Private Contractors

A Morally Reprehensible Problem

David Isenberg | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: International Stability Operations, Labor Trafficking, Private Contractors, Government Contracts, Military Contractors, Politics News

Trafficking in persons takes different forms. It might be forced labor, sex trafficking or bonded labor, to name a few examples. We now have people enslaved than at any time in human history, with estimates ranging from 12 to 27 million people.

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A Covert Mystery, Wrapped in Classification, Inside a Contractual Black Hole

David Isenberg | Posted 05.26.2012

Read More: Private Contractors, Intelligence Community, Blackwater Contracts Private, Private Government Contracts, Outsourcing Intelligence, Privatized Intelligence, Academi Private Contractors, Government Contracts Oversight, Business News

When it comes to overseeing contractors, as the old saying goes, you ain't seen nothing yet. That's because we've barely begun to consider the use of private contractors in another critical national security realm: the intelligence community.

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The DynCorp "See No Evil" Monkey

David Isenberg | Posted 04.11.2012

Read More: Sex Trafficking, Private Military Security Contractors, Bosnia, Dyncorp, The Whistleblower, Private Contractors, Business News

The issue is not DynCorp; trafficking in and exploitation of people, whether for labor or sexual services, is the problem.

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Privatizing the War on Terror: America's Military Contractors

John W. Whitehead | Posted 03.18.2012

Read More: Department of Defense, Military Industrial Complex, Private Contractors, Blackwater, Afghanistan, Commission on Wartime Contracting, Taliban, Iraq, State Department, Politics News

America's troops may be returning home from Iraq, but we're far from done paying the costs of war. In fact, at the same time that Obama is reducing the number of troops in Iraq, he's replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer.

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New Year, Same Old Pentagon: Three Takeaways from Panetta's National Security Strategy Presser

Project On Government Oversight | Posted 03.14.2012

Read More: Pentagon, Defense Spending, Department of Defense, Military Industrial Complex, Private Contractors, Pentagon Budget, Leon Panetta, Politics News

Nothing changes on New Year's Day, including the Pentagon's budget strategy.

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19 Words Could Mean Big Disclosure Of Secret Money

HuffingtonPost.com | Paul Blumenthal | Posted 12.16.2011

Read More: Video, Private Contractors, Executive Order, Anna Eshoo, Tom Cole, Contracting, Chamber of Commerce, Citizens United, US Chamber of Commerce, Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Hidden within the mammoth omnibus appropriations bill crafted by House, Senate and White House negotiators is a 19-word change to a ride...

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Study Finds Gov. Workers Cheaper Than Contractors, As Politicians Tout Cutting Their Ranks

Posted 11.14.2011

Read More: Government Workers, Private Contractors, Federal Government Spending, Federal Government, Republican Presidential Candidates, Government Waste, Government Employees, Barack Obama, Business News

The federal government could save billions of dollars by doing more work in-house instead of outsourcing to private contractors, a new study shows. ...

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War and Private Contractors: Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them

David Isenberg | Posted 11.02.2011

Read More: Private Military Contractor, Commission on Wartime Contracting, Private Contractors, War, War Contractors, Defense Contractors, Business News

Anybody who was dreaming that that the military was going to divest itself of contractors can put that fantasy to rest. Now that the CWC has said the government is over-reliant on contractors, you can see that we have a bit of a contradiction.

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Defense Department Employee Arrested On Bribery Charge

AP | By GREG BLUESTEIN | Posted 10.25.2011

Read More: U.S. Department of Defense, Politics News, Arrests, Fire-Rescue International Conference, Bribe, Department of Defense, Private Contractors, Miltary Contractor, Afghanistan, Desi Deandre Wade, Private Contractors Afghanistan, Bribery, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, Afghanistan War, World News, Politics News

ATLANTA -- A high-ranking Department of Defense employee was charged Thursday with taking a bribe at an international conference in Atlanta to steer l...

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Eliminating Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Defense Contracts

Rep. John F. Tierney | Posted 09.25.2011

Read More: Pentagon, Corruption, Private Contractors, Afghanistan, Darrell Issa, Private Security Contractors, Afghan Warlords, Social Security, Washington Post, Medicare, Politics News

We cannot continue to ask the brave men and women of our Armed Forces to put their lives on the line while we jeopardize their safety by failing to ensure that Defense Department funds are not siphoned off to warlords in Afghanistan.

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GIGO: The Perennial PMSC Unanswered Questions

David Isenberg | Posted 09.04.2011

Read More: Private Military Security Contractors, Private Contractors US, Private Contractors Afghanistan, Private Contractors, Private Contractors Iraq, Politics News

To paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's famous 2003 memo on the war on terror, today we lack metrics to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of using PMSC.

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Public Employees Offer Solutions. Examples.

Eric Lotke | Posted 08.01.2011

Read More: Contracting, Labor Unions, Private Contractors, Unions, Economy, Politics News

Enough with blaming public employees for all of America's problems. Last week public employees in Oregon marched on the state Capitol with a billion d...

