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-Caveat Lector- Hey Dick:This W is dangerous, man! I mean, I knew it was bad, but this makes Oct. 1962 potentially look like a cake walk. Look at the strategic interests Russia and China, not to mention France and Germany, have in Iraq and the region. But no one is even talking about those implications. How would W react if Russia staged Backfire bombers to Turkmenistan and upped its strategic forces (ICBM) alert level, while China decided the time was right to ready an amphibious attack force opposite Taiwan? Would that be "showing their cards"? Please pass the article along. Thanks. I'll be in the SF streets on the 15th.KOf God, and Man, in the Oval OfficeBy Fritz RitschSunday, March 2, 2003; Page B03The National Council of Churches (NCC), together with a number of peace organizations, recently ran an ad on CNN and Fox in which a bishop of the United Methodist Church, to which President Bush belongs, criticized the Bush administration's relentless war rhetoric. Going to war with Iraq "violates God's law and the teachings of Jesus Christ," said the bishop.It may confound people that some mainline Protestant churches continue to resist the president's call to arms. After all, it is couched in theological language: The term "axis of evil" was coined to give the war on terrorism a religious edge; President Bush speaks of giving the people of Iraq not democracy, but freedom, harkening back to both the biblical Exodus and the Civil War. "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war," he assured us after Sept. 11, "and we know that God is not neutral between them." If God is not neutral, and the choices are so straightforward -- almost the literal embodiment of a spiritual battle -- it seems perverse for mainline religious leaders to withhold support for war against Iraq.NCC leaders were frustrated that the president had rebuffed their requests to meet with him to discuss their views. The president apparently believes that he can talk about theology from the bully pulpit without talking to theologians. Which begs the question: When did the president become theologian in chief?The president used the words of a hymn, "There's Power in the Blood," to strengthen the religious rhetoric of his State of the Union speech. He spoke of the "power, wonder-working power," of "the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people." The original words of the hymn refer to the "wonder-working power" of "the precious blood of the lamb" -- Jesus Christ. The unspoken but apparently deliberate parallel between Americans and Jesus is disturbing, to say the least . The implication is that Americans are generous -- like Jesus. And that we are innocent victims -- like the lamb of God. In his February speech to religious broadcasters, Bush again expounded upon America's virtues and implied purity, concluding, "We are a compassionate country, and we are generous toward our fellow citizens. And we are a courageous country, ready when necessary to defend the peace." In both speeches, he used American virtues to segue into the reason that we must confront the "evil" before us.The hymn continues, "Would you over evil a victory win?" The road to that victory is paved with American good intentions, the president suggests. These American virtues will almost supernaturally imbue our military ventures with righteousness -- and with victory.Many parishioners at my small, inside-the-Beltway church, by contrast, do not view themselves or the nation in such a saintly light. American righteousness is by no means a sure thing to them. Nor do they view the larger geopolitical and spiritual issues as so starkly black and white. "When [Americans] invoke God to be a policeman, I find it inappropriate," said Bill Dodge. A victory over Saddam Hussein is not necessarily proof of our unvarnished virtue, either on the world stage, or before God, many of them say. It doesn't even look like a victory against terrorism. And Bush's increasingly religious justification for war with Iraq is disturbing, even frightening, to many. "It bothers me that he wraps himself in a cloak of Christianity," said Lois Elieff. "It's not my idea of Christianity." To them, Bush's use of religious language sounds shallow and far more self-justifying than that of other recent political leaders -- including Bush's father.The most striking characteristic of the younger Bush's use of religion is its relentless triumphalism. American triumphalism is nothing new, of course. Many of the earliest Christian settlers were religious zealots who viewed America as the New Zion, the Promised Land. Today's Americans, whether overtly religious or not, are their spiritual heirs. In my experience, secular Americans are as likely as religious Americans to believe that we are the rightful beneficiaries of some kind of manifest destiny.But some on the religious right have built a theology around this hope. Many of them believe that America will be at its best if its government submits to their understanding of God's work on Earth. What they have longed for is a Davidic ruler -- a political leader like the Bible's David, who will unite their secular vision of the nation with their spiritual aspirations. All indications are that they believe they have found their David in Bush -- and that the president believes it, too.Bush's religious supporters are his greatest cheerleaders. Rather than his spiritual guides, they are his faithful disciples. He is the leader of the America they think God has ordained. Contrary to popular opinion, the religion that this group espouses is Triumphalism, not Christianity. Theirs is a zealous form of nationalism, baptized with Christian language. