Clearwater security worker killed in Iraq

[saigon68]

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/08/Tampabay/Clearwater_security_w.shtml


CLEARWATER - Chris Neidrich was scheduled to fly home after six months in Iraq but volunteered to stay behind to help train some civilian security replacements. The decision cost him his life.

Neidrich, 31, a Clearwater resident who worked for the large private security contractor Blackwater USA, was killed Saturday with three other Blackwater employees after their two-vehicle convoy was attacked on the road to the Baghdad airport.

Neidrich is best known locally for his 1998 arrest by a Pinellas sheriff's deputy for wearing a cap emblazoned with LAPD, the initials of the Los Angeles Police Department. The deputy said he wasn't an officer and shouldn't have been wearing it. The arrest generated international publicity for Neidrich, who had long wanted to work in law enforcement

Neidrich was unable to find a job as a police officer, and his lawyer said he believed publicity from the arrest dogged him.The CIS Web site shows Neidrich standing next to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq whose motorcade Neidrich once protected. Poulin said Neidrich was on a detail protecting members of the Saudi royal family traveling in the United States before he went to Iraq.

what is going on here???

[Cooley Hurd]

1. A rent-a-cop (read: too psycho to be a REAL cop)...

...gets his dream job, and it costs him his life. Ironic, no?

[saigon68]

2. Here's More

Welcome to Critical Intervention Services
Critical Intervention Services is a Clearwater, Florida-based company providing a range of protection and investigative services to businesses, governments and individuals inside Florida and throughout the world. Founded in 1992, CIS is an industry leader in developing and incorporating innovative and effective solutions to security and intelligence related problems.

http://www.cisworldservices.org/

6/5/04 - This week marks a dark period in CIS history. In one week, we have lost two of our own in two separate tragedies. On June 3rd, CIS Officer Ken Barker died from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident and on June 5th, we lost Chris Neidrich to enemy fire in Iraq.


Both Ken (Saber 122) and Chris (Raven 18) are men of distinction with this agency. Chris was a friend who many of us in senior management mentored since 1993. Throughout his career, Chris helped develop our CCBPI methodology and protected VIP's from the Saudi Royal family, CNN anchorwoman Paula Zahn, Radio host Glenn Beck, and many others. Chris was currently assigned as Detail Leader for Blackwater protecting coalition interests in Iraq.

Both of these men proudly served for our country, Ken a Marine and Chris a Navy Seal Candidate


MY RANT:----

The MERCENARIES have code names WOW and what the F---- is a SEAL CANDIDATE??????????

[Deb]

3. Do mercenaries get Workmen's Comp?

These deaths/injuries must be raising the insurance rates that ordinary businesses pay.

[NNN0LHI]

5. This Neidrich thug once worked for Paula Zahn?

May you live in strange times.

Don

[TahitiNut]

7. "Seal Candidate" = washout (probably couldn't swim)

My cousin is one of these kinds of people - ex-military, sniper instructor, now privately employed by a government contractor and deployed "somewhere" in South America.

Sad to say, I'd not shed a single tear over the violent death of these people. I have far, far more sympathy for Kip Kunkel, Luke Woodham, Michael Carneal, Mitchell Johnson, Andrew Golden, Dylan Klebold, and Chris Harris and their families.

[NNN0LHI]

8. You got a way with words TN

:bounce:

[TahitiNut]

16. A way with worms?

(Channeling "Roxanne".) :silly:

[DS1]

23. LOL Best Grammatical Slip Ever

Chris helped develop our CCBPI methodology and protected VIP's from the Saudi Royal family

[yardwork]

44. The guy was a "SEAL Candidate" but not a SEAL?

Wouldn't that make everyone in the country a SEAL Candidate? Hell, I might someday join the military and become a SEAL! I'm a SEAL Candidate.

Sheesh.

[gottaB]

60. Blackwater, aka "Copper Gray"

The Gray Zone

The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

[saigon68]

63. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SOME ONE PUTS A NOOSE ON HIS NECK

War Criminal

[seemslikeadream]

64. I got that noose for ya - don't worry it's not R rated!

[DarkPhenyx]

4. That would be a "Blackwater Security" worker...

...from Clearwater. For a minute there I thought we had a new player in the game.

[saigon68]

24. IT IS A "NEW PLAYER" IN THE GAME

Critical Intervention Services, based in Clearwater, Florida



http://www.cisworldservices.org/staff.html

This "outfit" is organized like a private army with Majors, Captains and other officers it has Sergeants see the Link.

[DarkPhenyx]

25. Blackwater has been in Iraq for months.

They are most definately not new.

[saigon68]

26. He was on Loan to Blackwater. from CIS

Chris taking time out for a water break while jogging with Paula Zahn. Chris (RAVEN 18) was primarily assigned to executive protection operations for CIS

[DarkPhenyx]

27. Is that in the story?

I'll be honest I didn't read it figuring it was just another "Blackwater lost another one" story.

[saigon68]

28. THE LINK

The Recent Loss of Our Officers and Friends

http://www.cisworldservices.org/index.html


6/5/04 - This week marks a dark period in CIS history. In one week, we have lost two of our own in two separate tragedies. On June 3rd, CIS Officer Ken Barker died from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident and on June 5th, we lost Chris Neidrich to enemy fire in Iraq.




Both of these men proudly served for our country, Ken a Marine and Chris a Navy Seal Candidate. They continued their service to the community and this agency with the same pride and distinction. Both of these men have left behind young children. Ken has a little girl named Madison and Chris has a boy named Gage. We are working on a scholarship for their children in their honor. If you would like to help or send condolences to the families, please email Mandy Holtz at [e-mail]. Funeral arrangements with full honors for these officers are pending and will be announced on the CIS web site.

6/5/04 - We are deeply saddened to announce that at approximately 10:30 am, June 5, 2004, CIS special operations officer Christopher Neidrich (RAVEN 18) was killed in an ambush near Badghad International Airport. Chris was on temporary assignment in Iraq providing Executive Protection for American diplomats.


Chris came to CIS in 1993 after being Honorably discharged from the United States Navy. Chris was accepted into the Navy’s prestigious Basic Underwater Demolition School, where he trained to be a Navy SEAL. Due to personal reasons, Chris had to separate from the Navy but still wanted to be apart of an elite force, which brought him to CIS.


- KC Poulin, CEO - Critical Intervention Services

[DarkPhenyx]

42. OK.

Oh well. So we have a new player.

I do wonder waht his personal reasons for seperateing were.

[yardwork]

48. CIS has been discussed in the news related to Abu Ghraib.

I'm sorry that I don't have a link, but I remember reading an article linked here on DU wheren a CIS executive was quoted as saying that he was very pleased with the work being done by CIS staff assigned to the prisons in Iraq. He went on to say that the U.S. military was pleased with the work done by CIS staff.

And the codenames match up with the problems mentioned in stories about the defense of the privates being court-martialed. Their attorneys are saying that they can't identify the men in the torture photos because they all had code names like "Special Agent 007 in Charge."

It looks to me like some clear clues that many of the guys giving the orders about torture in Abu Ghraib and other prisons were employees of CIS. That would make sense. If BushCo needed violent sociopaths to torture detainees in violation of Geneva Conventions, they would hire mercenaries who were not trained to worry about Geneva Conventions, as opposed to rank-and-file military, who are trained about rules.

It also makes sense that it was military staff who eventually broke the story. Some of them were genuinely horrified by what was happening.

In other words, BushCo has hired thugs, ex-cons, and military wash-outs to do their dirty work. Just great.

[Just Me]

56. Seriously, my visions associated with privatizing militia,...

,...are so overwhelming that, I feel like I cannot even begin to articulate that path. When death/destruction/violence becomes a for-profit interest,...rather than a mission that serves national/global values and laws,...I mean, my God, we are in really dangerous waters.

This shit scares the crap out of me. It really does. And we have an administration that is ALL FOR IT which is one of many reasons why I am scared of the potential future this administration would bring upon us and this world.

:scared:

[saigon68]

73. These THUGS and HOODLUMS love to "Kick ASS"

This latest bunch are nothing more than Killers with no rules. They are in Cahoots with Criminal Elements in the Military.

[cliss]

78. wow. A fourth player.

Up to now, I was eyeing the following: CACI, Titan, BlackWater, CIA interrogators and FBI interrogators. The latter two don't follow no stinkin' rules, either. I've read on CounterPunch that they have their own detention facilities. I've even read that they have 'phantom' prisoners whose names are not logged in, and when the Red Cross comes to pay a visit, they just ship them out on buses and return them when the sissies have gone.

Of course, I still believe Bush and Rumsfeld drew up the blueprint for torture. Then they let others do their dirty work for them, and months later they can gasp with disgust.

[Ganja Ninja]

30. I worked with this guy about 6 or 7 years ago.

He got a job here because he knew my bosses granddaughter. At the time he was telling me he was going to be a bodyguard. My impression of him was that he wanted to go into that type of work because he had an aversion to manual labor. He was slow and you had to watch him or he would sit down on you. I always pictured him working security at a concert or something like that. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

[saigon68]

34. This "oufit" is a private army

http://www.cisworldservices.org/memorial/RAVEN18.html


Funeral services will be on Saturday, June 19th. Viewing 12pm - 1:30 Service 1:30, at Our Lady of Lourdes, 750 San Salvador Drive in Dunedin (Tel. [phone]).

Chris will be laid to rest by the CIS Honor Guard with full CIS and military honors on Monday, June 21st, at 12:45 pm

He was "in charge" of a "team" whatever the fick that is---

[seemslikeadream]

6. Family mourns loss of civilian contractor killed in Iraq

Maria Gadsden of Menifee, along with her daughter, Kelly, at home with a photo of her husband, Richard Bruce, who was killed in Iraq last week.

By: MICHAEL BUCHANAN - Staff Writer

MENIFEE ---- A gold wedding band hung from a necklace around Maria Gadsden's neck as she sat in the living room of her Menifee home on Tuesday with her 3-year-old daughter, Kelly, on her lap.

Bruce, a former Navy SEAL, was working as a contract security guard for Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based security consulting firm that has several hundred workers in Iraq, under contract to the U.S. government and various private companies. Company officials informed Gadsden last Thursday that her husband was killed when a speeding vehicle he was traveling in hit a ditch and rolled over.

The incident marks yet another casualty among civilian security contractors working in Iraq. Four Blackwater employees were killed last weekend when their convoy was ambushed on its way to the airport. Four other Blackwater workers were killed and mutilated in Fallujah on March 31.

Gadsden met Bruce in 1982 at the Naval Amphibious base in Coronado. She was serving food there and he was training to become a SEAL, the commando arm of the Navy, she said.

"That was his attraction," Gadsden said. "He was a warrior."

