Cynthia McKinney: The Truth on Libya–Another War of Lies

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence
Cynthia McKinney

LIBYA AND THE BIG LIE: USING HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO LAUNCH WARS

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

The war against Libya is built on fraud. The United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims, specifically that Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi. The claim in its exact form was that Qaddafi had ordered Libyan forces to kill 6,000 people in Benghazi. These claims were widely disseminated, but always vaguely explained. It was on the basis of this claim that Libya was referred to the U.N. Security Council at U.N Headquarters in New York City and kicked out of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

False claims about African mercenary armies in Libya and about jet attacks on civilians were also used in a broad media campaign against Libya. These two claims have been sidelined and have become more and more murky. The massacre claims, however, were used in a legal, diplomatic, and military framework to justify NATO’s war on the Libyans.

Using Human Rights as a Pretext for War: The LLHR and its Unproven Claims

One of the main sources for the claim that Qaddafi was killing his own people is the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR). The LLHR was actually pivotal to getting the U.N. involved through its specific claims in Geneva. On February 21, 2011 the LLHR got the 70 other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to sent letters to the President Obama, E.U. High Representative Catherine Ashton., and the U.N. Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon demanding international action against Libya invoking the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine. Only 25 members of this coalition actually assert that they are human rights groups.

The letter is as follows:

Continue reading “Cynthia McKinney: The Truth on Libya–Another War of Lies”

David Isenberg: The Cost-Savings Fantasy (Corruption) of Using Private Military Contractors

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Military, Officers Call
David Isenberg

The Cost-Savings Fantasy

David Isenberg

Huffington Post, 9/15/2011

Sometimes it is difficult to decide what to write about in the world of private military and security contracting issues, as there are usually a few different stories in the news on any given day that are relevant.

Today, however, I don't have that problem as there is clearly only one story worth discussing. That is the report issued yesterday by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) comparing federal and private sector employee compensation.

Full disclosure alert: back in the eighties I worked a year at POGO's predecessor organization, the Project on Military Procurement, and earlier this year POGO published a report I co-wrote

To appreciate the importance of this report keep in mind that one of the biggest talking points of PMSC advocates is that the virtue of using them is that they are cheaper than using full time government employees and that private sector rates are cheaper than government salaries. That is because they can be hired just for the task/mission, don't have to be paid pensions and other benefits, et cetera. As talking points go it's a good one and seemingly difficult to dispute; although when it comes to using private military and security contractors in the field there has not yet been much in the way of methodologically sound, peer reviewed evidence to support it.

So POGO decided to fill the data gap, or lacuna, as an academic would say. It compared total annual compensation for federal and private sector employees with federal contractor billing rates in order to determine whether the current costs of federal service contracting serves the public interest.

What its report, Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors, found was:

Continue reading “David Isenberg: The Cost-Savings Fantasy (Corruption) of Using Private Military Contractors”

Owl: Is “Fast & Furious” a Deliberate Destabilization of Mexico by the US Government? Are US Military Arms Shipments to Guatemala the Other Side of the COIN?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers Call
Who? Who?

This item is from a very astute libertarian writer (he has a fantastic web site!), Justin Raimondo, and this column offers the best explanation or theory I have seen as to why BATF has given gazillions of guns to a Mexican drug cartel.  And it’s not due to government incompetence. A brilliant analysis, and oddly, I have not seen any mention of it elsewhere, so it very much deserves to be more widely distributed! This article should be the basis for a “60 Minutes” investigation…

Fast and Furious:  Blowback from Mexico

by , August 31, 2011

While the US military is being sent overseas in search of monsters to destroy, ignoring the good advice of the Founders, closer to home another war is brewing – right on the US-Mexican border. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry, killed on Dec. 21 near Rio Rico, Arizona, was murdered by drug cartel gunmen – using weapons smuggled across the US-Mexican border under the auspices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF).

While the cartels shoot up half of Mexico, and terrorize the other half, it seems they’ve been getting a helping hand from those geniuses in Washington, whose “law enforcement” agencies knowingly allowed sophisticated firearms to be smuggled across the border, into Mexico. As BATF special agent John Dodson told the House Oversight Committee:

. . . . . .

With Mexico at the mercy of US-armed drug gangs, and the central government in Mexico City about to lose control, the introduction of US troops to “keep order” is entirely within the realm of possibility. In that case, the North American Union will become a reality, in fact if not in the formal sense – and the latter can be arranged quickly enough.

Read full analysis.

