US: Pentagon Spends Billions to Outsource Torture (BILLIONS)

[donsu]

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14118


-snip-

According to a report by Corpwatch, what ties these facilities together are the abundance of private contractors involved in their operations. The Taguba Report (PDF) named four private contractors in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Steven Stephanowicz, an investigator for CACI, a multinational with extensive government contracts (92 percent of which are in defense), encouraged MPs under his command to terrorize inmates, and "clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse."

Another interrogator at Abu Ghraib was John Israel, who, according to the Taguba Report, didn't even have a security clearance, and should never have been hired for an operation as sensitive as prisoner interrogation in the first place. It's not clear whether Israel worked for CACI or a competitor, Titan Corp. (a target of numerous federal investigations for its work in Iraq and elsewhere), but Titan denies it ever provided interrogators to Abu Ghraib. Another un-named private contractor at Abu Ghraib allegedly raped a teenage boy in his custody.

According to Amnesty, half of the interrogators at Abu Ghraib were private contractors -- about 30 in all. Torin Nelson was a military intelligence officer at Gitmo before becoming a CACI interrogator at Abu Ghraib. After the scandal broke, Nelson resigned and charged the military with scapegoating a handful of low-level soldiers -- the only people who have been brought to trial for the abuses -- to "divert attention away from ingrained problems in the military detention and interrogation system." He said: "The problem with outsourcing intelligence work is the limit of oversight and control by the military administrators over the independent contractors."

CACI's contract to provide interrogators for Abu Ghraib stunningly didn't require the personnel to have had any training whatsoever in military interrogation techniques. According to a report by the Army inspector general, 11 of the 31 CACI interrogators had no training in what most experts agree is one of the most difficult and sensitive areas of intelligence gathering. CACI has become a major player in the private intelligence business in recent years, but its core competence is in information technology, not the incredibly delicate process of prisoner interrogation. They filled the contract like any other order -- with warm bodies that could be listed on an invoice.

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both snips are full of info

[razors edge]

1. You didn't think

they spent 200 dollars on a toilet seat did you, 400 on a hammer?

(Independance Day)

[donsu]

2. it also means Rummy and Co. can claim they didn't torture it was the

people they hired who got out of line and tortured.

[tridim]

5. Maybe CACI will squeal if/when the subpoenas start flying?

But I'm not sure how private armies operate in a fascist state. Loyalty is probably worth more than the truth.

[razors edge]

6. from the same movie

plausible deni-ability.

[cyberpj]

9. BINGO. Everything they do has a built in scapegoat to avoid prosecution.

They do it as well as they create fake companies and launder their money.

[Virginia Dare]

3. That's just good old American Capitalism....

Torture for profit, what will they think of next?

I wonder if that was a no-bid contract?

:puke: :wtf:

[leftchick]

4. when you consider they have no oversight , nothing to restrain them

I suppose that makes them priceless to bushco**.

[Mnemosyne]

7. KnR n/t

[Supersedeas]

8. Deeds done in YOUR name and on YOUR dollar