Fwd: Mercenaries in New Orleans: DynCorp profiled

[Guest guest]

>

>

>Published on Tuesday, November 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

>

>Tender Mercenaries: DynCorp and Me

>by Jeremy Scahill

>

>Note: In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, journalist

>Jeremy Scahill investigated the role of private security companies

>like Blackwater USA, infamous for their work in Iraq, that

>deployed on the streets of New Orleans. His reports were broadcast

>on the national radio and TV show Democracy Now! and on hundreds

>of sites across the internet. In response to Scahill's recent

>cover story in The Nation magazine " Blackwater Down, " the

>President and CEO of DynCorp, one of the largest private security

>companies in the world, wrote a letter to the editor of The

>Nation. Dyncorp CEO Stephen J. Cannon's letter is reprinted below,

>followed by Scahill's response.

>

>Falls Church, Va. -- In " Blackwater Down " [Oct. 10] Jeremy Scahill

>wrote that " mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon,

>American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli

>company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are

>fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as

>government projects and institutions. " For the record, employees

>of DynCorp International did not " fan out " in New Orleans or any

>other area affected by Hurricane Katrina. DynCorp International

>(DI) did not send anyone to the area to provide security services

>until we had made specific arrangements with clients and knew

>exactly what our responsibilities would be.

>

>In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Tenet Health Organization

>Group engaged DI to help protect its facilities, patients and

>employees. In the course of our work with Tenet, we have evacuated

>scores of employees and dozens of animals who had taken refuge in

>at least two of its hospitals, escorted company officials while

>they assessed damages, and even transported Tenet officials to a

>local bank to arrange payroll for their employees.

>

>The people who are performing this security work are all fully

>certified police officers--either retired or on leave from their

>jobs--who were deputized by and work under the supervision of the

>St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Department. They are not mercenaries,

>as Scahill disparagingly described them.

>

>Security is only one of many service areas in which DynCorp

>International works. In the area affected by Katrina and Rita, DI

>helicopters are providing transportation, DI aviation technicians

>at several military bases are servicing aircraft that have been

>deployed for the relief effort, Marine Spill Response Corporation

>ships with DI crews are repairing oil platforms and cleaning

>spills, and DI logistics experts are installing temporary housing

>and office facilities for local officials and relief in St.

>Bernard Parish.

>

>Stephen J. Cannon

>President and CEO, DynCorp International

>

>Scahill Replies

>

>To hear Stephen Cannon tell it, DynCorp has been reincarnated as

>the Red Cross. He objects to the term " mercenary. " The primary

>quality of a mercenary is that his main motivation is money. That

>is why DynCorp forces, paid much more than regular US military

>forces, are in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Africa, the Balkans--it

>is profitable. DynCorp itself is a mercenary, making a killing for

>its services. In the past two years alone, the company's revenues

>have doubled to more than $1.9 billion. Not bad for not being

>mercenaries.

>

>As a journalist, I'm afraid I have to judge DynCorp not on the

>spin of its CEO but on its record. Here are just a few of the

>reasons for serious concern about DynCorp forces operating on US

>soil:

>

>- DynCorp employees in Bosnia, where the company plays a major

>policing role, have engaged in organized sex-slave trading with

>girls as young as 12, and DynCorp's Bosnia site supervisor was

>filmed raping a woman. A subsequent lawsuit, filed by a company

>whistleblower, alleged that " employees and supervisors from

>DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior

>[and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and

>[participating in] other immoral acts. " The whisteblower, with

>whom DynCorp eventually settled, " witnessed coworkers and

>supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own

>personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various

>ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased. " The

>company's initial response was to fire the whistleblowers. The

>employees involved in the sex ring were transferred out of the

>country. Some were eventually fired, although none were ever

>criminally prosecuted. One of the whistleblowers told Congress,

> " DynCorp is the worst diplomat our country could ever want

>overseas.''

>

>- In Afghanistan, where DynCorp guards President Hamid Karzai, the

>company has a reputation for brutality and recklessness, including

>serious complaints from internationals of intimidation. It has

>even been rebuked by the State Department for its " aggressive

>behavior " in interactions with European diplomats, NATO forces and

>journalists. A BBC correspondent also witnessed one of the guards

>slapping an Afghan government minister.

>

>- In Haiti earlier this year DynCorp bodyguards on the detail of

>interim president Boniface Alexandre beat at least two journalists

>trying to cover a presidential event. DynCorp has had a checkered

>past in Haiti, where it " trained " the national police force after

>the original coup against President Aristide, bringing several

>feared Tonton Macoutes leaders back into prominence.

>

>- The company is facing a major lawsuit filed by 10,000

>Ecuadoreans forced to live (and die) with the impact of DynCorp's

>toxic crop spraying, which it does in several Latin American

>countries, including Colombia, as part of Plan Colombia.

>Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, charges that

> " DynCorp's employees have a history of behaving like cowboys. " A

>leading Colombian newsweekly called them " lawless Rambos. "

>

>As DynCorp swallows up more lucrative government contracts by the

>week, some in Congress are raising questions. " Is it [the] policy

>of the US government to reward companies that traffic in women and

>little girls? " Representative Cynthia McKinney asked Defense

>Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in March. Using private military

>contractors like DynCorp in places like Afghanistan and Iraq

>allows the government greater secrecy and less transparency and

>accountability. The real question is: Why are these particular

>firms needed in the United States for what should be relief and

>reconstruction operations? The answer is that they are not, but

>their road to the lucrative contracts is paved with political

>connections and the offer to their employers of plausible

>deniability. Unfortunately, if recent history is any indicator,

>the damage from this cronyism could extend well beyond the

>taxpayers' pockets to the safety and security of the people of New

>Orleans and other cities unfortunate enough to encounter these

>private security forces.

>

>Take the words of Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, deputy commander of the

>Third Infantry Division in charge of security in Baghdad. In

>September he said this of DynCorp and other security firms in

>Iraq: " These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff.

>There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them

>hard when they escalate force.... They shoot people, and someone

>else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the

>place. "

>

>Jeremy Scahill

>

>-----

>Jeremy Scahill is a correspondent for the national radio and

>TV program Democracy Now! He is currently a Puffin Writing

>Fellow at The Nation Institute.