Blackwater Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

The scandal surrounding the conduct of Blackwater contractors in Iraq is just the most recent example of contractors and criminals run amok in that ill-conceived war. Since the occupation began, the U.S. military and its contractors have relied on shady characters and even criminals to do the outsourced business of supplying the troops, delivering weapons and making sure the mail arrives.

One such wanted criminal, Viktor Bout, was paid tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars while illegally flying transport missions for the United States in Iraq. Bout is the notorious Russian weapons merchant whose fleet of aging Soviet aircraft rivals that of some NATO countries in its size and capacity. By marrying his access to Soviet bloc weapons with his airlift capacity, Bout established himself as the world's premiere purveyor of illicit weapons to the world's tyrants-- a one-stop shopping source for everyone from Charles Taylor and his armies of child soldiers of Sierra Leone and Liberia to the Taliban in Afghanistan, from Jonas Savimbi in Angola to the FARC rebels in Colombia.

As shown in the new book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by former Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah and the Los Angeles Times' Stephen Braun, Bout flew hundreds of flights for the Pentagon and its contractors in Iraq. He did so despite having been: 1) identified by U.S. and British intelligence as a supplier of weapons, ammunition and aircraft to the Taliban and, indirectly, to al Qaeda; 2) the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant at the request of the Belgian government; 3) named in almost a dozen U.N. public reports as the chief illegal provider of weapons to Africa's rogue regimes, and; 4) the subject of an executive order signed by George W. Bush in July 2004 making it illegal to do any business with Bout. The executive order was followed by an order from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in May 2005, freezing the assets of Bout, his senior partners and main companies, again making it illegal for U.S citizens or their government to do business with any of the named entities.

Yet the flights in Iraq went on, at the request of Halliburton, KBR and others, on behalf of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, until early 2006. Farah and Braun, based on flight and refueling records from Iraq, estimate Bout's companies may have flown up to 1,000 flights as a secondary contractor for the U.S. government. Each flight cost about $60,000 -- not a bad chunk of taxpayer dollars. Bout managed to up his profit margin considerably by having his pilots apply for and receive special refueling cards that allowed them to gas up for free when they landed in Iraq.

Using an Amnesty International report as a starting point, the authors trace a deeply troubling incident that, based on a July GAO report, was not unique. The GAO report found that tens of thousands of weapons purchased by the U.S. military and destined for delivery in Iraq remain unaccounted for.

Some of weapons--200,000 AK-47 assault rifles--were transported by Bout's aircraft before going AWOL. One of his airlines, Aerocom, registered in Moldova, obtained a contract from the Pentagon in August 2004 to fly the weapons from Bosnia to Iraq, along with millions of rounds of ammunition.

But, according to Amnesty International and the authors, there were several problems with the deal. Aerocom was already named in U.N. reports to illicit weapons trafficking in Africa, and Bout was on UN and U.S. sanctions lists. The day before the first flight, the Moldovan government canceled the Aerocom aircraft's air-operations certificate, making taking off illegal. Still, the flights went on, although there is no record of them ever landing in Iraq or of the weapons being delivered to their declared destination.

Blackwater is just one piece of an entire outsourcing system for which there is no accountability. Congress is presently debating a number of bills that would reign in this whole mess of outsourcing gone wild. The House overwhelmingly passed this week a bill by Rep. David Price to bring better oversight and legal accountability. On the Senate side, Senator Barack Obama was the first Senator to introduce legislation on this subject last February. Obama has also added in a section to ensure that critical U.S. military functions are not simply handed over to contractors like Viktor Bout.

It is well past time that the U.S. Congress enacts these bills in to law. That is, unless we want to keep giving our business to the Viktor Bouts and Blackwaters of the world. By failing to control the contractors, or giving contracts to criminal enterprises, we squander our moral authority, waste tax dollars and undercut our men and women in uniform fighting far from home.

Comments

[Pneumaticus]

Obviously, we are our own worst enemy, as our democracy devolves into a plutocracy that uses terrorism as a cover for their own blundering plundering.

[PADDYWHACK]

More impotent outrage,our vaunted Constitution never foresaw this.A vice resident of Cheney's dark determination,a halfwit for president,and a worthless complicit congress.I can only laugh at the great American delusion of checks and balances.We think we're superior to other countries,but I don't think many of them have this particular clusterf##k.

[Halsey]

Thank you for this post..it's all too much to grasp..how did it come to this? What do the REAL soldiers think of these thugs/mercenaries, making so much money..while they cannot even get decent medical attention if they survive their tour(s) of duty..

