Please contact Olberman about Bush and his "civilian reserve corps"/private mercenaries.

[malta blue]

The following e-mail just arrived in my inbox. It is a CC of a message that Distressed American sent to Kieth Olberman concerning Bush's mention of establishing a "civilian reserve corp". I agree with DA that this appears to be a move to institutionalize the private mercenaries we are currently using in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I rarely (never as far as I can recall) ask for help in any specific way here at DU. But, I do think that this reference in the SOTU is deserving of more investigation and publicity. It has been thouroughly overlooked in the media coverage.

Please encourage Countdown to look into the remarks by sending the show your additional messages of interest.

The message I received had the following contact addresses:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

If you know of others please let me know. I will be away from my computer for much of the day. But, I will be sure to check back later tonight.

Thanks folks,
Malta Blue

--------------------

The message I received:

Dear Mr. Olberman,

I watched your coverage of the SOTU last night and I was shocked to hear Bush utter these words:

"A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."

They came and went so fast that most probably did not even register them and I have not seen them discussed at all in the post-SOTU coverage I have watched. However, I feel that they may have been one of the most interesting things brought up the entire night.

The President was quite vague in his description of the program. However, to my ears, it seemed clear that he was talking about establishing a permenant force of Blackwater style mercenaries who would be sent to take on overseas military missions.

As you know the mercenaries that we are using in Iraq and Afghanistan currently are extra-legal forces. They are not bound by the Geneva Conventions, nor the usual codes of military law. They are not subject to Congressional oversight. Presumably Bush and his legal team (so well known for finding any loophole to avoid the normal restrictions on his power) would feel no need to get Congressional approval to use this type of military force in the future.

The move to using such forces threatens to undermine the military itself by stripping off some of the best trained forces we have as these "private contractors" are paid in most cases several times the amount that they are paid by the U.S. Military. They transfer much needed funds that should go to our troops into the hands of private business interests.

I strongly oppose privitizing our military security for the reasons stated above. So I found this portion of the speech quite disturbing and very newsworthy. I feel that if anyone is up to tackling this question it is your team at Countdown. Please consider following up on these remarks in the near future. America deserves a full understanding of this issue.

Thank you very much for your time,

(sig removed for DA's privacy)

[thereismore]

1. privatization of the military. nt

[TomInTib]

2. In a sense, we already have such a force. And I am part of it.

As an out-of-sevice Special Ops, I am eligible for callup until the age of 62.

I was sent to Panama in 1989, seventeen years after I left SE Asia.

But I, too, was disturbed by the mention of this "reserve corps" last night. My sweetheart was (as usual) talking over bush and I was not quite sure that I heard what I heard.

Thanks for posting this.

[malta blue]

9. That is very interesting.

I had no idea that folks could be called up for that kind of duration. Lets all hope like hell you are NEVER called upon to return for this mess.

Your thoughts on Panama would be mighty interesting to hear. I was just reading a book that claimed that we had killed between 3 and 5,000 folks (far more than typically reported here) in that action all to get one man. I also saw today that Noriega is due to be released from prison in September and wants to return immediately to Panama.

So we bomber Panama City and killed either hundreds or thousands (depending on the source) to catch this guy and we let him go just 18 years later. Bad business if you ask me.

[originalpckelly]

3. I think we need to look at this once again.

It looks to me he was talking about non-combat contractors.

[malta blue]

8. You are right. We should examine it.

It would appear that more information is waranted as none of us are certain what he is calling for. Maybe Olberman could provide the needed insight to clarify.

I am suspicious myself. IMO, Bush has given us all cause to question.

I would like someone with the info gathering abilities of an Olberman to investigate and fill in the details. Seems a reasonable approach to me.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. What's next? Letters of Marque, so that armed civilian vessels

can patrol the seas, boarding non-US ships looking for terrorists and drug runners?

[EC]

5. Yes, I thought mercs,

then I thought, no cheap labor is most important to these guys, so I'm thinking of cheap labor to serve dinners, cokes and machanics etc. Non-combat, but real cheap labor...our guys and women, being shipped over as minimum wage earners in the front lines.....

[SanCristobal]

6. Christ, IT'S NOT MERCENARIES!

After 30 seconds of searching Google it's pretty obvious this is about staffing civilian jobs the military doesn't normally do or is not good at. The reservists would volunteer to be deployed for up to a year, and have to be paid on the same scale as Federal employees.

Bush took this from Wesley Clark. The Civilian Reserve Corp was part of his 2004 campaign platform.

[malta blue]

7. I see that you strongly disagree with the interpretation. Fair Enough.

However, I am still far from certain that what is being proposed is as benign as you would make it out. It has the same name as Clark's plan. However, that does not automatically mean that he is talking about the same thing. Nor does it automatically mean it was lifted from Clark.

Bush has been using thousands of these "contractors" in the warzone. Not just for serving food and doing laundry. It is not a leap at all to think that he wants a reserve corps of these folks at his disposal. The implications of that are not good.

All I have asked is that the program (whatever it is) be investigated and reported on.

I still think it would be a good issue for Olberman to checkout. If you are right, that would be goos news. But, let the details be known. If you are not we should know that as well.

