US: Fort Huachuca intelligence center draws private contractors by Mike Sunnucks, Phoenix Business Journal November 7th, 2007 An increasing amount of U.S. intelligence work -- including training related to aggressive interrogation methods -- is being parceled out to defense firms making Arizona's Fort Huachuca a major contracting hub. |
| US: Blackwater Mounts a Defense With Top Talent
by John M. Broder and James Risen, NY Times November 5th, 2007 lackwater Worldwide, its reputation in tatters and its lucrative government contracts in jeopardy, is mounting an aggressive legal, political and public relations counterstrike. |
| US: US soldier's family brings legal action against British private security firm by Susan Goldenberg, The Guardian October 30th, 2007 A British private security firm hired to protect the oil installations of post-invasion Iraq is being sued for causing the death of an American soldier. |
| US: Homeland Security's Use of Contractors Is Questioned by Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post October 17th, 2007 DHS attempts to address concerns over contractor accountability. |
| NAMIBIA: All Hiring for Iraq Halted by Brigitte Weidlich, The Namibian October 16th, 2007 A Namibian labour hire company, which processed the applications of Namibian ex-combatants who wanted to become 'security' guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, has stopped the process. |
| US: Blackwater vies for jobs beyond security by August Cole, Wall Street Journal October 15th, 2007 Even as Blackwater USA works to recover from criticism of its private-security forces in Iraq, the company plans for an expansion into other areas. |
| IRAQ:2 Women Killed in Security Shooting Are Buried in Iraq by Andrew E. Kramer and James Glanz, NY Times October 11th, 2007 Two women killed Tuesday by a barrage of gunfire from private security guards in central Baghdad are buried there. |
| IRAQ: From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths by James Glanz and Alissa J. Rubin, NY Times October 3rd, 2007 Witness accounts give new details in the Blackwater shooting in Nisour Square. |
| Outsourcing Fear by Robert Young Pelton October 2nd, 2007 Robert Young Pelton is the author of "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror " and the "Guide to the World's Most Dangerous Places." He is also co-founder of http://www.iraqslogger.com/ . This blog item is about his experiences attending the Congressional hearing into the Blackwater shootings in Iraq written on October 2nd, 2007. |
| US: Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees by John M. Broder, New York Times October 2nd, 2007 Erik D. Prince, chief executive of Blackwater USA, told a Congressional committee on Tuesday that his company’s nearly 1,000 armed guards in Iraq were not trigger-happy mercenaries, but rather loyal Americans doing a necessary job in hostile territory. |
| US: U.S. Pays Steep Price for Private Security in Iraq by Walter Pincus, Washington Post October 1st, 2007 It costs the U.S. government a lot more to hire contract employees as security guards in Iraq than to use American troops. |
| US: State Dept. Tallies 56 Shootings Involving Blackwater on Diplomatic Guard Duty by James Risen, NY Times September 28th, 2007 The State Department said Thursday that Blackwater USA security personnel had been involved in 56 shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq so far this year. |
| US: State Dept. intercedes in Blackwater probe by Peter Spiegel, LA Times September 26th, 2007 The State Department has interceded in a congressional investigation of Blackwater USA, the private security firm accused of killing Iraqi civilians last week. |
 | The Boys from Baghdad: Iraqi Commandos Trained by U.S. Contractor by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch September 20th, 2007 Iraqi commandos are being training by USIS, a Virginia-based company that was once owned by the Carlyle Group. One of multiple "security" forces being created with $20 billion in U.S. funds, these Emergency Response Units may be stoking civil unrest as they accompany U.S. troops on raids. |
| US: U.S. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings by Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times September 18th, 2007 Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy. |
| IRAQ: Will Iraq Kick Out Blackwater? by Adam Zagorin and Brian Bennett, TIME Magazine September 17th, 2007 TIME has obtained an incident report prepared by the U.S. government describing a fire fight Sunday in Baghdad in which at least eight Iraqis were reported killed and 13 wounded. The loss of life has provoked anger in Baghdad, where the Interior Ministry has suspended Blackwater's license to operate around the country. |
| CHINA: An Opportunity for Wall St. in China’s Surveillance Boom by Keith Bradsher, New York Times September 11th, 2007 China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks, has just been approved for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s listing is just a sign of ever-closer ties among Wall Street, surveillance companies and the Chinese government’s security apparatus. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Pays Millions In Cost Overruns For Security in Iraq by Steve Fainaru, The Washington Post August 12th, 2007 U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed. |
