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Privacy advocates say a committee set up recently to advise the Homeland Security Department on privacy issues amounts to little more than a fox guarding a chicken coop.
The Sao Paulo Attorney General´s Office established as illegal the behavior of German subject Frank Guenter Salewski and the Body Guard Company, which were hiring army and reserve forces to work in Iraq, according to reports made public.
A report by a U.S. security consulting, Strategic Forecasting Inc., hired by the State and Defense departments to study the presence of weapons in Latin America called the mercenary force an expanding gang with intimate knowledge of Mexican drug-trafficking methods and routes.
William Taylor, a U.S. diplomat who oversees Iraqi reconstruction efforts, said the Iraq's violent insurgency creates a "security premium," gobbling up money that otherwise would have been spent to provide clean water, electricity and sanitation for Iraqis.
The Rock is just one part of the complicated balancing of government, military and private interests all across Iraq every day. On one side are U.S. intelligence officers warily declassifying information. On the other are contractors seeking access to sensitive data to do jobs once done by soldiers: protecting VIPs, transporting goods and guarding vulnerable targets.
Today, though, the major threat on Baghdad's notorious airport road may no longer be snipers, insurgents or suicide bombers. What drivers most need to fear: trigger-happy security contractors. "Civilian contractors fire indiscriminately."
President George W. Bush did an abrupt about face Tuesday, reversing a previous pledge to legislate limits on carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants. Bush said such a rule would prove too costly, launching another in a slew of recent federal and state government attempts to roll back environmental protections in favor of controlling energy prices.
An Anglo-Iraqi billionaire who has close links to the Blair government, built his financial empire on peddling his influence with Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime.
Former Boeing official, Michael Sears, was sentenced to four months in prison for deceiving the government by offering a job to a Pentagon official while negotiating a $23 billion defense contract. Sears, 57, also was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.
At least 90 Private Military Companies are involved in the business of war and killing innocent people by operating in 110 countries worldwide, says a report by journalist Nasir Mahmood.
With the U.S. Army stretched by the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to spend $100 million to hire private security guards to protect its bases in Germany.
The Justice Department is in a difficult position because identifying the Coalition Provisional Authority as a U.S. entity could make the government legally responsible for the CPA's actions. On the other hand, "it's not a very attractive position to say, 'If you stole U.S. money, you're liable. But if you stole Iraqi money, the U.S. government just doesn't care.' "
National police confirmed that several South African companies and businessmen were being investigated by SAPS Crimes Against the State Unit (CASU) detectives for recruiting former specialised policemen and soldiers to work in Iraq.
At least 10 South African companies and businessmen are being investigated on suspicion of recruiting former specialised police officers and soldiers to work in Iraq.
Though contractors can use lethal force, the U.S. government does not vet who is hired. The Pentagon says it does watch how companies perform and investigates any alleged misconduct.
Six congressional committees are investigating the United Nations Oil-for-Food (UN) scandal, yet not a single Republican committee chairman will call a hearing to investigate the mishandling of $9 billion dollars by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
The picture that emerges from multiple, overlapping inquiries into the world's management of Iraq's people and oil wealth since 1991 is appalling. It is a portrait inhabited by crooks, inept managers and ostensibly well-meaning diplomats and security experts with hidden agendas.
Rep. Waxman, D-Calif., Asks Questions about Role of Ambassador Richard Jones in Controversial Halliburton Contract