Australia begins to copy the American mercenary model; outsourcing essential tasks with little or no parliamentary oversight: Australia has awarded a $20 million two-year contract guarding diplomats in Kabul to a private security company owned by a special forces soldier turned British lord and that once hired a former South African apartheid-era assassin. The move…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
Yes, US involved in shady dealings globally and its standing is still low
Another day and more Wikileaks revelations. Who the hell is saying there’s nothing in these documents? Only people who resent light being shone on the true dealings of the US. More, please. One: Pakistan‘s president, Asif Ali Zardari, whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide bombing, has made extensive preparations in case of…
Failing work in Afghanistan is signal for a promotion
This is what we’re doing in Afghanistan: For more than a year, Afghan police chief Rajab Mohammed and his men have worked out of a dark, cramped mud home in a remote corner of Afghanistan while waiting in vain for construction workers to finish building the U.S.-funded police station across the street. With winter fast…
Privatising the lives of children (and Serco is mummy)
Britain’s Yarl’s Wood detention centre is run by multinational Serco. This Channel 4 story documents the effects on children in detention, such as ten-year Iranian Mehrshad.
The old fashioned idea of backing public assets and keeping them
The corporate love affair with privatisation shows no sign of slowing down. But what if the economics are less than convincing? Nicholas Gruen writes in Inside Story that governments should more closely examine what they’re backing and why public ownership of key assets needs to be seriously considered. It’s not socialism, you know: Rather than…
Keep those terror threats coming (the dollars are rolling in)
The “war on terror” is making some people a lot of money. But it’s all about protecting us from terrorism, of course: The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance…
Inside the Serco British test-case
Just what is Serco doing at Britain’s Yarl’s Wood detention centre? The BBC investigates though does a pretty average job, only speaking to the Serco manager of the place. Maybe under-cover work would have brought far better results.
Private sector muscles its way into managing Zionist occupation
Great letter from the UK Guardian on 20 November: So Israel vows to keep building homes in illegally occupied East Jerusalem (Report, 19 November). Today the British security corporation G4S and the French company Veolia, which collects waste for UK local authorities and universities, will stand accused of complicity in Israeli human rights violations. Israeli…
Australian troops involved in covert and deadly operations for the US
My following lead article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Elite Australian soldiers are involved in covert operations for the Americans in the “war on terror”, co-ordinated through the top-secret, Paris-based centre Alliance Base. There has been no public discussion about these missions, but Crikey understands the soldiers are involved in targeting, interrogation and assassinations…
Australia should consider why we’re selling our precious soil
Food security and the selling off of Australia’s farmland to the highest bidder is finally starting to get some mainstream media attention: Much of the dairying industry, from farm gate to supermarket shelves, was carved up by Japan, Europe and New Zealand over the previous decade. It all suggests that other countries are far more…