It's intended for the War-Profiteering Contractors:
"Use of Contractors by State Dept. Has Soared" by JOHN M. BRODER and DAVID ROHDE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 — Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared to nearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, administration officials said Tuesday, but they said that the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts.
[HOLY SHIT! But YOU didn't need that MONEY, right, Amurka?]
It was the first time that the administration had outlined the ballooning scope of the contracts, and it provided a new indication of how the State Department’s efforts to monitor private companies had not kept pace. Auditors and outside exerts say the results have been vast cost overruns, poor contract performance and, in some cases, violence that has so far gone unpunished.
[Imagine if the culprit were a welfare mom.
They'd be up her ass so fast, your fucking head would spin!
Maybe this would be a wrong time to ask the Iraqis how it's going?]
The vast majority of the money goes to companies like DynCorp International and Blackwater USA to protect diplomats overseas, train foreign police forces and assist in drug eradication programs. There are only 17 contract compliance officers at the State Department’s management bureau overseeing spending of the billions of dollars on these programs, officials said.
By contrast, the Army has 70 people managing just $900 million in logistics contracts in Kuwait, Pentagon officials said.
[That's why I NEVER LIKE "privatization."]
A review panel found that there were too few American officials in Iraq to enforce the rules that apply to Blackwater and other security contractors. It also found that the conduct of the contractors had undermined the broader mission of ending the insurgency and establishing a democratic government in Iraq.
[So the contractors being there actually HURTS the effort, huh?
Oh, man are WE EVER LIED TO here in AmeriKa!!!
PULL the FUCKING MURDEROUS MERCENARIES out and DISBAND them, dammit!]
The panel recommended a variety of steps to strengthen oversight of the security contractors, including a revision of the rules for the use of deadly force to bring them more in line with the military’s rules of engagement, and creation of review panels to investigate every incident involving the injury or killing of a civilian.
[We don't do body counts!]
Interviews with administration officials, auditors and outside experts show that the use of contractors has grown far beyond what department officials imagined when they first outsourced critical security functions in 1994 and hired private security guards to protect American diplomats in Haiti, which was thrown into turmoil by civil strife.
[And that would be under the Globalist BILL CLINTON!!!
So the mass-murdering fat-fuck STARTED IT ALL, huh?]
A few years later, the department went outside again to hire private bodyguards for the American diplomats in Bosnia.
Today, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the small State Department office that oversees the private security contractors in Iraq and elsewhere, is overwhelmed by its responsibilities to supervise the contractors, according to former employees, members of Congress and outside experts.
[All those BILLIONS for WHAT?]
They say the office has grown too reliant on, and too close to, the 1,200 private soldiers who now guard American officials overseas.
[So expect a COVER-UP of any crimes, folks.
Under the rug it goes!]
Peter W. Singer, an expert on security contactors at the Brookings Institution;
“They simply didn’t have enough eyes and ears watching what was going on. Secondly, they seemed to show no interest in using the sanctions they had.”
[Yeah, so their FRIENDS could STEAL the MONEY!]
Another State Department office, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, has issued more than $2.2 billion in contracts for police training and drug eradication in Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America and elsewhere, according to State Department records. Ninety-four percent of that money has gone to DynCorp.
[Aaaaaah, DynCorp LOADED UP, huh?]
State Department officials say they have tried to increase competition, but few companies are able to operate in war zones.
A senior State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity;
“The lack of competition does concern us a great deal. We want as many companies as possible.”
[Yeah, maybe we could have a world of mercenaries, huh?
Keep those WARS GOING FOREVER, huh?]
State Department contracting officials complain that they do not have nearly enough people to properly oversee the more than 2,500 contractors now under their informal command around the world.
The ballooning budget for outside contracts at the State Department is emblematic of a broader trend, contracting experts say.
[So you SEE WHERE MORE MONEY will be GOING, right, reader?
But YOU DIDN'T NEED THAT $$$$ HERE, right, Amurkn?]
The Bush administration has doubled the amount of government money going to all types of contractors to $400 billion, creating a new and thriving class of post-9/11 corporations carrying out delicate work for the government. But the number of government employees issuing, managing and auditing contracts has barely grown.
[Well, isn't that a SHIT KICK in the head, Amurkn, huh?
Hey, YOU DIDN'T NEED THAT MONEY FOR ANYTHING, didja?
And 9/11 SURE CAME IN HANDY for the mercenaries, huh?
Pffffffftttttt!!!]
Jody Freeman, an expert on administrative law at Harvard Law School:
“That’s a criticism that’s true of not just State but of almost every agency.”
On the eve of the 1994 American invasion of Haiti, the State Department’s law enforcement bureau received an urgent request. The department needed 45 American police officers to help secure the nation.
[That's under Bill Clinton, readers!]
Officials in the small bureau contacted DynCorp, a Texas aviation services company with a $30 million bureau contract to operate counternarcotics flights in Latin America. Impressed with its aviation work, a selection committee awarded DynCorp a small contract.
