DynCorp Hired For Somalia 'Peacekeeping'

[RestoreGore]

The military industrial complex in all its glory. Making profit from misery. That's the American way.

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14398

US: DynCorp Hired for Somalia Peacekeeping

by Chris Tomlinson, Forbes
March 7th, 2007


The State Department has hired a major military contractor to help equip and provide logistical support to international peacekeepers in Somalia, giving the United States a significant role in the critical mission without assigning combat forces. DynCorp International (nyse: NCP - news - people ), which also has U.S. contracts in Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, will be paid $10 million to help the first peacekeeping mission in Somalia in more than 10 years.

It's a potentially dangerous assignment. When the first 1,500 Ugandans peacekeepers arrived in Somalia's capital Tuesday, they were greeted with a mortar attack and a major firefight. And on Wednesday, attackers ambushed the peacekeepers in Mogadishu, setting off another gunfight.

The support for the Ugandans is part of a larger goal to improve African forces across the continent and promote peace and stability in a region that's often lawless and a haven for terrorists, including some tied to al-Qaida. The U.S. has also begun to depend more on African nations for oil and minerals, and wants to expand its influence.

The State Department has committed $14 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission to Somalia and has asked Congress for $40 million more. DynCorp's work force includes many former U.S. troops who frequently work in hostile areas. The Virginia-based firm had been contracted until April to help with the "moving of supplies and people" engaged in the Somalia mission, including supplying tents, vehicles and generators, said DynCorp spokesman Greg Lagana.

"We have an overall contract for African peacekeeping, this is a specific task order for Somalia," he said. "But we are also present in Liberia and southern Sudan."

snip

Dyncorp is not the only U.S. security company working in Africa. Northrop Grumman Corp. (nyse: NOC - news - people ) has a similar contract, worth up to $75 million, to support the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program, which aims to train 40,000 African peacekeepers over five years.

KBR Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. (nyse: HAL - news - people ), provides services to at least three bases in Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia used by the U.S. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

end of excerpt.

[Morgana LaFey]

1. no, no, no, no, this is WRONG

We can't have these private armies instead of our own military.

And it has to be ENOROUSLY more expensive, too.

Damn, I hate this fascism shit.

[stillcool]

2. I've become convinced...

that we have arrived to the New World Order...nothing is as it seems.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2007/0112warprofiteers.htm
Why the US Is Not Leaving Iraq: The Booming Business of War Profiteers
By Prof. Ismael Hossein-zadeh *
Global Research
January 12, 2007
...................Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate ‘post-conflict’ plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries ‘at the same time,’ each lasting ‘five to seven years.’" 11

Here we get a glimpse of the real reasons or forces behind the Bush administration’s preemptive wars. As Klein puts it, "a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction." Klein also documents how (through Pascual’s office) contractors drew "reconstruction" plans in close collaboration with various government agencies and how, at times, contracts were actually pre-approved and paper work completed long before an actual military strike:

"In close cooperation with the National Intelligence Council, Pascual's office keeps ‘high risk’ countries on a ‘watch list’ and assembles rapid-response teams ready to engage in prewar planning and to ‘mobilize and deploy quickly’ after a conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, nongovernmental organizations and members of think-tanks Pascual told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, some will have ‘pre-completed’ contracts to rebuild countries that are not yet broken. Doing this paperwork in advance could ‘cut off three to six months in your response time.’"

No business model or entrepreneurial paradigm can adequately capture the nature of this kind of scheming and profiteering. Not even illicit businesses based on rent-seeking, corruption or theft can sufficiently describe the kind of nefarious business interests that lurk behind the Bush administration’s preemptive wars. Only a calculated imperial or colonial kind of exploitation, albeit a new form of colonialism or imperialism, can capture the essence of the war profiteering associated with the recent US wars of aggression. As Shalmali Guttal, a Bangalore-based researcher put it, "We used to have vulgar colonialism. Now we have sophisticated colonialism, and they call it 'reconstruction.' 12

Classical colonial or imperial powers roamed on the periphery of the capitalist center, "discovered" new territories, and drained them off of their riches and resources. Today there are no new places in our planet to be "discovered." But there are many vulnerable sovereign countries whose governments can be overthrown, their infrastructures smashed to the ground, and fortunes made as a result (of both destruction and "reconstruction). And herein lies the genius of a parasitically efficient market mechanism, as well as a major driving force behind the Bush administration’s unprovoked unilateral wars of choice.

The size of the private-security companies market is difficult to determine, but an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 private security contractors are thought to be working in Iraq. At a conference of British private-security companies last month, delegates said that the industry had increased about tenfold over the past decade and was worth the equivalent of about $4bn (£2.04bn) a year.