| US: As Iraq Costs Soar, Contractors Earn Record Profits by Eli Clifton, Inter Press Service News Agency August 2nd, 2007 In a report to lawmakers earlier this week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the war in Iraq could cost U.S. taxpayers over a trillion dollars when the long-term costs of caring for soldiers wounded in action, military and economic aid for the Iraqi government, and ongoing costs associated with the 190,000 troops stationed in Iraq are totaled up. |
| US: Blackwater-U. of I. tie by E.A. Torriero and Jodi S. Cohen, The Chicago Tribune July 31st, 2007 The University of Illinois is investigating potential conflicts of interest involving the director of the school's prestigious police-training institute and Blackwater U.S.A., the military contractor. |
| IRAQ: For Abducted Guards, Iraq Wasn't Just About Money by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post Foreign Service July 30th, 2007 Surrounded by darkness, an AK-47 at his side, Jonathon Cote considered his future early last November from Southern Iraq. On Nov. 16, he and four colleagues from Crescent Security Group, a small private firm, were ambushed and taken hostage. |
| IRAQ: Cutting Costs, Bending Rules, And a Trail of Broken Lives by Steve Fainaru, The Washington Post July 29th, 2007 An ambush in Iraq last November left four Americans missing and a string of questions about the firm they worked for. |
| US: Blackwater supports inquiry into fatal shooting by Bill Sizemore, Virginian-Pilot July 25th, 2007 After one of his personal bodyguards was shot to death by a Blackwater USA security contractor last Christmas Eve, Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi assured the U.S. ambassador that he was trying to keep the incident out of the public eye. |
| US: 'America's private army' under fire for Illinois facility by E.A. Torriero, Chicago Tribune July 23rd, 2007 Blackwater North, as the North Carolina-based firm calls its new site, is designed primarily as a tactical training ground for domestic law enforcement and contractors. Using civilians schooled in military warfare, the site offers training in weaponry, hostage dealings and terror reaction. Still, the sudden appearance of Blackwater is attracting criticism and questions from miles around. Anti-war activists and locals are wary about the new training site. |
 | Fencing the Border: Boeing's High-Tech Plan Falters by Joseph Richey, Special to Corp Watch July 9th, 2007 Boeing is behind schedule in building a high-tech "virtual fence" on the Arizona border between the U.S. and Mexico. Critics say that this new surveillance system will not resolve immigration issues and may create new problems. |
| US: Contractors Back From Iraq Suffer Trauma From Battle by James Risen, The New York Times July 5th, 2007 Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict United States military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts. |
| IRAQ: A Private Realm Of Intelligence-Gathering; Firm Extends U.S. Government's Reach by Steve Fainaru and Alec Klein, Washington Post Foreign Service July 1st, 2007 On the first floor of a tan building inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the full scope of Iraq's daily carnage is condensed into a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation. The intelligence was compiled not by the U.S. military, but by a British security firm, Aegis Defence Services Ltd. The Reconstruction Operations Center is the most visible example of how intelligence collection is now among the responsibilities handled by a network of private security companies that work in the shadows of the U.S. military. |
| IRAQ: Blackwater Blues for Dead Contractors' Families by Bill Berkowitz, Inter Press Service News Agency June 29th, 2007 The families of four Blackwater employees who were killed in Iraq have filed a lawsuit that accuses the world's largest private security firm of negligence; Blackwater is suing back. |
| IRAQ: Contractors Face Growing Parallel War; As Security Work Increases, So Do Casualties by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post Foreign Service June 16th, 2007 Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad by Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi, The Washington Post May 27th, 2007 Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. |
| IRAQ: Death Toll for Contractors Reaches New High in Iraq by John M. Broder and James Risen, New York Times May 19th, 2007 Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the American military in the war zone, according to new government numbers. |
| MEXICO: Wackenhut Worries: A company with a sketchy record has quietly taken over deportation duties from the Border Patrol
by Adam Borowitz, Tuscon Weekly May 3rd, 2007 Forget about asking questions relating to the transportation of illegal immigrants back to Mexico, because Wackenhut Corporation, which won a government contract to perform this function in the name of the American people, doesn't have to answer them! The daily transportation of thousands of illegal immigrants back into Mexico has been turned over to a private company that was fired last year for botching security at the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. |
