What Country Do We Want to Keep? On Nov. 21, former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake was honored for his courage in blowing the whistle on the U.S. government’s abuse of its secrecy powers.
In his acceptance speech, Drake explained the larger and more frightening context – the loss of American liberty. Presented this 21st day of November 2011 in Washington, DC, by admirers of the example set by former CIA analyst, Sam Adams (who exposed the intentional undercounting of Viet Cong and other forces fighting U.S. troops during the Vietnam War), the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award for 2011 to Thomas Drake: As a senior official at the National Security Agency Thomas Drake witnessed not only widespread waste, fraud and abuse, but also gross violations of our Fourth Amendment rights. THINTHREAD had been carefully designed to handle data in massive amounts and variety, but to do so with built-in Fourth Amendment and privacy safeguards, while providing superior intelligence. NSA rejected it. Robert Greenwald: RT @EdgeofSports Erik PRin... Government Private Contractors Hinder Fight on Terrorism.
For Manny Pacquiao, losing this fight—a rematch against the man who robbed him of victory two years ago—will probably mean the end of one of the most sensational boxing careers ever.
When Manny Pacquiao steps into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas this Saturday night for a rematch with Timothy Bradley, there will be more on the line than the welterweight title of the World Boxing Organization. Thirty-five-year-old Pacquiao is fighting for his country, the Philippines, where he is worshipped; he devotes a substantial chunk of his purses to charities there, as he did two years ago to victims of the super typhoon and earthquake. And Manny’s purses may well represent one of the most substantial flows of cash going into the Philippine Islands. FedEx and Pepsi Are Top Defense Contractors? 5 Corporate Brands Making a Killing on America’s Wars. September 3, 2011 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Chances are, if you’ve ever sent a package overnight, bought a PC or a can of soda, you’ve paid your hard-earned money to a major Pentagon contractor. While large defense corporations that make fighter jets and armored vehicles garner the most attention, tens of thousands of “civilian” companies, from multi-national corporations hawking toothpaste and shampoo to big oil behemoths and even local restaurants scattered across the United States, all supply the Pentagon with the necessities used to carry on day-to-day operations and wage America’s wars. In 2001, the massive arms dealers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman ranked one, two and five among Department of Defense contractors, raking in $14.7 billion, $13.3 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, in contracts.
America’s recent wars have obviously been good to these companies. 1. 2. America's $320 Billion Shadow Goverment Looms Large. As the congressional “Super Committee” seeks to slash the deficit, Washington’s ever-expanding “shadow government” looms large as a target. Although the Tea Party and deficit hawks frequently complain about a bloated federal workforce, the real growth has come within the ranks of federal contract workers, who usually get scant scrutiny. While the full-time civilian federal workforce has remained relatively static at 2.1 million for the past three decades, a leading expert estimates there are about 7.5 million government contract workers, or more than three times the number of regular government workers.
Federal officials have long justified this monumental outsourcing of jobs as essential to compensate for a lack of in-house technical expertise in a wide range of areas. But the government has done relatively little to monitor and assess the work of the legions of federal contract workers. Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” in the UAE.
When you talk too much for Twitter. U.S. court dismisses Iraq contractor torture cases. As War Winds Down in Libya, Enter the Consultants. Want to do a deal in post-Qaddafi Libya?
Head to the Cafe Oya in the back of Tripoli’s Radisson Blu Al Mahary, where visitors without proper ID must check their AK-47s at the hotel door. Diplomats, reporters, businessmen, and representatives of the National Transitional Council (NTC)—the rebel government set up in February—sit at a dozen small tables discussing the country’s volatile future through a haze of cigarette smoke. Conversation over strong coffee flits between the fighting around Sirte, who will hold positions in the soon-to-be-created interim government—delayed by bickering between Islamists and secular Libyans—and who gets the billions of dollars of still-frozen Qaddafi assets.
Never far from view are the hulking frames of security details, mostly British ex-military men, transparent wires corkscrewing out of their ears. Their taciturn shadows tail the diplomats and visiting NTC members they protect. What’s missing from Libya for now is violence toward foreigners. Robert Greenwald: RT@mattseaton military con...