After leaving the Navy in 1987, Bruce became a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The couple married in 1999, but separated two years later.

Bruce left the sheriff's department in 2001 to start a hunting and fishing company in Alaska. Although they kept in touch, the couple remained separated and Gadsden continued her career as a child development teacher at Mt. San Jacinto College. She also pursued graduate studies.

Meanwhile, Bruce ran his company in Alaska, but also began searching for contract work to do abroad. Gadsden said he applied for work in Liberia and Colombia, but those opportunities fell through. So when he was offered a security job in Kuwait this year, he took it.

While there, Bruce ran into some fellow former SEALs who managed to land him a more risky job with Blackwater in Iraq ---- something Gadsden said her husband wanted.

Gadsden got a knock on her door early Thursday morning from a Blackwater representative, dressed in a suit.

Gadsden said the company had little information for her regarding the death. She just got a call Tuesday that his body would be arriving at LAX from Kuwait today. Blackwater officials could not be reached for comment this week.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/06/09/military/18_02_386_8_04.txt

[Joanne98]

31. Mercenaries in the LA County Sheriffs Department

Who have thunk? :)

[seemslikeadream]

36. Now that's what I call experience in the field!

and I bet the graffidi doesn't bother them

[seemslikeadream]

9. Private Sector Has Firm Role at the Pentagon

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 9, 2004; Page E01

The Defense Department is paying a firm called AECOM Technology Corp. to do work in Iraq once reserved mostly for military managers and other public employees, an arrangement that shows how far the government has gone in its decade-long effort to turn over much of its work to private contractors

"From where I was, I felt the government was losing control and accountability," said Trosch, who retired in May 1996 as the department's deputy general counsel for acquisition and logistics.

Steven L. Schooner, co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program at George Washington University, said the government has left itself unable to provide proper oversight at a critical juncture in Iraq. "Quite simply," he said in a recent paper, "the Government lacks sufficient qualified acquisition, contract management, and quality control personnel to handle the outsourcing burden."

After an internal Army report accused a CACI employee of encouraging soldiers to set conditions for interrogations and said he "clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse," it took more than a week for the government to track down and release details on the CACI contract, which was originally an Army contract but was turned over to the Interior Department.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26316-2004Jun8.html

[seemslikeadream]

10. Americans and Mahdi army quit Najaf amid new releases from Abu Ghraib but

After a bloody four-week siege the Americans abandoned their demands for the arrest of the men responsible for killing four US contractors and mutilating their bodies. They then withdrew from Falluja, allowing a local security force which included many resistance fighters to take over patrols in the city alongside the police.

In other violence at the weekend, four contractors - two American, two Polish - from Blackwater, the company which employed the men who were ambushed and mutilated in Falluja, were killed on Saturday close to Baghdad airport.

Witnesses saw their two vehicles burning on the highway leading to the heavily guarded airport. Although the Americans have cut down all the trees in the centre of the dual carriageway, attackers are still able to ambush vehicles.

Guards employed on behalf of the coalition authorities are all armed, many are former soldiers, and their presence has blurred the line with the military, creating serious dangers for civilians unconnected with the occupation, such as journalists and aid workers. Iraqi insurgents now treat almost all foreigners as part of the occupation.

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=5237

[seemslikeadream]

11. Contractors injured by roadside bomb

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- A roadside bomb Monday wounded three civilian security contractors working in northern Iraq for the London-based firm Global Risk Strategies, the U.S. military said.

The three were taken to a U.S. Army hospital, a U.S. military spokesman in Mosul said. No further details were immediately available.

The firm has about 1,100 workers on the ground in Iraq -- mainly armed former Nepalese and Fijian soldiers.

The incident is the second attack against contractors in as many days in Mosul, a major city in northern Iraq.

The British Foreign Office said that a British security contractor was killed and three colleagues were wounded in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Mosul. The four worked for ArmorGroup, a security firm with 1,000 employees in Iraq protecting official buildings and companies.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/06/07/489657-ap.html

[seemslikeadream]

12. Rise of the terrorist professors

A private conference this month at the Royal United Services Institute in London is billed "as the UK's most important gathering of counter-terrorism minds". Delegates will pay £412 for the day to hear Wilkinson and, inevitably, an ex-SAS man, Major General Arthur Denaro, speak on the dangers to the world of terrorism. In the conference programme would-be delegates are further enticed by the promise that a "senior Whitehall adviser" - a man from MI6 - will appear. Unsurprisingly, the sponsors Olive Security (bodyguards/security) and Global Risk Strategies (kidnap/ransom and corporate risk assessment) seek to profit from post-11 September paranoia.


This blurring of boundaries between the academic study of counter-terrorism and the private security trade is nothing new. One of the fathers of British counter-terrorism studies, Richard Clutterbuck, supplemented his salary from the University of Exeter with some amateurish spying against the animal rights and anti-apartheid movements in the mid-1980s. Posing as an academic interested in conflict, Clutterbuck interviewed the Animal Liberation Front founder Ronnie Lee and passed the material back to Control Risks, an insurance risk assessor on whose board he sat. The company then sold this "intelligence" to a consortium of British pharmaceutical companies targeted by animal rights activists.

Netanyahu, a vivid, brilliant propagandist and player on the Washington diplomatic circuit, sought to convince American conservatives that the sectional interests of the Israeli state were identical to those of the western democracies. He was largely preaching to the converted. Many of the names of contributors to the second Jonathan Institute conference, held in Washington in 1984, reappear as neoconservatives in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. They include Jeane Kirkpatrick, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Ledeen and Bernard Lewis.



Israel, with its tactics of targeted killings, pre-emptive bombings and all-encompassing security checks, remains the model of the counter-terrorist state. Almost all western counter-terrorist academic centres are closely linked to Israeli institutions such as the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, whose executive director, Boaz Ganor, is a political ally of Netanyahu's. Israeli research into groups such as Hamas can be extremely insightful but it can also be corrupted by the prevailing Islamophobia of the Israeli security establishment. Academic counter-terrorism becomes just another weapon in the war against Arabs and a means to vindicate the assassination policies of Ariel Sharon's Likud government. The boundary between academic research and black propaganda is again blurred.

In Iraq, America is back at the hard beginnings of counter-insurgency theory: a weakened, illegitimate, colonial-style military occupation scrabbling to contain an ever-widening native uprising. But President George W Bush does not need the counter- terrorism experts to tell him what to do. He just needs a few history books and the insight to understand, as the old European empires finally did, that the only option is a graceful exit.

more
http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_Ideas&newDisplayURN=200406140015

Global Risk pays $550000 compensation
Fiji's Daily Post, Fiji - Jun 5, 2004
Global Risk Strategies has paid out over $550,000 in compensation to the families of two men killed in Iraq. Qaranivalu of Vunaqori ...

Battle for Iraq security men
Fiji's Daily Post, Fiji - Jun 6, 2004
Global Risk Strategies is questioning the authenticity of contracts drawn up by rival security firm Tri Unity Fiji Limited, which is recruiting Fiji nationals ...

[seemslikeadream]

13. Colo. contractors know dangers of Iraq work

By Greg Griffin
Denver Post Staff Writer

The kidnapping in Iraq of an engineer with Denver ties was an unwelcome reminder for U.S. contractors of the dangers facing their workers in the country.

The Boise, Idaho-based company has about 100 American workers in Iraq, including several from its Denver office, and another 250 Iraqi workers. Two Korean subcontractors and three Iraqi employees of Washington Group have been killed during the last six months.


CH2M Hill, based in Douglas County, has a handful of Colorado workers in Iraq working on water, electrical and communications systems projects. Stanley Consultants, based in Muscatine, Iowa, has sent two Denver-area workers.

At least eight other large U.S. engineering firms with Colorado offices are doing work in Iraq - including Los Angeles-based Aecom Technology Corp., Kellogg Brown & Root of Houston and Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons Corp.

Contractors reached Thursday said the kidnapping of Aban Elias, an Iraqi-American who has lived in Denver, did not prompt them to increase their security, but it does highlight the dangers of working in Iraq.

more
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2132598,00.html

[0007]

14. It appears to me that the Iraqis know and target these mercenaries

It seems they are one step ahead of junior at all times.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract

But this newest military contract in Iraq is different. Aegis has no history in this business, Spicer has a debatable track record, and there's speculation that the contract was given for political reasons.

Wanted: A Few Good Men for Very Good Salaries

Rumors of lucrative new jobs with Spicer have been circulating for a couple of months. In late March, Britain's Lieutenant Colonel Alan Browne, who is in charge of finding jobs for members of the Royal Signals regiment in Blandford Camp, Dorset, posted ads offering Aegis positions in Iraq for qualified radio technicians at the salary of $110,000 a year, three times higher than most other jobs offered at the regimental resettlement office. The contract also provides a generous 100 days vacation per year.

Tallman says that six companies bid for the coordination contract. According to other CorpWatch sources, three of the bidders were Dyncorp, a Virginia based company that is in charge of training the Iraqi police; Military Professionals Resources Incorporated (MPRI), which was working on training the Iraqi army; and a joint venture between Control Risks Group, Erinys, and Olive Security, three of the largest providers of private security in Iraq.
In 2002, Spicer was approached by Per Christiansen, a Norwegian shipping expert who was director of Hudson Maritime, a 16-year-old company that did emergency response to crises like the Exxon Valdez oil spill. New Jersey-based Hudson had just won a contract from the Department of Homeland Security to review security at ports around the country.

Today, Singer says that the new contract raises many questions about what kind of background check and vetting of firms and contracted employees are occurring at the Pentagon. "It's not only good policy, but a basic rule of good business, but not clear that it is always happening with Iraq contracting," he said.

more
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=1300

[seemslikeadream]

18. UN Votes 15-0 to Back Iraq Power Handover, U.S. Role (Update3)

Companies such as Boise, Idaho-based Washington Group International, which has signed contracts for electrical grid rebuilding work potentially worth $3.1 billion, welcomed adoption of the resolution, Washington Group spokesman Jack Herrmann said.

``A calmer situation would mean a lot because the more stability there is, the more work we can do,'' Herrmann said. ``Our people are living in container shipment boxes and work where they live, but we have two security guards for every worker in the field.''

MORE
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a3JC8K7unl_k&refer=us



MONEY MONEY MONEY

[seemslikeadream]

17. FOR THE RECORD

[seemslikeadream]

19. Democrats call on Pentagon to oversee Iraq reconstruction contracts

The report examined two oversight agreements. The first is a $28.5 million contract awarded to a joint venture of Parsons Corp. and CH2M Hill to oversee $1.7 billion in public works and water projects by four other contractors: Fluor, Washington Group International, AMEC and Black & Veatch. The second is a $43 million contract awarded to a joint venture of Parsons and a separate company, Parsons-Brinckerhoff, to oversee $1.6 billion in power generation, transmission and distribution projects by four other contractors: Fluor, Washington Group International, AMEC and Perini.


