Why Such Secrecy about Private Military Contractor’s Men Working the Boston Marathon?

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/49262/why-such-secrecy-about-private-military-contractor-s-men-working-the-boston-marathon

Why Such Secrecy about Private Military Contractor’s Men Working the Boston Marathon?
by Dave Lindorff | April 26, 2013 - 9:11a

Speaking as an investigative reporter with almost 40 years’s experience, I can say that when government officials won’t talk, they’re generally hiding something embarrassing or worse.

And nobody will talk about those Craft International Services private security personnel who were widely observed and photographed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, wearing security ear-pieces, hats and T-shirts bearing the company’s skull logo, and all wearing the same dark coats, khaki pants and combat boots, some carrying what appear to have been radiation detectors.

I first contacted a man identifying himself as Jack Fleming, a public affairs person with the Boston Athletic Assn., sponsor of the marathon. Fleming advised me that “If you want to ask about that you should contact the Commonwealth (of Massachusetts) Executive Office of Public Safety.”

I called that agency and spoke with the public information office there, a man named Terrell Fleming. He first said, "Did you call the Marathon organizers?" When I replied that I had, and that they had said to call his office, he replied, "They did?" Then he said, “You should call the City of Boston Police Department. They released a security plan to some media organizations.”

[Demeter]

1. Hands in the Cookie Jar--or Worse?

Maybe we will find out...eventually.

[zeemike]

2. Wow...we have a mercenary force.

working inside and outside of the US...and it is just ignored.

[MADem]

3. Sniffing for dirty bombs--radiological materials--is de rigeur nowadays. Not a secret.

I would have called--or better yet, written an email and followed it up with a phone call--providing my full name, my journalistic credentials, my reason for the request, etc. And I would have started with the FBI.

The BAA isn't contracting for those kinds of people. The federal government is.

Amazing how many people named Fleming work in Public Affairs....

[temmer]

4. Operation Urban Shield Boston 2013

http://www.mbhsr.org/?p=86