The Spy Who Billed Me: Congrats to WaPo's Steve Fainaru

About

About R J Hillhouse

Dr. Hillhouse has run Cuban rum between East and West Berlin, smuggled jewels from the Soviet Union and slipped through some of the world’s tightest borders. From Uzbekistan to Romania, she's been followed, held at gunpoint and interrogated. Foreign governments and others have pitched her for recruitment as a spy. (They failed.)

A former professor and Fulbright fellow, Dr. Hillhouse earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan. Her latest novel, OUTSOURCED (Forge Books) is about the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA and the privatization of national security.

Dr. Hillhouse is an expert on national security outsourcing. Her controversial work has twice elicited a formal response by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence--the only times that office has ever publicly responded to the writings of a private citizen.

She is a regular media guest and available for interviews.

R J Hillhouse in the News

Dr. Hillhouse is quoted in Reuters UK story about Blackwater USA.

Forbes calls R J Hillhouse "The Tom Clancy of the corporate military and intelligence age."

Article by Dr. Hillhouse "Outsourcing National Intelligence The Nation: Private Corporations Are Now Able To Insert Their Agendas Into President's Briefings"

"The investigative blogger RJ Hillhouse...regularly breaks news on the clandestine world of private contractors and US intelligence..."
--The Guardian [U.K.]

"Author R.J. Hillhouse caused a stir in Washington last month when she revealed more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service has been outsourced to private firms. Now Hillhouse has exposed private companies are heavily involved in the nation's most important and most sensitive national security document – the President's Daily Brief."
Link to transcript of nationally syndicated TV interview wtih Dr. Hillhouse and streaming video

Article by Dr. Hillhouse breaking the story on contractor involvement in the President's Daily Brief
"Outsourcing Intelligence"

Dr. Hillhouse's controversial opinion piece that was one of the most emailed and blogged about on the Washington Post website: "Who Runs the CIA?"

The Associate Director of National Intelligence responds to Dr. Hillhouse's WaPo piece and Dr. Hillhouse responds by pointing out how we've been hearing these same tired excuses for Intelligence Community failings for years.

"We asked 12 notable figures--in fields from showbiz to politics--what they consider to have been the riskiest moves of their lives....But as far as life-threatening adventures go, R.J. Hillhouse, author of the new intelligence thriller Outsourced, may have them all beat."
--Forbes

"Hillhouse creates vivid images of stark violence and high emotions that amplify her strongest gift: the ability to depict an utter lack of morality both in and out of Baghdad's Green Zone. " "[Outsourced] is the political thriller we deserve."
--Los Angeles Times

"...intelligence blogger R.J. Hillhouse used functions in PowerPoint to uncover the figures entered in a spreadsheet to generate the graph.... Using these figures, Hillhouse estimated that the intelligence budget for fiscal year 2006 was closer to $60 billion, nearly 25 percent higher than the $45-48 billion figure typically projected."
--UPI

UPI analysis piece on Dr. Hillhouse's reverse-engineering of the national intelligence budget

"Author R. J. Hillhouse... runs an unusual blog on security and intelligence called The Spy Who Billed Me. She is both skeptical and sympathetic toward private military contractors." --The New York Times

"R.J. Hillhouse, who operates a website about military outsourcing, scored an interview with Gary Jackson, president of Blackwater USA." --LA Times Online

"The Spy Who Billed Me, la pÃ¡gina que ha destapado el dato, sugiere a la oficina gubernamental que del dinero presupuestado para los gastos de la DIA contrate a alguien con conocimientos suficientes para manejar adecuadamente el software para presentaciones, alguien que no revele datos reservados a las primeras de cambio."
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April 08, 2008

Congrats to WaPo's Steve Fainaru

Warmest congratulations to the Washington Post's Steve Fainaru for winning the Pulitzer Prize in the international affairs category for his phenomenal reporting on private military corporations in Iraq! Over the past year he as been without peer in the mainstream media for his exceptional work. The following pieces were the basis for the prize:

A Chaotic Day On Baghdad's Airport Road (April 15, 2007)
Iraq Contractors Face Growing Parallel War (June 16, 2007)
Cutting Costs, Bending Rules, And a Trail of Broken Lives (July 29, 2007)
For Abducted Guards, Iraq Wasn't Just About Money (July 30, 2007)
Where Military Rules Don't Apply (Sept. 20, 2007)
Guards in Iraq Cite Frequent Shootings (Oct. 3, 2007)
How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards (Nov. 8, 2007)
Iraqis Detail Shooting by Guard Firm (Nov. 26, 2007)
Warnings Unheeded On Guards In Iraq (Dec. 24, 2007)

Well deserved, Steve! Bravo!

Posted by R J Hillhouse on April 08, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

True that Dr. Hillhouse. Mr. Fainaru deserves our appreciation for shining a hot light on malfeasance and wanton profiteering, not to mention lawlessness in the PMC and PIC industrial complexes.

Now if only Congress would exercise it's Constitutional authority, and protect, defend, and advance the peoples best interests by examining, reviewing, and more rigidly regulating the PMC and PIC industrial complexes.

Again, private military and intelligence companies may be necessary and warranted, - but NOT without the peoples review, recourse, redress, and remedy for abuse.

Posted by: Tony Foresta | April 12, 2008 at 14:14

18 days since the last posting...no offense, but how do you expect to maintain a loyal readership if you only blog 1-2x per month?

Posted by: Mike | April 26, 2008 at 13:40

Perhaps the esteemed Dr Hillhouse might have some insight on the damning Corp Watch report on

L3/Titan abuses? http://s3.amazonaws.com/corpwatch.org/downloads/L-3TITANreport.pdf

The war profiteering issue will not be washed away no matter how hard the fascists in the Bush government work to silence or cloak these crimes.

Posted by: Tony Foresta | April 29, 2008 at 18:46

Corporate Spies Killing The CIA

The citizens of East Germany stormed the archives
and dumped the files of the Stasi secret police onto the street.

In America, we have a better system. One that works. It's called waiting for Godot.

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OUTSOURCED

Acknowledgements

A tip of the hat to investigative journalist Tim Shorrock who inspired the name of this blog with his path-breaking 2005 article, "The Spy Who Billed Me."

Shorrock has a dedicated web page on outsourcing in intel. It links to many of his articles which are must-reads for anyone interested in the privatization of intelligence.

The Spy Who Billed Me