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Number of Private Security Contractors IncreasesPosted on Jun 2, 2009
President Obama railed against the reliance on private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan during his campaign, but new Pentagon statistics reveal their number has steadily grown since he took office, increasing 23 percent in Iraq and 29 percent in Afghanistan in the second quarter of 2009. “Blackwater” author Jeremy Scahill investigates.
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By Folktruther, June 3, 2009 at 8:33 am Link to this comment
These contractors were used in New Orleans and will no doubt be used again against the American people.
Report thisBy blogdog, June 3, 2009 at 12:29 am Link to this comment
RE: (it could never quite make up its mind)
I didn’t have too much trouble, but then I’m not your typical straw-man lefty either. No, it’s always been clear he’s the perfect “useful fool.” The New World Oligarchy couldn’t have hoped for a more pliant dupe, and now in Obama they’ve got the perfect pseudo-intellectual “useful tool,” under whose Left Cover their agenda may further advance…same ‘ol, same ‘ol. Com’on, give it up. The Left/Right schism is integral to the rolling psy-op. If you don’t see that, then you’re clueless.
Report thisBy Marshall, June 2, 2009 at 9:12 pm Link to this comment
By richard east, June 2 at 11:34 pm #
<<“revising his policies to fit reality” ... by reality do you mean ill-informed Bush administration policies?>>
No, I mean the reality of responsibility and perspective he now has in office as compared to the idealism and political expediency of the campaign trail. What Obama is proving is that Bush was neither the bumpkin dolt nor the otherworldly demon portrayed by the left (it could never quite make up its mind), but a more savvy leader attuned to real politik in a world that cannot always be negotiated into niceness. The obamabot mantras of hope and change now tempered by the cold reality of NK, Iran, Hamas, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and regional power struggles between states that don’t give a crap about how articulate, PC and accommodating we are. NK now lights up like a roman candle next to the ruins of SK’s smoldering sunshine policy and I give Obama credit for not following that same overall foreign policy rabbit too far down the trail. Whilst I think he’s as yet clueless on domestic affairs, i’m beginning to like him a lot more on the foreign front.
Report thisBy isis, June 2, 2009 at 8:29 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
go check out http://www.americancontractorsiniraq.com DBA X-files on how civilian contractors are being screwed if they get injured in the war - the prevailing mantra with the administrative law judge drones is that war is not dangerous, and CNA/ AIG just keep pocketing these obscene tax-payer funded premiums… all part of the game.
Report thisBy richard east, June 2, 2009 at 7:34 pm Link to this comment
Howard: “revising his policies to fit reality” ... by reality do you mean ill-informed Bush administration policies?
Report thisBy samosamo, June 2, 2009 at 6:44 pm Link to this comment
““here are a whopping 242,657 contractors working on these two US wars.”“
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The new jobs market for americans and just like w and dick so gleefully anouncing every month during their illegal terms, of the number of ‘new’ jobs created, so now will go obama boasting of the hundreds of thousands of jobs created to fight the ‘war on terror’, obama, you’re a disgusting disgrace as a leader much less a politician.
What a sad fuck of a policy for this country all the while giving these worthless hacks practice for what they will be doing here in america before too long.
Damn, if we don’t need to stop those traitors we elect just so they can come up with another scheme to fleece the taxpayer and then arrest and torture them.
And to top it off, this will cost multiple times the money that would maintain a regular army made of citizens and not heartless mercenaries.
Report thisBy Marshall, June 2, 2009 at 5:48 pm Link to this comment
By richard east, June 2 at 6:53 pm #
Agreed, richard. Some will conclude that Obama is corrupt/ignorant/a sellout/etc… I actually have more faith in his honesty and judgment than that and conclude that he’s revising his policies to fit reality rather than ill-informed and politically motivated campaign rhetoric.
Report thisBy Down and Out, June 2, 2009 at 3:16 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
All hail our new dictator:OBAMA the black.
To be totally confused with Bush the White.
Change? I need some. Brother can you spare a couple Grand??
Report thisBy richard east, June 2, 2009 at 2:53 pm Link to this comment
... yet another example of the difference between Candidate Obama and President Obama, and the similarity between the policies of the Obama and Bush administrations, arises.
Change?
Report thisBy Matt M, June 2, 2009 at 1:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thank you Jeremy Scahill for the inch deep analysis you’re known and loved for. And by the way, the guys in that often used picture are police officers, not Blackwater “contractors”.
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