Privatization is dangerous to our national security.

[The Backlash Cometh]

Carlyle and Blackwater are selling shares of their stock to foreign sovereign entities. Why are they getting such special consideration to do sensitive work for the United States, when we can't count on their 100% loyalty? In fact, can't they end up controlling American policy, since they have leverage over us?

Carlyle sells stake to Abu Dhabi
By James Politi in New York

Published: September 20 2007 19:41 | Last updated: September 20 2007 19:41

Carlyle agreed on Thursday to sell a 7.5 per cent stake in itself to an arm of Abu Dhabi’s government – the latest US private equity group to bring in a sovereign wealth fund as a big investor.

Blackstone sold a near 10 per cent stake in its management company to the Chinese government in May. A different arm of the Abu Dhabi government bought a stake in Apollo Management in July. Selling stakes to international sovereign wealth funds has become a popular way for US buy-out groups to cash in on their booming businesses while expanding their influence in new markets. The Carlyle deal demonstrates that the credit squeeze has not halted such transactions.

Mubadala, the arm of Abu Dhabi which has invested in sectors as diverse as Libyan oil exploration and Ferrari, the Italian motor company, is paying $1.35bn for the Carlyle stake.

The deal was struck at a 10 per cent discount to a valuation of $20bn for all of Carlyle. The Washington-based buy-out group agreed to guarantee a floor to Mubadala’s investment, pledging to compensate the arm of the oil-rich emirate if Carlyle goes public and the share price drops.

Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein said, in an interview with the Financial Times, that the deal gave his firm “more capital to invest in our funds and more flexibility in terms of deciding whether to go public”.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9bae8ba-679e-11dc-8906-0000779fd2ac.html

[bemildred]

1. Today's "No shit Sherlock" award. The new "Free Companies".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary

"During the later Middle Ages, Free Companies (or Free Lances) were formed, consisting of companies of mercenary troops. Nation-states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire free companies to serve in their armies during wartime. Such companies typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments. The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia. The White Company<30> commanded by Sir John Hawkwood is the best known English Free Company of the 14th Century. A Welshman Owain Lawgoch (Owain of the Red Hand) formed a free company and fought for the French against the English during the Hundred Years War, before being assassinated by a Scot by the name of Jon Lamb under the orders of the English Crown in 1378 during the siege of Mortagne<31>."

[annabanana]

2. So. We will be paying for foreign owned armies to

police our streets during emergencies, real or manufactured.

Someone please tell me I've got this wrong....

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Brilliant move on their part? I think not.

What frightens me is the thought that there is a hub of power out there consisting of several powerful men with access to powerful finite resources, and they may be planning on how to rule all countries.