The report said, however, that Parsons and Fluor are partners in a $2.6 billion joint venture to develop oilfields in Kazakhstan. Additionally, the actions that Parsons takes under the oversight contracts could directly affect its own reconstruction contracts because the company is part of a $1.8 billion Iraq Infrastructure II contract that includes electricity and water projects.


The senators assert that CH2M Hill has similar conflicts of interest because it has ongoing domestic relationships with three of the firms it is responsible for overseeing: Washington Group International, Fluor and AMEC. For example, CH2M Hill and Washington Group International are partners on a $314 million Energy Department cleanup project in Miamisburg, Ohio. In addition, AMEC, Fluor and Washington Group International are CH2M Hill subcontractors on a large Energy Department cleanup project in Hanford, Wash.


"It's unfortunate that the allegations haven't been checked," he said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "I'm not sure that they've been able to look at program management, and how these contracts are awarded, and what exactly the role is for these companies to do the work. We will always, for the rest of the existence of PMO, be able to have transparent and open competitions and certainly a process that has the oversight to be accountable to the U.S. taxpayer."


He asserted that no contractors have been given oversight responsibility, saying that instead they have been given program management responsibility. Oversight responsibility rests with government agencies such as the CPA inspector general's office, the Defense Contracting Audit Agency, the General Accounting Office and the Pentagon's inspector general, according to Susens.
"We have probably the largest auditing process of any government contract in history. Everything's in compliance with the transparency regulations that Congress has approved," Susens said. "The companies don't have oversight of the contracts. They make sure that the work is being done, and they support that work through management of the program, and it all falls under the ."

MORE
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0504/051804c1.htm

[JM]

20. Clearwater...Blackwater...

...someone be sure to let me know when this all comes back to Whitewater. It is only a matter of time.

JM

[seemslikeadream]

21. Wyden, colleagues blast Pentagon outsourcing

Cites conflicts of interest, potential waste, vow legislative attack

From Bend.com news sources
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 1:38 PM
Reference Code: AR-15594

“I’ve heard of cutting out the middle man to get more bang for your buck, but adding more middle men and millions of dollars of cost is a dubious strategy whether you are running a business or a government,” said Wyden. “Oversight of these contracts should rest with an impartial advocate for the taxpayer – not with these companies.”

“We’re talking about the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars, in a system in which we already know waste and fraud exist,” said Senator Byron Dorgan. “How does the Administration want to oversee the expenditures of those funds? They want to hire private contractors to oversee other private contractors, including contractors with interlocking financial interests and arrangements with each other and who have their own reconstruction contracts in Iraq. In other words, they want to hire Larry and Curley to oversee Moe. We need to tighten oversight of how tax dollars are spent, not farm it out, and certainly not farm it out this way.”

“Whether by design or incompetence. the Administration is failing in its responsibility to oversee the reconstruction effort and to protect the taxpayer from waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Rep. Waxman. “The Administration should not be outsourcing this essential government function.”

“Our latest investigation focuses on a particularly dangerous contracting practice: putting the management of Iraqi reconstruction contracts in the hands of other contractors,” said Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. “We are not charging wrongdoing, but we are saying this situation sets the stage for wrongdoing to flourish because of the close relationships between the contractors.”

MORE
http://www.bend.com/news/ar_view%5E3Far_id%5E3D15594.htm

[saigon68]

29. THIS OUTFIT IS RUN LIKE A PRIVATE ARMY

http://www.cisworldservices.org/index.html


check it out

[seemslikeadream]

32. Runnin' down a dream

In Memory of Christopher Neidrich, RAVEN 18
6/5/04 - We are deeply saddened to announce that at approximately 10:30 am, June 5, 2004, CIS special operations officer Christopher Neidrich (RAVEN 18) was killed in an ambush near Badghad International Airport. Chris was on temporary assignment in Iraq providing Executive Protection for American diplomats.


Chris came to CIS in 1993 after being Honorably discharged from the United States Navy. Chris was accepted into the Navy’s prestigious Basic Underwater Demolition School, where he trained to be a Navy SEAL. Due to personal reasons, Chris had to separate from the Navy but still wanted to be apart of an elite force, which brought him to CIS.
While with CIS, Chris served in the SSG division where he was an integral part of what we are today. Chris later transferred into the Executive Protection Division where he was assigned to high profile celebrities, business executives, and a number of other details where he always proved to be a valuable asset to CIS. In December of 2003, Chris was scheduled to certify as an Anti-Terrorism Officer giving him one more identifier as a trained professional; Unfortunately this was delayed due to his selection by BLACKWATER USA to deploy for assignment in Iraq.


Chris is survived by his 4-year-old son Gage Neidrich and his fiancé Angela. Chris will be missed and always remembered as a true warrior that not only spoke about being a professional, but also lived as one.

[leftchick]

91. A "true warrior"..... isn't that

sick and pathetic. Warrior wanna-be professional killer is more like it.

[seemslikeadream]

94. Hi leftchick now don't miss these!

Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=602189


A bizarre story but the Dr. interviewed has testified before Congress.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1774320

:hi:

[Ganja Ninja]

22. I'm not sure but I think I might have worked with this guy a few ...

years ago. He only worked for us a couple of weeks (new construction) and then moved on. I remember him saying he was going to be a bodyguard. I googled his picture and it sure looks like him. The funny thing is that he was kind of lazy and slow moving. I said at the time that Jeff Dhamer could kill and gut you and have you packed in the freezer before this guy could get his hands out of his pockets.

On edit: I just confrimed it with the lady who does our payroll. He did work here.

[DulceDecorum]

33. Requiem for a Blackwater employee

Are you ready,
Are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
-- Queen

[saigon68]

35. Hey Dulce check this out

From their Freeping Website

http://www.cisworldservices.org/memorial/RAVEN18.html

Raven's Journey

Dark as night we fly on through
By day we watch and teach our new
To some we hinder other plans
To many we sight and make our stand

We are strong and cautious as our feathered band
And we stick together, wherever we land
It’s tough to say just how we’ll get by
Somehow we always do, no matter what they try

Ravens are spoken from years beyond
Just what we do, it lies beyond
We never know from day to day
If our color will change, from black to grey

When one comes home, a message sent
One strike was done, one feather is bent
A Raven will stand, strong and proud
To cover our future, with open wings abound
We’re as one, as feathers do stick
To welcome home, our Raven missed.


- RAVEN 17


On Edit: as the orcheatra breaks into a rendition of Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries"

[yardwork]

50. Comparison is an insult to ravens....

[soup]

37. The choice of words in headlines is interesting.

Apparently the newspeople aren't quite sure what to make of the role these people play, either.

Palm Harbor mercenary killed in ambush of convoy in Baghdad

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-airaqdeath08jun08,0,3616371.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

Security Worker From Palm Harbor Dies in Iraq Ambush
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040608/NEWS/406080346/1004

Clearwater man killed in firefight
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/8865685.htm

Palm Harbor security professional killed in Iraq
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=8561

edit to try to fix spacing.

[seemslikeadream]

43. Very good

Those nasty words!

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

39. Don't leave yet lets debate.

OK? are you like one of the people below?

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/08/Tampabay/Clearwater_security_w.shtml


The CIS Web site shows Neidrich standing next to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq whose motorcade Neidrich once protected.

By some estimates, up to 20,000 civilian security personnel are working in Iraq.

The lure for many is money. Poulin said he believed Neidrich earned about $15,000 a month while in Iraq, more than double his normal salary.

[seemslikeadream]

41. Yes please stay around I would like to talk with you also

n/t

[saigon68]

47. I'll be back later

Know him is silent.

[saigon68]

54. I'm back and waiting to hear from

Honored_To_Know_Him

[seemslikeadream]

57. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DISCOVERED WORKING FOR LOCAL DEFENSE CONTRACTOR

I wish he'd come back. I wonder how he'd feel about this?

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DISCOVERED WORKING FOR LOCAL DEFENSE CONTRACTOR


(04-09-2004) - Federal agents have arrested 31 immigrants on charges of working illegally for a San Diego division of defense giant Northrop Grumman, it was reported Friday.

The immigrants worked as welders, mechanics, painters and pipe fitters at the shipyard of Continental Maritime, a Navy ship maintenance and repair contractor with more than 700 San Diego employees, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The workers had access to sensitive military installations and ships at the 32nd Street Naval Station, the newspaper reported.

Nine of the detained employees had criminal records for theft, drug trafficking, domestic violence and other offenses, federal officials said. Most of the workers were arrested at their homes.

The arrests marked the second time this year that illegal immigrants have been found working at a local division of Northrop, a $26 billion defense enterprise that employs 123,000 worldwide.

more
http://www.kfmb.com/topstory24083.html

[saigon68]

59. Were they working for Cash? I'll bet they were OFF THE BOOKS

NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO THEM--- BUT HIRE A MEXICAN GARDNER TO MOW YOUR LAWN IF YOU ARE 85 AND PAY CASH----YIKES

Sorry for the yelling LOL

[seemslikeadream]

62. Guess who gets these "contracts"? from bobthedrummer

Post-war Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total

Campaign Contributions of Post-war Contractors
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib

[saigon68]

74. Damn they Zapped the troll

Why did they do that he didn't violate the rules

[Just Me]

76. I dunno. I saw no violations either.

:shrug:

[seemslikeadream]

58. Making a Killing: The Business of War

I'd really like him to read this. Come back and talk with us. Please

Making a Killing: The Business of War


Amid the military downsizing and increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments turned increasingly to private military companies – a recently coined euphemism for mercenaries – to intervene on their behalf in war zones around the globe. Often, these companies work as proxies for national or corporate interests, whose involvement is buried under layers of secrecy. Entrepreneurs selling arms and companies drilling and mining in unstable regions have prolonged the conflicts.

A nearly two-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has also found that a handful of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations and, sometimes, criminal syndicates in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East have profited from this war commerce – a growth industry whose bottom line never takes into account the lives it destroys.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/default.aspx


Making a Killing: The Business of War

WASHINGTON, October 28, 2002 — At least 90 companies that provide services normally performed by national military forces but without the same degree of public oversight have operated in 110 countries worldwide, providing everything from military training, logistics, and even engaging in armed combat. Amid the global military downsizing and the increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments have turned increasingly to these private military companies to intervene on their behalf around the globe, a new investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found.