Almost 40 international PSCs are licensed to operate in Iraq, and the Foreign Office has paid out tens of millions of pounds to a handful of the largest British firms over the past four years. The department's bill for bodyguard protection alone rose from £19m in 2003-04 to £48m the following year. Most of the firms employ veterans from the forces, including former members of the SAS and SBS, who can command wages of up to £600 a day. One company has taken £112m in just three years. Another has been paid £42m for work in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ministers have failed to bring in legislation to control the activities of the industry, despite promising action four years ago. The Tory homeland security spokesman, ex-Army colonel Patrick Mercer, said "it makes no sense" to make huge payments to private firms while the regular forces were undergoing cuts. But the charity War on Want claims the government has consciously expanded the role of PSCs in Iraq - through a series of multi-million-pound contracts - in order to pave the way for a military exit.

Both the Foreign Office and the MoD are believed to have supported an expanded role since early in the Iraq operation and Downing Street is now rumoured to favour the move as part of the accelerated withdrawal announced by Blair last week. "There are genuine worries that the government is trying to privatise the Iraq conflict," said War on Want's campaigns director, John Hilary. "The occupation of Iraq has allowed British mercenaries to reap huge profits. How can Tony Blair hope to restore peace and security in Iraq while allowing mercenary armies to operate completely outside the law?"
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2007/0225mercenariesfill.htm

Census Counts 100,000 Contractors In Iraq
Civilian Number, Duties Are Issues
By Renae Merle
Washington Post
December 5, 2006
There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.

The survey finding, which includes Americans, Iraqis and third-party nationals hired by companies operating under U.S. government contracts, is significantly higher and wider in scope than the Pentagon's only previous estimate, which said there were 25,000 security contractors in the country.
........................................................
Official numbers are difficult to find, said Deborah D. Avant, author of the 2005 book "The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security," but an estimated 9,200 contractors deployed during the Gulf War, a far shorter conflict without reconstruction projects. "This is the largest deployment of U.S. contractors in a military operation," said Avant, an associate professor at George Washington University.

In addition to about 140,000 U.S. troops, Iraq is now filled with a hodgepodge of contractors. DynCorp International has about 1,500 employees in Iraq, including about 700 helping train the police force. Blackwater USA has more than 1,000 employees in the country, most of them providing private security.

Kellogg, Brown and Root, one of the largest contractors in Iraq, said it does not delineate its workforce by country but that it has more than 50,000 employees and subcontractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. MPRI, a unit of L-3 Communications, has about 500 employees working on 12 contracts, including providing mentors to the Iraqi Defense Ministry for strategic planning, budgeting and establishing its public affairs office. Titan, another L-3 division, has 6,500 linguists in the country.
........................................................
The census gives military commanders insight into the contractors operating in their region and the type of work they are doing, Wittkoff said. "It helps the combatant commanders have a better idea of . . . food and medical requirements they may need to provide to support the contractors," she said.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2006/1205census.htm

[RestoreGore]

11. Yes, and Congress will not be able to stop it now...

because we let it start many years ago and it has been building up ever so subtly. We have quite a struggle on our hands if we truly want to take this world back from the elitists who have taken it and it is going to take more than any piece of paper from this Congress or one "election" (ha) to do it.

[bonito]

3. What ever happend to the UN? n/t

[Robbien]

4. How wrong is this

Evil Dyncorp murders are placed in charge of a country which is weak and sensative from being brutalized by US backed warlords.

And the Dyncorp takeover is being advertised as if it where a good thing.

Sick.

[alittlelark]

5. Somalia has 'unproven' oil reserves, yet MANY US contracts...

http://www.netnomad.com/fineman.html

Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are quietly sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside.

That land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources, could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished East African nation.

According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments there.

Officially, the Administration and the State Department insist that the U.S. military mission in Somalia is strictly humanitarian. Oil industry spokesmen dismissed as "absurd" and "nonsense" allegations by aid experts, veteran East Africa analysts and several prominent Somalis that President Bush, a former Texas oilman, was moved to act in Somalia, at least in part, by the U.S. corporate oil stake.

also - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Somalia's_oil_industry

[RestoreGore]

7. yes, just part of the PNAC agenda...n/t

[slipslidingaway]

6. K&R, one more needed. n/t

[mile18blister]

8. Peacekeeping by mercenaries?

May the innocent Somalis rest in peace.

[RestoreGore]

10. We have no business being there...

And I share your sentiment for the people and believe we are also a party to the genocide in Sudan. Chinese oil companies are drilling on the very lots where people were driven off and their homes demolished and their lives taken, and this government does business with them. And now these same countries that are part of these atrocities want us to believe they care about these people. It sickens me. They should all be at the Hague.

[RestoreGore]

9. Somalia govt "welcomes" oil and gas interests

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nta53713.htm

It is the same old story on the part of oil companies. This is one BIG reason why they dispute global warming as well. It cuts into their war making for profit and their ability to prey on weaker nations that cannot fight them after they aid in toppling govts. and installing their puppets.

[Joanne98]

12. Hide the children. The child molestors are coming..

[stonebone]

13. kick