General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow to End War as a Racket
Nationalize the Defense and Energy Industries.
No Profit = No War.
sgtbenobo
(327 posts)....provide a playground for the very fucking wealthy to stay very fucking wealthy. Stock exchanges, and the traders who operate there do not care where the money comes from. Ask yourself; "Does Jay Z, Bill Clinton, Bashar al-Assad, Benjamin Netanyahu, or the fucking Olsen twins hold stock in the American military apparatus?" Yes. no, maybe? Do you think you could handle the answer?
When you have enough money to hire a broker you really don't give a shit how he makes your money for you.
Americas lack of a sovereign defense policy only allows that evil people anyplace in the world can manufacture misery to make optimal profit.
Like the human race doesn't have better things to do.
Fuck.
Carry on.
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/316390806
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/defense-mutual-funds-rare-yet-opportunities-abound?page=2
Octafish
(55,745 posts)byJon Queally, staff writer
CommonDreams, Sept. 9, 2014
Private military contractors are reaping billions of dollars in profitable rewards from the U.S. government's global network of clandestine counter-terrorism and other overseas operations, according to a new report that examines the high-levels of integration between for-profit corporations and the Pentagon's global military and surveillance apparatus.
The new reporttitled US Special Operations Command Contracting: Data-Mining the Public Recordwritten by researcher Crofton Black and commissioned by the U.K.-based Remote Control Project, shows that "corporations are integrated into some of the most sensitive aspects" of operations conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Command (or USSOCOM). Those activities, according to the report include: flying drones and overseeing target acquisition, facilitating communications between forward operating locations and central command hubs, interrogating prisoners, translating captured material, and managing the flow of information between regional populations and the US military.
" USSOCOM) is outsourcing many of its most sensitive information activities, including interrogation, drone and psychological operations," explained Black in a statement. "Remote warfare is increasingly being shaped by the private sector.
And Caroline Donnellan, manager of the Remote Control project, said, This report is distinctive in that it mines data from the generally classified world of US special operations. It reveals the extent to which remote control activity is expanding in all its facets, with corporations becoming more and more integrated into very sensitive elements of warfare. The reports findings are of concern given the challenges remote warfare poses for effective investigation, transparency, accountability and oversight. This highlights the difficulties in assessing the impact and consequences of remote control activity.
Reviewing its contents for The Intercept on Monday, journalist Ryan Gallagher observed how the unprecedented research documents troubling ways in which these private corporations have engaged in overseas operations. Describing it as a "corporate bonanza" for these contractor, Gallagher reports:
USSOCOM tendered a $1.5 billion contract that required support with Psychological Operations related to intelligence and information operations. Prospective contractors were told they would have to provide military and civilian persuasive communications planning, produce commercial quality products for unlimited foreign public broadcast, and develop lines of persuasion, themes, and designs for multi-media products. The contract suggested that aim of these persuasion operations was to engage local populations and counter nefarious influences in parts of Europe and Africa.
A separate document related to the same contract noted that one purpose of the effort was to conduct market research of al-Qaida and its affiliates in Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Northern Nigeria, and Somalia. Four American companies eventually won the $1.5 billion contract: Tennessee-based Jacobs Technology and Virginia-based Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI-WGI, and SRA International.
Notably, while some 3,000 contractors provided service in some capacity to USSOCOM, just eight of the contractors earned more than 50 percent of the $13 billion total identified in Blacks report. Those were: Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, Boeing, Harris Corporation, Jacobs Engineering Group, MA Federal, Raytheon, and ITT Corporation.
Read the executive summary of the report here. Read the full report here.
OP with links to a load of war profiteering: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/09/09/profits-soar-pentagon-leans-private-corporations-special-ops
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
PS: Thank you, sgebenobo, for the heads-up and links. These people need to be exposed and their war profiteering made public. I'm so old, I remember when the government of the United States actually gave a darn about it. Then, that was before Reagan...
J_J_
(1,213 posts)Smedley Butler said this would end war forever.
No amount of treaties, UN agreements, cease fires will ever work until the profit is removed from war.
The media and all the bullshit artists are trying to start another two or three, while our nation is falling apart, and people on DU actually believe the same lying US media that pushed war in Iraq and enabled Bush every step of the way.
The same media has the same idiots that lied then, lying again, and people believe them?
Am I in bizarro world?
JEB
(4,748 posts)Time to get ready for another big bloody mess of money making. It's the American way. The profiteers are running this country into the ground. Broke, broken and busted.
JEB
(4,748 posts)We'd have money to fix bridges and educate our children.
bobthedrummer
(26,083 posts)ized by the fascist private armies of the Corporate Globalists that loves them wars-NOT!...
leftstreet
(36,103 posts)nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)which is neither. It's not a Dollar, it's a Federal Reserve Note.
BTW: Remember what the US/UK did to Mohammed Mossadeq and Iran when HE nationalized his own nations oil supply?
"Operation Ajax" Full Free Documentary at Hulu: <<Watch a coup unfold!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/400495
American Coup website
http://americancoupthemovie.com/
And remember that Ted Koppel rambled on for 444 nights about how evil the Iranians were...but not a single WORD about the coup- which was the reason for the hostage mess. Because it was classified until the late 90's. And those of us that tried to tell others about this sacking of democracy were called "Conspiracy Theorists".
It's treason to take the people's money and then conduct Coups in secret.
"The difference between the Mafia and the Government is- The Mafia understands Respect"