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, foresaw the rise of a similar view in his country, which he labeled "joyous secularism." Joyous secularists, said Bonhoeffer, are Christians who view the role of government as helping God to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. He viewed this as human arrogance and a denial of God's sovereignty; but joyous secularism has an appeal that crosses religious boundaries, and now has added force in the United States because it has found its political messiah.In the aftermath of 9/11, people came to church in droves, looking for larger meaning, and then they left again, frustrated. That's a problem churches need to address, not least because our failure to give them what they were looking for may have lent potency to presidential theology. When people were searching for meaning, the president was able to frame that meaning. In a nation of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In a secular society, a president who can confidently quote scripture is that man.The president confidently (dare I say "religiously"?) asserts a worldview that most Christian denominations reject outright as heresy: the myth of redemptive violence, which posits a war between good and evil, with God on the side of good and Satan on the side of evil and the battle lines pretty clearly drawn.War is essential in this line of thinking. For God to win, evil needs to be defined and destroyed by God's faithful followers, thus proving their faithfulness. Christians have held this view to be heretical since at least the third century. It is the bread-and-butter theology of fundamentalists, whether Muslim, Jewish or Christian.In contrast, the Judeo-Christian worldview is that of redemption. Redemption starts from the assumption that all of humanity is flawed and must approach God with humility. No good person is totally good, and no evil person is irredeemable. God's purpose is to redeem all people. Good and evil, while critical, become secondary to redemption.While most Christian denominations do not reject war altogether, diplomacy becomes integral to our understanding of the practical application of redemption. War becomes the bluntest of blunt instruments because it can never be fully justified. If I can't claim to be completely good, and no one is so evil as to be irredeemable, what right do I have to kill?Despite our secularism, the United States has rarely been so publicly and politically "Christian" as it is today. Or perhaps it is because of our secularism. We can no longer tell good theology from bad. We mainline denominations need to take our share of the blame: For decades we took it for granted that Christianity and citizenship were inextricably linked, that American power was the natural outgrowth of American righteousness. For too long we, too, preached American triumphalism. We did not remind people of the overarching guidance God gives all people in search of redemption: the necessity of the examined life. Ironically, our triumphalism may have fueled America's secularism. With God on our side, there didn't seem to be much need for self-examination and humility.It is clear now that a sectarian Christian view of history, a dualism that views war as a kind of redemptive purgative, is having at least some influence on the administration's rhetoric. It is characterized by a stark refusal to acknowledge accountability, because to suggest accountability is to question American purity, which would undermine the secular theology of "good versus evil" inherent in present U.S. policy.The dominance of the religious right in political affairs makes it appear that a Christian worldview dominates American politics. But if, as I believe, this worldview is really American triumphalism, Christianity has taken a backseat to joyous secularism. Within Christianity and Judaism in this country there are denominations and branches with the philosophical and institutional power and authority to challenge that triumphalism, but bold stands such as the NCC's are still the exception.With the political emergence of joyous secularism, the churches are challenged to preach an alternative message: grace, hope and redemption -- the truth of Biblical faith. This is both our pastoral and our political responsibility. In a nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft, it is, quite possibly, apocalyptic in its implications.Fritz Ritsch============I. The Police State: Parasites and Patriots Part I
By Al Lorentz
II. Civilian employees of Dick Cheney's former company are
carrying out military missions around the world � for profit.
