Yeah, Bush is privatizing the war. Concealed casualty figures, murky chain of command, no oversight, no laws that apply, and billions for Republican contractors.

What’s not to like? It’s the magic of the marketplace!  Read more 

Like the actual number of Iraqi dead that “nobody” knows (I believe in the Lancet numbers of 300,000-600,000), it’s hard to get a good idea of the actual numbers of people serving in Iraq. It’s important for us to remind people of the total commitment: nearly 400,000.  Read more 

My own ignorance of the political and social history of Haiti is profound. I have no one but myself to blame for it, I speak French and could take the time to review the literature if I chose to. I will offer the excuse that the last six years have kept me busy with reading about what is happening in my own country, and in our latest colonial acquisition of Iraq.

So instead of commenting on the “controversial” statements in this interview, I’m going to point out those passages that have a certain ring to them, and I expect to reverberate with many of you. We’ve followed events in Iraq, much of what we’ve seen suggests that little there has to do with the projects of democracy or the construction of an autonomous state. In this interview, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide speaks about his journey from priest and teacher to elected president to exile, and of the role two American administrations played in the continuing drama of Haitian “independence.”  Read more 

This is just beyond belief. By this judge’s logic, if you walk into a bank intending to cash a check, then decide while standing in line to stick the place up, you get to keep the money because you didn’t start out with intent to rob.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria VA. Remember that name. You want to be in his jurisdiction just in case the chance to lie, cheat, steal, and defraud happens to come along and you want to do it all with judicial blessing.

A federal judge has dismissed a civil case against a military contractor accused of improperly billing Iraq reconstruction authorities for tens of millions of dollars worth of security services that it did not provide.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria said there was no evidence that Custer Battles, a firm started by Army veterans Scott Custer and Michael Battles, committed fraud under a $16.8 million contract to provide security at the Baghdad International Airport in 2003.  Read more 

Yeah, I know we “knew” these things oh, three years ago or so. But this is why it makes a difference to have Democratic chairs of committees and hearings out in the bright light of day. Because then you know things from the Congressional Record and hear about them from the AP, not dirty fucking hippie bloggers. This piece from the Raleigh NC N&O/AP could be better with some copy editing, so I have taken the liberty of rearranging some paragraphs. The material is otherwise unchanged:

WASHINGTON — After numerous denials, the Pentagon has confirmed that a North Carolina company provided armed security guards in Iraq under a subcontract that was buried so deeply the government couldn’t find it.
The secretary of the Army on Tuesday wrote two Democratic lawmakers that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military support operation by run by Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

Vice President Dick Cheney ran Halliburton before he became vice president.

Would we have seen that sentence, that high up in the story, without a Democratic Congress? Kinda answers itself, don’t ya think? But to continue:  Read more 

It goes on. Nor is it merely an isolated incident. I have no snark for such stories, even as I think it’s important to keep them at the fore, while our fine, fact free media ignores them for the most part. Oh, here- this should scare some piss out of you as well.  Read more 

Or at least, we hope so. It’s interesting, but not surprising, they feel the need to apply this to embeds as well as contractors.

And for every story that has been deemed newsworthy, there are dozens that never see the spotlight. One US army officer recently told me of an incident he witnessed, where a contractor shot a young Iraqi who got too close to his vehicle while in line at the Green Zone entrance. The boy was waiting there to apply for a job. Not merely a tragedy, but one more nail in the coffin for any US effort at winning hearts and minds.

But when such incidents happen, officers like him have had no recourse other than to file reports that are supposed to be sent on either to the local government or the US Department of Justice, neither of which had traditionally done much. The local government is often failed or too weak to act - the very reason we are still in Iraq. And our Department of Justice has treated contractor crimes in a more Shakespearean than Hollywood way, as in Much Ado About Nothing. Last month, DOJ reported to Congress that it has sat on over 20 investigations of suspected contractor crimes without action in the last year.  Read more