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The Uncounted Contractor Casualties

David Isenberg | Posted 07.10.2011

Read More: Private Military Security Contractors, Contractors, Defense, Military, Private Contractors, Afghanistan, War, Military Contacting, Iraq, Military Contractors, Business News

In the last two-to-three years, contractors have increasingly absorbed the most significant cost of our military actions. And contractor casualties are unlikely to decrease.

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From 'Liberation' to Occupation: 10 Reasons Iraq Was No Cakewalk

Medea Benjamin | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Iraq War, Troops, Military, Army, Private Contractors, Paul Wolfowitz, Bradley Manning, Afghanistan, War, Code Pink, Codepink, Obama Administration, Obama, Iraq, Politics News

March 19 marks the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. At the onset, Ken Adelman predicted that "liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk." Eight years on, it's time to look back at that "cakewalk."

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Pentagon Paid Billions To Contractors Suspended For Fraud

HuffingtonPost.com | Amanda Terkel | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Pentagon Waste, Department of Defense, Military Contractors Iraq, Private Contractors, Bernie Sanders Contractors, Bernie Sanders, Military Contractors, Military, Defense Contracting, Defense Contractors, Private Military Contractors, Military Contractors Afghanistan, Pentagon Fraud, Defense Contractors Sanders, Defense Department, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The military paid a total of $285 billion to more than 100 contractors between 2007 and '09, even though those same companies were defra...

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Afghan Taxman Targets U.S. Contractors

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Government, Taxes, Contractors, Tax Exemptions, Private Contractors, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, World News

Afghanistan's government is on course for conflict over plans to tax foreign contractors operating in the country. The New York Times reports that t...

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PMC: Past, Present, and Future

David Isenberg | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Private Contractors, Business News

Hmm, celebrate my birthday today or write the final PMC post for 2010? Hey, I'm a multitasking man; no reason I can't do both. It's been precisely a ...

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Private Contractors In Afghanistan Behaving Badly

AP | RICHARD LARDNER | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Afghanistan, Private Contractors, Private Contractors Afghanistan, Dyncorp, Triple Canopy, Blackwater, Xe, World News

WASHINGTON — At two in the morning on Sept. 9, 2005, five DynCorp International security guards assigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's prot...

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Shadow Elite: WikiLeaks, FOIA and the Cultural Life of Government Secrecy

Michael G. Powell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Foia, Private Contractors, WikiLeaks Cables, Wikileaks, FOIA Requests, Shadow Elite, Julian Assange Wikileaks, World News

When we become aware of government secrecy -- as we do through redaction in WikiLeaks document dumps -- it raises our consciousness about the exercise of power and especially the potential abuse of that power.

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Profit-Chasing Guns-for-Hire Are Killing Us in Iraq and Afghanistan

Robert Greenwald | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Wackenhut, Brave New Foundation, Security Contractors, Private Contractors, Afghanistan, Dyncorp, Wikileaks, Robert Greenwald, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Mercenaries, Blackwater, Caci, Brave New Films, Iraq for Sale, Rethink Afghanistan, Iraq, Xe, World News

The use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan makes a few people very, very rich, but it's making the rest of us -- Americans and local civilians alike -- much less safe.

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Wikileaks: War Is (Misbegotten) Hell

Heather Hurlburt | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Iran, Private Contractors, Iraq, Wikileaks, Torture, War Crimes, Iraq Surge, Wikileaks Iraq, World News

The flood of data from Wikileaks makes it harder, not easier, to see the patterns that we still need to learn from this misbegotten war.

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Afghanistan's Massive Contracting Fraud

Malou Innocent | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Developing Countries, Private Contractors, International Development, Afghanistan Surge, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghan War, Economic Development, Rethink Afghanistan, Contracting, Development, Afghanistan War, World News

It appears that foreign aid in Afghanistan is still plagued by pervasive mismanagement, poor oversight, and inadequate on-the-ground coordination.

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U.S. Contractor Accused Of Fraud Still Winning Big Projects In Afghanistan

McClatchy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Private Contractors Afghanistan, Louis Berger Group, Private Contractors, Afghanistan, Afghanistan Reconstruction, World News

On July 31, 2006, an employee of the Louis Berger Group, a contractor handling some of the most important U.S. rebuilding projects in Afghanistan, han...

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Dana Priest's Expose On 'Top Secret America'

washingtonpost.com | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: u.s. Intelligence, Pentagon, Intelligence, Private Contractors, War Contractors, Defense Contractors, Dana Priest Story, Washington Post, Robert Gates, Dana Priest, Top Secret America, Politics News

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive ...

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What Is President Obama Thinking?

Ken Blackwell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Pratt and Whitney, Ken Blackwell, Private Contractors, Joint Strike Fighter, Defense Spending, Obama Don't Ask Don't Tell, Barack Obama, Politics News

Why has the Obama administration dug in its heels on the Joint Strike Fighter? Is it an example of successful lobbying? Could a single defense contractor really have that much influence over the Obama administration?

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