Contracting as a greater trend
In Washington, Contractors Take On Biggest Role Ever:
Quote:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — In June, short of people to process cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at the General Services Administration responded with what has become the government’s reflexive answer to almost every problem.
They hired another contractor.
It did not matter that the company they chose, CACI International, had itself recently avoided a suspension from federal contracting; or that the work, delving into investigative files on other contractors, appeared to pose a conflict of interest; or that each person supplied by the company would cost taxpayers $104 an hour. Six CACI workers soon joined hundreds of other private-sector workers at the G.S.A., the government’s management agency.
Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.
Contractors still build ships and satellites, but they also collect income taxes and work up agency budgets, fly pilotless spy aircraft and take the minutes at policy meetings on the war. They sit next to federal employees at nearly every agency; far more people work under contracts than are directly employed by the government. Even the government’s online database for tracking contracts, the Federal Procurement Data System, has been outsourced (and is famously difficult to use)...
FEMA Wants Over $300M in Katrina Aid Back
FEMA Wants Over $300M in Katrina Aid Back
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US
Quote:
The Justice Department so far has prosecuted more than 400 people for storm-related fraud, and $18 million has been returned to FEMA or the American Red Cross, according to a recent report by the department's Katrina Fraud Task Force. The bulk of prosecutions have occurred in Louisiana (115), California (79), Texas (50) and Mississippi (46). The amount recovered so far, however, is slight compared with estimates of widespread fraud.
On Private Military Companies
From Council member MountainRunner at his blog by the same name - On Private Military Companies.
The Private Military Services Industry
SIPRI, 18 Sep 08: The Private Military Services Industry
Quote:
The trend towards increased outsourcing of military activities has led to a rapid expansion of the military services segment of the arms industry in recent decades. Military services as defined here include technical services such as information technology and equipment maintenance, operational support such as facilities management and logistics, and actual armed ‘security’ in conflict zones. Some of the demand for the latter comes not from ‘outsourcing’ as such, but from internal conflict situations where state capacity is weak or absent. This paper discusses the background to the growth of the military services industry and presents an overview of the different types of military service, the size of the market and the companies involved.
The continuing expansion of the private military services industry raises many issues. The view that outsourcing is economically efficient can be challenged on a number of grounds, not least when these services are provided in operationally deployed contexts. The involvement of private companies in assisting military operations in armed conflict situations such as Iraq also raises serious concerns about the democratic accountability of armed forces, the status of civilian contractors in military roles, and the political influence of companies that have a vested interest in the continuation of the conflict.
Complete 20 page paper at the link.
Private Soldiers: Bullets for Hire
Private Soldiers: Bullets for Hire
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The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Armies
A quick review by Business Insider:http://www.businessinsider.com/most-...#ixzz2RLM04tgP
Yes, there are more than Blackwater; although for obscure reasons it has two slots in the article.
More links of possible interest
I posted the following link in a previous thread:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Business-T.../dp/0754671674
I've not read the following but it seems of interest (was it mentioned in the article? Read it too quickly to remember):
http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Warr.../dp/0801474361
Like anything else, I suppose there is both good and bad when looking at the situation clinically and within the larger phenomenon of global outsourcing, long supply chains, etc.
Jobs are important and I don't begrudge anyone a job. There's a comment that is going to infuriate some people reading but I'm betting that not all jobs fall into the negative stereotypes about PMC's. The larger phenomenon worries, I have to admit, especially contracting out intellectual duties.
The other thing that worries is how many officials responsible either for policy or for military advice (retired civilian and military) cycle back and forth between various consulting groups, even for nations with which we are involved in some sort of complicated intervention.
I sometimes think the focus on culture and transnationalism misses the mark - the nation state and its strange licit and illicit connections are as much a part of what we are seeing as anything else.
There is a tendency toward trying to fit the world into the latest theory instead of simply looking at the world as it is, as best as we are able.
Are Private Contractors Really Cheaper?
Are Private Contractors Really Cheaper?
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The Status of Private Military Companies: When Civilians and Mercenaries Blur
The Status of Private Military Companies: When Civilians and Mercenaries Blur
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McFate on modern mercenaries: podcast
Via WoTR:
Quote:
Watch Sean McFate discuss his new book,
The Modern Mercenary, at the National Defense University. Sean offers an insider’s understanding of the opaque private military world, how its presence can change the future of war and world order as we know it.
Link to eighty minutes:http://warontherocks.com/2015/04/wha...n-mercenaries/
Britain is at centre of global mercenary industry, says charity
Hardly a shock, although being a UK-based charity and newspaper they would say that - just teasing.
The charity report:http://www.waronwant.org/media/new-r...s-war%E2%80%99
The short article:http://www.theguardian.com/business/...y-says-charity
American Mercenaries Were Hired To Assassinate in the Yemen
A curious report, if only as so much detail has been assembled and I wonder if those involved believed "all publicity helps". What was happening? This passage is a "taster":
Quote:
Their armed attack, described to BuzzFeed News by two of its participants and corroborated by drone surveillance footage, was the first operation in a startling for-profit venture. For months in war-torn Yemen, some of America’s most highly trained soldiers worked on a mercenary mission of murky legality to kill prominent clerics and Islamist political figures.Their target that night: Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist political party Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be the Yemeni branch of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE calls a terrorist organization. Many experts insist that Al-Islah, one of whose members won the
Nobel Peace Prize, is no terror group.
Link:https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...r-golan-dahlan
