Military, Security & Surveillance

Serco, a UK company, has a contract to manage the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre some 1,600 miles off the West Coast of Australia, which houses thousands of asylum seekers. The detainees at the overcrowded facility are experiencing serious mental health problems that union organizers say are a result of poor training and understaffing. Read More

Technology from a major Silicon Valley company, Blue Coat, is being used by the Syrian government to censor the Internet and monitor dissidents, according to activists. The equipment can be used to monitor users and block access to certain websites, such as social networking applications like Facebook and internet phone sites like Skype, which were key to the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia Read More

Human Rights Law Foundation, accuses Cisco Systems of tailoring technology for the Chinese government to monitor and apprehend members of the banned Falun Gong organization. Read More

Bell Pottinger, the London-based public relations firm, has been working for Yemen's National Awareness Authority, which is run by the nephew of Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The organization has been accused of spreading propaganda on behalf of the government. Read More

Details of shadowy CIA flights to rendition prisoners in the war on terror to Guantanamo have emerged in a billing dispute between contractors. Read More

Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp. of China provided technology to Libya that was allegedly used for the repression of Libyan citizens during the four decade rule of Colonel Gadhafi. Read More

Najlaa International Catering Services of Kuwait faces numerous complaints and court actions for non-payment of bills and alleged fraud for work conducted on U.S. military bases in Iraq. The allegations show that the Pentagon is still unable to manage subcontractors eight years after the invasion. Read More

Testimony By Pratap Chatterjee, speaking for the Center for American Progress, before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan on May 2, 2011 Read More

If the Pentagon had had to disclose details of all casualties in Iraq in real time, the public could have judged 'progress' for itself Read More

Military auditors failed to complete an audit of the business systems of Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel even though it had billed for $1 billion worth of work over the last four years, largely done in Afghanistan. Read More