With the ongoing international military presence in Afghanistan and a possible war in Iraq on the horizon, the issue of military privatization has taken on new relevance. Since 1994, the U.S. Defense Department has entered into 3,061 contracts with 12 U.S.-based private military companies identified by ICIJ, a review of government documents showed. Not every contract was for military services; records obtained from the Pentagon were not specific enough to determine the purpose of each of the contracts.

Private military companies a recently coined euphemism for mercenaries are just one face of the increasing trend of the privatization of war, the investigation found. A small group of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations and, sometimes, criminal syndicates in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East have profited from this business of war.

Related Link
Read the report, "Making a Killing: The Business of War"

Arms dealers have profited from a massive unregulated sell off of low price surplus armaments into the most fragile, conflict-ridden states and failed states. The weapons, mostly from state-owned Eastern European factories, have found their way to Angola, Sudan, Ethiopia, Colombia, Congo-Brazzaville, Sri Lanka, Burundi and Afghanistan where conflicts have led to the deaths of up to 10 million people during the past decade.

The investigation profiles arms dealers like Victor Bout and Leonid Minin, both of whom were born in the Soviet Union and, after its breakup, became involved in the profitable trade in arms to Africa. Bout, a Russian pilot, allegedly supplied arms to the Taliban, and was dubbed the Merchant of Death for supplying weapons to a series of African conflicts. Minin, a Ukrainian, was charged with supplying weapons that fueled a bloody war in Sierra Leone. Both have been accused of having ties to international criminal syndicates by various international authorities.

Natural resources including oil, diamonds, timber and the mineral coltan used in the manufacture of modern conveniences like cellular telephones have played a central role in the economics of war. Mercenaries, multinational companies, and private investors have conspired with legitimate governments, brutal dictators and bloody rebel leaders to turn the natural wealth of poor countries into the currency of war commerce.

Drawing on classified intelligence files, government reports, court records and public documents, the investigation identifies the non-state actors in this growth industry and explains how they often influence the turn of world events. The nearly two-year investigation, conducted by 35 writers, researchers and editors working on four continents, will be published in 11 installments:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=177&sid=100

TIME - When Private Armies Take to the Front Lines


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040412-607775,00....

The security contractors killed in Fallujah represented a little known reality of the war in Iraq


A nation that goes to war on principle may not realize it will then have to hire private soldiers to keep the peace. The work of the four American civilians slaughtered in Fallujah last week was so shadowy that their families struggled to explain what exactly the men had been hired to do in Iraq. Marija Zovko says her nephew Jerry said little about the perils of the missions he carried out every day. "He wouldn't talk about it," she says. Even representatives for the private security company that employed the men, Blackwater USA, could not say what exactly they were up to on that fateful morning. "All the details of the attack at this point are haphazard at best," says Chris Bertelli, a spokesman for Blackwater. "We don't know what they were doing on the road at the time."

What the murder of the four security specialists did reveal is a little known reality about how business is done in war-torn settings all over the globe. With U.S. troops still having to battle insurgents and defend themselves, the job of protecting everyone else in Iraq—from journalists to government contractors to the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer—is largely being done by private security companies stocked with former soldiers looking for good money and the taste of danger. Pentagon officials count roughly 20 private companies around the world that contract for security work, mainly in combat areas. They are finding plenty of it in Iraq. Scott Custer, a co-director of Custer Battles, based in Fairfax, Va., says as many as 30,000 Iraqis and "several thousand expats" are working for private outfits in Iraq. Security contractors make a lot more than the average soldier, but last week's events suggest that they may also be turning into more attractive targets for insurgents. "If they can chase us out," says Custer co-director Mike Battles, "then in a void, they become more powerful." snip

The current business boom is in Iraq. Blackwater charges its clients $1,500 to $2,000 a day for each hired gun. Most security contractors, like Blackwater's teams, live a comfortable if exhausting existence in Baghdad, staying at the Sheraton or Palestine hotels, which are not plush but at least have running water. Locals often mistake the guards for special forces or CIA personnel, which makes active-duty military troops a bit edgy. "Those Blackwater guys," says an intelligence officer in Iraq, "they drive around wearing Oakley sunglasses and pointing their guns out of car windows. They have pointed their guns at me, and it pissed me off. Imagine what a guy in Fallujah thinks." Adds an Army officer who just returned from Baghdad, "They are a subculture."

Indeed, the relationship between the private soldiers and the real ones isn't always collaborative. "We've responded to the military at least half a dozen times, but not once have they responded to our emergencies," says Custer. "We have our own quick-reaction force now." But the private firms are usually cut off from the U.S. military's intelligence network and from information that could minimize risk to their employees. Noel Koch, who oversaw terrorism policy for the Pentagon in the 1980s and now runs TranSecur, a global information-security firm, says private companies "aren't required to have an intelligence collection or analytical capability in house. It's always assumed that the government is going to provide intelligence about threats." That, says Koch, means "they are flying blind, often guessing about places that they shouldn't go."

more

[Just Me]

66. I don't think he wants to know the truth. He won't debate or listen. n/t

[seemslikeadream]

71. Maybe he went to get some of his friends

It takes awhile to get signed up. I'll wait for them.

[Just Me]

93. Geez, I hope so. They should KNOW what they are really doing!!!

But, I just wonder if they could possibly get beyond their own G-R-E-E-D?

After all,...being any kind of successful son-of-a-bitch seems to be the "drive" of the day. That is,...until you take a MORAL gander at how your drive ultimately impacts,...the whole world.

G.I. Joes,...are driven to kill for a profit, these days. They protect NOTHING but,...the profiteers.

Ewwwwww.

[seemslikeadream]

40. What about these guys? What do you think they were doing?

How can you defend these fellas just doing their job? Were they not just private contractors?

This is how we Americans are now precieved around the world because of "private contractors".




Mercenaries have the blood of American soldiers on their hands


Lawsuit Filed Against U.S. Contractors Over Iraq Abuse (Titan Corp & CACI)


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. defense contractors were accused in a class-action suit on Wednesday of conspiring with U.S. officials to torture and abuse prisoners in Iraq.

The suit, filed in San Diego, alleged San-Diego based Titan Corp. and CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, engaged in "heinous and illegal acts" to show they could get intelligence from detainees, and thereby obtain more government contracts.

Employees from both firms, which provided interrogation and translation services in Iraq, were named in a report on Iraqi prison abuse by U.S. Army investigator Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

"We believe that CACI and Titan engaged in a conspiracy to torture and abuse detainees and did so to make more money," said Philadelphia-based lawyer Susan Burke who filed the suit along with New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

more.......................

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5386050

[Ganja Ninja]

45. Chris took a job with CIS/Blackwater because he would ...

rather be shot at than work a job where he might have had to break a sweat. That's the case with most of these guys. They went over there looking for a quick, tax free buck. He was a moron.

[NickB79]

46. Protection?

Oh yeah, thats right, they protect the illegal pillage and theft of Iraqi resources by US companies. Ah, I see, that makes all the difference in the world, huh?

"The men deployed by Blackwater, Dyncorp, and other security contractors are anything but mercenaries."

You're comparing all these other security companies to Dyncorp? The same Dyncorp that was caught in the act in Bosnia a few years ago running under-age prostitution rings for their "soldiers" to use as they pleased? Wow, that's telling.

Um, Chris "sacrified" for one thing: MONEY. Not freedom, because Iraq was NEVER any threat to our freedom. If it lets you sleep better at night, keep telling yourself that it was about freedom though. Heaven forbid you lose any sleep over the tens of thousands of dead men, women and children we created in Iraq for "freedom".

[seemslikeadream]

49. Would you like to read the diaries of those "contractors"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=542297

[yardwork]

52. Reading about your "friend" has given me a new level of disgust.

This man was neither a hero nor a professional. He was hired because he was willing to do anything - no matter how immoral or illegal - for money. Reading between the lines of his bio, he liked violence and looked for ways to get paid to be violent. Another word for this type of person is "criminal."

If you really care about America and American heroes, you will demand that the U.S. government stop hiring shadowy figures to carry out illegal tactics abroad and at home.

[seemslikeadream]

53. You and your friend were lied too. Fascists are running this country

The sooner you realize this fact the better off we will all be



Courthourse @ 3rd & Constitution Ave NW, Washington DC


An email from Sibel Edmonds:

For over two years Attorney General John Ashcroft has
been relentlessly engaged in covering up my reports and
investigations into my allegations. He has asserted the
rarely invoked State Secret Privilege in my court
proceedings, and has used it to quash a subpoena
request for my deposition from attorneys representing
9/11 family members on information regarding 9/11.

Ashcroft is not protecting 'national security' or
'state secrets' of the United States. On the contrary,
he is endangering our national security by covering up
facts and information related to criminal and terrorist
activities against this country and it's citizens.
Ashcroft is fully aware that making this information
public will bring about the question of accountability,
will expose serious criminal activities, and his
complicity in covering up.

On Monday, June 14, 2004, at 10:00 AM, Judge Reggie
Walton is expected to issue his ruling on the state
secret privilege assertion by AG Ashcroft, which is
intended to gag me. The hearing will be held in US
District Court for the District of Columbia, located at
3rd and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, Judge
Walton's courtroom. Please attend if you can, since by
your presence both the court and Ashcroft will
understand that this attempt to cover up will not go
unnoticed.

I will be there, in front of the Court's Constitution
Avenue entrance, at 9:30 AM, and will be joined by
Daniel Ellsberg to make press statements and to meet
with all of you.

DC Court with map
http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/location.html

Hope to see you there,
Sibel D. Edmonds
__________________________________

Received the above as an email from www.septembereleventh.org

[abracadabra]

55. providing protection for the carpet baggers is not honorable

Your friend had absolutely nothing to do with defending "freedom" .
Defend corportate interests at your own risk. No guarantees.
No one forced any mercenaries to risk their lives for a damn paycheck.
Too bad is all I say.
Idiots.

[Just Me]

68. Beware the brainwashing. This is about profit over principle and people.

Maybe the money is what turns these guys' faculties completely off.

Heros my ass!!!

Try self-deluded, greedy, egos runamuck!!!

Oh, and by the way,...YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!

*sigh* my passions getting the best of me,...I'm sure you can handle it.

[saigon68]

69. self-deluded, greedy, egos runamuck!!!

Chris and Saddam's Guns



Chris and his team at Baghdad International Airport shortly after arrival in-country (December 2003).


EGO'S RUN AMOK-- MR BENCHLEY WHERE ARE YOU TO COMMENT

[Ganja Ninja]

70. Lazy slackers that couldn't compete in work force.

Looking for some big money they played the odds and this one lost. In the short time I knew him I didn't feel it was any special honor.

[saigon68]

75. you're totally right

[seemslikeadream]

72. saigon68 you always get the best photos

they're the kinder gentler mercenaries for the brave new world

[yardwork]

96. These look like the guys who supposedly beheaded Berg

Weren't their five of them in the video? Look at the photo of the five of them above. Looks similar.

If it wasn't them it was somebody like them.

[dArKeR]

51. 111F/43C in Nasiriyah. Do you know where Bush is murdering your children?

ALL citizens and ALL corporations who donate to Bush are immoral and will NEVER make it to Heaven.
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/IZXX0007.html

Pretzel Brain Bicycle
http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/pretzelbrain.htm
http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[saigon68]

61. THEY'D BETTER MAKE THEIR KILLING NOW

Because under President John Kerry this type of corporate looting and formation of PRIVATE ARMIES is going to come to a quick screeching HALT.

[TahitiNut]

67. We'd sure hope so. It's bad enough they're being enriched ...

... at taxpayer expense and the cost of human lives already without screaming fits and filibusters in Congress.

[seemslikeadream]

65. Mercenaries 'R' Us - A story for the kiddies

Mercenaries 'R' Us

By Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet
March 24, 2004

With the casualty toll ticking ever upward and troops stretched thin on the ground, the Bush administration is looking to mercenaries to help control Iraq. These soldiers-for-hire are veterans of some of the most repressive military forces in the world, including that of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and South Africa's apartheid regime.


In February, Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based Pentagon contractor, began hiring former combat personnel in Chile, offering them up to $4,000 a month to guard oil wells in Iraq. The company flew the first batch of 60 former commandos to a training camp in North Carolina. These recruits will eventually wind up in Iraq where they will spend six months to a year.


"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals – the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater USA, told the Guardian.


While Blackwater USA is not nearly as well known as Halliburton or Bechtel – two mega-corporations making a killing off the reconstruction of Iraq – it nevertheless is doing quite well financially thanks to the White House's war on terror. The company specializes in firearm, tactics and security training and in October 2003, according to Mother Jones magazine, the company won a $35.7 million contract to train more than 10,000 sailors from Virginia, Texas, and California each year in 'force protection.'


Business has been booming for Blackwater, which now owns, as its press release boasts, "the largest privately-owned firearms training facility in the nation." Jackson told the Guardian, "We have grown 300 percent over each of the past three years and we are small compared to the big ones. We have a very small niche market, we work towards putting out the cream of the crop, the best."

more
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18193

[seemslikeadream]

77. Accuracy and Balance

from DulceDecorum



Accuracy and Balance
Accuracy and balance are paramount, and together, they are VOA's highest priority. Accuracy always comes before speed in VOA central service and language programming. VOA has a legal obligation to present a comprehensive description of events, reporting an issue in a reliable and unbiased way. Though funded by the U.S. government, VOA airs all relevant facts and opinions on important news events and issues. VOA corrects errors or omissions in its own broadcasts at the earliest opportunity.
http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm?sectionTitle=VOA%20Journalistic%20Code

Some U.S. military officials involved in counter terrorism training and operations in Africa say they are concerned that instability and scandals in Iraq will draw resources away from their efforts. The concern comes amid evidence that Africa-based terrorist cells are growing in number and becoming more lethal.
U.S. military officials at European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, say the latest evidence of the growing threat of Africa-based terrorism is the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Spain.
The officials say they believe the attacks, which killed 191 people and injured more than 1600 others, may have been carried out by the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a little-known group based in Morocco.
Security officials in Morocco have also said the organization has ties to Moroccan members of al-Qaida, believed to be behind the suicide bombings in Casablanca nearly a year ago.
A spokesman for the European Command, Army Lieutenant Colonel Powl Smith, said that such links show that al-Qaida-inspired, and possibly financed, terrorism has spread from east to north Africa and has taken root.
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=73CACC29-175E-45E2-82CCAD4...

VOA Headquarters: VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., at the foot of Capitol Hill on Independence Avenue, between 3rd and 4th Streets, S.W. Most programming is produced at this location and broadcast to listeners, viewers, and affiliate stations around the world. The building is equipped with 55 radio studios, five television studios, a digital stereo master control facility capable of switching 512 incoming circuits and 448 outgoing circuits, and three intake centers to record live radio and television reports from VOA correspondents worldwide. The recently deployed Dalet Digital Media System provides radio broadcasters with the capability to edit and produce radio programs from their desktop computers. The Dalet system is also used throughout the studio facilities and broadcast automation systems for radio production and on-air broadcasts.

History: VOA began in response to the need of peoples in closed and war-torn societies for a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. The first VOA broadcast originated from New York City on February 24, 1942, just 79 days after the United States entered World War II. Speaking in German, announcer William Harlan Hale told his listeners, "Here speaks a voice from America. Every day at this time we will bring you the news of the war. The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth."
http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm?sectionTitle=Fast%20Facts

[goforit]

79. These mercenaries just don't have what it takes. So sad.

[saigon68]

80. Thugs and Hoodlums always have character flaws.

The guys couldn't guard the pimples on their own asses.

[seemslikeadream]

81. sounds like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed

this morning.

Contracting Justice

Unfortunately, the U.S. government has done none of the above. In fact, while the names of the contractors mentioned in the Taguba report were splattered in every major newspaper over the country, CACI and Titan pointed out -- and continue to do so -- that neither the Pentagon, nor the Justice Department has informed them of any wrong-doings by their employees. The absence of any lawsuits -- criminal or civil -- by the government against those named in the Taguba report seem to confirm the companies' claims, although Titan did fire the employee cited in the report. The Defense Department has for now suspended orders for new interrogators from CACI and is investigating whether the $19.9 million contract for "interrogator support” and a $21.8 million contract for "human intelligence support"under which the interrogators were supplied should have been issued at all. In defiance of the findings of its own Taguba report, however, the Defense Department stated that it was "satisfied with the services” of CACI interrogators. Only recently has the Justice Department opened an investigation of an unidentified civilian contractor.

As civilians, contractors can't be tried in military courts. Last year, the Coalition Provision Authority declared that foreign civilians in Iraq can not tried in Iraqi courts. When asked during last month's Senate hearings if the June 30th transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis would alter the status of contractors, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage replied, "I don't know."

There is also no precedent for extraditing civilian contractors to face criminal and civil charges in U.S. courts. The civilians implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses may be extradited under the 2000 Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act . MEJA was supposed to prevent the repeat of what happened in Bosnia, where employees of Virginia-based DynCorp -- incidentally, the company in charge of training the Iraqi police -- avoided trial on rape charges because of jurisdiction conflicts in the case. Unfortunately, not only is MEJA untested, it is also limited in scope. For example, it only covers civilians under contract by the Defense Department and is applicable only to U.S. citizens. It does not apply either contractors employed by the CIA or citizens of "third countries" -- as is the case with some of those named in the Taguba report.

Should the contractors be tried in U.S. court, they may still go free, if they can prove that they carried out government instruction as specified -- what is known as "government contractor defense” -- and thus are not liable for the consequences. The Supreme Court has upheld the "government contractor defense"in a product liability case, but it remains to be seen if it would apply beyond that.

more
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2004/06/06_513.html



Commentary: Sayonara, Baghdad
There are hundreds of foreign civilians in Iraq -- government contractors, aid workers, and private businessmen, like commentator Jack Bishop. He left Iraq just a few weeks ago. Bishop is the president of business consulting group, Kingsbury International, based outside of Chicago.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1951428



"Out Of The Blue"

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Out of the blue
and into the black
They give you this,
but you pay for that
And once you're gone,
you can never come back
When you're out of the blue
and into the black.

The king is gone
but he's not forgotten
This is the story
of a Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out
than it is to rust
The king is gone
but he's not forgotten.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

NEIL YOUNG

[saigon68]

83. Crabby--hell yes

Another day of the Wizened Corpse on TV is getting old

Thank God I have a dish and can watch dozens of other channels.

Being a news junkie --- there is very little being reported except Ray gun Blather.

[seemslikeadream]

82. caustic derision

Our First Victory Was Zapatero

The Iraq war is very possibly the most serious self-inflicted wound in the history of American foreign policy. It was caused by American imperialism and militarism, which are the subjects of my new book The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. Let me make clear what I mean by imperialism and militarism.

According to the Pentagon's annual inventory of real estate -- its so-called Base Structure Report -- we have over 725 military bases in some 132 countries around the world. This vast network of American bases constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of military enclaves rather than of colonies as in older forms of imperialism.

Our military deploys well over half a million soldiers, spies, technicians, teachers, dependents, and civilian contractors in other nations. To dominate the oceans and seas of the world, we maintain some thirteen carrier task-forces, which constitute floating bases. We operate numerous espionage bases not included in the Base Structure Report to monitor what the people of the world, including our own citizens, are saying, faxing, or emailing to one another.

Our installations abroad bring profits to civilian industries, which design and manufacture weapons for the armed forces or, like the now well-publicized Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston, undertake contract services to build and maintain our outposts. One task of such contractors is to keep uniformed members of the imperium housed in comfortable quarters, well fed, amused, and supplied with enjoyable, affordable vacation facilities.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0610-09.htm



Army Times

Issue Date: May 17, 2004

Editorial
A failure of leadership at the highest levels


Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.
Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable.

But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.

There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.

But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.

The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.

In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.

How tragically ironic that the American military, which was welcomed to Baghdad by the euphoric Iraqi people a year ago as a liberating force that ended 30 years of tyranny, would today stand guilty of dehumanizing torture in the same Abu Ghraib prison used by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen.

One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime.

Army commanders in Iraq bear responsibility for running a prison where there was no legal adviser to the commander, and no ultimate responsibility taken for the care and treatment of the prisoners.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also shares in the shame. Myers asked “60 Minutes II” to hold off reporting news of the scandal because it could put U.S. troops at risk. But when the report was aired, a week later, Myers still hadn’t read Taguba’s report, which had been completed in March. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also failed to read the report until after the scandal broke in the media.

By then, of course, it was too late.

Myers, Rumsfeld and their staffs failed to recognize the impact the scandal would have not only in the United States, but around the world.

If their staffs failed to alert Myers and Rumsfeld, shame on them. But shame, too, on the chairman and secretary, who failed to inform even President Bush.

He was left to learn of the explosive scandal from media reports instead of from his own military leaders.

On the battlefield, Myers’ and Rumsfeld’s errors would be called a lack of situational awareness — a failure that amounts to professional negligence.

To date, the Army has moved to court-martial the six soldiers suspected of abusing Iraqi detainees and has reprimanded six others.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the MP brigade that ran Abu Ghraib, has received a letter of admonishment and also faces possible disciplinary action.

That’s good, but not good enough.

This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

http://www.armytimes.com/archivepaper.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2897659.php

[saigon68]

84. Amazing Editorial

Usually the Army Times is a cheer leader for the establishment.

