[Marxism] Contractors and Mercenaries

["Funke Jayson J" <funke.jj@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Does anyone have any information on the accountability of PMCs? Are employees 
of PMCs prosecutable for killing? Can PMCs, operating in NAFTA countries, 
possibly sue those governments for obstructing business oportunities?

Jayson Funke

Contractors and Mercenaries
The Rising Corporate Military Monster
By RUSSELL MOKHIBER 
and ROBERT WEISSMAN
http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber04232004.html

A corporate military monster is being created in Iraq.

The U.S. government is relying on private military contractors like never 
before.

Approximately 15,000 military contractors, maybe more, are now working in Iraq. 
The four Americans brutally killed and mutilated in Fallujah March 31 were part 
of this informal army of occupation.
Contractors are complicating traditional norms of military command and control, 
and challenging the basic norms of accountability that are supposed to govern 
the government's use of violence. Human rights abuses go unpunished. Reliance 
on poorly monitored contractors is bleeding the public treasury. The 
contractors are simultaneously creating opportunities for the government to 
evade public accountability, and, in Iraq at least, are on the verge of 
evolving into an independent force at least somewhat beyond the control of the 
U.S. military. And, as the contractors grow in numbers and political influence, 
their power to entrench themselves and block reform is growing.

Whatever the limitations of the military code of justice and its in-practice 
application, the code does not apply to the modern-day mercenaries. Indeed, the 
mechanisms by which the contractors are held responsible for their behavior, 
and disciplined for mistreating civilians or committing human rights abuses -- 
all too easy for men with guns in a hostile environment -- are fuzzy.

It is unclear exactly what law applies to the contractors, explains Peter W. 
Singer, author of Corporate Warriors (Cornell University Press, 2003) and a 
leading authority on private military contracting. They do not fall under 
international law on mercenaries, which is defined narrowly. Nor does the 
national law of the United States clearly apply to the contractors in Iraq -- 
especially because many of the contractors are not Americans.

Relatedly, many firms do not properly screen those they hire to patrol the 
streets in foreign nations. "Lives, soldiers' and civilians' welfare, human 
rights, are all at stake," says Singer. "But we have left it up to very raw 
market forces to figure out who can work for these firms, and who they can work 
for."
There are already more than a few examples of what can happen, notable among 
them accusations that Dyncorp employees were involved in sex trafficking of 
young girls in Bosnia.

In general, the performance of the private military firms is horribly 
under-monitored.

Sometimes the lack of monitoring is a boon to the government agencies that hire 
the contractors. 

Although there are firm limits on the kinds of operations that U.S. troops can 
conduct in Colombia, Singer notes, "it has been pretty loosey-goosey on the 
private contractor side." The contractors are working with the Colombian 
military to defeat the guerilla insurgency in Colombia -- unconstrained by 
Congressionally imposed limits on what U.S. soldiers in Colombia may do.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, a problem of a whole different sort is starting to emerge.

The security contractors are already involved in full-fledged battlefield 
operations, increasingly so as the insurgency in Iraq escalates.

A few days after the Americans were killed in Fallujah, Blackwater Security 
Consulting engaged in full-scale battle in Najaf, with the company flying its 
own helicopters amidst an intense firefight to resupply its own commandos.

Now, reports the Washington Post, the security firms are networking formally, 
"organizing what may effectively be the largest private army in the world, with 
its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence."

Because many of the security contractors work for the Coalition Provisional 
Authority, as opposed to the U.S. military, they are not integrated into the 
military's operations. "Under assault by insurgents and unable to rely on U.S. 
and coalition troops for intelligence or help under duress," according to the 
Post, the contractors are banding together.

Private occupying commandos? Corporate military helicopters in a battlefield 
situation? An integrated occupation private intelligence network?

Isn't this just obviously a horrible idea?

Given the problems that have already occurred in places like Colombia and 
Bosnia, the scale and now independent integrated nature of the private military 
operations in Iraq is asking for disaster, beyond that already inflicted on the 
Iraqis.

Making the problem still worse is that the monster feeds on itself.

The larger become the military contractors, the more influence they have in 
Congress and the Pentagon, the more they are able to shape policy, immunize 
themselves from proper oversight, and expand their reach. The private military 
firms are led by ex-generals, the most effective possible lobbyists of their 
former colleagues -- and frequently former subordinates -- at the Pentagon. As 
they grow in size, and become integrated into the military-industrial complex 
(Northrop Grumman has swallowed a number of the military contractors, for 
example), their political leverage in Congress and among civilians in the 
executive branch grows.

Over the last decade or so, the phenomenon of private military contracting has 
grown unchecked. We're now at a precipice, with action to constrain the 
contractors about to become far, far more difficult than if the madness of 
employing mercenaries had been averted in the first place. 
  
The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and is intended 
solely for the use of the named addressee. 
Access, copying or re-use of the e-mail or any information contained therein by 
any other person is not authorized. 
If you are not the intended recipient please notify us immediately by returning 
the e-mail to the originator.(B) 
  
_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism