Privatizing War and Counter-Narcotics, Writing-Off Responsibility for Criminal Actions

Privatizes U.S. war on drugs?

The Pentagon has a multimillion-dollar fund to pay contractors who employ mercenaries in operations and counternarcotics programs in third countries, including Latin America. The largest of the “efforts”, as the Department of Defense called, occurs in Colombia.

AP The Pentagon will save having to involve all its bureaucracy and military hierarchy in training programs, consulting and operations.

The Department of Defense United States, the Pentagon is delegating its fight against drug trafficking through multimillion-dollar contracts with private companies that are responsible for providing advice, training and conducting operations to drug producing countries and with links to so-called “narco-terrorism” including Latin America.

The government and ignores the “dirty” work to bring the different aspects of the fight against drugs to be left-profit companies that employ mercenaries and whose tactics are free from political and public scrutiny, critics say. The Pentagon said to be part of its strategy to ensure national security and that is done legally and according to strict parameters. According to analysts, however, this has become the trend of the future, as the responsibility of public safety and happens to be a national duty of the State to be a private business. “administrative support”is not a covert activity. The press section of the Pentagon confirmed to the BBC in 1995, established the Office of Technology Programs against narco-terrorism (CNTPO, for its acronym in English) which is ultimately the Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats.According the release of the Pentagon, the CNTPO provide “administrative support programs in a wide range of counternarcotics activities of the Department of Defense.”This “administrative support” is basically the identification and contracting of large companies that specialize in security and armed elite recruitment entering third countries operate independently.”From the 11-S and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased the need to purchase these services,” he told BBC Lt. Col. James Gregory, Press Officer. According to the spokesman are multiple contracts, and indefinite delivery time, which is awarded every five years. The next round of commissions will be in August 2012. Until now, most contracts have been delivered to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Reytheon, ARINC and U.S. Training Center (a subsidiary of Blackwater), said the senior official. Scraps The practice took root a decade ago during the administration of George W. Bush, who used many contractors-mercenaries, some would say-in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama has continued the same policy, and now, for example, the security of diplomatic personnel in Afghanistan depends largely on companies private security. One of the reasons why the Pentagon is trying to privatize various aspects of their activities has to do with the national budget has not been solved by partisan bickering between Congress and the executive. ”We talk constantly about the Pentagon is a target of budget cuts, “said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), a research center in Washington left-leaning. ”For the Congress, the cuts in the area of the fight against drugs will be mandatory if the president hopes to balance its tax proposal and the award of funds. “ According to Birns, the drug war is unpopular and has no political weight except in an election year like this, so the Defense Department want to delete this expenditure of their accounts. ”In a surreptitiously want to reduce anti-drug budget by transferring it to private agencies,” said the analyst. Contracts “non-specific” contracts for private companies are juicy, the CNTPO has a budget of U.S. $ 15,000 million, as confirmed by Lt. Col. James Gregory. However, the Pentagon will save having to involve all its bureaucracy and military hierarchy in training programs, consulting and operations. While, obviously the detail of each cost in very general contracts do not go through the bidding process. ”They are not like the contract to build a house of such and such dimensions,” said Bruce Bagley, head of International Studies University of Miami and an expert on the topic of global drug trade. ”They are called non-specific contracts,” he told the BBC. ”They have the right to conduct such operations, these teams enter the country and get paid much. And of course, as subcontractors, they recruit staff, and if any of its employees dies, they are responsible.”At delegate the activity in a private company, the government avoids engaging its armed forces and infrastructure. More significantly, stands by in case of any mishap. ”The high political cost,” says Bagley, is the main reason to privatize the war on drugs. ”Here we go into a vague area where no rules of engagement are clear and there is almost zero accountability to the public or the electorate, “said the academic. ”A few members of the Oversight Committees of the Senate and the House are aware, but they are required to keep secret, so all it flies under the radar. “ Sovereignty in Latin America, the work of contractors is focused on “key countries in production and transit of drugs,” says the Pentagon press office. The largest of the “efforts”, as he calls Department of Defense, it happens in Colombia, but also reports that there is assistance in other Andean countries, Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. ”Plan Mérida earmarks U.S. $ 1,000 million to Mexico to assist in the fight against drugs,” said Larry Birns of COHA “Although the Mexicans are very strict in not allowing foreign armed personnel operating in its territory.” The Pentagon is not very specific about the extent of the involvement of contractors for reasons he explains, security. But he says that they act in conjunction with local authorities, “including in combat zones,” although “not participate in raids or arrests.”However, there are serious implications for countries where private companies would. Although it is possible certain political elites in these countries are aware of their activities, and even those have been invited, there is a potential violation of national sovereignty that could cause a nationalist backlash if the public came to realize the situation, said Professor Bruce Bagley. In addition, “we are recognizing, in effect, that the institutions in the security forces in these countries are so poor that we are replacing with mercenaries,” he said. Military officials say contractors are subject to the same laws in the U.S. . UU. and countries where they operate, but Bruce Bagley insists that there could be a backlash if unforeseen occurred involving violations of humanitarian law and linked to the U.S. with this activity. But he acknowledged that “this is the wave of the future.” ”We are facing some smaller units, more efficient, more capable they can do the dirty work for U.S. military forces are not allowed or encouraged to do, “he said.

