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In reply to the discussion: Charlie Hebdo suspect said Abu Ghraib torture pics drove him to enlist in Jihad against USA in 2008 [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)121. BINGO!
James Risen: The Post-9/11 Homeland Security Industrial Complex Profiteers and Endless War
By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview
Sunday, 16 November 2014 00:00
EXCERPT...
Mark Karlin: In your third chapter, you state that the "corporate leaders at its vanguard can rightly be considered the true winners of the war on terror." You refer to these people as post-9/11, corporate entrepreneurs and opportunists. Can you provide a couple of brief examples?
James Risen: In chapter three, I focus on corporate leaders who have largely tried to avoid the limelight, but have nonetheless been among those who have profited the most from the war on terror. People like the Blue brothers, whose company, General Atomics, has produced the Predator and Reaper drones, the signature weapons of the global war on terror.
I also write about J. Philip London, executive chairman of CACI, the huge defense and intelligence contractor that was caught up in the Abu Ghraib scandal but then managed to continue to thrive in the war on terror, and Robert McKeon, a clever Wall Street maven who acquired Dyncorp as it profited from rival Blackwater's problems. McKeon eventually committed suicide, and the sale of assets by his estate after his death provided a glimpse at the massive wealth accumulated by the corporate leaders who benefit from being on the top rung of the war on terror.
Your prologue refers to the "homeland security-industrial" complex (including the related wars since 9/11) costing an estimated $4 trillion. Where did all that money go?
The Homeland Security Industrial Complex operates differently than the traditional Military Industrial Complex. Instead of spending on ships, airplanes and other big weapons systems, much of the money goes to secretive intelligence contractors who perform secret counterterrorism work for the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and other agencies. Because it is all classified, there is no public debate about the massive amounts of money being poured into these contractors. And with little oversight, there is no way to determine whether these contractors have performed well or poorly. Four trillion dollars is the best estimate for the total price tag of the war on terror, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and much of it has gone to shadowy contractors. It is one of the largest transfers of wealth in American history, and yet it has gone largely unnoticed.
Part III of Pay Any Price is entitled "Endless War." You divide this section into chapters focusing on "The War on Decency," "The War on Normalcy" and the "The War on Truth." That is an inversion of the government-vaunted war to protect Homeland Security into an immoral attack on the nation's moral integrity. How did we arrive at such an abandonment of our ethical standards?
If you recall, just after 9/11, Vice President Dick Cheney famously said that "the gloves come off." What that really meant was that the US was deregulating national security, getting rid of the rules and regulations that had governed national security since the post-Watergate reform era of the 1970s. As a result, we have conducted the war on terror in a climate in which there are few rules or limits on American actions. The message was clearly sent throughout the government that nothing should get in the way of stopping any future terrorist attack - and that message created a dangerous climate that we still live in today.
You discuss the relentless and tenacious persecution of whistleblowers under the Bush and Obama administrations (with the pace steadily picking up under the latter). In your many examples, you describe the harassment and shunning of Diane Roark, a staff member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Can you briefly explain what she tried to expose and how she was hounded into retirement and beyond?
I consider Diane Roark to be one of the unsung heroes of the post-9/11 era. A former Reagan White House staffer, at the time of 9/11 Roark was the House intelligence committee staffer in charge of oversight of the National Security Agency. Soon after 9/11, NSA staffers told her about the NSA's new domestic spying operation. She immediately realized that it was illegal, but at first thought it must be a rogue operation. She went to the staff director and minority staff director at the House intelligence committee to warn the chairman and ranking member about the operation, but the word came back that she should keep her mouth shut and stop talking about it. She realized that the chairman and ranking member already knew about it.
