VANCOUVER, Canada, Feb 19 (IPS) - Critics are concerned that private military contractors are positioning themselves at the centre of an emerging "shock doctrine" for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Next month, a prominent umbrella organisation for private military and logistic corporations, the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), is co-organising a "Haiti summit" which aims to bring together "leading officials" for "private consultations with attending contractors and investors" in Miami, Florida.
Dubbed the "mercenary trade association" by journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: the Rise of the World' Most Powerful Mercenary Army", the IPOA wasted no time setting up a "Haiti Earthquake Support" page on its website following the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country.
IPOA's director Doug Brooks says, "The first contacts we got were journalists looking for security when they went in." The website of IPOA member company, Hart Security, says they are currently in Haiti "supporting clients from the fields of media, consultancy and medical in their disaster recovery efforts." Several other IPOA members have either bid on or received contracts for work in Haiti.
Likewise, the private military contractor, Raidon Tactics, has at least 30 former U.S. Special Operations soldiers on the ground, where they have been guarding aid convoys and providing security for "news agencies," according to a Raidon employee who told IPS his company received over 1,000 phone calls in response to an ad posting "for open positions for Static Security Positions and Mobile Security Positions" in Haiti.
Just over a week following the earthquake, the IPOA teamed up with Global Investment Summits (GIS), a UK-based private company that specialises in bringing private contractors and government officials from "emerging post-conflict countries" together, to host an "Afghanistan Reconstruction Summit", in Istanbul, Turkey. It was there, says IPOA's director Doug Brooks, that the idea for the Haiti summit was hatched "over beers".
GIS's CEO, Kevin Lumb, told IPS that the key feature of the Haiti summit will be "what we call roundtables, [where] we put the ministers and their procurement people, and arrange appointments with contractors." Lumb added that his company "specialise[s] in putting governments together [with private contractors]."
IPOA was "so pleased" with the Afghanistan summit, says Lumb, they asked GIS to do "all the organising, all the selling" for the Haiti summit. Lumb pointed out that all of the profits from the event will be donated to the Clinton-Bush Haiti relief fund.
While acknowledging that there will be a "a commercial angle" to the event and that "major companies, major players in the world" have committed to attend, Lumb declined to name most of the participants.
One of the companies Lumb did mention is DACC Associates, a private contractor that specialises in management and security consulting with contracts providing "advice and counsel" to governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
DACC President Douglas Melvin, a former Special Forces commander, State Department official and director of Security and Administrative Services for President George W. Bush, acknowledged that "from a revenue perspective, yes there's wonderful opportunities at these events."
Melvin added that he believes most attendees will be "coming together for the right reasons," a genuine concern for Haiti, are "not coming to exploit" the dire situation there, and does not expect his company to profit off of their potential contracts there.
Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism", is concerned that the thesis of her best-selling book will once again be tested in Haiti. She told IPS in an e-mail, "Haiti doesn't need cookie cutter one-size fits all reconstruction, designed by the same gang that made same such a hash of Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans - and indeed the same people responsible for the decimation of Haiti's own economy in the name of 'aid.'" Excuse me, but what "economy" would that be Ms. Klein?
Unhappy with critics' characterisation of the IPOA, Brooks said, "If Scahill and Klein have the resources, the capabilities, the equipment, to go in and do it themselves then more power to them." Just send the money, is that the solution?
University of California at Los Angeles professor Nandini Gunewardena, co-editor of "Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction," told IPS that "privatisation is not the way to go for disaster assistance." Gov't good - privatisation bad.
"Traditionally, corporations have positioned themselves in a way that they benefit at the expense of the people. We cannot afford for that to happen in Haiti," she said, adding that "any kind of intermediate or long-term assistance strategy has to be framed within that framework of human security." This is a people's disaster, leave us alone!
This, according to the U.N-.based Commission on Human Security, means "creating political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity." Nice words, please show me some of your finished UN projects.
Denouncing the "standard recipe of neoliberal policies," Gunewardena said, "If private corporations are going to contribute to Haiti's restoration, they have to be held accountable, not to their own standards, but to those of the people." Haitian voodoo accountability and standards?
Reached by telephone, Haiti's former Minister of Defence under the first presidency of Jean Bertand Aristide, Patrick Elie, agreed. He's worried about the potential privatisation of his country's rebuilding, "because these private companies [aren't] liable, you can't take them to the United Nations, you can't take them to The Hague, and they operate in kind of legal limbo. And they are the more dangerous for it." Well if you can't believe Jean Bertand Aristide, who can you believe?
