Outsourcing the War

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=288780

For example, the State Department pays three companies, Blackwater U.S.A., DynCorp International, and Triple Canopy, Inc., to provide protection and escort services for the United States embassy and other sites in the Baghdad “Green Zone.” Blackwater also provides the same services for Iraqi government ministers and officials. Even visiting U.S. dignitaries fall under the protection of these companies. No longer is that highest priority task allocated to the U.S. Marines, who at one time provided protection to all embassies and personnel around the world.

Blackwater initially won a $21 million contract to provide bodyguards for U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremer, when he was in charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, up until June 2004.

It is now among the three preferred contractors for U.S. government security services in Iraq.

The irony is that while the U.S. Marines have been sidelined in place of the far more expensive private companies in protecting U.S. government officials, including the President and Vice President on their trips to Iraq, they do in fact provide protection services, escorts for convoys etc for private contractors such as Halliburton company KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root) - for free.

As Halliburton says, "The U.S. military has command and control of all KBR convoys in Iraq, such as supplying pre-trip threat assessments and determining routes, and is required to provide security for KBR's employees through the company's contract with the Army."
more...

So let me get this straight our troops guard the KBR big shots for free and Cheney and Bremer gets protected by top dollar by mercenaries... Me thinks Cheney doesn't trust the US military

[LaStrega]

1. mebbee he considers much of the US military to be "phony"? n/t

[lovuian]

2. kick

:kick: