-Caveat Lector-
CORPWATCH
www.corpwatch.org
May 23, 2001
DynCorp In Colombia: Outsourcing the Drug War
By Jeremy Bigwood
A U.S.-made Huey II military helicopter manned by foreigners wearing U.S.
Army fatigues crash lands after being pockmarked by sustained guerrilla
fire from the jungle below. Its crew members, one of them wounded, are
surrounded by enemy guerrillas.
Another three helicopters, this time carrying American crews, cut through
the hot muggy sky. While two of them circle, firing machine-guns at hidden
enemy, one swoops down alongside the downed Huey, and the Americans jump
through the wash of the blades into the firefight on the ground,
successfully rescuing the downed crew members. It could be a scene from a
soon-to-be-released Hollywood blockbuster based on the war in Vietnam or
El Salvador. But, it happened in Colombia last February, as part of the
U.S. $1.3 billion intervention called "Plan Colombia." The Americans who
braved the bullets were members of an armed "airmobile" Search and Rescue
Team. However, they were not part of the U.S. Armed Forces, but civilian
employees of a private company called DynCorp, the new "privateer
mercenaries" of a U.S. policy that now "outsources" its wars.
Like the old English "privateer" pirates of the Caribbean five hundred
years ago, sailing under no national flag - robbing and plundering Latin
America's riches for the English Crown, Washington now employs hundreds of
contract employees through U.S. corporations to carry out its policies in
Colombia and other countries. In the old days, the British maintained that
because the pirate ships did not fly the English flag, the Crown was not
responsible for their actions. While the new privateers are underwritten
through U.S. taxes, they are technically "contract employees." Like the
sixteenth century pirates, if they get caught in an embarrassing crime, or
are killed, the U.S. government can deny responsibility for their actions.
What's more only a select few in Congress know of their activities and
their operations are not subject to public scrutiny, despite the fact that
they are on the government payroll.
"It's very handy to have an outfit not part of the U.S. armed forces,
obviously. If somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it's not a
member of the armed forces," former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, Myles
Frechette told reporters. Meanwhile, Former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey
recently described himself as an "unabashed admirer of outsourcing." And
there is an economic consideration too. Deploying high ranking active duty
military officers to staff Colombian operations is far more costly than
hiring retired officers working privately. A U.S. government official, who
asked not to be named, said that there were several reasons that the U.S.
government outsources projects: "[Outsourcing] can be a flexible,
cost-effective means of providing specific labor-intensive services on a
short-term basis. Once we hire government workers, they are here forever.
Some of these jobs are only short-term."
Outsourcing belligerent activities on the part of the U.S. government is
not new. It goes back to the Revolutionary War. Many such companies were
involved in the Vietnam war, but they were only a minuscule presence
compared to the major military effort by the U.S. there. What is new is
that now contract employees are in the forefront of operations. In the
Colombian war, private outsourced military men are out on the frontlines,
while the real U.S. troops are hidden on bases as trainers. The exact
number of contract employees in Colombia is not known. A recent State
Department report states that there are only 200 U.S. military soldiers
and about 170 American contractors working in Colombia. Historically,
official counts of U.S. personnel and contractors tend to be
underestimated in counter-insurgency operations.
DynCorp and Plan Colombia
By far the largest U.S. contractor company in Latin America is DynCorp,
headquartered in Reston, Virginia near the CIA, and Pentagon. It hires and
places many ex-military personnel, but is actually much more diverse and
more high-tech than that. The company's website promotes it as an Internet
Technologies corporation. DynCorp describes its areas of expertise as
"Information Systems, Information Technology/Outsourcing and Technical
Services." Once you dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that this is no
ordinary high-tech start up.
According to its own literature, "DynCorp's expertise spans more than five
decades - encompassing events from the computer revolution, the Space Age,
the Cold War and conflicts from Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. Through
these times, we have dedicated ourselves to providing customers with the
best and most educated solutions. Our IT experience has evolved with this
ever-changing industry, and we continue to offer our clients solid
solutions based on this evolution." DynCorp has "worked with domestic and
foreign government agencies to provide successful information, engineering
and aerospace technology solutions. As a result, few companies understand
the public sector like DynCorp, or can boast a government client base with
the depth and breadth of ours."
Indeed, government contracts account for 98% of DynCorp's business. It
contracts with more than 30 U.S. government agencies, including the
Department of Defense, State Department, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency,
Bureau of Prisons, and the Office of National Drug Policy. About half of
DynCorp's revenue comes from the Pentagon and many of its employees are
retired military men. The rest of the contracts are mostly with civilian
government agencies. According to its website, last year it generated more
than $1.8 billion in annual revenues, a $4.4 billion-dollar contract
backlog and more than 20,000 employees in more than 550 locations. CEO
Paul Lombardi recently boasted to the Washington Technology website that
he projects 2001 revenue will top $2 billion.
Like many transnational giants DynCorp has gobbled up some of the
competition. In 1999 it acquired GTE Information Systems which has helped
the company pursue government mega-contracts.
Since 1997, DynCorp has operated under a $600 million-dollar State
Department contract in Latin America. But, according to its contract with
the State Department, recently acquired by CorpWatch, "mission deployments
may be made to any worldwide location, including, potentially, outside of
Central and South America." The company mainly "participates in
eradication missions, training, and drug interdiction, but also
participates in air transport, reconnaissance, search and rescue, airborne
medical evacuation, ferrying equipment and personnel from one country to
another, as well as aircraft maintenance," according to the contract.
DynCorp operates several State Department aircraft, including armed UH-1H
Iroquois and Bell-212 Huey-type helicopters and T-65 Thrush crop dusters.