| PERU: UN Mission Probes Private Security Groups by Ángel Páez, Inter Press News Service (IPS) February 7th, 2007 A priest who provides support for Peruvian farmers in their conflict with a transnational gold mining corporation complained to a United Nations mission that he was under surveillance by a private security company. |
| Blackwater security shot Iraqi man by Pratap Chatterjee February 7th, 2007 |
 | This Alien Life: Privatized Prisons for Immigrants by Deepa Fernandes, Special to CorpWatch February 5th, 2007 In the wake of the September 11th attacks, the U.S. government invoked national security to sweep up and jail an unprecedented number of immigrants. Companies like Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut, have reaped the benefits. |
| US: In Washington, Contractors Take On Biggest Role Ever by Scott Shane and Ron Nixon, The New York Times February 4th, 2007 |
| US: Border Policy's Success Strains Resources: Tent City in Texas Among Immigrant Holding Sites Drawing Criticism by Spencer S. Hsu and Sylvia Moreno, The Washington Post February 2nd, 2007 Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws. |
| IRAQ: US money is 'squandered' in Iraq BBC News January 31st, 2007 Millions of dollars in US rebuilding funds have been wasted in Iraq, US auditors say in a report which warns corruption in the country is rife. |
| IRAQ: Helicopter of U.S. security company shot down in Baghdad; 5 reported killed by Kim Gamel, Associated Press January 23rd, 2007 A helicopter owned by the private security firm Blackwater USA crashed Tuesday in central Baghdad, and five civilians were killed, a U.S. military official said. A senior Iraqi defense official said the aircraft was shot down over a predominantly Sunni neighborhood. |
| IRAQ: Top Democrat: Halliburton Violated Multibillion Dollar Iraq Contract by Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t Report December 9th, 2006 Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, breached the terms of its multibillion dollar contract to provide US soldiers logistical support in Iraq when one of its subcontractors outsourced security work to Blackwater USA, according to new documents released Friday by Congressman Henry Waxman. |
| AFGHANISTAN: The Reach of War; U.S. Report Finds Dismal Training of Afghan Police by James Glantz and David Rohde; Carlotta Gall, The New York Times December 4th, 2006 Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force in Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement work, and that managers of the $1.1 billion training program cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to police units have gone. |
| UK: Blair accused of trying to 'privatise' war in Iraq by Kim Sengupta, The Independent (UK) October 30th, 2006 The Government has been accused of reneging on pledges to control private security companies operating in Iraq because it wants to "privatise the war" as part of its exit strategy. |
| US: Border Security Contract Goes To Boeing Reuters September 22nd, 2006 Boeing Co. has been chosen to build a "virtual fence" using sensors and cameras along the U.S. border with Mexico and Canada to help control illegal immigration in a contract projected to be worth up to $2 billion. |
| SOMALIA: US accused of covert operations in Somalia
by Antony Barnett and Patrick Smith, The Observer (UK) September 10th, 2006 Dramatic evidence that America is involved in illegal mercenary operations in east Africa has emerged in a string of confidential emails seen by The Observer. The leaked communications between US private military companies suggest the CIA had knowledge of the plans to run covert military operations inside Somalia - against UN rulings - and they hint at involvement of British security firms. |
| CANADA: Our side of defence
by Jorge Barrera, The Ottawa Times August 20th, 2006 Ottawa may have the reputation of a government town, but it's also home to Canada's military-industrial complex. |
| US: The Rise and Fall of a War Profiteer by Sarah Anderson, AlterNet July 13th, 2006 Bulletproof vest maker David H. Brooks' reign as America’s most ostentatious war profiteer does appear to be over. On July 10, the DHB Board of Directors issued a terse statement to the effect that Brooks had been put on indefinite “administrative leave” pending the outcome of unspecified investigations. |
| IRAQ: Army Cancels Contract for Iraqi Prison by James Glanz, The New York Times June 20th, 2006 The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday that it had canceled a $99.1 million contract with Parsons, one of the largest companies working in Iraq, to build a prison north of Baghdad after the firm fell more than two years behind schedule, threatened to go millions of dollars over budget and essentially abandoned the construction site. |
| US: Homeland Security Inc.: Company Ties Not Always Noted in U.S. Security Push by Eric Lipton, The New York Times June 19th, 2006 As a growing number of Department of Homeland Security employees exit the agency, the practice of former officials joining prestigious research or academic institutions while working on behalf of for-profit companies is not uncommon in Washington. |
| These Guns for Hire
by Ted Koppel, The New York Times May 22nd, 2006 Ted Koppel says "There is something terribly seductive about the notion of a mercenary army. Perhaps it is the inevitable response of a market economy to a host of seemingly intractable public policy and security problems." |
| IRAQ: Blood is Thicker Than Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill, The Nation May 1st, 2006 For most people, the gruesome killings of four private security contractors were the first they had ever heard of Blackwater USA, a small, North Carolina-based private security company. Since the Falluja incident, and also because of it, Blackwater has emerged as one of the most successful and profitable security contractors operating in Iraq. |
| ABCs of the Custer Battles Scandal by David Phinney March 10th, 2006 |
| Custer Battles Royale by David Phinney March 10th, 2006 |
 | From Mercenaries to Peacemakers? by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch November 29th, 2005 A grainy video (download here) of private contractors shooting at civilian cars on Iraqi streets poses a difficult question: how should the military security industry be regulated? Do they have a role in peacekeeping or are they part of the problem? |
| AFGHANISTAN: Blackwater Broke Rules, Report Says by Griff Witte, The Washington Post October 5th, 2005 A private contracting firm flying in Afghanistan for the U.S. military was in violation of numerous government regulations and contract requirements when one of its planes crashed into a mountainside in November 2004, killing all six on board, according to an Army report made public yesterday. |
| US: Lockheed Martin Is Hired to Bolster Transit Security in N.Y. by Sewell Chan and Shadi Rahimi, The New York Times August 23rd, 2005 A new world of transit security in New York City began to take form this morning, as officials disclosed plans to saturate the transit system with 1,000 video cameras, 3,000 motion detectors and a wide array of sophisticated gadgets, all intended to buffer the city's subways, bridges and tunnels from a terror attack. |
| IRAQ: No contractors facing Abu Ghraib abuse charges by Peter Spiegel, Financial Times August 9th, 2005 No private contractors have so far faced prosecution despite their implication in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, according to a new Pentagon report. |
| US: Judge rules in Iraq Whistle-Blower Case by Sue Pleming, Reuters July 11th, 2005 A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that a whistle-blower case alleging fraud against Custer Battles, a U.S. security contractor employed in Iraq could go ahead, but excluded any work paid for with Iraqi oil money. |
| US: Whistleblower suit against Custer Battles can proceed by Matthew Barakat, Associated Press State & Local Wire July 11th, 2005 Two whistleblowers who allege that a Fairfax-based contractor cheated taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars on reconstruction projects in Iraq can proceed with their lawsuit, a judge has ruled. But parts of the ruling could have negative consequences for those who file similar claims against other contractors, according to a lawyer for the whistleblowers. |
| IRAQ: Families Sue Blackwater Over Deaths in Fallujah by Louis Hansen compiled using reports by the Associated Press, The Virginian-Pilot January 6th, 2005 Survivors of four Blackwater Security Consulting contractors who were killed and mutilated last year in Iraq sued the Moyock-based company Wednesday, saying it cut corners that led to the men's deaths. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Dyncorp Guards Chastised by U.S. State Department BBC News October 14th, 2004 The U.S. State Department has rebuked a private security firm, Dyncorp, over the "aggressive behavior" of guards hired to protect Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. |
| Iraq's Private Warriors Facts and figures on: congressional budget allocations vs. actual expenditures; pay scales for Iraqi and foreign personnel; and comparisons of equipment ordered for Iraq and equipment delivered. |
| US: Conflict of interest may hurt nuke security: Critics charge testing of security at power plants is fatally flawed by Lisa Myers, MSNBC September 4th, 2004 Since drawings of U.S. nuclear power plants were found in al-Qaida caves in Afghanistan, the nuclear power industry says it has spent $1 billion beefing up security. That includes more frequent and more realistic mock-terrorist attacks to test the ability of plant guards. |
| Iraq: Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract to Create the World's Largest Private Army CorpWatch June 10th, 2004 Three weeks before Iraq is to be handed over to a new government, the United States led occupation has quietly awarded a contract to create the world's largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former officer with the Scots Guard, an elite regiment of the British military, who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world. |
