[Aljazeera] Private military contractors and the future of war; plus, Saudi Aramco's IPO and OPEC, and Google's Stadia.
Increasingly, nations are deploying private security contractors to troubled and remote parts of the world.
Beyond the scope of democratic accountability, opaque and operating beyond and around international law - they are proving to be useful agents of diplomacy and proxy wars.
But there have been well-publicised failures. In 2007, Blackwater contractors killed 17 unarmed Iraqis and injured 24 others. Blackwater went on to change its name to Academi and continues to provide services to the Pentagon around the world.
Also in Iraq, the Pentagon hired CACI Premier Technology to run the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. The logistics company is alleged to have told military police to soften up prisoners for interrogation.
And it is estimated the US government lost as much as $60bn to fraud by contractors in the early years of the Iraq conflict.
Right now, the industry is estimated to be worth up to $249bn.
More nations are deploying mercenaries to reshape battlefields. Russia has used the Wagner Group in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. And as Nicholas Haque reports exclusively from the Central African Republic, Russia is training government forces at the request of the president.
"The danger of using mercenaries or contractors is that they can get in scraps or fights that can suck others into a larger conflict," said Dr Sean McFate, professor at Georgetown University and author of The New Rules of War. "Mercenaries' accountability and safety have been a problem from the start. Mercenaries are the second-oldest profession. So how do you control mercenaries?
According to McFate, "We don't have a good international framework to deal with modern mercenaries. The international law is very thin and the will to enforce it is very small ... So mercenaries are expanding in the 21st century, yet we don't have any sort of legal framework or norms to competently deal with this problem."
#2
The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain is not skillful, you are ruined in the usual way.
#3
Another crap piece. America has used contractors on the battlefields since the revolution. Who guards the embassy's? Not the Marines, they guard the classified documents. And no not the Ambassador, he has another security firm to protect him. The crimes at Abu Ghriab were performed by US servicemembers. And the whole Blackwater event was a fraud, the Blackwater truck were shot to shit, but there was no evidence allowed to show they were shot at. All of the Blackwater brass was used as evidence, but not one other round was allowed in.
There is a big difference between contractors on the battlefield, armed or not, to mercenaries. This is just more slander to the men and women who protect our soldiers and politicians.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/25/2019 15:06 Comments ||
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#4
Right now, the industry is estimated to be worth up to $249bn.
[Big League Politics] Brett Kavanaugh has spoken of progressive idol Ruth Bader Ginsburg that terms that are sure to leave many conservatives worried about the judge’s commitment to originalist principles.
Kavanaugh said that the progressive judicial activist was an "inspiration" to him on the court when speaking in one of his first public events since being confirmed to the Supreme Court in one of the most contentious confirmation processes in Supreme Court history.
Somewhat curiously, Kavanaugh neglected to thank President Donald Trump for nominating him and refusing to shelve the nomination when progressives launched a slander campaign accusing the federal judge of sexually assaulting a woman in high school. The smear campaign was totally uncorroborated, and Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed to the court.
Kavanaugh did thank his supporters broadly for their steadfast battle for his confirmation, however. He was speaking at an annual event of the right-leaning Federalist Society, some of whose members might have been surprised to hear him take inspiration from a progressive known to stand against virtually everything the organization supports.
It’s not without precedent for a conservative Supreme Court judge such as Kavanaugh to speak of a far-left progressive jurist in a favorable light. Deceased Judge Antonin Scalia was known to have a friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, although it doesn’t appear he ever went so far as to refer to the historically unmatched progressive as an "inspiration."
It could be said that Kavanaugh has given some of his conservative supporters cause for concern. Since arriving on the Supreme Court, he’s generally voted in accordance with conservative judicial principles, but he’s had a few notable hiccups, including voting against a proposal that would allow states to block Planned Parenthood from receiving funding from Medicare programs.
#3
I recall reading that, while on the Circuit Court, Judge Kavanaugh voted the same way as his colleague 95% of the time.
That judge's name was Merrick Garland. From the WSJ, Sep 5, 2018:
Sen. Ted Cruz [compared] Judge Kavanaugh’s D.C. Circuit Court votes with those of Chief Judge Merrick Garland. In nearly every panel on which they both sat, they joined each other’s opinions more than 95% of the time, Sen. Cruz said.
