Abuse raises questions about role of U.S. contractors

Washington -- Until Monday, CACI International Inc., one of the growing cadre of businesses that have profited handsomely off the drive to privatize many U.S. military functions, had almost never found itself in the news.

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The publicly traded company, which has built itself into an $843 million- a-year firm with bright growth prospects pegged to its government contracts, said it has cooperated fully over the past several months with Army investigators. A statement released by the company on its Web site added that company executives have never been told that any of its workers, mostly former military police officers and intelligence agents, might be involved in wrongful conduct or face charges.

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A 53-page confidential study, written after an investigation led by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba in late February and quoted extensively in this week's New Yorker magazine, said one CACI interrogator "clearly knew his instructions" to military police at the prison meant prisoners would suffer physical abuse.

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Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek--Tauscher, a House Armed Services Committee member, said she had never been told by Bush administration officials that private interrogators had been hired. She said that if CACI employees are to face charges, she doesn't know if the Uniform Code of Military Justice, U.S. criminal law or Iraqi law will apply to them. Clearly, as agents of the military, they would have to obey the Geneva convention on treatment of prisoners.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/04/MNGFA6FDI51.DTL

Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution fellow who studies private military contractors, said that as civilians in an occupied country, the private interrogators occupy a murky corner of international law. They could be tried in American courts -- at least in theory. But no clear precedent exists for how such a case would proceed, Singer said.

Tauscher said House Democrats are circulating a letter among members calling on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to open an investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general and report to Congress.

Fearful that outrage over the Abu Ghraib photos could damage them, a lobbying group for private security companies called for the civilian interrogators to face justice.

"Our feeling is that the industry needs to take this head on," said Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Officers Association. "This is a human rights issue, and they have to be able to condemn this kind of thing. ... There are statutes on the books to nail these people."


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All corners of security are piling on...The Bush Administration isn't going to be able to find a rug big enough to sweep these crimes under.

War crimes. Hague. Screw 'em.

Neighborhood Financial Transparency – For Defense Contractors Only?

One day last year, while sitting through one of my depositions with the Department of Justice (DOJ), I was impressed by the extraordinary number of documents managed by the litigation support contractor. I asked the gracious young man doing the work who his employer was. He said he worked for CACI. That came as a bit of surprise.

At that time, CACI was the leading provider of geographic information systems and data to the federal government. Hamilton was a CACI customer. Richard Armitage, now Deputy Secretary of State was on the CACI board along with numerous board members with decades of experience working in the military and intelligence agencies.

There are numerous reasons why the suppression of citizen access to government funded place based data is important to every American. The most important is that transparency and accountability in government requires that citizens can easily understand in a timely way what is happening with the resources that we give to government. We need access to reliable information about government taxes, spending and credit that conforms to the world that we walk around in and understand. When we are in the dark about how government manages resources in the political jurisdictions in which we live and vote, our money can be stolen without our being able to see how and to stop it.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00014.htm

and their prosecutable status was well thought out ahead of time by the Bush gang.

And the reason why no one in Congress was aware of Indy Contractors being used for training and interrogation purposes of Iraqi prisoners.

Congress..and Congressional members on both sides are outraged.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/world/8286760.htm

suddenly the Contractors are under reprimand. 4/26