She then started to try to warn other senior officials that she knew throughout the government about the program, but found at every turn that they already knew about it and were involved in a massive cover-up. Finally, she had a dramatic showdown with NSA director Michael Hayden about the program, in which she told him that it was illegal. He responded that if it ever became public, the NSA and the Bush Administration could count on the "majority of nine" - meaning the approval of the Supreme Court. She then tried to get a message to the Supreme Court chief justice, but never heard back. She never leaked to the press and retired from the government depressed that she hadn't been able to stop the program.
Years later, after The New York Times disclosed the existence of the NSA domestic spying program, the FBI raided her house, because they wrongly thought that she was the source for the story. She had kept her concerns within the system and was still persecuted. Her case shows that it would have been impossible for Edward Snowden to stay within the system and do what he did.
KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root), at the time it was first contracted as a multibillion-dollar contractor to support the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere), is described in detail by you as a company "too big to fail" in the war on terror. Can you provide some highlights?
KBR was by far the largest military contractor in the Iraq war. It provided food, housing and other basic services to US military personnel in Iraq and throughout the war received about $39 billion in contracts. At the peak of the war, KBR had more personnel in Iraq than did the British Army. The United States simply could not have fought the war in Iraq without KBR. By providing almost all basic services in combat zones for US military personnel, KBR allows the United States to fight wars without a draft.
If the Army doesn't need soldiers to peel potatoes and instead has contractors do it, then it can fight wars of choice with a relatively small volunteer Army, and thus doesn't need to seek the political approval of American voters before it goes to war. So KBR is critical to the war effort; thus the chairman of the largely toothless commission on wartime contracting threw up his hands and wondered aloud whether KBR was too big to fail.
KBR was investigated for a series of problems - including the electrocution of US soldiers in barracks in Iraq with faulty wiring and the use of massive burn pits at US bases in Iraq that allegedly led to lung problems among US military personnel. But despite the investigations, KBR kept its massive contracts.
CONTINUED...
http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/27425-james-risen-the-post-9-11-homeland-security-industrial-complex-profiteers-and-endless-war
No wonder so many people in the same crowd who like seeing Siegelman incarcerated also want to see Risen behind bars. The truth hurts!
By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview
Sunday, 16 November 2014 00:00
EXCERPT...
Mark Karlin: In your third chapter, you state that the "corporate leaders at its vanguard can rightly be considered the true winners of the war on terror." You refer to these people as post-9/11, corporate entrepreneurs and opportunists. Can you provide a couple of brief examples?
James Risen: In chapter three, I focus on corporate leaders who have largely tried to avoid the limelight, but have nonetheless been among those who have profited the most from the war on terror. People like the Blue brothers, whose company, General Atomics, has produced the Predator and Reaper drones, the signature weapons of the global war on terror.
I also write about J. Philip London, executive chairman of CACI, the huge defense and intelligence contractor that was caught up in the Abu Ghraib scandal but then managed to continue to thrive in the war on terror, and Robert McKeon, a clever Wall Street maven who acquired Dyncorp as it profited from rival Blackwater's problems. McKeon eventually committed suicide, and the sale of assets by his estate after his death provided a glimpse at the massive wealth accumulated by the corporate leaders who benefit from being on the top rung of the war on terror.
Your prologue refers to the "homeland security-industrial" complex (including the related wars since 9/11) costing an estimated $4 trillion. Where did all that money go?
The Homeland Security Industrial Complex operates differently than the traditional Military Industrial Complex. Instead of spending on ships, airplanes and other big weapons systems, much of the money goes to secretive intelligence contractors who perform secret counterterrorism work for the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and other agencies. Because it is all classified, there is no public debate about the massive amounts of money being poured into these contractors. And with little oversight, there is no way to determine whether these contractors have performed well or poorly. Four trillion dollars is the best estimate for the total price tag of the war on terror, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and much of it has gone to shadowy contractors. It is one of the largest transfers of wealth in American history, and yet it has gone largely unnoticed.