It Is In Russian Interests To Help Iran Defend Itself

Russian political analyst: “Armenia will return Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan if US occupies Iran”

“US invasion of Iran will lead to collapse of Russia”, Director General of Russian Center for Studying Modern Iran, political analyst Rajab Safarov told APA’s Moscow correspondent.

 

According to him, if Iran comes to European Union’s hand, the US will automatically dominate in the Central Asia: “US will also dominate in the Caspian Sea region. It means that Russia will lose its partners. Azerbaijan, a South Caucasian country, will also set its sights on the West and will join NATO. Armenia will return the occupied Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan and also become NATO member”.

The political analyst said that Russia shouldn’t be silent to the processes around Iran: “The US’ goal is to capture Iran’s energy resources. It is also a threat against Russia. That’s why Russia must immediately render military assistance to Iran and give S-300 and S-400 missiles to this country. Only joint position of Russia and China will settle the processes around Iran, which is not able to overcome this problem alone”.

Mossad False Flag Exposes CIA Operation of Jundullah Recruitment

Israel Denies ‘False Flag’ Op Against US

Military.com

by Bryant Jordan

The Israeli government is denying a report that its intelligence agents posed as CIA officers in an alleged plan to recruit and train Sunni extremists in Pakistan to assassinate Iranian officials.

The Jan. 13 report in Foreign Policy magazine quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, conducted the operation in 2007 and 2008.

If the allegation were true, a senior Israeli government official told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday, the then-head of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, would have been declared persona non grata by the U.S. government and not allowed back into the country.

“Dagan’s foot would not have walked again in Washington,” the paper quoted the official as saying.

Israel’s response to the so-called “false-flag” accusation appeared as a former CIA officer suggested Israel carried out a Jan. 11 assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in order to goad Iran into a military action – perhaps an attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz – which the U.S. has said it will not allow.

“It’s almost as if [Israel’s] intention is to get the Iranians to fire a missile at an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, which will cause a wider war,” Robert Baer, who now writes on intelligence issues for Time magazine, told the MSNBC show “Hardball” on Jan. 12. “It would help them (Israel) because the Israelis would force us into hitting the Iranians.”

The Jan. 11 assassination, the fifth killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in two years, occurred when a bomb placed on the scientist’s vehicle exploded.

Iran has blamed Israel, the U.S. and Great Britain. Both the U.S. and Britain have denied the charge, and the White House and U.S. State Department condemned the assassination and whoever carried it out.

Israel’s government response to the Foreign Affairs article was unusual, according to the Haaretz report, because the government typically refuses comment on Mossad operations.

The magazine article said that Mossad officers used American money and passports to pose as CIA officials. The mission was to recruit members of a Sunni Muslim extremist group called Jundallah to conduct a covert war against Iran, whose population is largely Shiite.

The article is based on memos drafted during the last years of the Bush administration. One source quoted in the piece was described as having read the memos and a second source was described as being “intimately familiar with the case” for having been involved in investigating and disproving reports that the CIA was covertly supporting Jundallah.

“It’s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with,” one source was quoted as saying. “Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn’t give a damn what we thought.”