| Give War a Chance: the Life and Times of Tim Spicer
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 9th, 2004 Strange or villianous, Tim Spicer's business partners over the years, have found themselves in hot water from Canada to Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe, although he has always somehow managed to avoid prosecution. |
| Iraq: Reining In Contractors by Jason Peckenpaugh and Shane Harris, Government Executive magazine June 1st, 2004 |
 | Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib by Pratap Chatterjee and A.C. Thompson, Special to CorpWatch May 7th, 2004 Two private military contractors are being investigated for their role in torture allegations at the Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq: CACI from Arlington, Virginia, and Titan of San Diego, California. |
 | Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq by Pratap Chatterjee and A.C. Thompson, Special to CorpWatch May 7th, 2004 Two private military contractors are being investigated for their role in torture allegations at the Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq: CACI from Arlington, Virginia, and Titan of San Diego, California. |
 | Titan's Translators in Trouble by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch May 6th, 2004 Titan corporation of San Diego, California, one of the two companies accused of complicity in the prison abuse scandal in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, is currently facing numerous federal investigations for work done in Iraq and around the world. |
| Iraq: No Guns for Contractors, Pentagon is Proposing by Seth Borenstein, Philadelphia Inquirer April 29th, 2004 As the insurgency in Iraq remains strong, the Department of Defense has proposed a new rule for most of the estimated 70,000 civilian contractors working in the region: They cannot carry guns. |
| IRAQ: 10 US Contractors Penalized
by Matt Kelley, Associated Press April 26th, 2004 Ten companies with billions of dollars in U.S. contracts for Iraq reconstruction have paid more than $300 million in penalties since 2000 to resolve allegations of bid rigging, fraud, delivery of faulty military parts and environmental damage. |
| Iraq: Security Firm Will Hire a Nightclub Bouncer by Bernard Ginns and John Bynorth, Mail on Sunday, London April 18th, 2004 The lives of contractors in Iraq are being put at risk by security firms prepared to employ untrained staff, a Mail on Sunday investigation reveals. |
| Iraq: More Limits Sought for Private Security Teams by Mary Pat Flaherty and Dana Priest, Washington Post April 13th, 2004 With an estimated 20,000 private security workers on the ground, the Coalition Provisional Authority is increasingly concerned about the quality of the security teams, the weapons they use and the rules that will govern them after June 30, when the authority transfers political power to an interim Iraqi government. |
| Iraq: Security Firms Form World's Largest Private 'Army' by Dana Priest and Mary Pat Flaherty, Washington Post April 8th, 2004 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. |
| Zimbabwe: State-owned ZDI Sold Weapons to Mercenaries Zimbabwe Independent April 2nd, 2004 |
| US: Blackwater Mercenaries Take Risks for Right Price by James Dao, Eric Schmitt, and John F. Burns, New York Times April 2nd, 2004 Here, at the 6,000-acre training ground of Blackwater U.S.A., scores of former military commandos, police officers and civilians are prepared each month to join the lucrative but often deadly work of providing security for corporations and governments in the toughest corners of the globe. On Wednesday, four employees of a Blackwater unit -- most of them former American military Special Operations personnel -- were killed in an ambush in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah, their bodies mutilated and dragged through the streets by chanting crowds. |
| Iraq: Trade Fair Postponed Over Security Fears by Joshua Chaffin and Salamander Davoudi, Financial Times April 1st, 2004 The deteriorating security situation in Iraq has prompted the postponement of a US-led trade fair aimed at accelerating reconstruction in the country amid heightening concerns about the safety of foreign civilians working there. Organisers of Destination Baghdad Expo, that was due to begin on Monday, postponed the event following the gruesome killings on Wednesday of four western contract workers in the city of Falluja. |
| Iraq: Soldiers of Fortune Rush to Cash in on Unrest
by James Hider, Times (London) April 1st, 2004 In Iraq, the postwar business boom is not oil. It is security. In a country shaken by guerrilla warfare, crime and terrorism, where the United States is handing out almost $ 20 billion (£11 billion) in reconstruction contracts, thousands of well-armed private security contractors are making a fortune. |
| Afghanistan/Iraq: Weary Special Forces Quit for Security Jobs by David Rennie and Michael Smith, Daily Telegraph (London) March 31st, 2004 Exhausted American and British special forces troopers, the West's front line in the war on terrorism, are resigning in record numbers and taking highly-paid jobs as private security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senior US commanders are so alarmed that they have held emergency meetings to agree new deals on pay and conditions for the men. |