Seem fair?

[malta blue]

11. YES THEY ARE!

Read this and then tell me it is just cooks and laundry clearner:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scahill25jan25,0,4485578.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

The president's proposed Civilian Reserve Corps was not his idea alone. A privatized version of it was floated two years ago by Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, conservative owner of Blackwater USA and a man who for years has served as the Pied Piper of a campaign to repackage mercenaries as legitimate forces. In early 2005, Prince — a major bankroller of the president and his allies — pitched the idea at a military conference of a "contractor brigade" to supplement the official military. "There's consternation in the about increasing the permanent size of the Army," Prince declared. Officials "want to add 30,000 people, and they talked about costs of anywhere from $3.6 billion to $4 billion to do that. Well, by my math, that comes out to about $135,000 per soldier." He added: "We could do it certainly cheaper."

And Prince is not just a man with an idea; he is a man with his own army. Blackwater began in 1996 with a private military training camp "to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing." Today, its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. It has secured a status as the elite Praetorian Guard for the global war on terror, with the largest private military base in the world, a fleet of 20 aircraft and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.

[malta blue]

10. More on this issue will be on Democracy Now this afternoon.

Amy Goodman will be covering the issue. I still believe that what is being discussed IS a boost in mercenary forces. The author here clearly agrees.

Such forces should be challenged. We need to know more about what is being proposed. This is a segment not to be missed!


Friday, January 26th, 2007

Our Mercenaries in Iraq: Blackwater Inc and Bush's Undeclared Surge

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On Tuesday, five employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA were killed in a violent Baghdad neighborhood. Hours later, President Bush used his State of the Union address to call on what some are calling an undeclared surge of private mercenaries in Iraq. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, author of the forthcoming “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The private security firm Blackwater USA is back in the news again. On Tuesday, hours before President Bush’s State of the Union address, one of the company’s helicopters was brought down in a violent Baghdad neighborhood. Five Blackwater troops - all Americans - were killed. Reports say the men’s bodies show signs of execution-style deaths with bullet wounds to the back off the head.
Blackwater provided no identities or details of those killed. They did release a statement saying the deaths “are a reminder of the extraordinary circumstances under which our professionals voluntarily serve to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people.”

President Bush made no mention of the incident during his State of the Union. But he did address the very issue that has brought dozens of private security companies like Blackwater to Iraq in the first place: the need for more troops.


President Bush.
Is the president looking to further outsource war? My next guest writes that Blackwater is a reminder of just how privatized the Iraq war has become. Jeremy Scahill is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and is author of the forthcoming book, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” He has an OpEd in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times titled “Our mercenaries in Iraq.” He joins me in the firehouse studio.

Jeremy Scahill. Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and the author of the forthcoming book, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”


Here as well is the link to Mr. Scahill's article in the Los Angeles Times (a MUST read article):

Our mercenaries in Iraq

The president relies on thousands of private soldiers with little oversight, a disturbing example of the military-industrial complex.

By Jeremy Scahill, JEREMY SCAHILL is a fellow at the Nation Institute and the author of the forthcoming "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."
January 25, 2007


AS PRESIDENT BUSH took the podium to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday, there were five American families receiving news that has become all too common: Their loved ones had been killed in Iraq. But in this case, the slain were neither "civilians," as the news reports proclaimed, nor were they U.S. soldiers. They were highly trained mercenaries deployed to Iraq by a secretive private military company based in North Carolina — Blackwater USA.

The company made headlines in early 2004 when four of its troops were ambushed and burned in the Sunni hotbed of Fallouja — two charred, lifeless bodies left to dangle for hours from a bridge. That incident marked a turning point in the war, sparked multiple U.S. sieges of Fallouja and helped fuel the Iraqi resistance that haunts the occupation to this day.

Now, Blackwater is back in the news, providing a reminder of just how privatized the war has become. On Tuesday, one of the company's helicopters was brought down in one of Baghdad's most violent areas. The men who were killed were providing diplomatic security under Blackwater's $300-million State Department contract, which dates to 2003 and the company's initial no-bid contract to guard administrator L. Paul Bremer III in Iraq. Current U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who is also protected by Blackwater, said he had gone to the morgue to view the men's bodies, asserting the circumstances of their deaths were unclear because of "the fog of war."

Bush made no mention of the downing of the helicopter during his State of the Union speech. But he did address the very issue that has made the war's privatization a linchpin of his Iraq policy — the need for more troops. The president called on Congress to authorize an increase of about 92,000 active-duty troops over the next five years. He then slipped in a mention of a major initiative that would represent a significant development in the U.S. disaster response/reconstruction/war machine: a Civilian Reserve Corps.

CONTINUED AT LINK

This article goes on to explain that there are 48,000 armed mercenaries in Iraq right now and that this "Civilian Reserve Corps" is largely the idea of the founder of Blackwater itself. I believe the question of whether Bush is talking about a mercenary force or not is now closed. That is EXCATLY what is being discussed.

[malta blue]

12. I still recommend that people contact Keith Olberman on this issue.

His show is pretty much the only one on the MSM that would even consider touching it.

Just in case you need additional motivation or information, there are more details about this program in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x46406