Privatization & Procurement

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Sixteen Indiana national guardsmen filed a lawsuit yesterday against military contractor KBR. The complaint alleges that several reservists contracted respiratory system tumors and skin rashes after guarding reconstruction work at the Qarmat Ali treatment plant, strewn with the toxin chromium dichromate. Read More

In the history of the Iraq War, one name is perhaps synonymous with the collapse of the Bush administration's hopes for a post-Saddam world: Retired Lt. General Jay M. Garner, who served as the first post-war administrator. This year, he and a small group of former US military leaders, officials, and lobbyists have quietly used their Kurdistan connections to help Canadian companies access some of the region's richest oil fields. Read More

Seven years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, the country faces an increasingly uncertain future. Award-winning investigative journalists Pratap Chatterjee and Nobu Sakamoto, reported from Afghanistan immediately following the invasion, and now return to the country as part of a CorpWatch/KPFA Radio collaboration to take stock. Read More

The Bank of New York Mellon was named the master custodian firm overseeing the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout fund. It will hold and track the distressed assets that the government will buy as well as run and report on the auctions used to buy the assets. Government officials called it the "prime contractor of the purchase program." Read More

The launch of Russia's stock markets in the early 90s and privatization of state assets has profoundly impacted Russian society. As the case of mining giant Norilsk Nickel illustrates, this experiment has given rise to both immense personal wealth for a new elite, and economic uncertainty for the ordinary citizen. Read More

Originally posted at Dirt Digger's Digest on September 23, 2008 -- A number of leading Democrats and Republicans expressed strong misgivings last Monday about the autocratic plan for bailing out Wall Street that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants to ram through Congress. It remains to be seen whether this is mere posturing or serious opposition. Read More

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AMP Section Name:War & Disaster Profiteering 23 Private Security 24 Intelligence 174 War & Disaster Profiteers Campaign 176 War Profiteers Site 187 Privatization 208 Regulation Read More

Court documents and interviews with whistleblowers shed light on persistent problems in the operations of private military and security company MVM, Inc., a top provider of secret security to U.S. intelligence agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read More