NewsTrust - Defense Industry - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Pentagon cuts don't cut it. Want to really save money? Get a new security strategy.

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Charles V. Peña - Feb. 02 (Opinion) - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) had found "at least $100 billion in savings" and that he was "curtailing or canceling troubled or excess programs that would have cost more than $300 billion if seen through to completion.

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The Washington Post: Top Secret America: National Security Inc.

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Jul. 20 () - New York Times (blog)National Security Inc.Washington PostThe growing role of contractors in counterterrorism and intelligence is raising concerns about conflicts of interest and the government's ability to control its most sensitive work. In June, a stone carver from ...US security network grows uncheckedThe Detroit NewsIntelligence chief defends US agenciesLos Angeles TimesThe Redundancy Inside "Top Secret America"CBS NewsThe Virginian-Pilot?-Wheeling Intelligencer?-Spreadit.orgall 644 news articles??

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The Privatization of War: Scahill reports 121,000 contractors in Afghanistan

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Aljazeera - By Riz Khan - Dec. 23 (Interview) - During an interview with Riz Khan on December 21st Jeremy Scahill reported that the Obama administration has surpassed the Bush era’s privatization of war, having nearly doubled the number of security contractors in Afghanistan over the past several months. Amongst the contracting firms who remain in Afghanistan is Blackwater (now operating under the name XE) – a firm that Scahill describes as “one of the most powerful private actors in the so called War on Terror.“

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Why Obama and Gates need Ike to trim the military

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Apr. 10 (Editorial) - The secretary is actually up against a vast industrial-congressional complex, with intertwined and entrenched interests. Over the decades, the defense industry has spread into so many congressional districts that it's virtually impossible to shut anything down without a Hooah! battle cry from key lawmakers. The targeted F-22 fighter jet, for instance, is assembled with components built in 44 states.

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Blackwater: Convenient law

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jun. 20 (Editorial) - It appears that Eric Prince, owner of Blackwater, that mega-contractor and mercenary force fighting wars in our name, has a deep reverence for Islam. At least, that's the conclusion we come away with having read that he's asking that Sharia law be applied in a case where three widows of U.S. soldiers are suing Presidential Airways, also owned by Prince, after their husbands died when one of the company's planes crashed in Afghanistan in 2004.

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Iraq War: We all sacrifice?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jun. 17 (Editorial) - Despite giving KBR several months and warnings that he needed to see better paperwork to back up its claims, Smith says he was pressured to back off. Smith was "reassigned" and replaced by a yes-man. Then an outside contractor was hired to evaluate KBR's payments, the majority of which were approved. KBR claims no wrongdoing, but a former Pentagon fraud investigator said hiring an outside contractor to deal with another contractor's claim was unusual and called such a course of action "dangerous ground." Will we ever see any accountability for all the money exchanging hands -- and "disappearing" under the guise of helping our troops?

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Invitation to steal: War profiteering in Iraq

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By William D Hartung - May. 29 (Opinion) - The heavy reliance on private contractors to do everything from serving meals and doing laundry to protecting oil pipelines and interrogating prisoners has been a major factor in the immense costs of the Iraq war. By one measure, there may be more employees of private firms and their subcontractors on the ground in Iraq than there are US military personnel.

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Blackwater: Dubious claims

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Mar. 17 (Editorial) - Rep. Henry Waxman says he has concerns that Blackwater's claims of business status, which he wrote in a letter sent out last week, "appear dubious." Indeed. Blackwater lists its security guards as independent contractors in order to be eligible for certain benefits, including federal small-business contracts. How can a company that earns $1.25 billion in business contracts be eligible for $144 million in small-business contracts as well? Doing so, according to The New York Times, afforded Blackwater more than $31 million in avoided taxes.

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Armies of the future - Brains, not bullets

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:37:27 -0700

Economist - Oct. 25 (Opinion) - A new manual on counter-insurgency co-authored by the man now in charge of the war in Iraq, General David Petraeus, overturns the notion that America doesn't "do nation-building". Counter-insurgency, it says, is "armed social work". It requires more brain than brawn, more patience than aggression. The model soldier should be less science-fiction Terminator and more intellectual for "the graduate level of war", preferably a linguist, with a sense of history and anthropology.

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Billionaire Boot Camp

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:46:51 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Charles Levinson - Sep. 05 (Opinion) - Unit 8200 is the Israel Defense Force's supersecret electronic espionage program. It is also the most important driver behind the success of Israel's hightech business sector. Veterans of the unit have spun off some 50 tech startups worth billions of dollars in the past decade. "Everybody who matters in high tech here is ex8200," says Medved. "I salivate over these guys."

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First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq (Updated)

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:05:12 -0700

Wired - By Noah Shachtman - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns. After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."

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