| Iraq: Security Pushes Up Contract Costs by Sue Pleming, Reuters March 31st, 2004 Soaring security and insurance costs are driving up the price of contracts to rebuild Iraq and more funds may be needed, said a report on Wednesday by the U.S.-led authority's chief inspector in Iraq. |
| Iraq: Parsons Corp. Wins $900 Million Contract Reuters March 30th, 2004 California's Parsons Corp., one of the most active U.S. companies in Iraq, said on Tuesday it won a contract worth up to $900 million from the U.S. military for security and justice work in Iraq. The privately-owned engineering and construction company said the latest deal includes the restoration and construction of bases for the Iraqi security forces, police stations, border control stations, fire stations, courthouses and prisons. |
| Iraq: Global Security Firms Fill in as Private Armies by Robert Collier, San Francisco Chronicle March 28th, 2004 The shootout was just one more example of the behind-the-scenes role played in Iraq by an estimated 15,000 private security agents from the United States, Britain and countries as varied as Nepal, Chile, Ukraine, Israel, South Africa and Fiji. They are employed by about 25 different firms that are playing their part in Iraq's highly dangerous postwar environment by performing tasks ranging from training the country's new police and army to protecting government leaders to providing logistics for the U.S. military. 15,000 agents patrol the violent streets of Iraq. |
| Equatorial Guinea: Mercenary Tells How Coup Went Wrong
by Tom Walker, Sunday Times (London) March 28th, 2004 A former SAS soldier languishing in a Zimbabwean jail has confessed to numerous failures in his attempt to lead a group of mercenaries in overthrowing the president of Equatorial Guinea. In a 13-page handwritten statement, Simon Mann describes how he hoped to convince the Harare authorities to let him and his men pass through Zimbabwe. |
| US: Carlyle Stands to Profit from Disaster by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle March 21st, 2004 The Washington investment firm, run by a who's who of Republican heavyweights, including former Secretary of State James Baker and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, has put money into about 300 different companies and properties. Those investments include United Defense Industries, a maker of combat vehicles, naval guns and missile launchers; and Sippican, a maker of submarine systems and countermeasures to protect warships |
| Chile: US Contractor Recruits Guards for Iraq in South America by Jonathan Franklin, Guardian (London) March 5th, 2004 The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $4,000 (2,193) a month to guard oil wells against attack by insurgents. |
| UK: Watchdogs Call Government on Unethical Sales BBC February 25th, 2004 The government is allowing British arms manufacturers to sell to some of the most dangerous and repressive regimes in the world, two charities claim. A dramatic rise in the sale of arms components to these regimes undermines the government's own ethical policies, say Oxfam and Amnesty International. |
| Ivory Coast: British Mercenaries Follow Diamond Money by James Astill, Guardian (London) February 22nd, 2004 Executive Outcomes drew international attention to the industry, worth an estimated £30bn a year in the late 90s, by fighting for the besieged governments of Angola and Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone the British mercenary company Sandline International broke a UN arms embargo, allegedly with British government approval. |
| US: Workers Fear Toxins In Faster Nuclear Cleanup by Sarah Kershaw and Matthew Wald, New York Times February 20th, 2004 Faster cleanup schedules raise questions about environmental dangers and workers at risk for exposure to asbestos and beryllium. |
| USA: Halliburton Stops Billing U.S. for Meals Served to Troops by Eric Schmitt, New York Times February 17th, 2004 Seeking to defuse a growing election-year issue, the Halliburton Company said Monday that it had stopped billing the Pentagon for the cost of feeding American troops in Iraq and Kuwait until a dispute over the number of meals served is resolved. |
| Iraq: Start-up Company with Connections by Knut Royce, New York Newsday February 15th, 2004 U.S. authorities in Iraq have awarded more than $400 million in contracts to a start-up company that has extensive family and, according to court documents, business ties to Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite on the Iraqi Governing Council. |
| US: What Did the Vice-President Do for Halliburton? by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker February 10th, 2004 Halliburton blamed the high costs on an obscure Kuwaiti firm, Altanmia Commercial Marketing, which it subcontracted to deliver the fuel. In Kuwait, the oil business is controlled by the state, and Halliburton has claimed that government officials there pressured it into hiring Altanmia, which had no experience in fuel transport. Yet a previously undisclosed letter, dated May 4, 2003, and sent from an American contracting officer to Kuwait's oil minister, plainly describes the decision to use Altanmia as Halliburton's own "recommendation." |