[And they grew their business to the murderous monster it is today!
What a SUCCESS STORY!]
State Department officials viewed it as an interim measure. DynCorp viewed it as an opportunity.
Steve Cannon, a former DynCorp executive:
“We always saw it as a growth area because of the conflicts in the world.”
[Yup, WAR is GOOD BIDNESS!!!!]
Later that year, DynCorp won a contract from the diplomatic security office to guard American diplomats in Haiti. Over the next several years, the two small State Department offices issued more than $250 million in police training and diplomatic security contracts to DynCorp for work in Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo.
After the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan, contracts grew again, eventually bringing the company $400 million a year. The law enforcement office had DynCorp dispatch dozens, then hundreds, of police trainers to Afghanistan. The diplomatic security office had DynCorp send employees to guard the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
[But you never needed that money, Amurkns!
After all, it's not like you are drowning, thirsting, burning, or freezing!]
Former State Department officials and Afghan officials said the DynCorp guards were far too aggressive in their tactics, and their conduct alienated Afghan and European officials, as well as Afghan citizens.
[Well, HOW ABOUT THAT, huh?
NO WONDER the Taliban is coming back!
Good God!]
Gregory Lagana, a DynCorp spokesman, said the company agreed there was a problem and replaced the guards:
“The demeanor, the swagger, was wrong. We put a stop to that.”
[Did you really?]
State Department officials said DynCorp had performed well over all, and won most contracts through competitive bidding.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq opened new opportunities in the burgeoning world of government security.
[Fucking CUI BONO, readers? Not you or me!]
Blackwater got a toehold with a $27 million no-bid contract to guard L. Paul Bremer III, the administrator of the American occupation in Baghdad. A year later, the State Department expanded that contract to $100 million. Blackwater now employs 845 of the more than 1,100 private security contractors at work in Iraq and holds a contract worth $1.2 billion.
[Good work if you can keep it, huh?]
The security bureau has sought to minimize episodes like the shootings of civilians.
One State Department security official in Iraq wrote to another, after Blackwater guards killed a father of six in Hilla in 2005, according to an internal State Department memo turned over to Congress:
“We are all better off getting this case — and any similar cases — behind us quickly.”
[Yeah, let's get all that murder behind us.
Fuck how the Iraqis feel, huh?
Some "LIBERATION!"]
He recommended paying the man’s family $5,000.
[So that's how much an Iraqis life is worth, huh?
A measly $5k? 5,000 more than any American, anyway.]
The State Department took no action against Blackwater for the killing.
[So all that fart misting in September was... what?]
Blackwater declined to comment for this article. The company has denied any wrongdoing and said that its techniques have resulted in no diplomats, visiting members of Congress or other American dignitaries being killed or seriously hurt in thousands of escort missions since 2005. Twenty-seven Blackwater employees have died in Iraq.
[And how many Iraqis have you guys wasted?
Don't know and don't care, right?
NOT IMPORTANT, is it?]
DynCorp’s work and the department’s oversight of the company have been questioned also. In interviews in Iraq and Afghanistan, local police officials said DynCorp’s trainers were costly and in some cases poorly qualified. The trainers are mostly retired civilian police officers from the United States who are paid up to $134,000 in Iraq and $118,000 in Afghanistan for a year of service.
[Yes, WAR is GOOD BIDNESS, indeed!!]
State Department and DynCorp officials said all of the trainers were carefully screened and well qualified. Department officials also said they had added some two dozen staffers to oversee DynCorp over the past year.
[Don't you like being lied to, readers?
Hope so, 'cause THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!]
American military officials in Iraq and Afghanistan said the quality of trainers was mixed as well. Jonathan Shiroma, a captain in the California National Guard who worked with DynCorp trainers in Iraq from 2005 to 2006, said some were “outstanding,” while others preferred to remain on base.
DynCorp and Blackwater, meanwhile, continue to win contracts.
[Ah, yes! WAR PROFITEERING with NO ACCOUNTABILITY!
THERE is your LEGACY, George!]
Despite the growing questions about the State Department system for overseeing contractors, the department said it will continue to rely on contractors because, for now at least, it has no choice.
[Looks like they CORNERED the MARKET, huh?
Unless we SHUT DOWN the WARS, huh?
And who would want to do that?
Just the American people, that's who!]
It cannot quickly hire the bodyguards and trainers it would need to replace the contractors, and the military does not have the trained personnel to take over the job.
[ALL THOSE BILLIONS, and the MILITARY has NOTHING?
WHAT the FUCK!!!??
Man, after all these posts today, my ass is sore from all the MSM pounding.
See you tomorrow, readers!
The panels could refer possible instances of wrongdoing to the Justice Department. The contractors would also undergo more rigorous training in Iraqi culture and language.
The other report was an audit of the State Department’s oversight of DynCorp, released Tuesday, which found that records tracking hundreds of millions of dollars paid to the company were in “disarray.”
