Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Outsourcing di guerra

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040507-9999-1n7contract.html
Debate on military contractors heats up
By David Washburn and Bruce V. Bigelow
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
May 7, 2004
An Army investigation that implicates civilian contractors, including San
Diego's Titan Corp., in the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners has
intensified the debate over outsourcing the business of war. While the use
of civilians during wartime goes back centuries, the Bush administration has
taken the practice to a new level. No longer are contractors limited to
sorting mail, serving food and providing basic security. They are now moving
into combat training, weapons maintenance and interrogation. Critics say the
use of civilians in "mission critical" roles, such as the interrogations at
Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, suggests the practice has gone too far. "It
takes the outsourcing trend and not only pushes the envelope, but punches
right through it," said P.W. Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution
and author of "Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military
Industry." Contractors are doing well helping with such things as local
governance and civic education, said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution who specializes in U.S. foreign policy. But "it is
totally inappropriate" to have them interrogating prisoners, he said. Army
spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman conceded the level of outsourcing is
unprecedented, saying contractors are essential because the military has
shrunk significantly. Part of that is because of the Pentagon's post-Cold
War quest to create a smaller, more nimble fighting force. "The Army is much
smaller than in the past," Tallman said. "When you run out of soldiers and
they don't have an expertise, one way to get that capability on the
battlefield is to contract it." One group in extremely short supply among
military personnel is Arabic speakers, which is why linguists from Titan are
working in the Abu Ghraib prison and with units throughout Iraq. These
linguists, plus interrogators from Virginia-based CACI International, have
been named in a classified Army report as participants in "sadistic, blatant
and wanton criminal abuses" of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Seven military
supervisors have been reprimanded over the abuses, which were depicted in
graphic images obtained by the media, and an additional six guards from a
military police unit at Abu Ghraib face courts-martial. But while the
soldiers involved are subject to military law, Singer and other experts say
the scandal at Abu Ghraib highlights how outsourcing creates accountability
problems. For one thing, it is unclear whether military, U.S. or Iraqi law
would apply to crimes committed overseas by civilian contractors.
Furthermore, private contractors may not be subject to Freedom of
Information Act requests and are insulated from direct congressional
oversight. "There is no one minding the store here," Singer said. "We are
holding soldiers accountable but not holding contractors accountable."
Although at least one Titan employee has been identified in an Army report
as a suspect, neither Titan nor CACI International has been told by the
Pentagon of any wrongdoing by their employees in Iraq, officials of both
companies said. Titan and CACI are two out of hundreds of defense
contractors that have received billions of dollars by assisting in military
operations and the reconstruction of Iraq.
Titan has been providing translators for the Army in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba;
Afghanistan; and Iraq under a long-term contract with the Army Intelligence
and Security Command, or INSCOM. Titan will provide as many as 4,800
linguists and be paid up to $657 million, INSCOM spokeswoman Deborah Parker
said. Titan recently reported its revenue under the contract amounted to
about $112.1 million in 2003. INSCOM also awarded a $154.7 million contract
in September to CACI "to provide mission support services at INSCOM sites,
other national intelligence agency sites, and for other army tactical units
worldwide." CACI said last month that its sales over the previous nine
months amounted to $787.5 million, and that its revenue from the Department
of Defense had increased by 37 percent. The critical role played by private
contractors came to the forefront March 31, when four employees of
Blackwater USA of Moyock, N.C., were ambushed while escorting a food convoy
through Fallujah. Among them was Oceanside resident Scott Helvenston, a
former Navy SEAL. Blackwater was one of two dozen companies that received
roughly $100 million worth of contracts to provide security services in Iraq
over the next year. San Diego-based SAIC received a $24.8 million contract
to organize and support Iraq's Reconstruction Development Council. SAIC is
providing 150 experts "in a variety of administrative and technical fields
to help develop government agencies." While many observers have questioned
the government outsourcing, the photos showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners at
Abu Ghraib have brought even more public attention. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio
M. Taguba, who led the investigation at Abu Ghraib, reported the contractors
were involved in the abuse of prisoners and caused confusion and
accountability problems at the prison.
"(Contractors) wandered about with too much unsupervised free access in the
detainee area," the report says.
One Titan linguist, Adel Nahkla, told Army investigators he was in the room
during an interrogation and watched Iraqi prisoners being handcuffed and
stacked naked on top of one another.
The report called Nahkla a "suspect," along with four military police
officers, three of whom face courts-martial. Additionally, the report found
that John Israel, listed in the report as both a Titan and CACI contractor,
lied about his involvement in interrogations. Israel also had no security
clearance, the report says. Steven Stephanowicz, a CACI employee, instructed
military police on how to interrogate prisoners and made false statements
about his knowledge of abuses, Taguba found. Another Titan translator, Torin
S. Nelson, was listed in the report as a witness in the investigation. Titan
spokesman Wil Williams likened Titan's services in Iraq to interpreters who
work at the United Nations. "Our contract calls for us to provide linguistic
services - the translating and transcription of one language to another and
vice versa." While Titan "would never subject our employees to willfully
witness" prisoner abuses, he said there was nothing inappropriate about
Titan interpreters participating in military interrogations. "The fact that
it's an interrogation, all they're doing is translating one language to
another," he said. CACI Chief Executive J.P. London said: "In the event
there is wrongdoing on the part of any CACI employee, we will take swift
action to correct it immediately, but at this time we have no information
from the U.S. government of any violations or wrongful behavior." Maj. Gen.
Geoffrey D. Miller, deputy commander of detainee operations in Iraq, said
the Army routinely reviews the work of civilian contractors involved in
interrogations. "They appear to me to be doing work to standard," Miller
said. "If they do not follow our standards, then we discharge them. If there
are acts that are beyond the level of discharge, then we will take
appropriate action to hold them accountable." At a news conference in
Washington yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the Justice
Department is ready to prosecute any civilians or former military personnel
for abusing Iraqi prisoners. Such cases, if filed, would rely on the
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which provides a mechanism for
prosecuting U.S. civilians accompanying military personnel for crimes in
foreign countries. The law, which was passed by Congress four years ago, has
rarely been used. A review of prosecutions under the act by researchers for
Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who sponsored the bill, found only
one case in four years.

 clearance, the report says. Steven Stephanowicz, a CACI employee, instructed
 	[..]

 Dubito che un nome simile passera' inosservato sulla stampa Araba.
L'aria della Baviera ti fa male serenissima: prendi i vizi peggiori dei 
locali.
Ale