YIKES.

[Ganja Ninja]

85. For freepers who may still have trouble telling the difference ...

between patriotism and the profit motive think about this. These guys are getting payed around $500 a day for being in Iraq. If they were only paying $500 a week how many of them do you think would be over there?

[bemildred]

86. Some US reservists want to come back to Iraq as mercenaries

"When I'm done my three months here, I'm gonna get out of the reserves and come back to Iraq to make some serious money," said Specialist Johnson, a
21-year-old from Iowa.

When some of the regular force military police overheard this statement, they began to mock the stout Johnson as "not having what it takes to be a
mercenary".

In response, the young reservist replied: "The jokes on you, cause I've already signed a contract. He claimed he had signed up in the Mosul camp with the
Global security company and would be paid $20,000 a month plus expenses.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x56043

[seemslikeadream]

87. Now isn't that lovely

How in the hell is the United States going to attract the best and brightest when they pay them shit and have to compete with the free market.

[TahitiNut]

92. Taxpayers are paying those mercenary salaries, too.

Iraq ain't no "free market." Not even close.

[seemslikeadream]

88. Mercenaries Undermine Stated Goals In Iraq

BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

After the grisly scene in Fallujah there can now be no doubt: All civilians are targets because all civilians are potential mercenaries in the service of the occupying forces.

Consequently, until the US and UK revoke and renounce the contracting of mercenaries, more killings similar to the one in Fallujah will occur.

The result will be that as more contractors and civilians die, assistance from legitimate aid agencies, charities, and peace groups will decrease. This hurts the Iraqi people because armies aren’t trained or equipped for nation building and providing humanitarian aid on a large, sustained scale.

It’s essential for the welfare of the Iraqi people that non-governmental organizations and foreign government aid agencies be trusted to work in Iraq. The use of mercenaries blurs the line between civilians and the military and erodes the possibility of trust between Iraqis and westerners -- a state of affairs that endangers the lives of everyone.

The Bush administration neo-conservatives behind our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq aren’t likely to swear off the use of mercenaries, and thus they’ll continue undermining the lofty goals they allegedly hope to accomplish in Iraq. If their past record and ideology is any indication, the incident in Fallujah will be used as an excuse to retaliate with higher levels of violence -- inevitably inspiring more Iraqis to condone violent resistance.

The neo-conservatives never had to learn the lessons of Vietnam; they probably won’t learn the lessons of what’s happening now.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Mike Kress is an Air Force veteran who spent six months in the Persian Gulf. He lives in Spokane, WA, and serves as vice-chair of the city’s Human Rights Commission. Contact via [e-mail] .
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/04/con04150.html

[seemslikeadream]

89. Some comments from employees of PMCs -- THIS IS GOOD

Some comments from employees of PMCs

"I too spent time in Iraq with Custer Battles. They are a frauduently company. Trust me, they are worried about $$ first and the employee/ bodies last. They will breach anyones contract, then screw them all the way home. Also don't trust there K9 division, there dogs are suppose to be BOMB dogs, I won't bet my life on the dogs finding anything. Also is a liar." (January 8, 2004)
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Custer_Battles

A new monster has emerged from the depths of private security firms
operating in IRaq. Custer Battles LLC, the new company that took over
security at the Baghdad Airport. The on-site management team is made up of
a bunch of former "army ranger" types that must have a real "treat" to work
for in the military. They could care less about the health or safety of
thier own staff never mind that of the innocent civilians working in and
around the airport. They promote a type of security that well crosses the
borders of decent treatment and humanitarian treatment. Constantly yelling
at thier own staff to "take no shit" , point weapons at innocent/unarmed
civilians, and "suck it up" when they have a complaint... they present as no
company that is certainly going to help with the problem of how Americans
are percieved in the area. Pointing weapons and threatening thier own staff
with being "escorted" to the propertly line and forceing those that wish to
quite or be fired to make thier take an "unarmed" ride without
communications through the country to get out.

They have hired 50 or so Ghurkas from Nepal to support the operation... but
pay them less than 1/4 of what most of the other staff gets. Forced to eat
Iraqi food without proper cooking and storing has made many of them sick...
and the management could care less. When faced with questions, they simply
place you in truck and send you unarmed and without communications to
Amman... where you have to find your own way home basically.

They have purchases thier own plane (the management) but still do not
properly equip thier own staff. They are forced to patrol the area in
sub-standard vehicles that creat yet another dangerous situation. These
vehicles are not robust enough to withstand a blowout never mind any other
attacks. With the 4 cylinder P/Us, the officers are not able to get out of
thier own way, never mind escape an attack or dangerous situation.

I encourage you to look into this type of activity and wast of our money in
Iraq.

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2003w33/msg00065.htm

Topic Page: 1 2 of 2
Kevwhite

USA
2 Posts
Posted - 09/22/2003 : 12:36:42

Just a warning to anyone considering a contract with Custer Battles LLC, of Fairfax,VA, the company currently awarded the contract to provide security at Baghdad International Airport. I was with them for the first month. The company repeatedly demonstrated signs of serious cash flow problems that effected their ability meet payrolls, both within country and also for all the Americans expecting direct deposits back home. We were all shorted on our first pay, at the end of July, and the promise to make up the difference by Aug 5 was not met. At that time the excuse was that it was easier to pay us the back wages along with our normal pay at the end of Aug. However, at least in my case, the Aug pay was also substantially light. As I had returned to the states due to a death in my family, and being owed nearly $2000, I opted to not return. There are also a number of issues, such as health and welfare concerns and generally poor management, that contributed to my decision. A number of other well qualified professionals have also left them. If you are a true professional you will not like working for them and you will not want your name associated with them.

tthrasher


USA
1 Posts
Posted - 11/13/2003 : 19:40:09

Could you email me with more info? I was planning on sending them my resume.

togeoff

United Kingdom
46 Posts
Posted - 11/17/2003 : 11:32:24

quote:

Originally posted by Kevwhite

Just a warning ..with them.

I wouldn't mind more information myself - I too was looking at what they were offering.

Geoff H

RangerinIraq

USA
1 Posts
Posted - 11/25/2003 : 07:27:24

I've been with Custer Battles since they started here in Iraq in July. After my time in the Army, this has been the most rewarding experience I've had. Custer Battles has been good to me, and while they have definitely experienced growing pains, they take care of their people more than any company I know. The owners spend most of their time here, and they handle issues fairly and honorably.

I also know the guy who posted this note. He left the company after they paid $3000 up front to fly him home for a family emergency and he repays them by posting crap like this.

All I know is that I enjoy what I do and I'd recommend Custer Battles to anyone. They're definitely hiring and expanding; send em your resume.

1 Posts
Posted - 12/22/2003 : 17:34:46


reference custer battles,please stay clear,they are dangerous,i have just left them,they left us without body armour,ammo and weapons,we had to buy all our own equipment and scrounge it from other good companies and the military,then we were told to arrange our own transport home on leave,it was unbelievable,when these points were brought up we were ignored at all levels,from washinton to bagdad.they had in place teams of psd's from the usa who then left,then they had teams of psd's from france who then left,then they had teams of psd's from the uk who then left,does this not speak volumes.custer battles are only in it to gain as much cash as possable they definetely should not get the contract renewed in march they are dredfull in the way they conduct thier buisness,ps.to the previous "ranger" im glad you are happy mate but they are not anywhere as good as you make out,please do your research to find out whether what i have said is fact or fiction,yours T.

alan_w

USA
1 Posts
Posted - 12/26/2003 : 09:42:55

More info please. Been offered a contract.

divdoc

USA
3 Posts
Posted - 12/28/2003 : 01:14:18


quote:
Originally posted by Kevwhite

Just a warning to anyone considering a contract with Custer Battles LLC, of Fairfax,VA, the company currently awarded the contract to provide security at Baghdad International Airport. I was with them for the first month. The company repeatedly demonstrated signs of serious cash flow problems that effected their ability meet payrolls, both within country and also for all the Americans expecting direct deposits back home. We were all shorted on our first pay, at the end of July, and the promise to make up the difference by Aug 5 was not met. At that time the excuse was that it was easier to pay us the back wages along with our normal pay at the end of Aug. However, at least in my case, the Aug pay was also substantially light. As I had returned to the states due to a death in my family, and being owed nearly $2000, I opted to not return. There are also a number of issues, such as health and welfare concerns and generally poor management, that contributed to my decision. A number of other well qualified professionals have also left them. If you are a true professional you will not like working for them and you will not want your name associated with them.


Thanks for the heads-up. I work for ITT/Group4 in Bosnia. The same advice and avoidance should be applied.

custerbattlesisajoke

2 Posts
Posted - 01/08/2004 : 19:43:10


I too spent time in Iraq with Custer Battles. They are a frauduently company. Trust me, they are worried about $$ first and the employee/ bodies last. They will breach anyones contract, then screw them all the way home.

Also don't trust there K9 division, there dogs are suppose to be BOMB dogs, I won't bet my life on the dogs finding anything. Also Jerry Johnson is a liar.


lawdoggs86

USA
3 Posts
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 00:56:00

Do you work for a Defense Contractor in Iraq or elswhere?

Have you been mistreated, abused, injured on the job?

Send your e-mail, (names are not necessary) and a short description of your situation to: [e-mail]

We are preparing lists of personnel to mount mass torts, (class action lawsuits) against the various contracting organizations that have abused, mistreated and otherwise maligned security and other contracting professionals in this, our nation's time of crisis.

While our soldiers die in Iraq everyday, these companies only talk about greed, greed, greed.

Information will be sent to you about the various attournies and other legal organizations you can contact to put a stop to these insidious abuses.

[e-mail]

csdickey

USA
1 Posts
Posted - 02/09/2004 : 04:36:43

quote:

Originally posted by t

reference custer battles,please stay clear,they are dangerous,i have just left them,they left us without body armour,ammo and weapons,we had to buy all our own equipment and scrounge it from other good companies and the military,then we were told to arrange our own transport home on leave,it was unbelievable,when these points were brought up we were ignored at all levels,from washinton to bagdad.they had in place teams of psd's from the usa who then left,then they had teams of psd's from france who then left,then they had teams of psd's from the uk who then left,does this not speak volumes.custer battles are only in it to gain as much cash as possable they definetely should not get the contract renewed in march they are dredfull in the way they conduct thier buisness,ps.to the previous "ranger" im glad you are happy mate but they are not anywhere as good as you make out,please do your research to find out whether what i have said is fact or fiction,yours T.


Enzo


Germany
5 Posts
Posted - 02/10/2004 : 08:09:53


quote:

Originally posted by csdickey

quote:
Originally posted by t

reference custer battles,please stay clear,they are dangerous,i have just left them,they left us without body armour,ammo and weapons,we had to buy all our own equipment and scrounge it from other good companies and the military,then we were told to arrange our own transport home on leave,it was unbelievable,when these points were brought up we were ignored at all levels,from washinton to bagdad.they had in place teams of psd's from the usa who then left,then they had teams of psd's from france who then left,then they had teams of psd's from the uk who then left,does this not speak volumes.custer battles are only in it to gain as much cash as possable they definetely should not get the contract renewed in march they are dredfull in the way they conduct thier buisness,ps.to the previous "ranger" im glad you are happy mate but they are not anywhere as good as you make out,please do your research to find out whether what i have said is fact or fiction,yours T.


Has someone any adresses from serious companies,maybe UXO-related,in the area?
Thank´s,Enzo

SL

lawdoggs86

USA
3 Posts
Posted - 02/12/2004 : 13:05:15

Do you work for a Defense Contractor in Iraq or elswhere?

Have you been mistreated, abused, injured on the job?

Send your e-mail, (names are not necessary) and a short description of your situation to: [e-mail]

Also, if you know of other message boards, send that information as well. We will band together a network to stop these people from their sick and disgusting practices which are ruining our lives and costing our noble troops their's.

Whether you work for: Brown & Root/Haliburton

DynCorp

Custer Battles

ITT

or other corrupt contracting organization, you need to take a stand.

Don't be fooled. These people have strong lobbies in Washington and deep pockets filled, not only with tax payers fraudulently acquired dollars, but politicians and high ranking military officials as well.

This is not a joke. If we don't start standing up to these filthy thieves, nobody will.

I did not serve my country to let that happen. Nor, I believe, did you.

start here: http://www.alexanderlaw.com /

all information is strictly confidential.

We are preparing lists of personnel to mount mass torts, (class action lawsuits) against the various contracting organizations that have abused, mistreated and otherwise maligned security and other contracting professionals in this, our nation's time of crisis.

While our soldiers die in Iraq everyday, these companies only talk about greed, greed, greed.

Information will be sent to you about the various attornies and other legal organizations you can contact to put a stop to these insidious abuses.

[e-mail]

custerbattlesisajoke

2 Posts
Posted - 02/13/2004 : 16:59:42

At least we weren't the only ones with out body armour. Guns with 2 or 3 bullets. Custer Battles, needs to be investigated for Fraud! At least I am home, I have heard othe horror stories of the way they treat there people.

quote:

Originally posted by csdickey

quote:
Originally posted by t

reference custer battles,please stay clear,they are dangerous,i have just left them,they left us without body armour,ammo and weapons,we had to buy all our own equipment and scrounge it from other good companies and the military,then we were told to arrange our own transport home on leave,it was unbelievable,when these points were brought up we were ignored at all levels,from washinton to bagdad.they had in place teams of psd's from the usa who then left,then they had teams of psd's from france who then left,then they had teams of psd's from the uk who then left,does this not speak volumes.custer battles are only in it to gain as much cash as possable they definetely should not get the contract renewed in march they are dredfull in the way they conduct thier buisness,ps.to the previous "ranger" im glad you are happy mate but they are not anywhere as good as you make out,please do your research to find out whether what i have said is fact or fiction,yours T.

Duke

1 Posts
Posted - 03/05/2004 : 18:48:48

I would like some additional info too - like tthrasher, I am/was considering some work for them...would like to hear more about what they are not doing well...

Thanks

D

ScottK

USA
4 Posts
Posted - 03/13/2004 : 13:44:33

Any updates on this company? Email me if you don't want to post.

susanskate

USA
1 Posts
Posted - 03/23/2004 : 14:07:09

Hello,
I am a foreign correspondent for a major U.S. newspaper working on stories about problems with subcontractors in Iraq - if you have specific examples of any problems, or have worked for a subcontractor I would like to hear from you!

Posted - 04/09/2004 : 20:01:12

I am a journalist for a UK paper reporting a story about a Custer Battles employee killed this week in an ambush near Hit.
Would any Custer employees with relevant information please email me asap.


Temps From Texas
Half a world away, another group of unemployed workers can be found at recruiting sessions in Houston. The company has been posting flyers at truck stops and posting advertisements on the internet. Four out of five of the recruits who are invited to training sessions who worked at a now defunct JC Penny store will be sent to Iraq. Halliburton sends an average of 500 recruits a week.

These men are not skilled. "They are unemployed and underemployed workers with few jobs in a U.S. economy that isn't producing many jobs," writes Russell Gold, a Wall Street Journal reporter. Gold interviewed men lining up for the training sessions, citing the example of one typical applicant whose previous job was transporting chickens for $12 an hour.

But when they arrive in Iraq, their navy blue American passports earn them a tidy sum of money: between $7,000 and $8,000 a month, generous sums, even by American standards. CorpWatch asked company spokesperson Norcross why there is such a huge disparity based on nationality in the wages Halliburton pays in Iraq.

"We will not discuss our specific wage structures. Our compensation packages and the compensation packages provided by our subcontractors are based on a wage scale that was recommended by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and are competitive in terms of the local market," she wrote back.

When I posed the same question to Army spokesperson Dowling, we got a more revealing answer.

"These workers consider themselves fortunate to have jobs even if it means them traveling somewhere else. There is an army of companies that move from conflict to conflict with experience in setting up chow halls from an empty field to a 1,000 army camp in a matter of days. It's not an easy job and these guys are good at it. They bring their own people with them - people with experience in other military locations," Dowling explained.

"The (salary) decision is not based on the value of his life but on the cost of training and equipping the workforce. Nor would it be right for the US Army to enforce US based salaries where no one else could match it. Life sometimes isn't fair," he concluded.

I'm sure Al Rasheed waiters Muzaffar, Shahnawaz and Ali would agree.

http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=9928

[seemslikeadream]

90. kick

[TankLV]

95. And we should give a good fuck of a moment's though exactly why?

I've got more important things to care about = like where I'm going to go for desert.

We should care why?

Don't bother replying - I won't ever care.

They made plenty of blood money while our soldiers go without.

[seemslikeadream]

97. The U.S. government assumes no responsibility

Security Companies Doing Business in Iraq

The U.S. government assumes no responsibility for the professional ability or integrity of the persons or firms whose names appear on the list.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AD Consultancy

Headquarters:
ADC House
P.O. Box 153
Sutton, Surrey SM3 9WF
United Kingdom
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.adconsultancy.com
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Ian Grealey
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Risk and threat assessment, close protection teams/bodyguards, asset protection, secure commodity escort, travel and escort security, residential and premises security, aviation security, maritime security, oil and gas industry security, surveillance and counter surveillance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AKE Limited

Headquarters:
Mortimer House
Holmer Road
Hereford HR4 9TA
UK
Tel: <44> (0) 1432 267111
Fax: <44> (0) 1432 350227
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.akegroup.com

Contact in Iraq:
Peter Hornett
Tel: <44> (0) 7739 094598
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Description of Services:
Hostile regions training, reduced personal insurance rates, the services of security risk specialists, location security audits, personal security reviews, body armor, medical audits, equipment, assistance and evacuation; political, security, intelligence and cultural briefings, subscription-based online secure database of security, risk and intelligence information, including twice-weekly Iraq security briefings.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ArmorGroup

Headquarters:
25 Buckingham Gate
London
SW1E 6LD
Tel: <44> (20) 7808-5800
Fax: <44> (20) 7233-7434
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
John Farr, MBE
Country Manager
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Description of services:
ArmorGroup operates in 40 countries worldwide and is a leading international risk management, security services, mine action, and information service provider. In Iraq we currently have offices in Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, and on-going operations throughout the country. They provide major corporate and government clients in Iraq with risk assessment and management, close protection, manned guarding, technical security systems, and mine action services (mine clearing and unexploded ordnance disposal). ArmorGroup supports the Joint US/UK Government’s Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, and subscribes to the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. ArmorGroup is a United Nations approved provider, and is ISO 9001:2000 certified. ArmorGroup's Baghdad office is not able to deal with job applications. All applications must be accompanied by a current CV/resume and sent to: [e-mail] (US residents), or [e-mail] (UK residents and other nationalities).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Control Risks Group

Headquarters:
83 Victoria Street
London SW1H OHW
United Kingdom
Tel: <44> (20) 722 1552
Fax: <44> (20) 7222 2296
Website: www.crg.com
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
James Blount, Country Manager
Tel: [phone] (NY number but person is located in Iraq)
Thuraya: [phone]
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Control risk is a leading international business risk consultancy with 28 years experience of supporting more than 5,300 clients in over 130 countries. They currently have an office in Baghdad providing major governmental and corporate clients with a range of services, including security management, discreet armed protection, and information support.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Custer Battles

Headquarters:
3959 Pender Drive
Suite 109
Fairfax, VA 22050
Tel: <1> 703-385-1121
Fax: <1> 703-385-2177
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.custerbattles.com

Contact in Iraq:
Brig. General Charles Baumann, Director
Tel: <1> 914-360-9223
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Security services, life supports, construction, logistics, transportation, and personal security details.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diligence Middle East

Headquarters:
1275 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: <1> 202-659-6210
Fax: <1> 202-659-6210
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.diligencellc.com

Contact in Iraq:
Ken Josey, Country Manager
Tel: <1> 914-822-9746 (NY number rings in Baghdad)
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Diligence Middle East is the Middle East subsidiary of Diligence LLC, a global information and security services firm. In Iraq, Diligence provides risk advisory consulting, competitive due diligence, close protection, site security, and security escort services for multiple international clients and CPA contractors.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Erinys Iraq Limited

Headquarters:
16 Zukak 18
601 Emerat Mahla
Al-Mansour
Baghdad, Iraq
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]
Website: www.erinysinternationa.com

Contact in Iraq:
Michael Hutchings
Tel: [phone] or [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Expatriate and Iraqi security services supported by nationwide radio and voice/data satellite communications. Services include managed guard forces, personal protection services, convoy protection, key point, and area security. Company is structured in 3 regions and 12 sectors with expatriate managed offices in each sector.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Genric