By Pratap Chatterjee
===================================
Item #1:The Police State:
Parasites and Patriots Part I
By Al LorentzWhen we look at the control mechanism for the globalists and their police state fantasies, one thing becomes quite obvious; they are a flea under a magnifying glass. When viewed through the glass of major and carefully controlled mass media, as they prefer to be seen, they look terrifying, powerful and invincible. When viewed plainly and honestly though, they are seen as ugly, small and parasitical. Still dangerous but hardly invincible.Just like any other parasites, they are of course a problem and not to be taken lightly. But, just like all parasites, they need to be dealt with or they will overwhelm the host and destroy it. Such is the dilemma we find ourselves in today, the parasites are the problem and the truth is the insecticide we need to be rid of them.Unfortunately, there isnt enough truth being spread around today to do anything more than simply annoy the parasites. Some Patriots mistakenly believe that the way to deal with the parasites is to try and find them them individually and destroy them. Anyone who has ever seen fleas on a dog realizes that this can become a full time occupation with diminishing returns. What we patriots need to be doing is applying liberal doses of flea powder, we need to be spreading the truth.I know many patriots who keep their political views and opposition to the parasitical enemies of liberty who masquerade as our public servants, a secret. A good example would be the tax revolt, some courageous souls such as Bob Schultz are challenging the IRS head on, seeking not just a victory for themselves but for us all. Others mistakenly believe the way we fight the tax system is to cheat on our taxes and hide; in soldiers parlance this is known as digging a hole and pulling it in behind you, it is an
impossibility. While I sympathize with those latter, they are as effective in the war against tyranny as the soldier who, instead of shooting at the enemy, spends his time hiding in the bottom of his foxhole. While the soldier who hides in his foxhole certainly did part of his duty by not getting killed, he missed the most important part which was to defeat the enemy. This is an information war, either shoot, load or make bandages!I have other friends who keep their ownership of weapons, a Constitutionally protected and God given right, a secret. Their understanding of warfare and politics is obviously as clouded as their understanding of how tyrants operate. The tyrants are not at all concerned about a relative handful of secret operatives, they are concerned about the masses. When gun control is initiated, the people who already know they will resist arent going to be the first targets of disarmament, it will be the undecided citizens who would have been invaluable in reversing the course of tyranny.We as patriots must be leaders.Our Founding Fathers were quite willing to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor if necessary to secure our freedom and liberty. We must be people such as they, else we are not going to be able to win such freedom and liberty much less maintain it. Adopting a course of action that relies on educating and informing only ourselves, arming only ourselves and making little if any overt political opposition only helps to isolate us further from our countrymen. When the tyrants seize control they will first disarm the regular populace and then pick we the patriots off, one at a time. Those neighbors whom you neglected to inform of the truth will not be able or willing to help you during such times and the tyrants will know this full well. Imagine the conflagration and massacre at Waco and you will have a clear picture of what is in store for us all.I am not suggesting however that we make open, public and stupid statements or engage in reckless behavior in our protest. Our Founding Fathers were wise, Jesus and his disciples were wise and so then should we be. If you are going to be a leader, you must be the sort of person people will follow, even unto death. Nobody will follow hotheads, idiots, fools or reckless men.Hardly a day goes by when I dont get yet another URGENT letter from somebody, no doubt well meaning, who is encouraging a reckless, poorly planned and usually vindictive or vengeful course of action against the tyrants. While I understand the anger, indeed I feel exactly the same way, lashing out in an unprepared manner is not only foolhardy, it is counter-productive.It does not matter how many injustices are wrought against us, how many this is the last straw assaults on our Constitution are performed or other outrageous and obvious injustices are performed. Until such time as the American people in general understand that the Constitution is the law of the land, not the will of the public servants who are supposed to obey it, our success will be sporadic at best.I am not of course encouraging inactivity, in fact I am encouraging just the opposite, we must be vigorous in our pursuit of liberty. I am simply saying that we must first educate and teach our fellow citizens, else they will not understand what they are opposing any more than they understand what they