Elie, who accepted a position as advisor to President Rene Preval following the earthquake, added "These guys are like vultures coming to grab the loot over this disaster, and probably money that might have been injected into the Haitian economy is going to be just grabbed by these companies and I'm sure that they are not only these mercenary companies but also the other companies like Halliburton or these other ones that always [come] on the heels of the troops." We have our own vultures, we don't need no stinking Special Forces vultures.
In its 2008 report, "Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity," the NGO Human Rights First decried the "failure of the U.S. government to effectively control their actions, and in particular the inability or unwillingness of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to hold them criminally responsible for their illegal actions."
The IPOA's Brooks told IPS that members of the Haitian diaspora and Haiti's embassy have been invited and are "going to be a big part" of the summit.
While stressing that it's impossible to know the exact details of an event that is planned outside of public scrutiny, Elie countered that if high-level Haitian officials were to participate, "It's either out of ignorance or complicity."
Worried that Haiti is already seeing armed contractors in addition to the presence of more than 20,000 U.S., Canadian, and U.N. soldiers, Elie says he has seen private contractors accompanying NGOs, "walking about carrying assault rifles." Fishing poles would be better eh?
If the U.S. military pulls out and hands over the armed presence to private contractors, "It opens the door to all kinds of abuses. Let's face it, the Haitian state is too weak to really deal efficiently with this kind of threat if it materialises," he said. Hey, when that day comes, ask them to leave. I'm sure they'll be happy to oblige. They can sail out on the USN Hospital ship USNS Comfort.
The history of post-disaster political economy has shown that such a threat is all too likely, says Elie. "We've seen it happen so many times before that whenever there is a disaster, there are a bunch of vultures trying to profit from it, whether it's a man-made disaster like Iraq, or a nature-made disaster like Haiti." You've "seen it many time before" eh? Will why were you not phueching prepared for this one?
So don't hire them, then they won't profit. See how nicely capitalism works to accomplish your purpose?
I believe we have identified the real vultures.
Indeed. Besoeker, please note that your lovely in-line comments now go neatly between paragraphs, not at the end of the last sentence, to comply with the Rantburg style manual.
#1
I think Besoeker did a perfect job. And nailed it.
What DO you think the world runs on...the milk of human kindness? The Boogas would have mobbed you if there wasnt security and the Ton Ton macout would have been in party mode.
If you ARE weak what do you suppose is going to happen to you? What HAPPENS to the weak? yeah, EVERY time.
#3
"The first contacts we got were journalists looking for security when they went in."
Hmmmmmm...think that'll be brought up on the Nightly News when the "Private Army's Turn Haiti into Police State" stories start cranking out?
Well, if they weren't there, the media and the NGO's and anybody else there would end up hiring Haitian gangs for protection. At least these guys are reliable.
#5
Yeah, we have sooooo much to gain with Haiti. Same with the last 28 times we were there. The Haitians fed us so much that obesity is a national security issue.
You stupid fraud. Does someone pay you for this crap?
Real men don't like going to church because they don't want to "sing love songs to a man", because the "vicar wears a dress", because they feel like "mongrels on parade at Crufts" and because they want to be waited on by women rather than queue for coffee after the service.
A number of distinctly non-pc ways to get men back into church are among those being advocated by a charity, Christian Vision for Men, which has discovered that the Church has lost nearly half of its men aged under 30 because it has become too feminine.
The charity admits some of its ideas might not be seen as politically correct.
But on a questionnaire on its website aimed at finding out why so many men have left church, they suggest a number of ways of making men want to return to church again.
These include redesigning the interiors of church buildings to make men feel more at home.
Instead of the usual flowers and statues of the Virgin Mary, they suggest, "How would it go down to decorate with swords, or pictures of knights, or flaming torches?"
The charity continues: "Maybe it's not 'politically correct', but men quite like the attention of women! They also like to be waited on - so long as they are not made to feel guilty. Instead of having to queue for coffee, why not ask some of the women to go round with trays of coffee and biscuits or chocky bars? Coupled with a charming smile, many men would find that very attractive!"
Then there are the hymns, or modern worship songs, themselves.
Quite apart from the sheer embarrassment of having to sing out loud when the tune might go too high or be in an unfamiliar key, the charity advises clergy just to look at the words.