Headquarters:
Hereford House
East Street
Hereford, UK HR1 2LU
Tel: <44> 1432 379083
Fax: <44> 1432 370786
Website: www.genric.co.uk
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Nick Duggan
Tel: <44> 7919 478484 or <965> 904-8217/8257
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Genric provides global security solutions to corporations in the form of risk assessments, plans and policies for kidnapping, evacuation, crisis management and general security guidelines, physical provision of armed escort teams for personnel and convoys, security managers, occupational health, Technical Surveillance Counter Measures (TSCM), defensive driving, personal, asset and property protection. Offices in the UK, Slovakia, Serbia and the Philippines. A secure facility has been established outside Basra, which provides: armed site security 24/7, air con accommodation, air con offices, 4x4 armored and non-armored vehicle hire or purchase, service and parts center, generation hire or purchase, communications.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Global Risk Strategies
Headquarters:
6 Stratton Street
London W1J 8LD
United Kingdom
Tel: <44> (20) 7491 7492
Fax: <44> (20) 7491
Website: www.globalrsl.com
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Damian Perl, Charlie Andrews, Nick Arnold
Tel: [phone] (NY number but person is located in Iraq)
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Working together with the U.S. government, United Nations, and key commercial clients to provide significant security, logistics and facilitation services in post conflict Iraq. A country wide network of specialist teams, communications and logistics assets have been established, headquarted in Baghdad, to assist with immediate humanitarian aid and reconstruction projects in the Aviation, Oil, Banking and Infrastructure sectors. Further to this, there are now GLOBAL Close Protection Teams working in support of the Ministries of the Coalition Provisional Authority.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Group 4 Falck A/S
Headquarters:
Panchwati
82-A, Sector 18
Gurgaon 122016 (Haryana)
India
Tel: <91> 124-2398888
Fax: <91> 124-2397131
Website: www.group4falck.com
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Abrahem Ghazarian
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Guarding services including static guards, patrol guards, close protection, control room guards, and air marshals (armed and unarmed). Technical and security systems solutions. Physical security and design. Cash services (armed vehicles) with trained crew to transfer cash and valuables. Provide ATM services, wage packaging and distribution. Cashing sorting. Ambulance services (vehicles and professional staff). Firefighting services (vehicles, products and professional staff). Prisons and prison management. Global solutions. Facility management and training services.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hill and Associates, Ltd.

Headquarters:
2604-9 Harbour Center
No. 25 Harbour Road
Wanchai, Hong King
Tel: <852> 2802-2123
Fax: <852> 2802-2133
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.hill-assoc.com

Contact in Iraq:
Richard Hancock, Director
Operations - Middle East
Tel: <971> (4) 211-5447 (Dubai) or (65) 6322-2558
Thuraya: 882-162-1100-133
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Hill and Associates are a risk management consultancy company with ten years of experience supporting Fortune 500 companies in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. They currently have offices in Kuwait City, Dubai and Baghdad focused on providing clients in Iraq with a range of services, including: executive protection, information services and security audits.


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ICP Group Ltd

Headquarters:
2 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3DQ
United Kingdom
Tel: <44> (0) 207-591-4411
Fax: <44> (0) 207-584-1460
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.icpgroup.ltd.uk

Contact in Iraq:
Will Geddes or Andy King
Tel: <44> [phone] (UK number that rings in Baghdad)
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
ICP Group Ltd is an international threat management company servicing many international organizations including the corporate, industrial, financial, telecoms and pharmaceutical industries. With representation country-wide since Desert Storm (1991), ICP Group Ltd have provided security support and services to many major multi-national companies, NGO and government agencies. Providers of high-quality and competitively-priced protection services, security equipment, logistics management and liaison services, ICP Group Ltd can ensure that you are provided with an effective and efficiently managed security solution for short, mid and long-term engagements. Services include: close protection/bodyguards (static and mobile), secure accommodation, armored vehicles, personal protection equipment, field operations supplies, due diligence, risk assessment, audits and project evaluation/analysis, medical services, hostile environment training, specialist insurance coverage (through Lloyds of London), crisis management, and business continuity services and evacuation support and services. ICP Group Ltd protection employees are only either former British and US Special Forces or Elite Forces personnel.


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ISI

Headquarters:
Baghdad Conference Palace
Mansour, Baghdad
Tel: <1> 914-360-2492
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Omar Hadi
Tel: <1> 914-360-2492 or <1> 914-822-7707
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Description of Services:
ISI Iraq is a part of the ISI Group and is the only security company to provide 24 hour Iraqi security guards to the CPA "Green Zone". All guards are trained by the U.S. army, vetted through "local knowledge" and have been a valuable asset to the American troops at the convention center in Baghdad. ISI also provides guards for residences, offices, and also do low key protection work for foreign nationals. All guards provided to foreign nationals have proficient English, and invaluable local knowledge, military or police backgrounds as well as British and American training. ISI has also been involved in due diligence, providing information for foreign and domestic companies through a network of personalities, companies, and families throughout Iraq. ISI's senior management includes experienced military personnel mostly ex-special forces from both the US and UK. ISI provides turnkey accommodation solution for foreign companies and press, in low key locations around Baghdad, providing and vetting all members of staff, 24 hour security as well as other complimentary support. Security services include: manned guarding, close protection work, site surveys, turnkey accommodation, and provision of commercial intelligence and due diligence, translators and drivers. Commercial services include: representation, construction, turn key 'camps', transportation within and in and out of Iraq. ISI has existing joint venture agreements with both US and UK established security firms.


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Meteoric Tactical Solutions


Headquarters:
6 Meteor Road
Valhalla
Pretoria, South Africa
Tel: <27> 12 651 3402
Fax: <27> 12 651 3402
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Lourens Horn (Louwtjie)
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Specialized training programs, VIP protection, asset protection, risk management and analysis, even management, asset recovery.


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Meyer & Associates

Headquarters:
P.O. Box 1800
Joshua (DFW), TX 76058
Tel: <11> 817-426-1199
Fax: <11> 817-558-4868
Website: www.meyerglobalforce.com
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Tim Meyer or Gary DeSmith
Tel: [phone] or 1-817-821-8820
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Security consulting and problem resolution, executive protection/bodyguards, advance work, intelligence, transportation and drivers, security guards, threat assessment, kidnap negotiations, investigations, reporting, analysis, liaisons with government, diplomatic, military, local and guerilla leaders. Aggressive security including specialized ex-military personnel utilizing state of the art equipment and tactics. Armed Patrol Vessels.


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Olive Security (UK) Limited
Headquarters:
2 Charles Street
Mayfair, London
W1J 5DB
England, UK
Tel: <44> (0) 207307 0540
Fax: <44> (0) 207307 0542
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.olivesecurity.com

Contact in Iraq:
John Yourston and Douglas Dick
Tel: [phone] or <965> 914-0169 (Kuwait office)

Description of Services:
Armed VIP protection, armed convoy escort, threat and risk analysis, security site survey, key point security, manned guards, technological security including: TSCM, debugging/sweeps, IT security implementation.


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Optimal Solution Services
Headquarters:
4/35 Spencer Street
Fairfield NSW
Australia
Tel: <61> (2) 97555840
Fax: <61> (2) 97559835
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Zahir F. Hameed
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail] " target="_blank">[e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]

Description of Services:
The infrastructure is streamlined to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness in vigilance and security alert response. Our emphasis is on maintaining the highest industry standards with our security personnel adhering to safety and health regulation and best work practices.


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Overseas Security & Strategic Information, Inc/Safenet - Iraq

Headquarters:
Post Office Box 52067
Atlanta, GA 30355
USA
Tel: <1> 404-307-4072
Fax: <1> 413-208-6069
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
John H. Walbridge, Jr. or Mauritz Le Roux
Tel: <964> 7901915494 or <88> 216 5201 4591/4592

Description of Services:
We provide in-country "hands on" management of highly trained and experienced South African security personnel by former American intelligence officers with paramilitary backgrounds. Services include close protection of VIPs, general personal security of employees, convoy escorts of personnel and equipment, training of local security personnel, provision of armored and unarmored vehicles, threat and intelligence reporting, and provision of combat medics with proper equipment. Our approach is responsive, personalized and cost-effective.


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RamOPS Risk Management Group

Headquarters:
7312 Suite 8 Hihenge Court
Raleigh, NC 27615
Tel: <1> 919-740-4597
Website: www.ramops.com
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Andy Potts or John Autenreith
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: <1> 919-740-4597 (US)

Description of Services:
Security consulting that includes threat assessments, recommended precautions, and contingency planning for personnel, sites, and equipment. Site security including area patrols, point security, and barricade design. Executive and VIP protection, convoy escort, 24/7 coverage available throughout Iraq. Communications, information technology, and logistic services available in support of any NGO or commercial operation. Their entire organization is comprised of US special operations and military intelligence professionals. Security consulting and training available in the US for NGO or corporate personnel prior to deployment.


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Sumer International Security

Headquarters:
Almasbah - Dis Babilon
Sec. 929, St. 10, Building 10(54/356)
Baghdad, Iraq
Tel: <1> 312-869-7336 (VOIP)
Fax: <1> 202-438-9710
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.thesandigroup.com

Contact in Iraq:
Janna Lipman
Tel: <1> 312-869-8336 (VOIP) or <964> 7901-916-338 or <1> 202-483-5900
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
SIS security guards, body guards, and private police armed and uniformed are trained by DynCorp International. Our clients are protected by a 365 days, 24/7 basis and we maintain a 24 hours dispatch operation with field supervision.


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Triple Canopy Inc.

Headquarters:
200 W. Adams Street
29th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606
USA
Tel: <1> 312-895-5000 ext. 7070
Fax: <1> 312-895-5001
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.triplecanopy.com

Contact in Iraq:
Ron Boline or Tony Nichlson
Tel: <1> 914-360-6961 (NY number rings in Baghdad) or <44> 208-792-629 (UK number rings in Baghdad)
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Triple Canopy excels in executive protection, site security, and convoy security. Our operators have an average of more than 20 years in the most elite military Special Operations units and are the highest quality personnel in the industry. Our services range from discreet travel companions to heavily armored, high profile convoy escort. From security assessments to tactical training to direct security work, Triple Canopy has the solution.


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Wade-Boyd and Associates LLC

Headquarters:
Suite 116
Main Street
Lawler, IA 52154
Tel: <1> 641-330-4581 or 931-302-7822
Fax: <1> 270-518-5780
Email: [e-mail]

Contact in Iraq:
Malek (Ali) Mehanna or V. Brooke Phillips
Tel: <1> 641-330-4581 (US)
Email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Description of Services:
Owned and operated by honorably retired U.S. army military police investigator, who currently is the command investigator lieutenant for the U.S. DOD federal police. And, an honorably retired (twice) U.S. DOD federal police investigator sergeant/chief of police. With over 40 years of combined experience, we provide: professional, experienced, former military/federal law enforcement, armed close protection teams, K-9 dogs for explosive detection and protection, security officers both standing and roving, investigations, under-cover investigations, armed escorts, vehicle and transportation convoy security, armed patrol in vehicle and water craft, air craft protection teams both on land and in the air, translators, armed money/valuables escorts, surveillance, global vehicle tracking, home and business protection both uniformed and plan clothes, armored vehicles, and more.

http://travel.state.gov/iraq_securitycompanies.html