| Australia: Gov't Looks Away From Payments to Indonesian Forces by Bob Burton, InterPress Service February 7th, 2004 One month after an unarmed protester against the construction of a Australian-owned mine in Indonesia was shot and killed, the Australian government is refusing to warn companies against paying Indonesian security forces for protection. |
| Iraq: Occupation, Inc. by Pratap Chatterjee and Herbert Docena, Southern Exposure February 4th, 2004 Bechtel's projects are examined by freelance journalists. Locals complain of shoddy work, problems with schools, sewage, electricity, gas lines, and low wages. |
| US: Contractors Complain of TSA Limits by Sara Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post November 21st, 2003 A pilot program to test the effectiveness of privately employed screeners at U.S. airports is yielding few security innovations or cost savings because of constraints imposed by the Transportation Security Administration, government investigators and private contractors said. |
| Iraq: Some of Army's Civilian Contractors Are No-Shows by David Wood, Newhouse News Service July 31st, 2003 U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up, Army officers said. |
| USA: Spying for Fun and Profit by Kari Lydersen, Alternet May 28th, 2003 Survelliance technologies raise serious questions about invasions of privacy and violations of civil liberties. They also cost a lot of money. Taxpayers fund this massively beefed up security. Private corporations and even individuals are also paying large amounts to boost their own security procedures in light of the war on terrorism. Naturally, someone is also profiting off this boom. |
 | Dyncorp Rent-a-Cops May Head to Post-Saddam Iraq by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch April 9th, 2003 A major military contractor - already underfire for alleged human rights violations and fraud - may get a multi-million dollar contract to police post-Saddam Iraq. |
| Vinnell Corporation: 'We Train People to Pull Triggers' by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch March 20th, 2003 Vinnell corporation was founded by the late A. S. Vinnell in 1931 to pave roads in Los Angeles. Since then the company has handled a number of large domestic as well as government projects. The company was the major contractor for US military operations in Okinawa, overhauled Air Force planes in Guam in the early 1950s, and sent men and equipment onto the battlefields of the Korean War. |
| IRAQ: Thousands of Private Contractors Support U.S. Forces in Persian Gulf by Kenneth Bredemeier, Washington Post March 3rd, 2003 Private contractors are sending thousands of technical experts to the Persian Gulf region. They operate communications systems, repair helicopters, fix weapons systems and link the computers with the troops to command centers. |
| ECUADOR: Farmers Fight DynCorp's Chemwar on the Amazon by Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch February 27th, 2002 The International Labor Rights Fund has filed suit in US federal court on behalf of 10,000 Ecuadorian peasant farmers and Amazonian Indians charging DynCorp with torture, infanticide and wrongful death for its role in the aerial spraying of highly toxic pesticides in the Amazonian jungle, along the border of Ecuador and Colombia. |
| US: Bush Bans Unions at Justice Department by Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times January 16th, 2002 Invoking security concerns, President Bush has issued an executive order barring union representation at United States attorneys' offices and at four other agencies in the Justice Department. |
| US: DynCorp Disgrace by Kelly Patricia O'Meara, Insight Magazine January 14th, 2002 Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia. |
 | Homeland Security, Homeland Profits by Wayne Madsen, Special to CorpWatch December 21st, 2001 Government spy agencies seek new ways to monitor the Internet. Civil libertarians worry about privacy while software companies stand to make billions. |
| US: 'New War' May Shift Defense Spending by Gary Gentile, Associated Press October 1st, 2001 In the nation's "new kind of war" on terrorism, defense spending is likely to focus as much on information and surveillance as bombs and bullets. |
| US: Biotech Terrorism? by Jeremy Rifkin, The Guardian (UK) September 27th, 2001 For the first 10 days we worried about commercial airplanes being hijacked and used as missiles. Now, the American people are worried about a new, even more deadly threat: bacteria and viruses raining from the sky over populated areas, infecting and killing millions of people. |
| US: Merchants of Death Cash In on Tragedy by Tom Turnipseed, Common Dreams September 25th, 2001 While the dead and missing toll rose toward 7000 people and the stock market suffered it's largest week's loss since the great depression due to the terrorist attack on the symbols of U.S. economic and military power, the stock of the weapon and surveillance industries zoomed. The 401 (k)retirement plans of U.S. citizens took their biggest one week hit ever as the Dow Jones fell 14.3% last week, but the big winners of the week were the weapons industry, who were the top eight corporations in percentage increase in the price of their stock. |