Commentary on DoD support to cartels below the line.

Continue reading “Owl: Is “Fast & Furious” a Deliberate Destabilization of Mexico by the US Government? Are US Military Arms Shipments to Guatemala the Other Side of the COIN?”

John Robb: ROI for 9/11 Attacks 10 Million to One….

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military
John Robb

September 11: Counting the Costs to America

Al Jazeera, 1 September 2011

$5 trillion, and counting

Osama bin Laden spoke often of a strategy of “economic warfare” against the United States, a low-level war aimed at bankrupting the world's economic superpower.  A decade after the 9/11 attacks, it's hard to argue that bin Laden's strategy was ineffective.  The attacks themselves, according to the September 11 commission, cost Al Qaeda between $400,000 and $500,000 to execute.  They have cost America, by our estimate, more than $5 trillion – a “return on investment” of 10,000,000 to one.

Continue reading “John Robb: ROI for 9/11 Attacks 10 Million to One….”

Chuck Spinney: Bin Laden, Perpetual War, Total Cost + Perpetual War RECAP

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Government, Hacking, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Chuck Spinney

Osama bin Laden repeatedly said that his strategy for defeating the US and driving it out of the Middle East was to bankrupt the US by suckering it into a string expensive of never ending small wars. Osama may be dead, but the US remains locked in a state of perpetual wars abroad and shrinking civil liberties at home.

So was Osama right?

The dismaying debt ceiling spectacle in Congress is revealing in one psychological sense: A clear majority of US politicians now believe  (I think incorrectly [1]) that the US federal government is bankrupt.

On this anniversary of 9-11, in addition to remembering the dead and the sacrifices of the living, we ought to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if America was taken to the cleaners by a Saudi whack job of Yemeni extraction.  One way to start is by trying to figure out what kind of cash hemorrhage was triggered by our reaction to Osama's attack.  My good friend Winslow Wheeler has been grappling with this problem, and his answer below is not pretty.

Chuck Spinney
Sanary sur Mer, France

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Five Trillion and Counting

What Has Been the Real Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars?

by WINSLOW T. WHEELER, Counterpunch

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Bin Laden, Perpetual War, Total Cost + Perpetual War RECAP”

Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence
Winslow Wheeler

What Has Been the Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars?

Email from Winslow Wheeler

This week, as the media runs its displays on America ten years after the 9/11 attacks, there will be references to the dollar costs.  A figure some will use is the one trillion dollars President Obama cited as for the war in Iraq.  That figure is a gross underestimate.

The war in Iraq and its costs are inseparable from the wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and elsewhere.  Indeed, when the Defense Department seeks appropriations for them, it does not distinguish the costs by location; nor does Congress in appropriations bills.

Moreover, the DOD costs are hardly the whole story: add costs in the State Department budget for aid to the governments (such as they are) of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Add also the costs to care for the US veterans of these wars.  That would include the care already extended and the care now obligated for the duration of these men's and women's lives.

Add to that the expanded costs of domestic security against terrorism.

Add also the interest we annually pay for the deficit spending that has financed the wars.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+”

Joseph Stiglitz: The True Cost of 9/11 — Includes 18 Veteran Suicides a Day

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Joseph E. Stiglitz

The True Cost of 9/11

Trillions and trillions wasted on wars, a fiscal catastrophe, a weaker America.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

Slate, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks by al-Qaida were meant to harm the United States, and they did, but in ways that Osama Bin Laden probably never imagined. President George W. Bush's response to the attacks compromised America's basic principles, undermined its economy, and weakened its security.

The attack on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks was understandable, but the subsequent invasion of Iraq was entirely unconnected to al-Qaida—as much as Bush tried to establish a link. That war of choice quickly became very expensive—orders of magnitude beyond the $60 billion claimed at the beginning—as colossal incompetence met dishonest misrepresentation.

Indeed, when Linda Bilmes and I calculated America's war costs three years ago, the conservative tally was $3 trillion to $5 trillion. Since then, the costs have mounted further. With almost 50 percent of returning troops eligible to receive some level of disability payment, and more than 600,000 treated so far in veterans' medical facilities, we now estimate that future disability payments and health care costs will total $600 billion to $900 billion. The social costs, reflected in veteran suicides (which have topped 18 per day in recent years) and family breakups, are incalculable.

Read full article…

See Also:

The Worst Mistake America Made After 9/11

How focusing too much on the war on terror undermined our economy and global power.

By Anne Applebaum  Slate, 4 September 2011