“I think we’re trying hard to find common ground,” Judge Kavanaugh said. “As I’ve said before, he’s a great judge, a great chief judge. He’s very careful, hard working, we work well together,” Judge Kavanaugh said, adding that Chief Judge Garland is a jurist “who does not impose any personal preferences” onto his opinions.
Not criticizing or snarking about Kavanaugh... just pointing out the surreal nature of this country's rolling Shitshow that falsely, slanderously painted this middle-of-the-road, thoroughly establishmentarian milquetoast as Genghis Epstein.
#6
Professional courtesy that one does not speak ill of the dead?
However you are correct, never ever have 'lifetime' appointment cause they morph into an aristocracy that knows its above the law because they say what the law is.
People forget that Kavanaugh is an exceedingly gracious man with close ties to Elena Kagan, who reached out and hired him to teach Cobstitutional Law at Harvard when she was Dean of HLS.
Kavanaugh is a gent. What was done to him last year was monstrous and should have resulted in long prison sentences for at least a dozen people who slandered and tried to destroy this good man with their absurd lies.
[Daily Caller] A dangerous myth has been propagated by the media: that there is an epidemic of racially biased shootings of black people (primarily black men) in America, by the police.
The false narrative claims that individual police officers, motivated by overt racism or implicit racial bias, are rampantly targeting black Americans. Some go further to allege these shootings are proof of "systemic racism" within American law enforcement. Nonstop broadcast of the anti-police message by radical activists, Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, politicians, academics, and most mainstream media outlets have made this myth pervasive. The myth, and the powerful voices who perpetuate it, are rarely challenged ‐ even by law enforcement leaders. The result has been fear, distrust, hatred of the police, and a breakdown of the rule of law.
However, this destructive delusion has been completely demolished by a recent study that demonstrates there is no epidemic of racially biased police shootings of black people, that black citizens are not more likely to be shot by white officers, and that the shooting of unarmed people of any race is extraordinarily rare. In fact, an individual American citizen is substantially more likely to be struck by lightning than he is to be shot by the police while unarmed.
In the article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Joseph Cesario of Michigan State University and David Johnson of the University of Maryland assess hundreds of fatal police shootings since 2015. Their groundbreaking study exposes what is, at least for the anti-police mythmakers, an inconvenient truth indeed ‐ that police shootings of citizens are not motivated by race or racism.
#1
Soon expect scholarly articles and theses on law enforcement and social justice with the words 'po po' in them. The internet and affirmation has empowered a delinquent subset of society to profess their angsts as information.
[Guns America] In the summer of 1992, a violent confrontation between Randy Weaver and federal Law Enforcement agencies led to three needless deaths and an 11-day standoff.
The repercussions of this horrible event still resonate today. The very mention of Ruby Ridge still elicits powerful emotions.
In 1992 with a Republican in the White House, the full might of the US government was unleashed on an American citizen and his family. I’ll not debate the man’s politics or the righteousness of the investigation. What is indisputable, however, is that a 14-year-old boy, an unarmed mother holding an infant, and a US Marshal died violently in a miserably botched Law Enforcement operation.
#2
Law Enforcement officials accused Weaver of creating two illegal short-barreled shotguns but offered to drop the charges if he would infiltrate nearby white supremacist organizations.
The recruitment of Carter Page may (or may not) have been a bit more subtle.
#4
My family lived a few miles from there. This whole thing stunk. BTW the FBI set contracts for the hotels and for food at restaurants. When it all went bad and the FBI left, mostly from fear of the locals, they did not pay a single bill, bilking small towns in Idaho. Second, after they shot the wife, residents put flowers at the mailbox. FBI agents took turns running over the mailbox and flowers. They entrapped a guys, blackmailed him, played by no real legal boundaries, and killed two innocent people. The FBI lost in court, but that does not bring back the dead. From Sandpoint to CDA this is not just an emotional event, this was what big government has become.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/25/2019 14:57 Comments ||
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#5
And dems and rinos want to give the govt more unlimited facial recognition powers, like the ChiComs do?
The Feral Govt keeping up with the despots?
Surely you jest. When US Attorneys and their FBI lackeys never get repremanded, fired, or convicted of transgressions, there are two standards of justice in this country: for the deep state denizens and for the dirt people.
