Not for long...
Dogged by serious allegations of human rights abuses in Iraq, a leading profiteer from the Iraq war engages in intimidation campaigns against journalists in America who seek to expose its practices.
CACI's strategy has been two-fold: its flacks have distorted well-documented facts in the public record beyond recognition, and its senior management has lawyered up, suing or threatening to sue just about every journalist, muckraker and government watchdog who's dared to shine a light on the firm's unique role as a torture profiteer.
Lately, the company's sights have been set squarely on Robert Greenwald, director of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, in which CACI plays a starring role. Greenwald has been in a back-and-forth with CACI's CEO, Jack London, and its lead attorney, William Koegel, during "months of calls, emails and letters" in what Greenwald calls a campaign to "intimidate, threaten and suppress" the story presented in the film.
"The threatening letters started early, trying to get us to back off," Greenwald told me. "We refused, and went back at them with a very strong letter saying, 'no, you're war profiteers and we won't be silenced.' Like any bully, they backed down when confronted. No lawsuit was filed- they're a paper tiger."
The story they don't want told is of a federal contractor that, according to the Washington Post, gets 92 percent of its revenues in the "defense" sector. The Washington Business Journal reported that CACI's defense contracts almost doubled in the year after the occupation of Iraq began, and profits shot up 52 percent.
Yet CACI insists it isn't a war profiteer (a subjective term anyway), but was just answering an urgent call in Iraq. In a letter to Greenwald, Koegel wrote: "the army needed ... civilian contractors to work as interrogators" because the military didn't have the personnel, and CACI responded to the "urgent war-time circumstances" and "has no apologies."
But while the firm had experience in electronic surveillance and other intelligence functions, it, too, didn't have the interrogators. Barry Lando reported finding an ad on CACI's website for interrogators to send to Iraq, and noted that "experience in conducting tactical and strategic interrogations" was desired, but not necessary. According to a report by the Army inspector general, 11 of the 31 CACI interrogators in Iraq had no training in what most experts agree is one of the most sensitive areas of intelligence gathering. The 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which was in charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib when the abuses took place, didn't have a single trained interrogator.
"It's insanity," former CIA agent Robert Baer told The Guardian. "These are rank amateurs, and there is no legally binding law on these guys as far as I could tell. Why did they let them in the prison?"
Note: Robert Greenwald is a member of the board of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet's parent organization.
More on the story.
6 comments:
God Bless Greenwald!
If I don't see congressional hearings start soon about these d@mn War Profiteering companies, I will be raising hell wiht Congress...
Thanks for the good article SPB...you keep so many of us informed. I can only read so much in a day...I have a life to live too. LOL
I am gald that someone is following up from the company CACI. I know that CACI is on Waxman's radar to investigate. Sad stats on how many inexperienced interragators and the amount of profit that CACI made...
Nice court houses, thanks!
Traffic is always bad. I used to drive the Tri-State to work. I was in so many sandwiches (multiple car accidents) when the roads were bad, sleet, snow, whatever. If you leave any space in front of you someone is there. Good thing is if the first one does not show up, everyone gets their tickets for following too close thrown out. Now my insurance rates are better since I try to use CTA as much as possible, and get a discount for having a degree at an Illinois State College.
Now I take the El mostly. I can remember when I was younger they did not regulate how fast the operators went and you would always see on the news, quite often and El that had the last car or two hanging down off the tracks. I remember being on them and when you got a crazy driver all the old ladies would hop off at the next stop to get on the next, and my Mom looking worried like should we jump off but always reassured us she had been on worse trains and this was not one of them. I guess there were also drinking etc issues with the drivers as well back then. Now when I sit in the operator car later at nights I can hear the beeping (warning) when they are going to fast, more often later at night, but that could explain why I am always making better time.
Yes I saw the Tammy Duckworth appointment on the news tonight. Good for Tammy! She has unfortunatley had to deal with the VA first hand and often. Maybe she can help fix some of it.
Chicago native:
I read about Ms. Duckworth. Grfeat news for Ms Duckworth and her appointment. I think she will be a tremendous help to the VA. I am sorry that she lost the election. I would have voted for her if I lived in Illinois. But, when one door closes and another door opens..
That was a good move on Blagojevich's part. His Lt. Governor, Pat Quinn was busy passing out turkeys South and East of me today, to those who can not afford one. Also Pat Quinn does not use body gaurds, he says he does not need them and they are a waste of tax payer dollars. He would make a good governor, or maybe he will be one soon!
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