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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
4. I NEVER once thought America would go GESTAPO.
Mon Oct 19, 2015, 02:48 PM
Oct 2015

Yet, secret wars for secret profiteers go on and on and on.





KA-CHING: The Company Getting Rich Off the ISIS War

For the Middle East, the growth of the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been a catastrophe.
For one American firm, it’s been a gold mine.


by Kate Brannen
08.02.15

The war against ISIS isn’t going so great, with the self-appointed terror group standing up to a year of U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

But that hasn’t kept defense contractors from doing rather well amidst the fighting. Lockheed Martin has received orders for thousands of more Hellfire missiles. AM General is busy supplying Iraq with 160 American-built Humvee vehicles, while General Dynamics is selling the country millions of dollars worth of tank ammunition.

SOS International, a family-owned business whose corporate headquarters are in New York City, is one of the biggest players on the ground in Iraq, employing the most Americans in the country after the U.S. Embassy. On the company’s board of advisors: former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz—considered to be one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq—and Paul Butler, a former special assistant to Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld.

The company, which goes by “SOSi,” says on its website that the contracts it’s been awarded for work in Iraq in 2015 have a total value of more than $400 million. They include a $40 million contract to provide everything from meals to perimeter security to emergency fire and medical services at Iraq’s Besmaya Compound, one of the sites where U.S. troops are training Iraqi soldiers. The Army awarded SOSi a separate $100 million contract in late June for similar services at Camp Taji. The Pentagon expects that contract to last through June 2018.

A year after U.S. airstrikes began targeting the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, there are 3,500 U.S. troops deployed there, training and advising Iraqi troops. But a number that is not discussed is the growing number of contractors required to support these operations. According to the U.S. military, there are 6,300 contractors working in Iraq today, supporting U.S. operations. Separately, the State Department is seeking janitorial services, drivers, linguists, and security contractors to work at its Iraqi facilities.

While these numbers pale in comparison to the more than 163,000 working in Iraq at the peak of the Iraq War, they are steadily growing. And with the fight against ISIS expected to take several years, it also represents a growing opportunity for defense, security, and logistics contractors, especially as work in Afghanistan begins to dry up.

“It allows us to maintain the façade of no boots on the ground while at the same time growing our footprint,” said Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University whose recent work has focused on regulating private military contractors.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/02/the-company-getting-rich-off-of-the-isis-war.html



Ideological and biological descendants of the brothers Dulles are the people who lied America into wars without end for profits without cease. Truth is what holds them to account.

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heck, in "Plutopia" I read about how Stalin's 1937 purge was inspired BY J. Edgar Hoover MisterP Oct 2015 #1
Glorious Victory! Octafish Oct 2015 #3
though if you look closely at Rivera you can see the little atoms there, too MisterP Oct 2015 #5
'Reading one line, one has to think he's a genius. Reading the next line, one realizes he's crazy.' Octafish Oct 2015 #13
the failure of technocracy in the Third World gave us cartels, deforestation, population booms, MisterP Oct 2015 #16
k & r & thanks! n/t wildbilln864 Oct 2015 #2
I NEVER once thought America would go GESTAPO. Octafish Oct 2015 #4
Dulles was an amoral monster very much in the style hifiguy Oct 2015 #6
It's like two worlds... Octafish Oct 2015 #8
Here's a 3-part series on the book: Holly_Hobby Oct 2015 #7
Thank you, Holly_Hobby! Octafish Oct 2015 #10
GREAT article. hifiguy Oct 2015 #11
The 1963 coup is the rosetta stone for American history bmyrab Dec 2015 #21
K & R !!! WillyT Oct 2015 #9
DUer Bill Kelly provides an excellent overview... Octafish Oct 2015 #12
Great thread. This... CanSocDem Oct 2015 #14
It's About Blackmail, Not National Security. Octafish Oct 2015 #15
"There exists within the Agency a continuing requirement from the Operating Divisions for a sub- bobthedrummer Oct 2015 #17
Young Dick Nixon was vice-president in 1953 when Dulles started MKULTRA program. Octafish Oct 2015 #18
The Shark was a huge asshole like Hoover. Rex Oct 2015 #19
Hoover ALSO obstructed Justice in regards to the assassination of President Kennedy. Octafish Oct 2015 #20
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