"Jesus, I am so in love with you," or "Beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore," - many men wouldn't sing that to their wives, let alone another man, the charity advises.
It continues: "The image of church is 'women and children' - action songs or kid's plays just emphasise this. The decoration is often very feminine - flowers, embroidered banners. The vicar often wears a dress... It can be embarrassing to be next to someone in uninhibited delight of worship, or in tears."
Men don't want to feel brainwashed by reciting words that they don't believe: "The language can be offputting, even the word 'love' has undertones of the love of a man for his woman - they'd rather 'admire' or 'respect' another man. Think how they will respond if called to be Jesus's lover, or to be 'intimate' with him. Don't play into Satan's hands by using language that he has corrupted."
Among the changes recommended by Christian Vision for Men, a member of the Evangelical Alliance, is to use the World Cup to boost falling congregations. The charity wants vicars to erect big screens above the pulpit during this summer's World Cup in South Africa and even serve beer during games.
Carl Beech, General Director of the CVM and Baptist Minister, said: The World Cup is when pretty much every bloke in the country bonds over a common goal.
Why can that not be done in a church? The decline has been steady for a while but has accelerated over recent years.
The problem has become male culture versus church culture. Too many sermons talk about Jesus' love, compassion and grace which are great but not male concepts. Men want to know about his great decision making and leadership. That is what they recognise. Churches are very pastorally driven whereas blokes are looking for decisions not discussions. The breakdown in most churches is now 70 per cent women to 30 per cent men.'
The charity, which also recommends subjects as "pornography" are discussed in church men's groups, has also launched two Christian-themed men's magazines in a further bid to lock into male culture.
Bishop of Lewes Wallace Benn admitted there was a problem. The relatively small number of men in our congregations is one of the pressing issues facing the church today.
Within our Christian concern for all ages, both sexes and every ethnic group, we need to address reaching men with the good news of the Gospel as a key concern.'
The Church of England have tried to address the slump in the last five years by encouraging services to be held in alternative venues such as skate parks, coffee shops and pubs under their "Fresh Expressions" scheme.
A spokesman said: It is of concern. We do know there appears to be a higher proportion of women to men in church."
#2
IIRC in an outreach to the barbarian tribes invading Europe, the dark age church 'translated' the New Testament as if Christ were a Hero Chieftain leading battles. It was not exactly faithful to the Greek but it did convert a number of tribal chiefs and under chiefs.
#3
I don't know if the Church is feminizing because the men are leaving it, or the men are leaving because it is feminizing. I've seen it happen slowly but surely for the last 40 years though.
Of course if one really wants a non-feminine church, there's that Mohammedism thing.
A sample, for your reading pleasure. Read the whole thing.
...But his lunatic petition forecasts the liturgy to come. The spinners will scrape up his rhetorical remains and put them to use.
Inevitably, there will be an attempt to tie Joseph Stack's insanity to the legitimate anger that Americans are feeling these days about their government and political incumbents.
Even before the smoke cleared in Austin, you could see it. The public's anger and disillusionment was cast -- in media shorthand -- as dangerous and irrational.
Yes, it's a trick, but it works. Former President Bill Clinton used it brilliantly in 1995, when he blamed conservatives for stoking the anger that led to the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing.
Though terribly cynical, it gave Clinton and the Democrats a few weeks to breathe. His opponents were on the defensive, forced to explain that they weren't irrational and didn't countenance mass murder.
Republicans, equally cynical, have also used variations on the theme. Dissent on the war in Iraq was cast as unpatriotic and irrational after 9/11. And it is to my eternal regret that I was once susceptible to that viewpoint, too.
President Barack Obama could use some political breathing room. His White House has been bobbing like some hapless cork, from one Democratic defeat to the next. The Democrats are in panic. And the Republicans, having silkily transformed themselves into ostentatiously conservative budget hawks now that they're out of power, are seeing opportunity in November.
But cynical politicians and mad pilots aside, isn't it legitimate for Americans to be angry about what their elected officials have done to their country?
Every time we turn around, we see that we're getting ripped off.
Our taxes go up, the rich get their bailouts, the culprits give each other bonuses with our money, our jobs disappear, and the political class keeps getting fat on deals.
Anger is not only quite rational, I'd argue that it speaks to optimism. Anger means the people think things can change.
