Investigating intelligence takes real intelligence

This week’s Washington Post story on the outsourcing of intelligence continues to reverberate. One of the co-writers of the series, Bill Arkin, is interviewed on Democracy Now! A shadowy world of massive privatised madness since 9/11. More than half a trillion dollars is being spent annually on services that even many elements within government don’t know about.

But key questions are emerging, not least the fact that alternative media outlets and reporters have been writing about these issues for years but received no credit or acknowledgment. Take Tim Shorrock, investigative journalist and author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. His latest, exclusive report is here.

The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill is also skeptical. His headline perhaps gives away the game: “Corporate Media Discover Private Spies. In Other News, No WMD in Iraq”:

What is perhaps most telling about the Post series is how little detail is provided on the most sensitive operations performed by contractors: assassinations, torture, rendition and operational planning.

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