Did Bill Clinton use any of these "private" sources in Bosnia? (I really need to know if this is a Bush only travesty)...

Americans of all parties, should be dumstruck and outraged at the waste, the brutality, the duplicity of this Walter Mitty world..

I hold my own democratic representatives in even more disdain than the neo-cons...a dog is a dog..you can't blame him (cheney) for being a dog..but my GAWD PELOSI, FEINSTEIN, BOXER, HARMON....why the hell did I vote for you...YOU are the disapppointment.

[Nova16]

Never in the apan of my lifetime--75 years have I seen so much waste, fraud and corruption by such an inept and incompetent adminstration go without oversight by congress, investigative reporting by the media and willingly accepted by the uncaring attitude of the American people. Bush and the Halliburton War Corporation still maintain control of the government of our nation, pillaging and plundering our national treasury without a whimper from within the MSM, congress, which is enabling the crimes to continue or the majority of Americans who must know by now they have been duped and deceived into a phony war for the most blatant war profiteering ever witnessed in our history.

[NewsNag]

A long study about the nature and development of the modern mercenary industry was published a few years ago by the Center for Public Integrity.

They did an exhaustive job in researching the players and the damage they and their government enablers have done and are capable of doing, including a penetrating analysis of how this affects the very character of the governments who have become our lords and masters.

We are being sold like chattel to this "insecurity" industry as well as the other "service" corporations that run....everything, except our souls. It's about natural resources and crowd control as the world's population keeps increasing exponentially. It's our hearts and minds - and stomachs - that are up for grabs. Are you in control of yours?

Love,
News Nag

[viflyer]

It's not just the Iraq WAR. It's the entire government

WE THE THE PEOPLE lost control of the government long ago.

THE PEOPLE all wanted less regulation, privitization, OF EVERYTHING.

Well we got it and it isn't pretty.

Remember, it's the EVIL CREEPING socialism that is the ENEMY right.

What a bunch of fools and suckers.

So now we hate our government and prey to the God of corporate greed. AND we prey that they will save and protect us.

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

The Rethugs and corp[orations did a great propaganda job.

Get rid of the EVIL NEW DEAL

So easily fooled

[Veleria29]

Great Post!!
I do not understand why the people in this country have not raised holey hell for this outragious behavior. Our government or at least Bush and his administration are allowing this carnage in Iraq for which they are paid thousands of dollars more than our soldiers.
The taxpayers are paying for this and the taxpayers must demand that it be stopped.

[fact finder]

veleria, The American public doesn't have the Avocados. Just learn how to do the Cooley shuffle and keep your eyes on the ground.

[krissymax]

No kidding Wake Up America! What a sales job! Americans don't need universal health care. Americans don't need guaranteed paid vacation. How can thinking people accept this lousy excuse for a government!

[Herrington]

Dear Ms. Rice, the problem is not the illegal contractors, it is the illegal, immoral, contracts. To point them out is scarce compensation or comfort to the outrage attending to a war enterprise that was conceived of and exists in a vacuum of public oversight or approval. Criminals have hired criminals to conduct a criminal undertaking of an illegal war. What remains is to prosecute them ALL for treason to the stature and security of the United States of America. To recover our national honor and reclaim our heritage on the stage of human decency, we must, and can, record, remember, woken out of the haze of trusting our government, and see to the end of such an horrendous taking of life and treasure for the benefit of the friends of the undeservedly elected.

[2lib4oh]

Where has the oversight been, you ask Herrington? Well it started the week the Democrats took power and the subpeonas started to fly. Henry Waxman , Patrick Leheay and others have not been idle.
They have 6 1/2 years of corruption to catch up with. It is a thankless task and they are being harrassed by Dems and Republicans alike. This is ironic since the Republicans have been blocking oversite and the Dems who scream the loudest don't understand what has been going on for the last 6 1/2 years.

I've been screaming and protesting all this time and it makes me sick when fellow Democrats who just got off their butts are now complaining about "results". HOW do they think it got this bad in the first place? Neglect and indifference.
If you weren't outraged before, you weren't paying attention.

[Libertysconscience]

The problem is not the nobid contracts, the immunity issue, the ludicrous monies the employees are paid to be mercenaries slash security personnel--the problem is their unaccountable actions, missions are secreted from our own military such that they posed in many cases the fundamental problem why our soldiers are dying after clearing a town coming back only to find aggrieved angry vengeful Iraqis from a part of the world that lives by 'an eye for an eye'. Vengance is like mob rule, it's a blood thirst disregarding whether the target actually committed the offense or it represents the offenders.