are supposed to be defending. Sun Tzu said that to commit untrained troops to battle is to waste them.I know many patriots who believe one day that we will have to fight against our own military and I agree that they are being trained for the specific purpose of engaging in hostilities against their own people. The way to counter-act this is not to try and raise, train and equip an army of equal size of our own (an impossibility), but rather to negate the effects of that army.When I was a senior NCO, I had pre-determined that, if given the order to fire upon or in any way engage civilians (a direct violation of Posse Comitatus), I would perform my duty as required. My duty as required was to turn to the officer who gave the order, draw my sidearm and place him or her
under arrest. My soldiers were instructed to do the same and to use whatever force necessary to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.If we want to negate the effects of the relatively small but very dangerous military machine in the current and rapidly escalating war against the United States Constitution and the American people being waged by our own public servants, we will be much more effective if we spend our time teaching the soldiers to uphold and defend the Constitution instead of training to have to fight against them one day. As a professional soldier, I can tell you that the military hangs like a ripe fig ready to be harvested in this regard, especially the young soldiers. If we can win them over honorably with the truth, we can win this fight to restore our Constitutional Republic with little or no bloodshed and destruction.Yes, there will always be those who can not be converted, those who are so thoroughly wicked and depraved that they will not only burn men, women and children alive, but who will believe that such horrible and inhuman behavior is necessary, acceptable and even praiseworthy. Waco is one such example in recent times but it is not the first, nor will it be the last. The solution to preventing another Waco event is not to build bunkers for ourselves, rather it is to restore our Constitutional Republic. Then, if another Waco occurs, the perpetrators of such criminal activity as burning alive men, women and children, will be tried, (hopefully) convicted and punished instead of being promoted, rewarded and praised.I am not advocating that we disarm ourselves, nor am I advocating that we do not prepare for the eventuality that we may have to take up arms in order to uphold and defend the United States Constitution. I am however saying that we should look at what course of action would be most effective, honorable and just. While squashing fleas by hand may give some form of satisfaction, would not a good application of flea powder be vastly more effective?For political commentary columns, send email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
=================================================Civilian employees of Dick Cheney's former company are carrying out military missions around the world � for profit.
By Pratap Chatterjee
IN EARLY JANUARY, Jon France, transportation officer at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, Calif., was asked to help support the war in Afghanistan by sending prefabricated military bases that could be run by private corporations.With just two days to complete the job, France scrambled to get 100 containers of a package code-named Force Provider (see "Force Provider: The Base-in-a-Box,") to Reno, Nev. where the Nevada Air National Guard was standing by to load them onto three Air Force C-5s and four 747s headed to Ramstein, Germany, Larry Rogers, a spokesperson for the army depot, told us. A day later the 21st Theater Support Command arrived in Ramstein to airlift the Force Provider package to Central Asia.Employees of Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of the Dallas-based Halliburton Corp. (once run by Vice President Dick Cheney), are scheduled to arrive at the Bagram air base in southern Afghanistan to take over the day-to-day support services at the Force Provider camp starting in late April or early May (the exact date is classified). They are also set to arrive at the Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan, one of the main military support stations for the war in Afghanistan, to run three Air Force Harvest Eagle camps (an older version of Force Provider) for the 1,500 U.S. troops based there since October, according to Daniel McGinty, a spokesperson at the Defense Contract Management Agency, which will be overseeing the contracts."They [Brown and Root] will be maintaining these packages,[doing] base camp maintenance, facilities maintenance, laundry services, food services, airfield services, property accountability, and supply operations," says Gale L. Smith, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Operations Support Command in Alexandria, Va. (Brown and Root is now named Kellogg Brown andRoot, following a corporate merger, but is often referredto by its previous name.) She refused to confirm or deny whether Brown and Root would be working on similar bases in Manas,Kyrgyzstan, or other sites in Afghanistan and Pakistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom.The new job is one of the first examples of a private company being awarded a lucrative contract from the Pentagon to run the day-to-day support operations on the battlefield. In December 2001, Brown and Root secured a 10-year deal called Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), according to a Pentagon press release. The contract is a "cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity
service," which basically means that the federal government has an open-ended mandate and budget to send Brown and Root anywhere in the world to run humanitarian or military operations for a profit.And critics are alarmed. The military has a long-celebrated, cozy relationship with private industry, but Brown and Root's goes much