[and don't call me Shirley]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/25/2019 18:23 Comments ||
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[Reuters] A year after the U.S. stock market plunged, many investors believe conditions are in place to avoid another year-end pullback and possibly set the stage for a rally to finish off 2019.
A more accommodative Federal Reserve compared with a year ago is an important argument for investors who are confident the market is unlikely to see a repeat of 2018’s swoon.
Last year, investors were concerned the Fed was raising interest rates too quickly. By contrast, the Fed has been cutting rates this year, and while the central bank is not expected to lower rates again in December, it also is not expected to raise them.
Another change from a year ago, cited by investors: Stock markets globally are more synchronized in their strong performance.
"The prospects this year are better," said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. "It’s not just the U.S. that’s doing well right now. It’s happening in lots of places around the globe, and that puts investors in a more risk-taking mood."
One wild card for markets heading into year-end is the United States’ trade war with China. The dispute remains unresolved, but there is optimism about a preliminary U.S.-China trade agreement that could also lift stocks into the new year.
Investors are still wary of last year's stock market collapse. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX fell 19.8% - barely avoiding a bear market - between Sept. 20 and Dec. 24.
(Gateway Pundit) ‐ On Tuesday NSC leaker Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams testified in front of the Adam Schiff Show Trial.
They made it through their basement star chamber auditions and were ready to go live in front of the American public on Tuesday morning.
During his testimony Lt. Col. Vindman testified that he did not know the leaker but refused to answer questions on the leaker after saying he did not know who the leaker was. Vindman said he went around his chain of command and did not go through his boss Tim Morrisson. Vindman insisted he was in charge of Ukraine policy but then said he wasn’t.
It was not a good day for anti-Trumper Lt. Col. Vindman.
His boss Tim Morrison earlier testified that he did not trust Vindman and that he suspected Vindman was a leaker. (He was!)
#1
(a) here's the link https://libertynewsnetwork.com/breaking-lt-col-vindmans-peers-from-ranger-school-just-exposed-his-nastly-little-secret/
(b) According to Cernovich, his source who went through Ranger School with Alexander Vindmann, said he was lazy and a chow thief His Ranger School classmate said his peers wanted him out..
#7
I repeat, "Chow thief" doesn't make sense unless their food was limited. I mean, every recruit learns in the first week to carry at least a loaf of bread on marches.
#10
Food and sleep deprivation are part of Ranger School experience. You get less than half of the calories and sleep needed during the 2 months and will lose 30 pounds. Surprised his evaluators and classmates didn't find a way to fail him.
In Maraniss's doorstop of a book, Obama first meets Siddiqi at a New Year's Eve party in San Francisco, the young, gangly, would-be president greeting his future roommate with pitch-perfect Urdu, asking: "How are you, Boss?"
It was a phrase [Obama] had picked up from his best buddies at Occidental College in California – Pakistani students Imad Husain, Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid who, like Siddiqi, were part of Karachi's wealthy elite. So close were the group that Obama went to Pakistan with them for a three-week holiday in 1981, staying with Hamid and Chandoo's families.
Maraniss argues in his book that the group has distanced itself from Obama for fear of hurting his presidency, but they remain friends: "The Pakistanis were a fun-loving bunch," he laughs, talking on the telephone from Washington DC, "but they were intellectuals." Despite their party harder reputations, the three went into highly paid corporate finance: Husain is a Boston-based banker; Hamid works for one of the world's biggest private equity firms in Dubai; and Chandoo – who is recorded to have fundraised some $50,000 to $100,000 for Obama's current campaign – is a financial consultant, living with his family in upmarket Westchester, New York.
#19
#17 the Donks are running that gambit right now for 2020. They missed the horse and barn door back in 2016. Don't worry they've set the new ground rules for themselves because someone else now has access to all that data collection they've been doing on everyone.
#20
Ranger training is all about limited food. I mailed my friend power bars and jerky every day and he told me later the guys in charge “let” some get through.
#21
I 'suspect' the food getting through was a test and anyone that didn't share was considered a chow thief. More of a self-bastard non-team player than actual thief.
#3
^ The SNL hipsters have come to the conclusion that the Dem candidates are all liars, whores and poltroons. The Dems are losing the SNL writer crowd.
How did they get there? Prob'y a combination of the spectacularly repulsive, indefensible Shitshow that is Hoover Burisma Biden, and the equally repulsive Shitshow that is Schoff's Star Chamber-- which was, to an SNL writer, unforgivable for being not just a waste but mind-numbingky BORING.
The next phase is Acceptance, of Trump's impending re-election.
#5
A satirist cannot long put up with virtue-signaling assholes, no matter how much his personal political views may align with those of the virtue vultures. They're BORING. That's professional suicide for a satirist.
#6
The other weird thing about recent Democratic presidential candidates is how ludicrously self-important they are.
They truly believe they've been called forth to Save the Republic -- even though not one of them has ever accomplished anything meaningful in their 200+ collective years of public life. The oldest of them, Bernie Trotsky, has literally achieved NOTHING in over 50 years of public office.
Their humorlessness increases in direct proportion to their fecklessness. The only q is how the SNL writers ever thought these clowns were not worthy of scorn.
#8
The only q is how the SNL writers ever thought these clowns were not worthy of scorn
My guess is, a big part of the performance arts, sports, entertainment industry is hostage to some virtue signalling producers who are wolves in tuxedos, friends of the Clintons. Also, most heads of creative depts must be hippie marxists. And faux-altruistic poseurs seeking the next Golden Lion for their saga of quiet rebellion by black women against slave owners in a bygone era.
#9
True. Most of the entertainment industry, like the finance industry and the tech sector and so many others now, is essentially a small oligopoly consisting of mammoth corporations: Disney, Comcast, AT&T, "National Amusements."
Think about the parent companies' executive leadership: these are TV salesmen, cable entrepreneurs, financial engineers, or even (in AT&T's case) network engineers.
Does any of these money-grubbing ROI hawks know anything about drama or comedy? About anything remotely creative?
No wonder our media & entertainment culture produces so much conformist, unfunny, boring, trite, redundant and derivative shite.
It's an industry seeking to optimize production and revenue, no less than the specialty chemicals or industrial lubricants industries.
#10
(possible exception to the above: Disney's leadership isn't devoid of creative knowledge. The little girls seem to greatly enjoy the 'Frozen' money-spinner franchise.)
#11
Maybe most actors themselves hate the liberal creed, but to keep getting roles and invitations they have to play along. And this might be a factor in their battles with depression, rage, dysphoria, addictions...
I could never fathom healthy, male, white leads making way for ugly, rancid, 'diverse' trannies of their own sweet will. Or dissing Trump, whining about gun control and professing love for muslims and illegal mexicans. It's all because they want to stay employed by the studio bosses. Who knows who funds all these woke movies ? We know the Obamas have a stake in ni netflix now. How much of cartel money went into the making of the latest Terminator pie-fight, 50 percent of which is in spanish and shows ICE officers being mean to saviors of humanity.
#12
We know the Obamas have a stake in netflix now
= Repayment of a debt incurred by that company when their friends in Washington protected NFLX's rickety business model via the "net neutrality" scam. At $68 million for Zero's cut, that represents a bargain for the company.
Hedge fund managers describe investing in that profitless company as akin to "believing in Jesus."
#14
Netflix is being seen as an effective tool by the left. It's reach and quick adaptation strategies to directives inserted periodically by the left must make it pretty valuable to some people. But once again, the downside of nurturing sycophancy by implied coercion, like Kim Jong is that you will see graphs pointing upwards even when you're tanking ! Good.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] There is a current standoff between the Lebanese people and the ruling establishment, who for two consecutive weeks has been trying to force a parliamentary session to pass an amnesty law, which would absolve the ruling elite from a number of crimes, including tax evasion.
This standoff comes as part of a nationwide uprising, which has seen millions of people take to the streets, demanding a change to the archaic and corrupt governance structure that their country is infamous for.
This amnesty law is no mere legislation but rather part of an elaborate scheme by the ruling elite to create schism and chaos in the midst of the protesters by placing them at odds with each other while at the same time providing the different political factions with legal leverage going forward.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
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It's Kurt
[Townhall] Mark this day on your calendar because here is the moment that I admit that Barack Obama did something right. He fired Army General Stanley McChrystal.
