The United States has employed «shock and awe» techniques – described by Pentagon policy documents as the use of «spectacular displays of force» to intimidate an opponent – against the civilian population of the St….
Tag: Blackwater
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford There is as yet no legal barrier to wholesale deployment of mercenary soldiers to U.S. cities. Such forces occupied New Orleans in 2005, two years…
Contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater secure the site of a roadside bomb attack in central Baghdad, July Washington (AFP) – The top manager in Iraq of the notorious private security firm Blackwater…
Google distances itself from the Pentagon, stays in bed with mercenaries and intelligence contractors “The United States government spends about $80 billion a year on information technology, making it the largest consumer of technology projects in the world.” —New York Times With all the hubbub about NSA spying, Google’s PR people really want you to know how separate the company is from America’s military-industrial complex. Earlier this week, Google made a big show of refusing DARPA funding for two robotics manufacturers it purchased, even though the companies themselves were financed with plenty of DoD cash. It’s a nice gesture, and one that was welcomed by those who want Silicon Valley to be free of government interference. Unfortunately, while a crowd-pleasing announcement is good for Google’s public image, it does nothing to change the company’s long and ongoing history of working closely with US military and surveillance agencies. Last week, I detailed how Google does much more than simply provide us civvies with email and search apps. It sells its tech to enhance the surveillance operations of the biggest and most powerful intel agencies in the world: NSA, FBI, CIA, DEA and NGA — the whole murky alphabet soup.
According to a bipartisan commission report released to the U.S. Congress in February 2011, the heavy reliance on private security companies in current contingency operations, begun during the Bush Administration, has effectively surged under President…
Leaked emails show an American private security company, SCG International has been helping the Syrian opposition in its efforts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad at the request of US officials. The whistleblower website, Wikileaks, released the emails sent by SCG Chief Executive James F. Smith, the former director of the notorious company Blackwater, which is blamed for the killing of many civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one of the emails, Smith says his company was contracted to engage the Turkey-based Syrian opposition in a so-called “fact finding mission,” but “the true mission is how they can help in regime change.”