War Profiteers: The Bush Baghdad Bubble
Just as the blind devotion to deregulation of the financial markets can be blamed for much of the current meltdown on Wall Street, the war profiteers have enjoyed a Baghdad Bubble as a result of the Bush administration's refusal to hold them accountable.
Not far from Wall Street, a little-known company called L-3 held their annual meeting today. It was sparsely attended, according to proxy-holding activists who called me to say that the company used a technicality to keep them out.
As a contractor L-3 is a kind of conglomerate that was created by Wall Street (Lehman Brothers) execs who saw the war and burgeoning military spending as a golden opportunity. So they went on an acquisition spree, gobbling up Titan (who Lockheed stopped courting when it was revealed that they had to pay the largest fine in history for corporate bribery), the company that provided translators at Abu Ghraib.
L-3 is also the parent company of the mercenary (er -- military security) firm MPRI, which was contracted to train the Iraqi Army. MPRI also has a contract with the Justice Department to train police forces in dozens of other countries.
While the activists were left outside to converse with the limo drivers, they could have broken out the bubbly at the company's annual meeting. Especially since less than three months before, Bush issued a signing statement guaranteeing that there would be no Truman Committee to protect the taxpayers from waste, fraud and other abuses on his watch.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, L-3 is the 6th largest Iraq war profiteer.
And yet we know so little about them. At least one group is on the ball: CorpWatch published an alternative annual report (PDF) about L-3 earlier today.
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Charlie, thanks for this article. On reading the CorpWatch report I was struck by the fact that the Titan company contract mandated 7,000 translators be hired to work in Iraq. As of 2006, acccording to the Iraq Study Group, the U.S. military had ONLY six translators at the 1,000-person U.S. Embassy in Iraq that spoke fluent Arabic. This is both symptomatic of the difficulties and the lack of primacy given the task.
The important lesson as is the case with all MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL related problems is this. As the report states the problem of using private industry instead of government intelligence is the lack of TRANSPARENCY, and ACCOUNTABILITY. An administration using extra-Constitutional methods can better manage the secrecy if intelligence services are farmed out to the private sector. Without transparency and accountability our form of government resembles a stud farm filled with nothing but eunuchs.
Naomi Klein for President (or Obama/Klein?)
..."Bush issued a signing statement guaranteeing that there would be no Truman Committee to protect the taxpayers from waste, fraud and other abuses on his watch." And I can just see that fucking smirk while he did it. We sit here and let that asshole do this to us! If a viable business was run this way it would collapse. (Oh, wait, da chimp’s done that with almost everything he's touched - consistent, he is!) Thankfully, I support Obama and look to him to end this madness with sanity, responsibility, and intelligence. This worries me though, they've proved over and over that they don't care about the Constitution, law, justice, fairness, the environment, the future, or humanity. I'm still not convinced there will even be any election. I can’t be the only one seeing that writing on the wall, can I?
Much of this thievery and pillage is elaborated upon in Kleins' book "THE SHOCK DOCTRINE".
She first wrote about it in September 2004 in the following article:
Baghdad Year Zero
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197
Ok, I'm sufficiently nauseated and infuriated. Klein outlines it so clearly and it may be about the most evil thing I've ever read. Sadly, the neocons pull this before their American experiment crashed and burned. If only they'd had some patience to see the results before doing it again to a nation with the gall to possess natural resources they wanted. What I find so interesting are the results they're seeing in Iraq... "The opposite effect; rather than the predicted paralysis, it jolted many Iraqis into action, much of it extreme."
Our own domestic experiment began by wiping out the life savings of many people. Next, it sunk the population in a quagmire of debt. Now we see the loss of families' homes. The American version of neocon shock therapy... Citizens are getting pretty freakin pissed off. Yep, we’re stunned at the inconceivable hijacking of our constitution and the criminal behavior of our entire political system. (No, I do NOT excuse the democrats!)
I think this is the way the neocons will bringing the fight “here.” Like they created insurgents in Iraq they run the risk of home grown, red, white, and blue insurgents . Better start hoarding rice & water, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
".....by wiping out the life savings of many people. Next, it sunk the population in a quagmire of debt. " do the words KEATING 5 ring any bells?????
Every American citizen needs to watch the film "Iraq War for Profit".
The American public is being fleeced and the current government "leaders" could give a damn.
There is a Swedish movie entitled "Cops". The story is of a rural police department that is going to be defunded from govt disbursements due to insufficient crime. The police get together to stage some terrorist activity to support their paychecks. Interesting story this. The movie is a comedy. The real life practice a bit more somber and sorrowful.
This is criminal activity. Good thing we have an independent, non-patisan Attorney General who will get right on it!
By the way, I saw on TV that the price of oil went down by $3/barrel today. I guess that means our government will have to find some way to put a scare into the oil markets tomorrow. I wonder what it will be this time? More Iranian rubber boats threatening to start World War III?
"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - mbusiness and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They begun to consider the Government of 6the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized Mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred."
- FDR - Madison Square Garden Speech, 1936
Sounds like a guy I would vote for.
Oh if we only could.........................
Such a deal BLOOD for OIL Not to pump it, to control it. Remember the golden rule, buy and hold.
They saw it as profitable?????
You must be they set it up to be profitable. What eles did they expect when removing the Iraq Army and Police.
This war was set up for the USA to remain there for many many years. How else can they justify all the Permanent Military Bases they are building all along the oil pipe line.
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