mercenaries

Hired Gun Fetish

By PAUL KRUGMAN
New york Times
Op-Ed Columnist
September 28, 2007

Sometimes it seems that the only way to make sense of the Bush administration is to imagine that it’s a vast experiment concocted by mad political scientists who want to see what happens if a nation systematically ignores everything we’ve learned over the past few centuries about how to make a modern government work.

Thus, the administration has abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service, stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified cronies. Tax farming — giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in return for a share of the take — went out with the French Revolution; now the tax farmers are back.

UN on the Offensive Against Iraq Mercenaries
who are the mercenaries?

Daniela Estrada and Gustavo González
IPS News

SANTIAGO, Jul 13 (IPS) - Mercenary recruitment agencies that send former soldiers to Iraq have been accused in Chile of human right abuses, illegal association, possession of explosives and unauthorised use of army weaponry, and are the target of a special United Nations mission.

MercenaryCentury-old Goon Squad Law Invoked to Prevent Contract to Aegis Defence Systems
By ROBERT Y. PELTON - Iraq Slogger - 6/2/07

Steve Faineru continues his energetic coverage of security contractors with yet another scoop. It appears the awarding of the largest single security contract in Iraq to a controversial former mercenary has been derailed, not by Congress, not by media controversy, but by the efforts of a single citizen.