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A South African employed by a private security company in Iraq has allegedly been involved in the random shooting of civilians in the war-ravaged country.

A South African employed by a private security company in Iraq has allegedly been involved in the random shooting of civilians in the war-ravaged country.

WASHINGTON -- When Maj. Steven Warren's Army brigade arrived in Baqubah, capital of Iraq's Diyala province 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, years of trash lay piled by the roadside.

It was waist-high in some places -- a constant reminder of the local government's failure to take care of citizens' basic needs.

Recent shootings of Iraqi civilians, allegedly involving the legion of U.S., British and other foreign security contractors operating in the country, are drawing increasing concern from Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders who say they undermine relations between foreign military forces and Iraqi civilians.

It takes two to commit bribery - the person who takes the bribe and the person who gives it. Justice demands the next prosecution be of the defense contractors who kept the San Diego-area congressman supplied with an eye-popping flow of cash, luxury cars, yachts and other amenities.

SAN FRANCISCO -- As part of CorpWatch's ongoing efforts to broaden the constituency of people in the United States active around climate change, and to inject an environmental justice and human rights perspective into the climate debate, we are organizing a Climate Justice Spring Tour between April 18 - May 2, 2001.

KBR hires out subcontractors whose job is to recruit, transport, house, feed and pay "third-country" nationals to stock, prepare, serve and clean up at the dining facilities at 43 bases across Iraq. As pressure to keep contract costs down, subcontractors have moved from country to country in search of cheaper labor markets.

While the rest of us are just trying to follow troop movements, these guys, to coin a phrase from the film All the President's Men,' follow the money.'

Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none have been prosecuted despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures.

Could a defense company stuff a Pentagon contract with enough overhead to hide bribes to a congressman? Easy enough, say veteran Washington insiders.

Cunningham betrayed his friends, his constituents, his colleagues and, certainly most important, the U.S. combat troops he so loudly championed. By steering contracts vital to the Iraq war effort to cronies, he risked putting those troops in greater peril as long as it meant money for him.

Brent Wilkes, the founder of defense contractor ADCS Inc., gave more than $840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates, campaign-finance records show. He flew Republican lawmakers on his private jet and hired lobbyists with close ties to those lawmakers.

Army recuitment may be down, but economic hardship keeps the troops of Halliburton at high levels.

No one is sure how well psychological operations have worked in Afghanistan or Iraq, but that's not stopping efforts to step them up, using contractors to do it.

An Iraqi Kurd who served on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council said that airlifting $1.4 billion in cash to Irbil was an attempt to win the silence of Kurdish leaders after the Coalition Provisional Authority had squandered the rest of the money.

We are writing you today to express our profound concern with your new climate change policies with respect to their impacts on poor people and people of color in the United States and around the world.

Designed to mask any connection with the US military, The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

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