War & Disaster Profiteering

This CorpWatch report, by Eliza Strickland and Azibuike Akaba, tells the story of corporate malfeasance and government incompetence two years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. This is our second report - Big, Easy Money by Rita J. King was the first - and it digs into a slew of new scandals. Read More

MPs and Amnesty International demand to know if a Nottingham-based company has breached the United Nations arms embargo Read More

President Gloria Arroyo has ordered an investigation into reports that Filipino workers were forced to go to Iraq to work on the U.S. embassy there despite a ban on them traveling there. A report from the watchdog organization CorpWatch said that "other South Asians" were indeed working for First Kuwait Trading and Contracting in Iraq. Read More

A Boeing Co. unit falsified flight plans to disguise the Central Intelligence Agency's transporting of terrorism suspects to secret prisons overseas, the American Civil Liberties Union claims in an updated lawsuit. Read More

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. Read More

The U.S. Congress and the mainstream media are picking up on some of the issues that CorpWatch has been digging into over the last couple of years. Namely, trafficking of workers to Iraq; coal power plants on Diné land; and Iraq reconstruction. Read More

Halliburton, the oil field contractor, said second-quarter net income more than doubled on a gain from selling its government services and construction subsidiary, KBR. Read More

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. Read More

Contractors hired to clean up after Hurricane Katrina are fuming over delays in getting paid by FEMA, and some politicians fear the red tape will discourage companies from bidding on the big rebuilding projects that lie ahead for New Orleans. One company claims it is owed about $150 million, and some contractors have walked off the job or gone to court to get the money they say they should have been paid for demolition and debris removal completed as much as a year and a half ago. Read More

Taking the place of enlisted troops in every American army before this one, contract employees in Iraq cook meals, wash clothes, deliver fuel and guard bases. And they die and suffer alongside their brothers and sisters in uniform. About 1,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began; nearly 13,000 have been injured. The consequences of the war will be lasting for many of them and their families, ordeals that are largely invisible to most Americans. Read More