Just think of the alternative. Think of a political class gorging itself on the people, year after year, and voters remaining docile and quiet.
#2
Linking America's anger to a suicidal madman: Now that's madness projection.
/fixed....
This guy was, obviously, deranged. The Left, being similarly afflicted, are using his reprehensible actions to "tinkle" on any conservative mein they can....
"Bud, the toilets today aren't worthy of the name. They come in designer colors, they're too low, and when you flush them they make this little weak, almost apologetic sound.
Not the Ferguson. It only comes in white and when you flush it -- BA WOOSH! -- That's a man's flush, Bud. A Ferguson says, 'I'm a toilet: sit down and give me your best shot.'"
#4
Al Gore and the rest of the CC circus are wrecking the planet's environment but not for the reason stated. They are wrecking it by subsuming all other ecological issues to climate change. It is acceptable to to ruin the environment if you are supposedly helping stop CC.
I've seen this first hand in the truly vast palm oil (for biofuels) plantations is SE Asia. Perhaps half of all the remaining tropical forest has gone in not much more than a decade and the destruction continues. This is the worst ecological disaster of my lifetime that will wipe out in the wild most of the large mammals like tigers and rhinos.
However, Damascus' support for Iran and the lack of a peace deal with Israel provide little hope for a significant improvement in the U.S.-Syrian bilateral dynamic.
Indonesia has fallen off the map of the most-terror-prone places on Earth, corporate intelligence forecasters say. How did that happen in a nation once plagued by Bali's bombers? By annihilating the enemy. We watched it happen here. I was surprised in some respects, informed in others, gratified in still others...
This week, Britain's Maplecroft group, an assessor of corporate risk, dropped Indonesia from its top 10 nations most likely to experience a mass-casualty terrorist attack. The group bases its Terrorism Risk Index entries on frequency and intensity of terror attacks and a nation's history. Likewise, the Swedish National Defense College has concluded that there's a diminishing threat in Indonesia. That's not the same as no threat at all, but it's a substantial improvement...
If that sounds academic, consider that Indonesian and U.S. officials said no significant security risks threaten President Obama ahead of his weeklong trip to Indonesia next month. If there's anything there you can be sure it'll put in an appearance when the U.S. prez arrives...
Now, to be sure, terrorism isn't completely gone from Indonesia. But there's been a lot of silence recently from that island country on the terror front. For a nation that experienced some fearsome terror attacks in past years, each quiet month is a sign of victory. So why has the threat dropped off so dramatically, Johnny?
The reason isn't hard to recognize:Last September, Indonesian commandos blew away a Malaysian terrorist named Noordin Mohammed Top, who had a hand in every major Indonesian terror attack since the first Bali bombing of 2002. It says something that getting rid of a single terrorist kingpin could have such an impact on Indonesia's outlook. But it did. Noordin was the last of the Jemaah Islamiyah majors. The reason his demise was significant was that there now aren't any more of them left. That entire crop is either worm food or they've moved indoors for extended periods.
That offers a reminder of what it takes to win a war on terror. Miranda warnings, civilian trials and shaking down blue-haired ladies at airports don't do it. Hunting and killing terrorists do. And leave us not forget good intel. You have to know who to hunt down and where to look...
That's important because some analysts, such as Jakarta-based senior adviser Sidney Jones of Crisis Group International, have claimed Indonesia's progress is a result of turning the war on terror into a police action. She explained in a January interview with Voice of America that civilian trials helped win public trust. Sidney's a nice lady, but she's a touchy-feely sort from what I understand.
She's not completely wrong, but to look at what Indonesia did suggests more of a militarization of its police forces than trust in the routine civilian mechanisms of police action. Indonesia treated terrorism with the urgency of warfare, even if its police took the lead. That was possible only because of strong leadership and big public backing. The leadership, recall, didn't come from the top down, which I consider damned significant. In October 2002 Indonesia was under the mushy hopey changey leadership of Megawati Sukarnoputri. Her vice president, the loathsome Hamzah Haz, was an Islamist who had spent the past year contemptuously pooh-poohing the idea of any kind of Islamic terror threat, hanging around with Abu Bakr Bashir and Jafar Umar Thalib. When the bad guyz detonated it was the guy who's the current president, then the relatively obscure Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs in Mega's cabinet who took the ball and ran with it in spite of (not because of) the lacklusters at the top.
