Contractors.

There's your trouble.

Wanna bet they're connected, somehow, to Xe/KBR or Blackwater/Halliburton?

here. First thing, she's banned alcohol, assigned the State Dept IG to investigate, 'directed' a review of the whole system, and assigned American diplomatic staff to monitor private security guards. It was clear from her confirmation hearings testimony that she really doesn't appreciate the mercenary system and wants to move away from it, so it wouldn't surprise me if she used this report to make some heads roll. I'd would be surprised if she let an opportunity that would be both in her political interest and the morally correct course of action get by her.

I note, in passing, that The Guardian has subsided on the CDS, since it observed that "[t]he allegations are an embarrassment for the Obama administration...." I wonder if the contractors were taking any of their cues from Mr. Favreau...

The fundamental corruption inherent in the use of these "contractors" is inescapable, The question of why this continues under an Obama Administration fairly leaps out of the story. I think I know. I suspect that there are more than a few burrowing Bushies involved in managing the relationship. But the biggest cause of this problem is that corrupt politics depends on a definition of honesty that means when you are bought, your stay bought. Crony capitalists want stability. So the far right, wing nut contractors continuing to get their payoff for all those contributions to Republicans and the right wing generally, even in a Democratic administration, as an advertisement that the Obama team is open for business.