CACI in the Dark On Reports of Abuse (Employee Still Working in Iraq)

[Barrett808]

CACI in the Dark On Reports of Abuse
Employee Named in Army Report Still Working in Iraq, Company Says
By Anitha Reddy and Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 6, 2004; Page E01

Officials at CACI International Inc. fought back against allegations that one of its employees was involved in abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, saying that it has not been notified of any problems, that the man is still at work and that he has been doing "a damn fine job."

Clearly exasperated, J.P. "Jack" London, the Arlington-based company's chief executive, said during a conference call Wednesday with investment analysts that he still had not received any information from the government about a report that said a CACI interrogator, an interpreter and two military intelligence officials were probably "either directly or indirectly responsible" for problems at the prison.

"The information we've been getting comes from the news media and there's been plenty of it, as you all know," London said.

For the past few days, CACI has been in the awkward position of defending itself against accusations in a report it has not been given by the Defense Department but which has been widely circulated. To get a copy, CACI downloaded it from the Internet.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5677-2004May5.html

[burrowowl]

1. BS

and the pResident don't know nuttin either .... BS! Elephant shit, Whale shit!

[daleo]

2. Check the invoices, Jack

There must be some "per torture" charges you can look up, to see what your boys were up to. Of course, head office never knows what the field workers are doing. You just sit back and collect the checks.

He and Bush must have taken the same classes at MBA school, the ones about avoiding responsibility and pretending you don't know what your employees actually do.

[Barrett808]

3. Time to buy stock n/t

[PaDUer]

9. page 2 of the article...

CACI is among an elite group of Washington area companies that do classified work for the federal government. The company, formed in the 1960s, first caught the government's eye with a computer language it developed that could be used to build battlefield simulation programs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5677-2004May5_2.html

[seemslikeadream]

10. Richard Armitage, the current deputy US secretary of state, sat on CACI’s

But these soldiers aren’t simply mavericks. Some accused claim they acted on the orders of military intelligence and the CIA, and that some of the torture sessions were under the control of mercenaries hired by the US to conduct interrogations. Two “civilian contract” organisations taking part in interrogations at Abu Ghraib are linked to the Bush administration.
California-based Titan Corporation says it is “a leading provider of solutions and services for national security”. Between 2003-04, it gave nearly $40,000 to George W Bush’s Republican Party. Titan supplied translators to the military.
CACI International Inc. describes its aim as helping “America’s intelligence community in the war on terrorism”. Richard Armitage, the current deputy US secretary of state, sat on CACI’s board.
No civilians, however, are facing charges as military law does not apply to them. Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, from CentCom, said that one civilian contractor was accused along with six soldiers of mistreating prisoners. However, it was left to the contractor to “deal with him”. One civilian interrogator told army investigators that he had “unintentionally” broken several tables during interrogations as he was trying to “fear-up” detainees.
Lawyers for some accused say their clients are scapegoats for a rogue prison system, which allowed mercenaries to give orders to serving soldiers. A military report said private contractors were at times supervising the interrogations.
Kimmitt said: “I hope the investigation is including not only the people who committed the crimes, but some of the people who might have encouraged the crimes as well because they certainly share some responsibility.”
Last night, CACI vice-president Jody Brown said: “The company supports the Army’s investigation and acknowledges that CACI personnel in Iraq volunteered to be interviewed by army officials in connection with the investigation. The company has received no indication that any CACI employee was involved in any alleged improper conduct with Iraqi prisoners. Nonetheless, CACI has initiated an independent investigation.”
However, military investigators said: “A CACI investigator’s contract was terminated because he allowed and/or instructed military police officers who were not trained in interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations which were neither authorised nor in accordance with regulations.”

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:LGgQIc6IKxoJ:southafrica.indymedia.org/print.php%3Fid%3D5900+caci+south+african+mercenaries&hl=en

[PaDUer]

11. I found this interesting...in bold...

The company, formed in the 1960s, first caught the government's eye with a computer language it developed that could be used to build battlefield simulation programs.

Interesting...wonder if THIS is the one they used that day?

[seemslikeadream]

12. I knew EDS sounded familiar - Interesting

Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State is president and partner of Armitage Assoc. LLP, was a Boeing consultant, a Raytheon consultant and an advisory board member. Armitage was also President Bush's special emissary to Jordan's King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. Armitage has also worked in the past for Halliburton.
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=45246&group=webcast

From March 1992 until 1993, Armitage as ambassador, funneled U.S. dollars into the new independent states of the former Soviet Union. In January 1992, the Bush Administration's desire to cozy up to the NIS (and their oil) resulted in Armitage's appointment as Coordinator for Emergency Humanitarian Assistance.

During this time Armitage took on the other international patronage projects that normally follow war, accommodating the assuagement of the European Community, Japan and other donor countries.

Armitage owns Electronic Data Systems stock worth $250,001 to $500,000 (EDS is the 49th largest defense contractor, and lobbies the Defense Dept. over various appropriations issues), General Electric stock worth $500,001 to $1 million, Merck & Co. stock worth $100,001 to $250,000 (Merck lobbied the Defense Dept. over the Biological Weapons Convention implementation protocol), and Verizon Communications stock worth $250,001 to $500,000.