| US: Wartime Opportunists by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation September 6th, 2001 Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. |
| Colombia: Americans Blamed in Raid by Karl Penhaul, San Francisco Chronicle July 15th, 2001 Three American civilian airmen providing airborne security for a U.S. oil company coordinated an anti-guerrilla raid in Colombia in 1998, marking targets and directing helicopter gunships that mistakenly killed 18 civilians, Colombian military pilots have alleged in a official inquiry. |
| Colombia: Chemical Spraying of Coca Poisoning Villages by Hugh O'Shaughnessy, The Observer (London) June 17th, 2001 The tiny indigenous Kofan community of Santa Rosa de Guamuez in Colombia had it hard enough with pressures from settlers on their reservation without Roundup Ultra containing Cosmoflux 411F, a weedkiller that is being sprayed on their villages in a concentration 100 times more powerful than is permitted in the United States. |
| DynCorp-State Department Contract CorpWatch May 23rd, 2001 Corpwatch has acquired a copy of a $600 million dollar contract between DynCorp and the U.S. State Department. The company carries crop fumigation and eradication against coca farmers in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. In Colombia it is also involved in drug interdiction, transport, reconnaissance, search and rescue missions, medical evacuation and aircraft maintenance, among other operations. |
| DynCorp in Colombia: Outsourcing the Drug War by Jeremy Bigwood, Special to CorpWatch May 23rd, 2001 A U.S.-made Huey II military helicopter manned by foreigners wearing U.S. Army fatigues crash lands after being pockmarked by sustained guerrilla fire from the jungle below. Its crew members, one of them wounded, are surrounded by enemy guerrillas. Another three helicopters, this time carrying American crews, cut through the hot muggy sky. |
| Colombia: Private Firms Take on U.S. Military Role in Drug War by Juan O. Tamayo, Miami Herald May 22nd, 2001 As U.S. efforts to reduce drug trafficking out of the Andes escalate, more U.S.-supplied equipment is flowing into the region and more Americans are becoming involved -- and occasionally coming under fire. But because of the growing privatization of U.S. military efforts abroad, their presence is often unseen. |
| Guarding the Multinationals by Pratap Chatterjee, Multinational Monitor March 1st, 1998 Alan Golacinski was White House Security Adviser, a position he rose to after 20 years in the State Department, while Michael Golovatov spent an equal number of years working for the KGB's crack commando team, known at the time as Alpha.Now both Golacinski and Golovatov report to the same bosses-Richard Bethell and Sir Alistair Morrison-two ex-Special Air Service (SAS) commandos in London. They run a profitable private company named Defense Systems Limited (DSL) in London in offices next to Buckingham Palace, working for Petrochemical companies, mining or mineral extraction companies and their subsidiaries, multinationals, banks, embassies, non-governmental organizations, national and international organizations. |
| Saudi Arabia: Royal Family Gets Quiet Help From U.S. Firm With Connections by Charles J Hanley, Associated Press March 22nd, 1997 Vinnell first came to Saudi Arabia 22 years ago on a "one-time" training mission. Today, under a Pentagon-supervised contract, its military specialists are permanent on-scene consultants throughout the National Guard. Three hundred Vinnell experts, almost all U.S. military veterans, many recently discharged, instruct Saudi guardsmen in the latest weaponry, supervise supply operations, teach brigade-level tactics, help operate a hospital and are updating the Guard's data processing, among other functions. |
| Turkey: U.S. Businessman Slain; Terror Group Claims Responsibility by Ahmet Balan, New York Times March 22nd, 1991 Gunmen today killed a former U.S. Air Force officer working for an American company in Turkey, police said. A Marxist terrorist group claimed responsibility. It was the third time in two months the group - Dev Sol, or Revolutionary Left - said it was behind armed attacks on Americans. |
| Saudi Arabia: This Gun For Hire by Kim Willenson with Nicholas C. Profitt in Beirut and Lloyd Norman in Washington, Newsweek February 24th, 1975 In the aptly named Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra last week, a private contractor was recruiting a ragtag army of Vietnam veterans for a paradoxical mission: to train Saudi Arabian troops to defend the very oil fields that Henry Kissinger recently warned the U.S. might one day have to invade. |
| Saudi Arabia: Vinnell Adds Saudis To Its Trainee Roster Business Week February 24th, 1975 Vinnell Corp., has a $77-million contract to train Saudi Arabian forces to defend Saudi oil fields, but the Pentagon sidesteppped any probing questions about the contract, shunting them to the State Dept., which had approved it. |