Now, I would have fired him well before for failing to win the Afghanistan War. In World War II, which America incidentally won, we fired lots of generals and admirals for failing to win. It was nothing personal. You aren’t winning, so "Next!" Obama did (gently) fire McChrystal’s predecessor for failing to win; he was a good officer who, by coincidence, was literally onstage talking to my Army War College class the moment Obama’s firing of McChrystal was announced. But that’s about the only big-name general fired for not winning since the not-coincidentally Endless War on Terror™ began.
#1
The boss of the navy was fired, for violating the chain of command by going around the secretary of defense.
What happens at lower levels is not yet clear. From what you say it seems like other heads should roll.
It did seem odd that the only thing Gallagher should be convicted of is 'posing'. Who knew that that was a serious crime? Is it a felony?
Something more significant, like jay walking, or picking one's nose in public, would sound like a better justification for demoting him.
Posted by: Daniel ||
11/25/2019 2:03 Comments ||
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#2
I polished up that handle so carefully
That now I am the ruler of the Queen's Navy.
You know the personnel system was ****** when successful battlefield commanders were not accelerated in promotion cause the 'system' was too bureaucratic. Fairness is not a word for the Darwinistic environment of combat and war.
Naval Academy Rocked By Drug Scandal;www.zerohedge .com/news/2018-02-24; Drug Ring Bought Cocaine With Bitcoin. Current reports estimate ten midshipmen were part of the elaborate scheme to supply midshipmen throughout the Naval Academy with powerful drugs including cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and Ketamine. ... the criminal ring used Bitcoins to purchase the drugs on the dark web then distributed the product throughout campus.
Two Dozen Expelled in Naval Academy Cheating Scandal By Paul Valentine The Washington Post. Navy Secretary John H. Dalton ordered 24 U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen expelled Thursday in the biggest cheating scandal in the school's history, ending a wrenching 16-month investigation of the venerable military institution in Annapolis.
[PJ] The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is made up of 56 nations plus the Palestinian Authority, met Thursday in Jeddah and called for the adoption of an international law criminalizing criticism of Islam. But that kind of law could never be adopted in the United States, could it? Think again.
The OIC’s secretary-general, Dr. Yousef al-Othaimeen, called upon the nations of the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to crack down on speech that was "insulting religions or prophets." It was clear, however, that al-Othaimeen couldn’t have cared less about speech insulting Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism or any of the revered figures of those religions. He cared only about criticism of Islam.
"There are laws against anti-Semitism and racism," said al-Othaimeen. "So we request a law against mocking religions." He didn’t explain why laws against racism should lead to laws against criticizing belief systems, since, after all, contrary to the assumptions of Rachel Dolezal, Shaun King, and Elizabeth Warren, one cannot change one’s race, but one can change one’s beliefs, including religious beliefs. Al-Othaimeen likely knows this, but cited racism because he knows how to pull the right strings to get the Western intelligentsia to do what he wants.
"Islamophobia," he continued, "is a sentiment of excessive fear against Islam that is transformed into acts of intolerance and discriminations against Muslims and even violent crimes against people with Islamic attires."
No one should discriminate against Muslims or anyone, and genuine intolerance, when it shades over into illegal activity, and violent crime should always be prosecuted. But the OIC wants to go much farther than that, and get Western societies to criminalize criticism of Islam altogether.
#6
yet they call for the destruction of Israel on a daily basis. FOAD
Posted by: chris ||
11/25/2019 9:51 Comments ||
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#7
If we had a law criminalizing criticism of Christianity here, most universities and colleges would have to close. We do have a defacto practice of outlawing criticism of Marxism as demonstrated by the amount of his worshipers who've driven non-believers from those universities and colleges.
#9
Can you believe it, India actually applied for membership into this noble collective back in 2000-02, when we had a Leftist dynastic regime for a Govt. Thanks to Pakistain, we were denied.
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.
[Big League Politics] Brett Kavanaugh has spoken of progressive idol Ruth Bader Ginsburg that terms that are sure to leave many conservatives worried about the judge’s commitment to originalist principles.
[Guns America] In the summer of 1992, a violent confrontation between Randy Weaver and federal Law Enforcement agencies led to three needless deaths and an 11-day standoff. 
[Reuters] A year after the U.S. stock market plunged, many investors believe conditions are in place to avoid another year-end pullback and possibly set the stage for a rally to finish off 2019.
Surprised his evaluators and classmates didn't find a way to fail him.