Armitage also worked as a consultant to Halliburton. Armitage is a former co-chairman of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. He was instrumental in the reconstruction of the emerging economies of the former Soviet republics, after the fall of the Communist empire; along with Condi Rice, who rode herd on the Bush cabal's bid for U.S. control of the Caspian oil.
http://www.ifpafletcherconference.com/army2000/bios/armitage_rt.htm
http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/outside/commentary/2002/0204oil_b...

AccuPoll has teamed with Electronic Data Systems to jointly bid on voting system opportunities. EDS is a leading global information technology services company for over 40 years, and one of the leading systems integration companies in the world, with over 140,000 employees and annual revenues in excess of $21 Billion. EDS will provide deployment, training, and customer support services to state and local governments. Management believes that EDS currently has relationships with, or does business with, more than seventy percent of every federal, state and local government in the United States.

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:wH5Q2g-CjDAJ:www.accupoll.com/New...

we're going in circles

[Jackpine Radical]

14. EDS is the data processing company started by Ross Perot

when he left IBM. They have a lot of state Medicaid administration contracts, FWIW.

[Just Me]

15. That's weird. n/t

[maddezmom]

4. where is Tenet...these are his guys?

[Just Me]

5. This guy "acts" like he doesn't know the nature of his own business.

Gimme a break. Geez.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Me and Just Me know what the nature is

The legal position, as if it's of any import, is unclear. Not being regular soldiers, they don't qualify for the protection of the military parts of the Geneva Conventions. Not being unarmed civilians, they are not covered by the Fourth Convention relating to non-combatants, either. Nor could they be classified accurately as spies or intelligence agents. Perhaps the new category invented by the US for its prisoners of war from Afghanistan might be appropriate: Unlawful Combatants?

In almost every case, CP officers are ex-soldiers, trained at taxpayers' expense in the skills which governments are finding so valuable and which are being charged back to them at two to ten times the former rate. It's massively more expensive for governments to use private military companies than the conventional forces they have available, but then the political cost tends to be so much lower - private contractors killed in Iraq tend to attract far less media and public attention than conventional soldiers on active duty so the political cost is lower to policy makers and governments fighting a losing battle with an increasing percentage of voters who oppose the conflict.

Against that background, private military companies' involvement in future conflicts looks assured.



23 April 2004 at 09:28


CLOSE PROTECTION? THE SHADOWY WORLD OF PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES


They travel in armoured SUVs, ostentatiously carrying powerful weapons - assault rifles, sidearms, grenades - and they shoot and arrest people just as the soldiers do but minus the uniform and legal status. They're paid around $1,000 a day, considerably more than the regular soldiers or police officers which they used to be, work six weeks on and three off with paid flights home at the end of each tour. The advantage for the US is that their deaths and injuries don't show up on the figures for troop casualties. They are the bodyguards.

Jo Wilding said it best in her piece on the incident when four 'contractors' were killed, sparking off the siege of Falluja by US Marines.

"We arrived back just after the incident in Falluja where the contractors were shot, burnt, mutilated and dragged through the streets. The scenes themselves, on satellite TV in a friend's house, were shocking, all the more so because the dead men were described as civilians.

But what if they were soldiers, armed men who signed up for war and were paid to fight it? They were shot dead in an ambush - what was done to their bodies afterwards was distressing no matter what, but if they were soldiers, they were killed in action. The truth of course is that they were somewhere in between, mercenaries from US firm Blackwater Security, given a contract by USAID to protect contractors".



And it's not just the US government engaging the services of these private armies, operating on the very edges of legality in the shadowy world of close protection. Britain's own Foreign and Commonwealth Office employs civilian close protection officers from UK firm Control Risks Group amongst others to look after its staff and secondees deployed to Iraq. Global Risk International, another British private military contractor has had as many as 1,200 of its personnel in Iraq making it effectively the sixth-largest contributor to the Coaliton Forces. Most of its uniformed troops are either Nepalese Gurkhas or demobilised Fijian soldiers.

I must admit, I hadn't given the concpet of being provided with my own close protection team a great deal of thought prior to my arrival in Baghdad, other than pondering on the motivations of someone who felt their life, should it come to it, was worth less than mine. After all, as a last resort, a bodyguard's role is to protect his principal's life with his own. And in the strange reality that is life within the Green Zone, I soon got used to the men who, looking like extras straight from central casting, arrived at my accommodation each morning to escort me through Baghdad to wherever my assignments took me. It was only later, upon my return that I paused to consider the deeper implications - both legal and moral - of governments using hired guns.

With soldiers still having to battle insurgents and defend themselves, the job of protecting everyone else in Iraq - from journalists like myself, engineers and those involevd in the country's reconstruction to government contractors to the US' head of the CPA, L. Paul Bremer - is largely being done by private security companies. It's believed that as many as 30,000 former soldiers, special forces personel, police officers - and anyone else with the right skills - are working for private security firms in Iraq. With Blackwater charging its clients between $1,500 and $2,000 per day for each close protection officer - and even I attracted a team of four, plus two two armoured SUVs for each excursion - it's clearly a lucrative business.

[DulceDecorum]

7. Mercenaries are paid killers

and we are allowed to kill them at will.

Annie git yo gun!

[seemslikeadream]

8. Sir, I hope you're smilin' when you say that

[Just Me]

13. Hey, Annie,...let's tie the strings of this corruption together.