Part III of Pay Any Price is entitled "Endless War." You divide this section into chapters focusing on "The War on Decency," "The War on Normalcy" and the "The War on Truth." That is an inversion of the government-vaunted war to protect Homeland Security into an immoral attack on the nation's moral integrity. How did we arrive at such an abandonment of our ethical standards?
If you recall, just after 9/11, Vice President Dick Cheney famously said that "the gloves come off." What that really meant was that the US was deregulating national security, getting rid of the rules and regulations that had governed national security since the post-Watergate reform era of the 1970s. As a result, we have conducted the war on terror in a climate in which there are few rules or limits on American actions. The message was clearly sent throughout the government that nothing should get in the way of stopping any future terrorist attack - and that message created a dangerous climate that we still live in today.
You discuss the relentless and tenacious persecution of whistleblowers under the Bush and Obama administrations (with the pace steadily picking up under the latter). In your many examples, you describe the harassment and shunning of Diane Roark, a staff member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Can you briefly explain what she tried to expose and how she was hounded into retirement and beyond?
I consider Diane Roark to be one of the unsung heroes of the post-9/11 era. A former Reagan White House staffer, at the time of 9/11 Roark was the House intelligence committee staffer in charge of oversight of the National Security Agency. Soon after 9/11, NSA staffers told her about the NSA's new domestic spying operation. She immediately realized that it was illegal, but at first thought it must be a rogue operation. She went to the staff director and minority staff director at the House intelligence committee to warn the chairman and ranking member about the operation, but the word came back that she should keep her mouth shut and stop talking about it. She realized that the chairman and ranking member already knew about it.
She then started to try to warn other senior officials that she knew throughout the government about the program, but found at every turn that they already knew about it and were involved in a massive cover-up. Finally, she had a dramatic showdown with NSA director Michael Hayden about the program, in which she told him that it was illegal. He responded that if it ever became public, the NSA and the Bush Administration could count on the "majority of nine" - meaning the approval of the Supreme Court. She then tried to get a message to the Supreme Court chief justice, but never heard back. She never leaked to the press and retired from the government depressed that she hadn't been able to stop the program.
Years later, after The New York Times disclosed the existence of the NSA domestic spying program, the FBI raided her house, because they wrongly thought that she was the source for the story. She had kept her concerns within the system and was still persecuted. Her case shows that it would have been impossible for Edward Snowden to stay within the system and do what he did.
KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root), at the time it was first contracted as a multibillion-dollar contractor to support the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere), is described in detail by you as a company "too big to fail" in the war on terror. Can you provide some highlights?
KBR was by far the largest military contractor in the Iraq war. It provided food, housing and other basic services to US military personnel in Iraq and throughout the war received about $39 billion in contracts. At the peak of the war, KBR had more personnel in Iraq than did the British Army. The United States simply could not have fought the war in Iraq without KBR. By providing almost all basic services in combat zones for US military personnel, KBR allows the United States to fight wars without a draft.
If the Army doesn't need soldiers to peel potatoes and instead has contractors do it, then it can fight wars of choice with a relatively small volunteer Army, and thus doesn't need to seek the political approval of American voters before it goes to war. So KBR is critical to the war effort; thus the chairman of the largely toothless commission on wartime contracting threw up his hands and wondered aloud whether KBR was too big to fail.
KBR was investigated for a series of problems - including the electrocution of US soldiers in barracks in Iraq with faulty wiring and the use of massive burn pits at US bases in Iraq that allegedly led to lung problems among US military personnel. But despite the investigations, KBR kept its massive contracts.
CONTINUED...
http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/27425-james-risen-the-post-9-11-homeland-security-industrial-complex-profiteers-and-endless-war
No wonder so many people in the same crowd who like seeing Siegelman incarcerated also want to see Risen behind bars. The truth hurts!
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Charlie Hebdo suspect said Abu Ghraib torture pics drove him to enlist in Jihad against USA in 2008 [View all]
Octafish
Jan 2015
OP
And we believe mass murderers now? Look...some people just like to kill, and like to find
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#2
Like the US leadership gives a rats ass about the millions of civilians they've killed either.