further. For private industry will now essentially run a war
operation. And the potential problems are legion, military critics warn. Not only will civilians be running around overseas with guns, but they'll also be answering to nobody."The Bush-Cheney team have turned the United States into a family business," says Harvey Wasserman, author of The Last Energy War (Seven Stories Press, 2000). "That's why we haven't seen Cheney � he's cutting deals with his old buddies who gave him a multimillion-dollar golden handshake. Have they no grace, no shame, no common sense? Why don't they just have Enron run America? Or have Zapata Petroleum [George W. Bush's failed oil-exploration venture] build a pipeline across Afghanistan?"Deep roots
Halliburton, Brown and Root's parent company, is a Fortune 500 construction corporation working primarily for the oil industry. In the early 1990s the company was awarded the job to study and then implement the privatization of routine army functions under then-secretary of defense Dick Cheney.When Cheney quit his Pentagon job, he landed as chief executive of Halliburton, bringing with him his trusted deputy David Gribbin. The two substantially increased Halliburton's government business until they quit in 2000, once Cheney was elected vice president. Since then another confidante of Cheney, Adm. Joe Lopez, former commander in chief for U.S. forces in southern Europe, took over Gribbin's old job of go-between for the government and the company, according to Brown
and Root's own press releases (see "Dick Cheney: Soldier of Fortune," page 23). Other close friends include Richard Armitage, the assistant secretary of state, who worked as a consultant to Halliburton before taking up his present job.Last year the company took in $13 billion in revenues, according to its latest annual report. Currently, Brown and Root estimates it has $740 million in existing U.S. government contracts (approximately 37 percent of its global business), most of which are in addition to the LOGCAP deal.For example, in mid November 2001, Brown and Root was paid $2 million to reinforce the U.S. embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under contract with the State Department, according to the New York Times. More recently Brown and Root was paid $16 million by the federal government to go to Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, to build a 408-person prison for captured Taliban fighters, according to Pentagon press releases.That's by no means all: Brown and Root employees can be found back home running support operations from Fort Knox, Ky., to a naval base in El Centro, Calif., according to information provided by the company.And it is also snapping up contracts with American allies, according to company press releases: In September 2001 the company signed on to a $283 million project for Russia's Defense Threat Reduction Agency to eliminate liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles and their silos. In November 2001 the Philippines awarded the company a $100 million order to convert the U.S. Navy's former ship-repair
facilities in Subic Bay into a modern commercial port facility. And in December it won a $420 million contract from the British Army to support a fleet of new mammoth tank transporters.Critics charge that this is a classic example of the revolving door between government and big business. "Cheney gives new meaning to the term 'revolving door.' " says Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. "If he does not get elected president next, I have no doubt he will return to Halliburton when he leaves the White House."Jennifer Millerwise, a spokesperson for Cheney's office, denies that there was any contact help from the White House: "The vice president did not discuss this with anybody from Halliburton or any subsidiary of Halliburton. Nor does he comment on Halliburton's policies, since he doesn't work there any more."The business of warBut Brown and Root is no stranger to the war business. >From 1962 to 1972 the Pentagon paid the company tens of millions of dollars to work in South Vietnam, where they built roads, landing strips,
harbors, and military bases from the demilitarized zone to the Mekong Delta. The company was one of the main contractors hired to construct the Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean, according to Pentagon military histories.The privatization of services at military camps is a relatively new concept that was introduced in 1992, when the Pentagon, then under Cheney's direction, paid Brown and Root $3.9 million to produce a classified report detailing how private companies (like itself) could help provide logistics for U.S. operations abroad (see "Dick Cheney:
Soldier of Fortune," page 23). Several months later the Pentagon gave the company an additional $5 million to update its report.That same year Brown and Root won its first five-year LOGCAP contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would send them to work alongside G.I.s in places such as Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, Bosnia, and Saudi Arabia. Brown and Root's work in the Balkans has been the most profitable for the company � the General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates the company made $2.2 billion in revenue during the military operations there, building sewage systems,