DynCorp provides the pilots, technicians, and just about any kind of
personnel required to carry out the war in Colombia, including
administrative personnel. Some of its personnel in Colombia, such as its
helicopter pilots are Colombians, Peruvians, and Guatemalans, but most are
from the U.S. All must speak passable Spanish and English, and all must
possess U.S. government "Secret" personnel security clearances, except in
the cases of foreign contractors, where this requirement may be waived.
DynCorp is tight lipped when it comes to its clients. Company spokesperson
Janet Wineriter refused to comment on the company's overseas operations.
Nor will the State Department make on-the-record statements about
DynCorp's operations. Company paramedic Michael Demons apparently recently
died of a heart attack on a Colombian military base and the U.S. Embassy
in Bogota attempted to keep his death secret. Because Demons was not a
military officer and didn't work directly for the U.S. government, there
was no official report and his death was treated as if he were a tourist.
DynCorp has also lost three pilots in action. None of these deaths were
reported in the news media.
DynCorp also operates in Bolivia and Peru, in conflict zones where
indigenous coca growers feel U.S. drug operations encroach on their
cultural use of coca and their economic livelihood. In Peru these areas
also face renewed activity of Shining Path guerillas. But by far the
largest DynCorp operations are in Colombia, and according to its contract
with the State Department, it has a "command and control" function in the
field, apparently outside any government oversight.
DynCorp is openly labeled "mercenary" by a hostile Colombian press, a
charge they vigorously deny. A State Department official told CorpWatch
that "mercenaries are used in war. This is counter-narcotics." But in
Colombia, the line between the counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics
has been blurred for many years. While it is true that Colombia now
produces much of the cocaine used in the United States making it a target
for the "war on drugs," Washington's policy objectives may go beyond
drugs. The U.S. is also concerned about Colombia's more than 30-year long
guerilla insurgency. Critics say that Plan Colombia is an expansion of
Washington's involvement in counter-insurgency.
A hint of other U.S. policy aims is visible to anyone taking a commercial
flight from Houston to Bogota. Amongst the U.S. passengers, the embassy
types, the businessmen and older ex-military types are easily
recognizable. But those who stand out most are the young gringos with
cocker-spaniel hairdos wearing blue jeans and sweatshirts with oil company
logos inscribed on them. Increasing oil supplies is at the heart of Bush
administration energy policy. And both U.S. presidential candidates during
the 2000 elections had ties to major oil investments in Colombia. Al
Gore's family owns shares in Occidental Petroleum and now-President George
Bush has ties to Harken Energy Inc., of Houston, Texas.
According to Fernando Caicedo, a middle-aged, mustached, but sprightly
guerilla commander interviewed in southern Colombia: "the gringos want to
exploit the whole upper Amazon region, an area that includes parts of
Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, known for its richness in
black gold -- oil."
DynCorp's day to day operations are overseen by a secretive clique of
officials in the State Department's Narcotic Affairs Section (NAS) and the
State Department's Air Wing, a group that includes unreformed cold
warriors and leftovers from the Central American wars of the 1980's.
Working hand-in-hand with U.S. military officials, Narcotic Affairs is
supposed to be part of the drug war only, running the fumigation
operations against drug crops. But there are indications that it is also
involved in the counter-insurgency. In areas that are targeted for
fumigation by Narcotic Affairs, Colombian right-wing paramilitaries
arrive, sometimes by military helicopter, according to a human rights
worker living in the Putumayo who asked for anonymity. Members of these
paramilitaries "clear the ground" so that the planes spraying herbicides,
often piloted by Americans, are not shot at by angry farmers or
insurgents.
"If we did not take control of zones ahead of the army, the guerrillas
would shoot down their planes" said southern Colombia paramilitary leader,
"Comando Wilson" last April. Many of these paramilitary forces have
benefited from U.S.-financed military training in the Colombian Army.
Their frequent apparent coordination with the Narcotic Affairs Section and
their DynCorp employees, as well as with the Colombian Armed forces,
raises the question of U.S. collaboration with "outsourced" death squads,
a charge vehemently denied by U.S. officials.
Questions on Capitol Hill
The growing death toll around the use of contractors like DynCorp has
caught the attention of U.S. lawmakers. In April, private forces under a
CIA contract in Peru identified U.S. missionaries flying in a plane as
suspected drug dealers. They notified the Peruvian Air Force which shot
them down, killing a woman and her seven month old daughter. While there
was speculation that DynCorp might be involved, the company vehemently
denied the allegations. "DynCorp does not provide surveillance services
under this program and was not involved in any manner in the incident that
occurred in Peru," according to spokesperson Charlene A. Wheeless. The New
York Times reports another company, Aviation Development, was responsible
for the downing of the plane.
Aviation Development works in the same areas of Colombia as DynCorp,
mainly as an airborne intelligence gatherer under contract to the Central
Intelligence Agency.
Moved to action by the incident, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill, submitted
the Andean Region Contractor Accountability Act H.R. 1591, "legislation
that would prohibit U.S. funds from being used to contract with private
military companies in the Andean region."
"U.S. taxpayers are unwittingly funding a private war with private
soldiers," Schakowsky recently testified in Congress. "American taxpayers
already pay $300 billion per year to fund the world's most powerful
military. Why should they have to pay a second time in order to privatize
our operations? How is the public to know what their tax dollars are being
used for? If there is a potential for a privatized Gulf of Tonkin
incident, then the American people deserve to have a full and open debate
before this policy goes any farther."
"Are we outsourcing in order to avoid public scrutiny, controversy or
embarrassment? Is it to hide body bags from the media and thus shield them
from public opinion?" she asked. "Or is it to provide deniability because
these private contractors are not covered by the same rules as active duty
U.S. service persons."
As Schakowsky's bill winds its way through the bureaucracy on Capitol
Hill, DynCorp continues to operate in Latin America free from public
scrutiny or accountability.
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