Proposal could put contractors on the border

[douglas9]

Source: The Monitor


The U.S. Border Patrol could dramatically increase its presence on the nation’s southern frontier by adding hundreds of private contractors to its ranks, according to a proposal presented to Congress last month.

DynCorp International, a Virginia-based military security firm, said it could train and deploy 1,000 private agents to the U.S.-Mexico border within 13 months, offering a quick surge of law enforcement officers to a region struggling to clamp down on illegal immigration.

Currently, the company manages an army of private security agents deployed across the world in support of U.S. missions, including several former Border Patrol agents hired to help secure the Iraqi border.

“We could provide highly qualified people to the Border Patrol quickly,” company spokesman Greg Lagana said. “It’s kind of like a temp service in that there are no obligations for long-time work.”



Read more: http://www.themonitor.com/common/printer/view.php?db=monitortx&id=3585

[OregonBlue]

1. What makes the Repukes think these guys would not turn on them if the

President declared Marshall law. They would be only too willing to take their marching orders from that mad man and "secure" American towns and guns.

[Odin2005]

2. Disgusting. Using mercenaries is against the values a democratic republic is based on.

True Democratic republics have armies made up of citizen-soldiers whose #1 duty is the defense of the republic, not mercenaries that hire themselves out to the highest bidder.

[MockSwede]

9. Mercenaries

We have more 'contractors' in IRAQ right now, what's the difference? Police don't operate tow trucks - they call in the local operator to haul away vehicles to impound. Courthouses don't operate kitchens for their staff - they hire cafeteria companies to run them. What's the difference about deputizing folks to STOP ILLEGAL ALIENS from gaining illegal entrance to the US? THEY ARE LAW BREAKERS with their very first act on US soil. That said. I want ENFORCEMENT of employer penalties for HIRING (and therefore attracting more illegals) illegal aliens.

[dkofos]

3. Got to keep the cash cow that is Dyncorp fed. And it loves govt money!!

[dmosh42]

4. The payment must have been made!

And the swamp is getting deeper!

[saigon68]

5. Maybe a few mercenaries will be killed ala Fallujah

[dipsydoodle]

6. "offering a quick surge"

Well whoopee doo - yet another surge.

[roxnev]

7. You could have said Republican plan

:sarcasm: Fu@k the Republicans and free market shit their privatized military, has cost us more to try and beat the Iraqi boy scouts, than all of the wars before. If it is a republican Idea it is no good, all Republican ideas always make the rich richer and force the poor in to slavery. The Republican dictionary defines, privatization-- returning to slavery and starving the poor people or stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.

[uppityperson]

8. why the sarcasm icon?

use of sarcasm icon usually indicates a belief opposite of what you write. I am curious. welcome to DU

[burrowowl]

10. Great Mercs in Iraq, New Orleans

and now the Border!
What the Hell is going on!

[kineneb]

11. Blackwater must be losing money in Iraq.

So they need to be used to patrol the US boarder. Something fishy here. Humbug to private armies.

[TexasLawyer]

12. From a 2003 article

* The State Department awarded DynCorp a multi-million dollar contract in April to advise the Iraqi government on setting up effective law enforcement, judicial, and correctional facilities. The company estimates it will send 1,000 American law enforcement experts to Iraq to meet the task. DynCorp projects a return of up to $50 million for the first year of the contract. (20)

* DynCorp contributed 74% of a total $276, 975 to the Republican party from 1999 to 2002. (21)

* Dyncorp has a long history of alleged human rights violations and fraud. The most well known example appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Two Dyncorp employees ran an underage sex slave ring in Bosnia while they were there under U.S. contract. The employees who exposed this crime were fired; the ones responsible were merely transferred.

http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/updates/081203.html

[LiberalFighter]

13. Highly qualified people my ass