© Copyright 2012 Military.com

Post-Soviet Infrastructure Collapse Requires Western Technicians and Investments

[In many ways, we are still watching the Post-Soviet collapse, as the machinery of the Soviet Empire is crumbling and the bill for its repair is rapidly coming due, on ruling Oligarchs who have failed to invest in reviving the State.  Money which should have gone into modernizing the lifelines of the vast Commonwealth of Independent States was short-circuited into the bank accounts of Russia's top Communist officials and the most powerful Russian mobsters.  This great robbery gave a handful of mostly corrupt individuals the power to make decisions for the citizens of the independent republics.  For the most part, they made bad decisions for the people, but made unbelievable profits for themselves.  Life went on in the former Communist Empire, but it went on, missing the critical financial component.  Lack of infrastructure investments since the USSR collapsed and lack of workforce maintainance and student industrial education have resulted in a worker deficit that will go on for many years, either until new people are trained, or imported foreign technicians and corporate developers come in and fill the gap.  The Westernization of the Soviet industrial base may be inevitable, since the Eastern bloc relinquished the responsibility long ago.]

Central Asia, the next domino

Paul Quinn-Judge , Gabriela Keseberg Dávalos , Foreign Policy in Spanish

So slowly but surely, material and human infrastructure of Central Asia is disappearing: roads, power plants, hospitals and schools as well as the latest generation of specialists, those involved in its operation and were trained by the Soviets. Post-independence regimes made little effort to maintain or replace both the technology that is wearing out, and the staff who are retiring or dying.The funds for this purpose have been eaten away by corruption and the collapse has generated protests. It has even overthrown a government.

All countries in the region are affected by this situation one way or another.However, the two poorest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are desperate. Their own experts say that in the coming years there will be teachers for their children and doctors to treat patients. Power cuts in Tajikistan in winter and are a tradition.Last up to more than twelve hours in rural areas. Kyrgyzstan also in the electrical system failures are increasingly common. Experts in both countries are concerned about the catastrophic collapse likely general, especially in the energy sector. Unless you take out a policy change, will face a future of eroded roads, schools and medical institutions run by retirees, or a new generation of teachers, doctors or engineers, whose shares will be purchased rather than earned by its own merits. These problems are exacerbated by other political vulnerabilities, including the expansion of the insurgency, the aging of an autocrat in Tajikistan and Kyrgyz State dangerously weakened.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are in the same direction. It is difficult to say how serious is the situation, since there is no reliable information or is secret. What it is obvious that extravagant and optimistic public statements are not reflected at all in reality. Hospitals marble facade model of Turkmenistan and the false prosperity of Uzbekistan statements are not the solution to the problems of these countries. Even Kazakhstan, the only country operating in the region will go through an ordeal because of deficiencies in their infrastructure. It has major problems especially in the area of ​​transportation and the training of technical staff. Any dream of economic diversification and modernization will wait.

The current dilemma living these five countries has several causes. When they were part of the USSR, were incorporated into one system, especially in the areas of transportation and energy. These interdependencies have been difficult to undo, and produced serious imbalances. During the Soviet era, everyone was forced to work together. Now however do not need or have good relations between them, especially when it comes to energy issues. Education and health services were affected by the term social safety net. But far worse is that governments in the region seem to have believed that the Soviet legacy would last forever. The funds should be allocated to reforms in education, training and maintenance were often misused and insufficient.

The consequences of this neglect are too terrible to be ignored. The rapid deterioration of infrastructure will deepen poverty and alienation of the state.The disappearance of the basic services provided to the radical Islamists, already strong in many Central Asian states, more arguments against regional leaders. They give you space to build support networks and influence. Economic development and poverty reduction will become an illusion, while the poorest countries will become even more dependent on the export of labor. In fact, anger at the sharp decline in basic services played a key role in the unrest that led to the ouster of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010. This resentment can be expressed similarly in other states in the region in the not too distant future, especially in Tajikistan.

Also, events in one of the five countries may have an adverse effect on its adjacent. In fact, a polio outbreak in Tajikistan in 2010 required an immunization campaign in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and infections were reported as far afield as Russia. Similarly, Central Asia may be adversely affected by its neighbors in the region: further decline in infrastructure is likely to match more instability in Afghanistan and a possible spillover of insurgency from there.

The needs are clear, and there are solutions to the weakening of the infrastructure. The fundamental problem is that Central Asia’s ruling elites are unwilling to take steps to meet the basic prerequisites. This amounts to nothing less than total repudiation of the values ​​and behavior of regional leaders. Need to purge the corruption of their governments to stop using the resources of their countries for themselves and their families and create a meritocracy with decent salaries would free up officers need to rely on corruption. These changes are so far from the current reality that foreign governments and donors surely struck from idealists. But without an organized change from above, there is a serious risk of chaotic change from below.

