We can't be a perfect nation, there have been none prior to us throughout history, and there will be none after us that are. There is nothing in the universe that is without some flaw or having its own deficiencies. But, it becomes dangerous when people running any great nation become corrupt and take advantage of the good will of the people of a given country for themselves. That behavior in any government can be something that is learned from and put in place through constant checks, or it can become out of control becoming something that siphons huge amounts of a nations treasure, and cause suffering in other ways merely to ensure the power of the corrupt individuals and their ability to continue siphoning treasure from the nation in question's revenue.
We are a great nation that's for sure, but with that greatness unfortunately comes people wishing to twist, warp and take advantages of the many things thieves and corrupt individuals can take advantage of. We don't like to hear about that and we don't want to hear about it. As Americans of good conscience, no matter our differences in background, we feel a sense of responsibility and anger when we hear of such people, and that's for a reason. We care about the nation we live in and what's done in our name.
There are those that don't seem to have that same love for this country. They have no problems cooking up schemes to weaken the nation and steal from taxpayers. There are those that care about nothing more than money, and there are those that would bow to these people for a few coins and defend and protect them because of coins without thought for the good of the country and their countrymen.
In our nation one of the most sensitive areas is that of national security. The people responsible for the welfare and protection of of our country and it's defense, whether military, intelligence, both or other, should be focused on public service only. There should never be the idea that if they overlook this or that or allow for shoddiness here or there, they may profit from that in the future.
Our nation's defense and intelligence have been outsourced more and more and some reports put the level of outsourcing of our intelligence at 60 percent plus. (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/01/intel_contractors/) Our nation's wars are increasingly relying on private security forces over normal military, and at times in specific areas, during the recent dual wars, we had more of them deployed than regular military. During these wars said companies have grown wealthy, powerful and large off the hard earned money you and me earned through our labors. Take Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC), where “before 2001, tier-one contractors, or former members of elite, special forces units, were hired from a small pool of applicants. After the 9/11 attacks, Cofer Black, the former head of counter terrorism at the CIA requested that the federal government hire more contractors to operate overseas. Eventually, the CIA realized that large numbers of civilian contractors would be needed overseas to accomplish its broad goals, and turned to Blackwater.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Security_Consulting)
Then Cofer Black crossed over to work for Blackwater in 2005 to chair their intelligence subdivision starting in 2007, and as described in an article on alternet, '”in a 2007 interview on the cable business network CNBC, Black was brought on as an analyst to discuss 'investing in Jordan.' At no point in the interview was Black identified as working for the Jordanian government (he was through Blackwater). [Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC, (TIS) – a division of Blackwater run by Cofer Black] was described as 'a corporate consulting firm that includes investment strategy,' while 'Ambassador Black' was introduced as 'a twenty-eight-year veteran of the CIA,' the 'top counterterror guy' and 'a key planner for the breathtakingly rapid victory of American forces that toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan.' Black heaped lavish praise on Jordan and its monarchy. 'You have leadership, King Abdullah, His Majesty King Abdullah, who is certainly kind towards investors, very protective,' Black said. 'Jordan is, in our view, a very good investment. There are some exceptional values there.' He said Jordan is in a region where there are 'numerous commodities that are being produced and doing well.'
“Black and other Total Intelligence executives have turned their CIA careers, reputations, contacts and connections into business opportunities. What they once did for the US government, they now do for private interests. It is not difficult to imagine clients feeling as though they are essentially hiring the US government to serve their own interests. In 2007 Rob (Richer, the former Associate Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA) told the Post that now that he is in the private sector, foreign military officials and others are more willing to give him information than they were when he was with the CIA. Richer recalled a conversation with a foreign general during which he was surprised at the potentially 'classified' information the general revealed. When Richer asked why the general was giving him the information, he said the general responded, 'If I tell it to an embassy official I've created espionage. You're a business partner.'” (http://www.alternet.org/world/87200/ )
Eric “Prince's visits are probably one reason that the revolving door to Blackwater keeps turning. […] Rob Richer resigned from the post of Associate Deputy Director of Operations; he immediately took a job as Blackwater's Vice President of Intelligence. Richer is a former head of the CIA's Near East Division and long served in Amman, where, for a period beginning in 1999, he held the post of station chief. For years he was the agency's point man with Jordan's King Abdullah, with whom he developed an extraordinarily close relationship. 'There have been some ups and downs in our relationship with Jordan, but the king has always been on good terms with the CIA,' said a person familiar with the situation. 'The king's primary relationship is always with the CIA, not the American ambassador.'
“The CIA has lavishly subsidized Jordan's intelligence service, and has sent millions of dollars in recent years for intelligence training. After Richer retired, sources say, he helped Blackwater land a lucrative deal with the Jordanian government to provide the same sort of training offered by the CIA. Millions of dollars that the CIA 'invested' in Jordan walked out the door with Richer—if this were a movie, it would be a cross between Jerry Maguire and Syriana. 'People [at the agency] are pissed off,' said one source. 'Abdullah still speaks with Richer regularly and he thinks that's the same thing as talking to us. He thinks Richer is still the man.' Except in this case it's Richer, not his client, yelling 'show me the money.' (Richer did not return a phone call seeking comment.)” (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/09/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158...) When ti says the CIA lavishly subsidized Jordan's intelligence services – that means you and me “lavishly” subsidized their intelligence services.
An article in Harpers from September 12, 2006 revealed that as of that date, “Blackwater reportedly has revenues of about $100 million annually, almost all of it from government contracts, and maintains 'a compound half the size of Manhattan and 450 permanent employees,' according to the newspaper.” (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/09/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158...) That's money that could have been better put to use, if nowhere else, in your own bank account where it originally came from in the first place.
People that once were public servants are taking their connections, expertise and training, and leaving public sector American work. They then turn around, holding their contacts and expertise hostage, and say that if the American people don't pay them double, and in many cases triple the amount of hard earned tax dollars, America can stew - stuck like Chuck and out of luck. They turn their backs on this great nation and everything we gave them for a few coins in their pocket. Further, they actually steal from us, playing both sides of the fence working for multiple nations' intelligence and defense services simultaneously. Who is this good for? You and me?
Erick Prince claims to do what he does based on a devotion to America and his Christian beliefs. Has he converted the royal family in Jordan? Not that I believe he should of course, but where's this Christianity in cheating America? He should be willing to go homeless and broke in the streets for America with all that he's been given by us. How has forcing us to pay him to play both sides of the fence and put up a wall between the United States of America and the foreign nation of Jordan or all the other foreign nations been a good thing? Is this the Christian thing to do or disgustingly greedy? Are these loyal public servants or self interested people? Do you trust them?
There are three major firms getting our billions annually routed to private security firms; Blackwater, Triple Canopy, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Obama's Blackwater) and DynCorp. DynCorp has not only been involved in the same sorts of revolving door between the US government and the private sector, but their scandals have taken on new levels of rot, displaying not only how truly nasty, base, low and self serving these wealthy corporations are, but how willing politicians and other public servants are willing to turn a blind eye to what they do.
DynCorp has been found guilty of being involved in sex trafficking of human beings on at least three occasions. First they were found to have employees purchasing the passports of girls as young as twelve years old in some cases to “own” for sexual purposes. These employees even paraded them around as their dates at DynCorp company functions without raising a single eyebrow (Well, except that of the lone whistleblower that ironically enough, eventually had to be put under protection for his life). (http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/06/26/bosnia/index.html)
Then, “a contractor died when a DynCorp manager used an employee's armored car to transport prostitutes, according to Barry Halley, a Worldwide Network Services employee working under a DynCorp subcontract. 'DynCorp's site manager was involved in bringing prostitutes into hotels operated by DynCorp. A co-worker unrelated to the ring was killed when he was traveling in an unsecure car and shot performing a high-risk mission. I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor's manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.'” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/29/us-military-contractor-us_n_991...)
And most recently their employees were found to have been paying underage boys to dress up like girls to dance for Afghani policemen DynCorp was being paid by the US government to train for at least one party. This is an old tribal tradition where the night ends in the leering old men that attend paying to rape the boys afterwards. The tradition was fading out until the our war there, and then miraculously it began making a “comeback.” Guess we know who was responsible for the comeback. Oh and besides DynCorp, so were you and I as they used our tax dollars to throw the parties responsible for the comeback. Oh and information released by Wikileaks proved that so is the US State Department, as they know of it, and choose to deny it instead of stopping repeat slave traders and molesters from receiving US tax dollars. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/213720) (http://www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com/statedepartment.html) DynCorp has already admitted their employees were involved in the incident in question. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR200907...) They still get billions in revenue from you and I as one of the tope three such contractors. I'm sure those little orphaned children getting raped by US contractors appreciate all the efforts of the State Department.
We would never tolerate this from other people, whether it was a state college professor, a local hair stylist or a local gregarious TV weatherman. We's all say they should be sent to prison. Why do we tolerate it from these contractors? Why do people in the State Department feel it's alright for them to rape children?
How can we be telling other nations what to do and claiming to be taking moral leadership on racial issues, women's rights, education, the uplifting of children, peace among nations, etc, when we are denying such corruption and human rights issues emanating from within our own government? How can we invade other nations and create wars “for the good of that nation's people” when we hire molesting rapists to do so that loot our public coffers for their own benefit while working for potential enemies also?
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.