PREFACE

There is a nice report put out by the Congressional Research Service that just came out January of this year.  Its pdf and located at this link: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40991.pdf

It is an interesting report outlining some 'issues' we have had with independent contractors in Iraq.

Everyone is aware of the Blackwater mess. We pull forces out of Iraq but there are thousands of independent contractors over there. At one time there were more employees of independent contractors in Iraq than soldiers. Although we were told on the one hand, because of felonious conduct on the part of Blackwater employees that we would not longer fund Blackwater there was an exception. And we discovered that the firm formally known as Blackwater (Does Prince have anything to do with all this?) is still getting lots of US Taxpayer monies for 'security'. 

Outsourcing the Pentagon was a Rummy/Cheney plan to get their own companies hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

We know from the Halliburton model that the contractors receive no bid contracts. They also win the bidding contracts BECAUSE THEY WROTE THE FRICKING RULES FOR DEFENSE DEPARTMENT BIDDING.

They lie on their bids of course which is why there are always 'overruns'.

Buildings fall apart, water is unavailable or poisoned, electricity is so badly wired into the buildings our real soldiers have been killed just trying to listen to the radio and...........

Oh, and the Halliburton and Blackwaters buy into other companies using shell corporations they pick up for cnotes in the Caribbean.  The corporate layers are so deep and so intricate even the DOD cannot follow the money. And if the DOD cannot follow the money you get an idea how hard it would be for Congress to discover anything with a thousand hearings they have no time to set up.

Of course these corporations pay off Congress all the time with 'contributions' to war chests as well as with positions for family members and friends. 

Oh well, I got that out of my system.

SECURITY

There are security clearance issues with regard to independent contractors. This is an issue no matter what agency of government you are working through.

With the DOD you have greater security clearance issues of course.

Now add these security clearance issues to the problems involving corporate secrets.

There are criminal cases dismissed against corporations all the time due to these security issues. Every employee of a corporation signs confidentiality contracts agreeing to not disclose corporate secrets. The courts, I swear, honor these damn confidentiality agreements more than they honor other recognized confidential relationships like: husband/wife, priest/penitent, doctor/patient and therapist/patient relationships.

This is why whistle blowers are oft times screwed to the nth degree. The whistle blower loses her job, her benefits, her savings and then the corporation turns around and sues the whistle blower. The_Insider. Also look at

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Garcetti v. Ceballos, 04-473, ruled that government employees do not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the First Amendment of the Constitution when they speak pursuant to their official job duties.wiki

The system sucks.

I mean you sign away all your rights when you retain the services of a doctor or a therapist. And if you did not specifically sign them away, the law does it all for you. Our government at work, that's what I always say. So a doctor is informing government agencies of your VD or your abortion or your knife wounds or your gun shot wounds or your....oh never mind.

But an employee of a corporation sees graft and bribery and extortion and even crimes against his government and he is screwed if he reports what he has witnessed.

Now add in the fact that your employer has contracts with the government and security clearances come to bear on all of this.

You cannot report what you see simply because what you saw was beyond your security clearance. And of course it would be in violation of the terms of your employment contract.

There is the  Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. You can find out some aspects of this 'protection' at The Referral Process under 5 U.S.C. § 1213(c)and http://www.osc.gov/5USC1213process.htm#

But this involves Federal Employees reporting infractions witnessed at the agency where they work. It does not necessarily work for those who work for contractors.

TORTURE

I was a little rattled when I caught this at Huffpo today.

CHICAGO � A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.

Andersen did throw out two of the lawsuit's three counts but gave former contractors Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel the green light to go forward with a third count alleging they were unconstitutionally tortured under procedures personally approved by Rumsfeld.

Vance and Ertel were described by their attorney, Mike Kanovitz of Chicago, as being in their early thirties. He said the two Americans went to Iraq in the fall of 2005 to work for the Iraqi-owned contracting firm of Shield Group Security.

The suit filed in 2006 alleges that while working for the company they saw fellow employees making payments to "certain Iraqi sheikhs" and dealing in armaments in a way they believed would not be approved by the U.S. military.

According to the suit, Vance contacted an FBI official in Chicago with his suspicions and the two men eventually shared their concerns with three U.S. Embassy officials in Baghdad.

The two men said they locked themselves in a room, called the Embassy for help and were extricated by "United States forces" who took them to the Embassy where they were taken into custody.

They were taken to two military camps in the Baghdad vicinity in the weeks that followed, the suit said. It said Ertel was released after a month and Vance after two months.

While in custody, they were subjected to sleep deprivation, long hours of interrogation, blasting music, threats, hunger and a practice known as "walling" in which subjects are blindfolded and walked into walls, according to the suit.

The suit describes such practices as forms of torture and alleges Rumsfeld personally took part in determining such methods were acceptable for use by the military in Iraq.

The suit said their actions provoked suspicion at the company and on April 14, 2006, fellow employees confiscated the identity cards that allowed them to enter the safe area known as the green zone.

So we tortured our own whistle blowers. After they had become informants for the FBI.

Two people who reported graft were kidnapped and tortured for exposing corruption by a company funded by taxpayers.

Two employees risked their lives to expose other employees who were traitors. Traitors who were arming our enemies.

And I wish to look closely at a 'Bagdad owed concern.'

Yeah, sure, Iraqi's own this baby. WHO THE FUCK IS KIDDING WHOM?

Here is what wiki says today:

Shield Groups Security (SGS) was an Iraqi company that provided protection for businesses and organizations. It was established in 2003 and switched its name to National Shield Security (NSS) sometime after April 2006. According to the NSS's website, it has performed security services for infrastructure projects and performs extensive background checks on all "host country personnel". NSS offers services relating to security, threat assessment, satellite and radio communications, training, translation, and emergency planning.[1]

Donald Vance, a US Navy veteran working for the company, suspected the company of illegal gun running when he noticed excessive stockpiling of weapons. He became an FBI informant alleging corruption on the part of the Iraqis running the company until he was arrested with American coworker Nathan Ertel when American soldiers raided the company.[2] Both Vance and Ertel were interrogated under suspicion of gun running. Ertel was released after one month of improsonment; however, Vance was held for 97 days. It took the military 3 weeks to contact the FBI and confirm that Vance was an informant. The executives of the company have never been charged with any wrongdoing.[wiki

So I look a little further into this matter. And I find this ad:

Since 1988 The Gold Shield Group, Inc., (GSG) is a recognized leader in security services including executive protection, investigations, bodyguard, hotel security, retail security, event security, criminal and psychological profiling and much more.

The Gold Shield Group is comprised of present and former Law Enforcement Specialists, Detectives, Investigators and former Military Intelligence Specialists. The Board of Directors alone represents hundreds of years of law enforcement experience. We support any endeavors you may have to promote business and strategic alliances. At your discretion you have our authorization to make our services available to your clients, customers and guests. All our members are:  http://www.thegoldshieldgroup.com/copro.htm

So I look further and find this ad:

EADS Defence & Security (DS) is the defence and security pillar of Europe's largest aerospace and defence company. In terms of security, the company is a worldwide provider of leading edge technology in border, port and maritime security, security for oil and gas infrastructure, C4I as well as the most important provider in ME for secure communications. Thus, DS contributes to the protection of people, territories and key infrastructures in the Middle East with the following projects:

• National Shield Security (NSS) Qatar: High performance sensors and state-of-the-art IT tools to secure more than 900 km of Qatar's coastline, land borders and the Qatar Area Of Responsibility.

             http://www.isnrabudhabi.com/body.aspx?NewsId=11

WE ARE TORTURING OUR OWN PEOPLE.

So anytime, you get into an argument with some right winger about the importance of enhanced interrogation techniques and he tells you that we only torture the bad guys, you can tell the son of a bitch he is a liar.

The cheneys obviously love torture and hate whistleblowers.

My original thought here was to present an argument against torture.

I mean, when you have not established guilt, HOW IN THE FUCK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO THE BAD GUYS ARE?

And these two honorable men, working with the FBI find themselves tortured for their efforts.

WE HAVE GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ENTIRE SYSTEM.

(Cossposted at: http://digitallusion.com/2010/03/07/tortured-logic/)