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#117
Well, shit.....people never lie in court, or come up with excuses for their anti-social behavior! nt
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#12
Agreed. Like how Dennis MILLER and his ilk claim they turned wingnut over 9-11. n/t
UTUSN
Jan 2015
#7
Without the invasion of Iraq, those determined to kill would have to find another excuse.
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#44
So you don't think anyone was motivated by the Abu Ghraib tortures and murders?
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#66
I think plenty of people take tragedy and murder and use it as motivator to do the really
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#73
That's fine but the State department has specifically said there's been blowback
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#77
The comment was made in 2008 to explain why he wanted to become a jihadist
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#213
george w bush made it to iraq though, with divisions. speaking of mass murderers.
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#120
I'm in full agreement with your post. (And with this OP in general as well)
dissentient
Jan 2015
#40
I totally see how you could mistake French cartoonists for US Army reserves. nt
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#13
"starting with April Glaspie" -- actually, I think you need to go back a bit farther in time, at
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#38
Thanks (I think). I'm not sure there's any way to 'love' a specific post the way
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#58
We could push the starting point back to 1953 when the CIA and FDR's grandson
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#83
prescott's dad sam: war industries board WWI, rockefeller/harriman associate,
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#128
Just think if the BFEE would have stuck to the Afghanistan war and left Iraq alone.
Rex
Jan 2015
#37
Does anyone bring up the CONNECTIONS between the House of Bush and House of Bin Laden anymore?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#42
I suspect they are defending the status quo, meaning the Military Industrial Complex.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#96
Why do alleged progressives think that right wing homophobes, anti-Semites and racists are credible?
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#171
Why do alleged progressives laugh about the BFEE and try to pretend it doesn't exist?
Rex
Jan 2015
#172
You're just going to ignore the promotion of blatant homophobe shitbag Wayne Madsen?...
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#180
Beside giving your word, you have failed to show where he is any of those things.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#183
Interesting, that same asshole was instrumental if fucking up the BOG when it first started
Rex
Jan 2015
#98
The source was ''In These Times.'' You really don't contribute a thing, do you, SidDithers?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#95
Because you have an agenda? What do you think about Bush, Bin Laden and HARKEN?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#107
No. I was not shocked because you never give a shit how loony or disgusting your source is.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#108
Wayne Madsen is a homophobic, anti-Semite who writes for a Holocaust denial site.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#136
Is that the same rense your Tag Team buddy SidDithers of DU quoted in post 75?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#148
Why are you deflecting from your support of a writer who is a homophobic, anti-semite?
zappaman
Jan 2015
#150
You are acting desperate, zappaman. As the facts aren't on your side, understandable.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#154
Never. That's why I post on the BFEE and the crimes of the national security state.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#193
No. Our difference is that I don't give legitimacy to homophobes, racists and anti-Semites...
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#203
You could wipe out my entire state and I still wouldn't travel to another country and kill people.
randome
Jan 2015
#55
And they made easy targets for terrorists who were on the No-Fly List for Years.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#129
So the years of the little bush were a massive give-away to the...
Dont call me Shirley
Jan 2015
#181
If it was me, I would have self deleted when shown I was using turds as sources.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#124
I never knew the staff at Charlie Hebdo worked at Abut Ghraib... N.T.
Donald Ian Rankin
Jan 2015
#190
Poor sociopath needs a map of the world. He's got the 2 sides of the Atlantic ocean mixed up
Pooka Fey
Jan 2015
#197
We have and still are the driving force behind their recruitment efforts in the ME. We are still
jwirr
Jan 2015
#207
Yes, out corporations and their stockholders are making bundles off of endless war and they finally
jwirr
Jan 2015
#211
In 2009, Gen. Jones reported Al Qaeda was down to less than 100 members in Afghanistan.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#216