The truth: The federal government sued KBR Inc., the largest contractor in Iraq, on Thursday over what prosecutors say were improper charges to the Army for private security services. Houston-based KBR Inc. is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co. It recently won a new contract potentially worth more than $2 billion for support work in…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
America knowlingly wastes billions on futile conflicts
And none of it makes the US or its allies any safer; in fact the opposite is true: Tens of billions of dollars are being lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan because of a toothless U.S. contracting system so reliant on a handful of major contractors that it rarely suspends or desbars…
The long reach of Serco into the Australian political hierarchy
British multinational Serco is constantly in the news, the company that runs all of Australia’s detention centres with little or no accountability; just the way they like it. And now this: The mastermind behind the sacking of more than 50,000 public servants during the Greiner and Fahey Liberal governments has been quietly advising Barry O’Farrell’s…
The shock doctrine is alive and well in the world’s super-power
I’m currently working on a book about disaster capitalism and rampant privatisation, diseases that seemingly sweep all before it. The idea that selling everything into private hands will solve our economic problems is ludicrous and yet both major sides of politics in many Western states back the idea. Resistance is key, so here’s Paul Krugman…
Obama’s legacy; increase in private mercenaries
Really: The number of private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan has more than tripled to about 19,000 since June 2009, according to a new congressional study. The study found a steady increase in private security contractors — most of whom are Afghans — since the DOD started tracking the data in…
Private armies living like kings in “war on terror” fantasies
What does it take for mercenaries to stop getting contracts in occupied nations? More than a year has passed since the State Department decided to drop its contract [1] with the security firm protecting the US embassy in Kabul, following an international scandal featuring drunken debauchery [2] fit for a Van Wilder flick. But the…
Who wants nuclear power and massive amounts of waste?
Which private companies are salivating over the prospect of establishing an industry in Australia to turn a profit? And are indigenous Australians meant to simply disappear and accept this gross destruction of their land? For the first time Greens MP Adam Bandt will vote against a government bill in Federal Parliament today and seek to…
Villawood: asbestos still present despite government claims
My following investigation appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Sydney’s Villawood detention centre contains asbestos years after the federal government claims it was managed, according to a whistle-blower working at the site. A guard hired by MSS Security, the firm contracted by British multinational Serco to manage security at Villawood, told Crikey about the lack…
Sell everything to private interests, says historian who loves war
Niall Ferguson: Privatization—a policy that has been a huge success nearly everywhere it’s been tried.
Tripoli gets privatised mercenaries at bargain prices
Really: Khamis Gaddafi, a son of Libya ruler Moammar Gaddafi, recruited French-speaking Sub-Saharan African mercenaries to shoot live rounds at pro-democracy protestors, reported Al Arabiya, citing sources in the city of Benghazi. These sources claim this knowledge because they’ve captured some of the mercenaries, who confessed their identity and the fact that Khamis Gaddafi hired…