kitchens, and showers and even washing underwear for the 20,000 soldiers stationed there.A student research report written by Maj. Maria Dowling and published by the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama shows that Brown and Root employees can be required to live with soldiers, wear battle dress uniforms, and be issued guns (ostensibly for personal protection). They are substituting for conventional military support units � with acronyms that would make a vegetarian cringe � such as
Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (Prime BEEF), Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer (RED HORSE), and Prime Readiness in Base Service (Prime RIBS).The ratio of such contractors to military personnel is rapidly rising from 1 in 50 during Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War to 1 in 10 in Operation Just Endeavor in the Balkans, according to other Air University research papers.Praise from the army, criticism from outside
Col. Tom Palmer, maintenance chief for Task Force Eagle in Bosnia, admiringly describes how closely he worked with private contractors such as Brown and Root in Bosnia at a Sept. 18, 1997, operation to seize and maintain control of a transmission tower on Mount Zep that was transmitting continuous, inflammatory anti-NATO Stabilization Force messages to the public. In a recent issue of Army Logistician, he wrote, "For soldiers familiar with the Bosnian area of operations, the name 'Brown and Root Services Corporation' (BRSC) became synonymous with "contractor support."But other government agencies are more sceptical. "It is convenient to contract a lot of this work out," says Neil Curtin, director of operations and readiness issues for the GAO defense capabilities and management team. "The problem is that the government doesn't do the best job of oversight."Policy analysts say it's simply a matter of time before something goes wrong. Thomas Donnelly, deputy executive director of the Project for the New American Century inWashington, D.C., says, "We've been
pretty lucky so far that nothing has gone wrong. The Balkans were one thing, but Central Asia is a much tougher neighborhood. Suppose a local Afghani contractor gets kidnapped or used for mischief? This has not been thought through at the policy level or opened up for public debate. There's a lot of opportunity for things to fall
through the cracks and a huge security risk."Christopher Helmand, research analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a think tank on military affairs, believes that privatization can help reduce waste and inefficiency in the military but points out that security is a big concern. "What do we do when somebody infiltrates a U.S.military base and blows it up? If we have civilians walking in and out of our bases because they are 'our allies' in the Northern Alliance or private contractors, we increase our risk considerably," he says. "We simply don't have all the bugs worked out because this is such a new area."Sometimes the risks have come from inside. In 1994, United Nations troops armed with batons and tear gas had to be brought in to quell protests by workers Brown and Root dismissed at the end of its
engagement in Somalia. In Saudi Arabia the army was alarmed when it discovered locally contracted drivers were firing up portable propane tanks to cook meals in the desert while transporting high-explosive ordnance weapons, according to the Dowling report.Certain contractors, including Brown and Root, have also complained that the army treats them as second-class citizens. On at least one occasion, food-service contractors walked off the job in Saudi Arabia when they were not provided with proper protection against chemical attacks; another time, contractors moved out of army tents and
checked into a hotel in defiance of army orders, according to a research report by Major Lisa Turner of the U.S. Air Force.Independent agencies are still sceptical about claimed financial savings from the privatization of military support operations, and the GAO has conducted several investigations. A February 1997 study showed that an operation estimated at $191.6 million when presented to Congress in 1996 had ballooned to $461.5 million a year later.Examples of overspending by contractors have included flying plywood from the United States to the Balkans at $85.98 a sheet and billing the army to pay its employees' income taxes in Hungary.A subsequent GAO report, issued September 2000, showed that Brown and Root was still taking advantage of the contract in the Balkans, noting that army commanders were unable to keep track of the contract, as they were typically rotated out of camps after a six-
month duration, erasing institutional memory.The GAO painted a picture of Brown and Root contract employees
sitting idly most of the time. The report also noted that a lot of staff time was spent doing unnecessary tasks, such as cleaning offices four times a day.Allegations of fraud
In February 2002, Brown and Root paid out $2 million to settle a suit with the Justice Department that alleged the company defrauded the government during the mid-1990s closure of Fort Ord in Monterey, Calif.The allegations in the case surfaced several years ago when Dammen Gant Campbell, a former contracts manager for Brown and Root turned whistle-blower, charged that between 1994 and 1998 the company
fraudulently inflated project costs by misrepresenting the
quantities, quality, and types of materials required for 224
projects. Campbell said the company submitted a detailed "contractors pricing proposal" from an army manual containing fixed prices for some 30,000 line items.Once the proposal was approved, the company submitted a more general "statement of work," which did not contain a breakdown of items to be purchased. Campbell maintained the company intentionally did not deliver many items listed in the original proposal. The
company defended this practice by claiming the statement of work was the legally binding document, not the original contractors pricing proposal."Whether you characterize it as fraud or sharp businesspractices, the bottom line is the same: the government was not getting what it paid for," says Michael Hirst, of the United States Attorney's Office in Sacramento, who litigated the suit on behalf of the government. "We alleged that they exploited the contracting process and increased their profits at the governments expense."Campbell's attorney Dan Schrader has a guess as to why the company was so eager to compromise. "If the company was indicted, I suspect that it might have been far more difficult for them to get new government contracts," he says.Indeed, the company's 2001 annual report says just that in its notes on the settlement of the lawsuit: "Brown and Root's ability to perform further work for the U.S. government has not been impaired." Hirst adds, "Brown and Root was very cooperative and eager to settle. They said they wanted to maintain a good relationship with the government."The company will have a harder time milking the contract in
Afghanistan, because the government is now dispatching auditors from the Defense Contract Management Agency to monitor all purchases, but it still stands to at least make a profit on whatever it can bill. The contract allows for the company to charge a fee of up to 9 percent over cost. The exact amount depends on performance in the field.And if the war on terrorism expands to the size of the Balkan
operations, profits could add up to a few hundred million dollars. In addition to the bases in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, the army started
dispatching Force Provider units to Kyrgyzstan's Manas air base as recently as January 2002 to support up to 3,500 soldiers. Whether or not Brown and Root will follow them there, the army has yet to tell the public."Brown and Root has not deployed nor been tasked to provide support in either country," company spokesperson Zelma Branch said, refusing to give any more details about the current LOGCAP contract. When provided with evidence that the company was indeed going to both countries, she e-mailed us, "We can not elaborate at this time. Recommend you contact the Army."The Pentagon, on the other hand, is considering expanding the role of the private sector to do a variety of services, from refueling fighter jets and bombers in midair to running missile-tracking systems.Inside military circles, talk has it that the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency (DSCA) is considering hiring private contractors to train the new Afghan police and army, which it has done in the past in places such as Croatia, where it hired Military Professionals Resources Inc.MPRI, founded in 1988 by former army chief of staff Carl Vuono and seven other retired generals, was harshly criticized after the Croatian military, in a highly effective offensive called Operation Storm, captured the Serb-held Krajina enclave later that year, uprooting more than 150,000 Serbs from their homes.David Des Roches, a DSCA spokesman, denied that the Pentagon had a proposal on the table at the moment but did not rule out the future possibility: "A lot of people have said, 'Ding, ding, ding, gravy train.' But in point of fact, it makes sense. They're probably better at doing these sorts of missions than anyone else I could think of."The World Policy Institute's Hartung disagrees. "This is a company that has more experience with insider dealing and corruption than with efficiency," he says. "During the Second World War, there was a Senate committee on war profiteering. Personally I think we should set it up again and investigate Brown and Root," he says.Pratap Chatterjee is an investigative environmental writer and
producer. This article was produced with support from the CorpWatch fund for investigative journalism. (www.corpwatch.org). He is also coproducer and host of the weekly Terra Verde radio show on KPFA,
94.1-FM, Fri., 1-2 p.m.==============
What convinced me that Flight 77 was not the Killer JetPart 1 http://www.apfn.org/apfn/77_deastman1.htm
Part 2 http://www.apfn.org/apfn/77_deastman2.htm
Part 3 http://www.apfn.org/apfn/77_deastman3.htm
Part 4: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ericbarthttp://www.ifrance.fr/silentbutdeadly/
http://www.the-movement.com/Hijackers/Agents.htm
http://www.communitycurrency.org/pi.html
http://www.koolpages.com/killtown/flight77.html
http://www.waronfreedom.mediamonitors.net/index.html
http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/PentagonCrash.html (en francais)
http://www.humanunderground.com/11september/pent.html
http://digipressetmp4.teaser.fr/site/dossier.php?dosnum=60
http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/images-pentagone/index.htmhttp://www.
asile.org/citoyens/numero13/images-pentagone/index.htm
http://alberta.indymedia.org/news/2002/10/4578.php
http://hamilton.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1786&group=webcast
http://buffalo.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=3265For recent eastman (a.k.a. Everyman, Le Permanent Marker) newsgroup articles
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