Torture Incorporated Oliver North Joins the Party

[Robbien]

By John Stanton and Wayne Madsen

The U.S. Army has employed as many as 27 contractors to run its interrogation operations, according to media reports. But while CACI and Titan are getting all the mainstream media play, it appears that far more than 27 contract employees were involved in recruiting and placing interrogators in various locations. Some of the firms involved in the Bush administration’s “TortureGate” include an odd assortment of telecommunications companies and executive placement firms that have jumped into the lucrative torture business in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Iraq and at secret locations throughout Central Asia and North Africa.

Interrogators can earn up to $120,000 per year plying their trade and most are former military and law enforcement personnel. More ominously, these so-called “private military contractors” are nothing of the sort. They are paramilitary organizations that are funded by the US Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State, and assorted other agencies through contract vehicles known as Basic Ordering Agreements or “BOAs” hidden throughout the vast US government bureaucracy. It now is well known that CACI got its money through a BOA with the Department of the Interior.

Ollie -- He’s Baaack!

On January 12, 2004, United Placements ran an advertisement for Army Interrogators.
“Job State: IRAQ, Job Number: 8. Interrogators: 30 Positions. Compensation to $120,000. Individuals must be trained Interrogators with at least five years of experience in interrogation. Individuals must be knowledgeable of Army/Joint interrogation procedures, data processing systems such as CHIMs and SIPRNET search engines. Knowledge of the Arabic language and culture a plus…Candidates must have documented in their resumes five years of Humint collection and/or interrogation experience. This is a requirement of the client. Some locations require individuals to work and live in a field environment with minimum medical facilities. Must possess the ability to work extended work hours in difficult surroundings for up to one year.”

United Placements’ lists none other than Oliver North--a member of Ronald Reagan’s NSC and focal point of the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980’s—as one of its two “Industry Associates.” North is currently the host of Fox News Channel’s “War Stories.” United Placement’s second “Industry Associate” is Intelligencecareers.com run by former intelligence analyst Bill Goldman.

http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/13927.php

this is a very long article with loads of information on who these paramilitary companies really are

[theivoryqueen]

1. OMG - the american public at large really needs to wake up and smell

the aromatic scent wafting through our nation. sincerely evil odor of utter corruption and short term memory abdication.

[LibertyorDeath]

2. Good find ..Thanks

[struggle4progress]

3. I'm going to stop calling the President "George the Second" ...

and start calling him "George the Turd"

[izzie]

4. Does anyone find this subject odd? Why would anyone be for it?

I can not even think we would wish to hurt people when we hate it so much our selfs. As a govt program it makes my hair stand on end. Yes it has been done but have we reached the level of a third world country? We must have lost our way some place. How can we even think to send our values around the world when we do not have then from the top down?

[ElectroPrincess]

5. It's the spoils of privatization

Essentially before Reagan, the Military, specifically the Army trained interrogators within the ranks. Of course for important or challenging situations, members of the CIA were consulted or brought in for consultation.

Perhaps the corruption has always gone on with regard to shipping suspects to countries who outrightly support torture (Egypt, Pakistan, etc.) for *special* treatment. We can only wonder how long this deal has been in place.

Now in addition to being the only civilized western world country who supports execution (Death Penalty), we snub our nose at the Geneva conventions. With Britain and other mostly European Countries trading with Syria while we boycott them, our new best buddy is the Dictator of Pakistan. Perhaps the USA contractors can open an exchange school for torture techniques there or in Iran after we invade Syria and set our eyes toward Persia.

Feel better? :P

[goforit]

7. Yes so sad, but we are all being asked to step up or else accept it.

Quite frankly the US Military (Army/Navy/Airforce) seems to be rejecting this as well!!!

So there may be hope!!!

[0007]

6. Hmmmm I find this extremely interesting, Ollie and the Carlyle boys

are connected to junior's "Iron Triangle"

"One of the USIS investors is the omnipresent Carlyle Group, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm with close ties to George H. W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, and former Secretary of State James Baker, and past ties to the Saudi Bin Laden Companies, which has its tentacles into many of the Bush administration’s major foreign adventures. USIS also owns a subsidiary, Total Information Services, Inc., of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which ironically is similar to the name of the defunct Pentagon program to glean personal information from databases on U.S. and foreign citizens. That program, called the Total Information Awareness (TIA) system was headed by Iran-contra felon retired Admiral John Poindexter before he resigned. TIA, according to media reports, is alive and well in the offices of DARPA in Northern Virginia."

[mbperrin]

8. Anybody remind me why

Ollie ain't in jail?

Good thing his name ain't similar to a convicted felon's! He could lost the right to vote in Florida. As it is, he's free to get rich feasting on the bones of this country!

[Mithras61]

10. IIRC, Ollie isn't in jail...

because it was ruled that his conviction was based on testimony for which he was granted immunity from prosecution.

That is, he's guilty as sin, and we all know it, but we can't put him in jail because he taestified against others in exchange for not being tossed in the slammer with 'em. Also, I believe that the "others" were part of the group of felons Poppy Bush pardoned at the beginning of his term...

[sandnsea]

9. Why no HUMINT?

Because we'd funneled them off to these private companies at $120,000 a year??? Congress has no oversight on these secret budgets, so how in the world are they supposed to know where these operators are or what they're doing. How many of these guys were in these private companies making big salaries doing who knows what when they could have actually been directly in the CIA doing what needed to be done before 9/11?

[ElectroPrincess]

11. Good Points

Yes, I believe that a person of average intelligence, when properly trained can be a very effective interrogator - debriefer. Our Non-Commissioned soldiers, in the not so distant past, (E5s and up) were trained specifically as interrogators.

But you see, this is all a natural extention of the ole' Reagan Revolution's principles ... even with many of the past players re-appearing (North, Rummy, Cheney, Wolfy, Pearl, Armitage etc).

In order to achieve their grand vision of totalitarian government, the Neo-Cons must first completely *GUT* the government. Privatization, including overpayment, of our US Military functions will serve to exponentially speed up this process, i.e., transferring the money within the government to corporate ownership (= control!).

[Eloriel]

12. There's another fear I have re these private armies --

not to belittle or dismiss the other concerns so far expressed -- and that is, they're also for hire to corporations, highly placed execs, etc. Enron had a bunch of ex-CIA folks (and actually, IIRC, some current CIA employees) on its staff, for example.

Beyond all the other concerns, I just don't believe we need private armies in a democracy, as a matter of principle.

[King Coal]

13. Please clarify

What exactly is an Industry Associate?

[missedherniceguy]

14. Cool Headline. Can any of us post on indymedia and use it here?

That would be a way to get some real screamers for headlines if we just post a story at indymedia and reference it here in LBN.

[newyawker99]

15. Hi missedherniceguy!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: