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theroughcut.net
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Shrinking Violets Need Not Apply
It Takes American Courage to Stand Up:Corruption has long plagued Iraq reconstruction. Hundreds of projects may never be finished, including repairs to the country's oil pipelines and electricity system. Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8 billion of it has disappeared, according to a government reconstruction [...]
‘Anybody around here need a job?’
Spicy Commentary: On the Defense Intelligence Agency announcement to shell out $1 billion for men and women in the private sector -- who would "not be under the direct control of the American government -- to do much of our most sensitive intelligence work." See OUTSOURCING IS NOT THE ANSWER TO OUR FOREIGN POLICY WOES
US Military Breaks Budget to Protect Civillian Workers
The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed. Here's the story: [...]
Whose War are they Fighting?
Poor Latin American security guards are flocking to Iraq and Afghanistan to work for U.S. companies desperate for relatively cheap employees with the type of military know-how gleaned in a region once run by generals. See the story: Iraq, Afghanistan lure poor Latin American guards
Cracking India’s Caste System
Simply because of birth, they are considered "untouchables." Known as Dalits, they have been India's low-ranking outcasts for 3,000 years. It is a rigid caste system where the wealthier -- even the middle class -- are trained to believe they are smarter and more entitled to better lives than the 70 percent of Indians who are born with less. But [...]
One Hundred ‘Illegal’ Indian Workers at US Baghdad Embassy Project?
The Asian Age speculates that 100 Indian workers are working "illegally" at the $592-million US embassy project in Iraq. That is a small portion of the 40,000 workers from India employed by American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, that the newspaper estimates to be in the war-town country, but most could be there only by circumventing visa requirements [...]
Philippines Investigates Claims of Workers in Iraq
The Philippine government launched a full-throttle investigation this week into claims of labor trafficking and smuggling made against the Kuwait contractor building the $592-million US embassy project in Baghdad. The move comes in despite of repeated statements by Bush administration officials and the contractor that the allegations are [...]
Thoughts on War Contractors
The Christian Science Monitor surveys thinkers and pundits about the battlefields filled with contractors -- now estimated to be as high as 180,000 in Iraq: Everything from who controls their activities to who cares for them when wounded remains unresolved, say experts in and out of the military. This has led to protests from families in the [...]
New Data on Iraq Contractors
ePluribus Media posts a new spreadsheet from CentCom on contractors in Iraq. The raw data is roughly organized by Contract Number, with 1901 entries. Although not comprehensive, and nothing ever is when it comes to business in Iraq, it does appear enormously useful to those in need of data.... Crunching the Numbers: Total employed -- [...]
