[E-rundbrief] Info 103 - R. Mokhiber/ R. Weissman: Corporate Military Monster

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 103 - Russell Mokhiber/ Robert Weissman: The Rising 
Corporate Military Monster

Bad Ischl, 24.4.2004

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

=============================================================

The Rising Corporate Military Monster
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

A corporate military monster is being created in Iraq.

The U.S. government is relying on private military contractors like
never before.

Approximately 15,000 military contractors, maybe more, are now working
in Iraq. The four Americans brutally killed and mutilated in Fallujah
March 31 were part of this informal army of occupation.

Contractors are complicating traditional norms of military command and
control, and challenging the basic norms of accountability that are
supposed to govern the government's use of violence. Human rights abuses
go unpunished. Reliance on poorly monitored contractors is bleeding the
public treasury. The contractors are simultaneously creating
opportunities for the government to evade public accountability, and, in
Iraq at least, are on the verge of evolving into an independent force at
least somewhat beyond the control of the U.S. military. And, as the
contractors grow in numbers and political influence, their power to
entrench themselves and block reform is growing.

Whatever the limitations of the military code of justice and its
in-practice application, the code does not apply to the modern-day
mercenaries. Indeed, the mechanisms by which the contractors are held
responsible for their behavior, and disciplined for mistreating
civilians or committing human rights abuses -- all too easy for men with
guns in a hostile environment -- are fuzzy.

It is unclear exactly what law applies to the contractors, explains
Peter W. Singer, author of Corporate Warriors (Cornell University Press,
2003) and a leading authority on private military contracting. They do
not fall under international law on mercenaries, which is defined
narrowly. Nor does the national law of the United States clearly apply
to the contractors in Iraq -- especially because many of the contractors
are not Americans.

Relatedly, many firms do not properly screen those they hire to patrol
the streets in foreign nations. "Lives, soldiers' and civilians'
welfare, human rights, are all at stake," says Singer. "But we have left
it up to very raw market forces to figure out who can work for these
firms, and who they can work for."

There are already more than a few examples of what can happen, notable
among them accusations that Dyncorp employees were involved in sex
trafficking of young girls in Bosnia.

In general, the performance of the private military firms is horribly 
under-monitored.

Sometimes the lack of monitoring is a boon to the government agencies
that hire the contractors. Although there are firm limits on the kinds
of operations that U.S. troops can conduct in Colombia, Singer notes,
"it has been pretty loosey-goosey on the private contractor side." The
contractors are working with the Colombian military to defeat the
guerilla insurgency in Colombia -- unconstrained by Congressionally
imposed limits on what U.S. soldiers in Colombia may do.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, a problem of a whole different sort is starting to emerge.

The security contractors are already involved in full-fledged
battlefield operations, increasingly so as the insurgency in Iraq escalates.

A few days after the Americans were killed in Fallujah, Blackwater
Security Consulting engaged in full-scale battle in Najaf, with the
company flying its own helicopters amidst an intense firefight to
resupply its own commandos.

Now, reports the Washington Post, the security firms are networking
formally, "organizing what may effectively be the largest private army
in the world, with its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence."

Because many of the security contractors work for the Coalition
Provisional Authority, as opposed to the U.S. military, they are not
integrated into the military's operations. "Under assault by insurgents
and unable to rely on U.S. and coalition troops for intelligence or help
under duress," according to the Post, the contractors are banding together.

Private occupying commandos? Corporate military helicopters in a
battlefield situation? An integrated occupation private intelligence network?

Isn't this just obviously a horrible idea?

Given the problems that have already occurred in places like Colombia
and Bosnia, the scale and now independent integrated nature of the
private military operations in Iraq is asking for disaster, beyond that
already inflicted on the Iraqis.

Making the problem still worse is that the monster feeds on itself.

The larger become the military contractors, the more influence they have
in Congress and the Pentagon, the more they are able to shape policy,
immunize themselves from proper oversight, and expand their reach. The
private military firms are led by ex-generals, the most effective
possible lobbyists of their former colleagues -- and frequently former
subordinates -- at the Pentagon. As they grow in size, and become
integrated into the military-industrial complex (Northrop Grumman has
swallowed a number of the military contractors, for example), their
political leverage in Congress and among civilians in the executive
branch grows.

Over the last decade or so, the phenomenon of private military
contracting has grown unchecked. We're now at a precipice, with action
to constrain the contractors about to become far, far more difficult
than if the madness of employing mercenaries had been averted in the
first place.


Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe,
Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

This article is posted at: 
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2004/000178.html>
_______________________________________________

Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or
repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on
a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us
(russell at nationalpress.com or rob at essential.org).

Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve
corp-focus at lists.essential.org. To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your 
address to corp-focus, go to: 
<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/corp-focus> or send an e-mail
message to corp-focus-admin at lists.essential.org with your request.

Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at
<http://www.corporatepredators.org>.

Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to
comment on the columns, send a message to russell at nationalpress.com or
rob at essential.org.

========================================

Matthias Reichl
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Wolfgangerstr.26
A-4820 Bad Ischl
Tel. +43-6132-24590
e-mail: mareichl at ping.at
http://www.begegnungszentrum.at