Both reflect Indonesia's democracy and growing political freedom, which studies show repel terror. And no, the country didn't turn into a military state by treating terror as war. Indonesians set the actions into motion by electing a military man, Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono, as their president in 2004 and by reelecting him in 2009. The Indonesian general ran on a tough anti-terrorist platform and kept his word on that. I think he was elected because of his bulldog tenacity in hunting down Jemaah Islamiyah. Hamzah Haz ran in the 2004 election and came in dead last, with 3 percent of the vote. SBY followed his intel leads and he did as nice a job of network analysis as you could want to see. All of the JI members were neatly tied together, virtually all of them through blood or marriage relationships -- as we commented at the time, and they were all family. The entire threat to national security was shown to consist of about 60 people, maybe 70 or 75 by the time Noordin finally got done recruiting and burning new fodder. Sidney can say it was a "police problem," but from here it looked like it was solved as an intel problem.
Isn't Al Qaeda much the same -- lots of marrying off of female relatives to promising young management candidates over the years? And it sounds like the Taliban -- both Afghan and Pakistani -- are family organizations, at least at the top. Taking the concept of crime family to a new level, that.
This article starring:
NURDIN MOHAMED TOP
Jemaah Islamiyah
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Posted by: Al Gore ||
02/20/2010 13:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
From the article:
"Since the market revolves around creating carbon credits, or finding carbon reduction projects whose benefits can then be sold to those with a surplus of emissions, it is entirely intangibleimaginary"
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2010 13:08 Comments ||
Top||
#3
As long as the truly deserving are burned, it's a good thing...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/20/2010 15:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The good news is that CCs will come under the various securities trading laws. I look forward to hearing Al Gore gets 5 to 10 in the slammer for securities fraud.
Apostasy killing of former Muslims could become widespread in the United States if the U.S. government and Americans don't "wake up," a panel of three former Muslims said on Capitol Hill Thursday.
The talk, hosted by three members of the new civil rights organization Former Muslims United, marked the first public appearance as a self-proclaimed "apostate" of Iranian journalist Amil Imani, president of the group. Imani and the panel's two other speakers, authors Nonie Darwish and Wafa Sultan, told the audience that ingrained American religious and ethnic tolerance and myths about Islam are combining to gravely threaten the West.
"Shi'a radical Islam and Wahhabism is coming to this country," Imani said. "There are 6,000 mosques in the United States now. All the money [we] put into gasoline comes back here and is used in the teaching of hate, violence, etc., etc." in American mosques, he said.
Sultan, who said she regularly gets death threats and emails from people saying they will cut off her fingers and rape her daughters because she left Islam, said it is merely a myth that Islamic terrorists misinterpret 'true' Islam for nefarious purposes. Westerners "don't want to judge anybody based on their [religion]," Sultan said, "[But] Islam is not a religion. Islam is a very dangerous political ideology. ... There is no such thing as radical Islam and regular Islam or spiritual Islam. ...There is only one Islam."
In the fall of 2009 FMU sent a pledge to 111 Muslim organizations in the United States affirming the right of Muslims to leave Islam and not be punished or killed. (Shari'a, Muslim law, calls on Muslims to kill those who convert or otherwise leave the faith.) The document asked recipients to sign and return the pledge to FMU. Just two groups did. The response is proof of a silent, creeping tolerance in the West for radical ideology, a development that augurs very badly for a free society, panel members said.
"You might think the threat is over there in the Middle East," said Darwish, author of "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror." "The problem is, we have books in America teaching that apostates must be killed. ... The problems emanate from Muslim leadership in America. They won't sign any document that says, 'We are against shari'a.'"
Western governments seem oblivious to the apathy of supposedly legitimate organizations about apostasy killings and the growing ubiquity of fatwa (death warrant) issuances, the panel said. "A fatwa of death can be issued from any country," Darwish said, citing the 2008 handing down from the Middle East by Al Qaeda of a fatwa on Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders for an "insulting" film Wilders made about the Koran. "Fatwas are issued on Arab T.V. on a regular basis. ... And these fatwas are following us right here in America. Why we are sleeping and not making a big deal about that is beyond me."
Darwish said if free reign for such practices continues, they "will change the culture in America. (They've) already changed the culture in Europe."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Apostasy killing of former Muslims could become widespread in the United States if the U.S. government and Americans don't "wake up," a panel of three former Muslims said on Capitol Hill Thursday.