Hey, what do you expect from folks who hide in bunkers, spy on their own citizens instead of using that money to hunt down bin Laden, who has to be laughing his ass off watching how America allowed this administration to do what it has done. Example, have you ever been at a stop light revved up your engine only to at the last minute see a traffic cop one street away, so you sucker punch the other person in the car by faking out as if you're going to race only to laugh as they get ticketed for not being aware? Well that is basically what bin Laden and company has to be doing right now.
His horrific act allowed America's administration fearful of its own shadow to turn its virtual guns on American citizen's. It's frightful because no one but this administration could have stripped so many individual rights in so little time--- except with the help of the timeliness of the Anthrax letters to Congress and the Supreme Court.

I wish Hersh would do a follow up on that story. How the stampede began with the Anthrax murders. America was in a retaliatory mood created a coalition for Afghanistan, but Anthrax provided the stampede necessary to confuse facts that got America into proverbially picking up the wrong stick in the game called pick up sticks by invading Iraq, with its Shiite population gave the administration an excuse to seize both the world largest remaining oil reserves.

[realitytrumpsbull]

http://www.impeachbush.org

Congress should chop, hack, slash, and trash
this whole business, bring the troops home,
and not waste another tax dollar on some other
country's problems. We're far enough in debt as
it is.

[GreatFutureForAll]

Susan:

Thank you very much for making average Americans more aware of the depth of the problem.

As someone that worked for a defense contractor for nearly a decade, I can tell you that war is something that is sought by some in senior management positions. The goal is not to bring peace to places like Iraq. The goal, as in any business venture, is to make money.

There is an unholy alliance between business and government that threatens our nation's sovereignty; the government's ability not to be influenced by multi-billion dollar opportunities in it's desire to maintain the Iraq war for as long as it is obscenely profitable.

I would be lying to you if I said that we would be in Iraq even if it were not incredibly profitable for the organizations that won "no bid" or sole source contracts. I firmly believe that you could take oil out of the equation and we would still be in Iraq, charging the credit card of the American taxpayer for all it's worth.

We, as a people, need to find a legislative way to take the profit out of the next war.

If our parents and grandparents were willing and able to sacrifice for our country during World War II, we can do the same today. And, I'm sure that our corporations would be just as happy to display this same kind of patriotism.

Right?

[Guitarsandmore]

AK47 is a Russian made, Russian designed, assault rifle. The American counterpart would be the M16 manufactured by Colt and now in its fourth generation. The standard issue given to the front line is the M16A4.

American troops in Bosnia were using the M4 Carbine, another version of the M16.

It is hard to imagine why the U.S would be paying anyone to fly 200,000 Russian made guns into Iraq for our troops. The ammunition is also different for the two guns. The M16 uses the 5.56 x 45 cartridge and the AK 47 uses the 7.62 x 39 cartridge. Hmmm.

But I digress….

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

All the Chimpy smirking makes more sense now. Sounds like we are merely taxpaying toys funding our handlers to abuse us, in nearly inconceivable ways. Thanks for a great article, and, do you know where the Silver Spoons are?

[factanonverba]

In the October 5th edition of the NYT on the op-ed page there is an article by Allison Stanger & Omnivore on the growth of Federal Contracts from 2000-2005. In Asia they have ballooned from $2.86 billion to $24.83 billion, an 868.2% rise. In Europe, they have gone from $4.4 billion to $6.67 billion; in South America the figure rests at $695.2 million up from $320.4 million; while in Africa the rise is from $338.1 million to $885.4 million. This is a fleecing of the US Treasury, a swindle of the US taxpayer. Bush hasn't remade government, he has broken it.

[ZingoBonMot]

Privatized it.

[lookingAhead]

This whole scam is a shake down of all Americans. This is the worst crime in history under the guise of fighting terrorism. If we really had an unbiased media or media not afraid of the government we would know the truth. This whole administration and it's backers are crooks with the best PR money can buy. Along with being surrounded by talibangelicals and of course you can't criticize the faux christians.

[libdude]

"It is well past time that... the Congress pass
these bills into law. That is, unless we want to keep giving our business to the Viktor Bouts
and Blackwaters of the world." Of course, the
free-enterprise conservatives want to keep
giving our business to the creep-a-zoids. That's what outsourcing is all about. Not only is there a ton of money to be made, but you get to meet really cool people like Viktor Bouts along the way. That's what makes war as
an industry so hip and compelling.