(Forge Books) is about the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA and the privatization of national security.
Warmest congratulations to Jeremy Scahill whose book, BLACKWATER, just hit the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. hard at #9 BLACKWATER is an unparalleled look into the vanguard of the revolution in how America fights her wars through private corporations.
Whether you love, hate or fear them, BLACKWATER provides eye-opening details and background on the world's largest private army.
Dr. Hillhouse, are these organizations like Blackwater stoppable, or controllable?
The chances for infiltration of corrupt elements or hysterical ideologies like Christian Reconstruction or Machiavellian political shenanigans like Rove-ism seem very possible considering the private, for-profit nature of these operations.
Posted by: boilerman10 | April 07, 2007 at 22:59
I'm afraid you're question is 3 1/2 years too late. We have to learn to live with them. They're like having a wolf as a house pet. They'll break a lot, shit on a lot and probably eat your cat, but they can be very loyal. (And I realize this can also be frightening when there's an Administration that regularly disregards the Constitution.)
Despite the radical political views of BW's founder, its management, along with Total Intel's doesn't worry me that much at the moment. The problems will unintentional when they stumble over US interests or even accidentally steer US interests. (Such as BW prompted the battles of Fallujah in retaliation for its 4 soldiers who were massacred--the tail has already wagged the dog, to stick with my canine metaphors.)
However, the potential for abuse is unprecedented. Never before has there been such a concentration of military and espionage expertise in the private sector and for hire to the private sector.
And BW will behave. They'll play rough, no question, but they know their interests closely align with the US government and it wouldn't survive very well without USG funds. The one to watch is Greystone, its offshore affiliate.
On the legislative front, intelligence services need to be clearly classified as a military service so that they unequivocally fall under US regs governing the export of military services. This would at least make it less likely that foreign intelligence ops accidentally cross US interests.
Posted by: R J Hillhouse | April 07, 2007 at 23:49