Donors are not doing anything to prevent this. His cautious approach seems largely inspired by the desire not to upset regional leaders to use the financial means at their disposal to create real change. Financial aid is generally used to meet annual or plans to move forward with broader geopolitical objectives.Without the participation of donors, the status quo will remain for some years but not more than that. The collapse of the infrastructure could weaken the regime, creating huge uncertainty in one of the most fragile parts of the world.
Paul Quinn-Judge is the Project Director of Crisis Group’s Central Asia 
Gabriela is Keseberg Dávalos Crisis Communications Group

Who Is Developing Old Soviet-Era Airstrip In Southern Tajikistan?

[Considering that this story broke in the Soros press, specifically, Radio Free Europe, it is highly probable that this bogus story about economically defunct Tajikistan relocating the capital from Dushanbe to this little nothing town (Dangara, hometown of  Tajik President Rahmon), is to cover Imperial tracks.  The purpose of the article is to hide the development around this old Soviet airstrip and the area south of there with this bullshit cover story about relocating the capital.  Since the Russian 201st motorized Division is still in Dushanbe, it looks like Russia and the US plan to share responsibility for southern Tajikistan the way that they have already co-co-opted Kyrgyzstan together.  That must be what they mean by “a true strategic partnership between NATO and Russia.”]

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Plans For A New Airport Invite Speculation In Tajikistan

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon

Rumors are in the air in rural Tajikistan. 

Danghara, a small town of 20,000 situated in Tajikistan’s southern lowlands, may not strike most observers as a likely spot to place a national capital. But locals are pointing to the start of work on a grand new international airport nearby to speculate that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon – a native of the area – intends to relocate his country’s seat of power to his modest hometown.

Their imaginations have been stoked by the rerouting of a major rail line that cuts through the planned site for the airport, which is slated to be the largest in Tajikistan. Danghara is located 150 kilometers from Dushanbe, the current capital and Tajikistan’s largest city, with nearly 700,000 residents.

The airport scheme is not the only reason Danghara’s residents are talking up their town as a possible successor capital. They point to other unusual capital projects that Tajikistan’s government has brought to the area, including a complete renovation of the town’s roads and extensive building construction. They also note that over the last 10 years, the government has steadily relocated families from the countryside to Danghara.

Townspeople from Danghara who spoke to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service were mostly enthusiastic boosters of the notion.

Taxi driver Said Akbar argued that Danghara’s topography gives it an advantage over mountainous Dushanbe.

“Danghara is a very good place; it is flat and provides enough land for a city to be expanded,” he said.

For now, Danghara officials are keeping mum on the topic. The town’s deputy mayor, Muhammadyusuf Shoev, told RFE/RL that “it’s not in my competency to talk about [the issue]. It’s in the competency of the provincial government and national government.”

US may be behind Mars probe failure: Russia

Phobos-Grunt probe at the Baikonur space center

© AFP/ STR

MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti)

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday said the failure of its Phobos-Grunt probe for Mars could have been caused by radiation from US radars, in its latest allegation of Western interference in its space programme.

“There is such a theory,” Yury Koptev the head of the scientific committee of state technology company Russian Technologies told the RIA-Novosti news agency.

“To test (the theory), an equipment block similar to the one on Phobos-Grunt will be exposed to radiation from the possible unintentional exposure to American radars,” said Koptev, a former head of Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Roscosmos is currently looking into the possible causes of its latest major space mishap, after the probe, which was launched in November, met an inglorious end Sunday when it crashed back into Earth over the Pacific Ocean.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday that most of the agency’s failures were aftershocks following the industry’s dark period of the 1990s, when poor funding could have led to production of faulty equipment.

“If we confirm the fact of a foreign influence on our space equipment over the part of Earth we cannot see, we will come to different conclusions,” he told Interfax in apparent reference to the West.

Roscosmos mentioned the possibility of foreign interference last week when the current agency chief Vladimir Popovkin openly asked why its failures often occurred when craft were over the western hemisphere.

“I do not want to blame anyone, but today there are some very powerful countermeasures that can be used against spacecraft whose use we cannot exclude,” he told the Izvestia daily on January 10.

Phobos-Grunt was one of the more high-profile mishaps costing $165 million and carrying also a Chinese satellite it was supposed to release in the Mars orbit.

It struck less than three months after an unmanned Progress supply ship bound for the International Space Station crashed into Siberia.

Russia also lost three navigation satellites as well as an advanced military satellite and a telecommunications satellite in the past year.