IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, NEW DOD RULES FOR PRIVATE SECURITY FORCES

In case you missed it, the Department of Defense has promulgated new rules for private security services, effective, notably enough, the day after the tenth anniversary of 9/11:

DoD Policy for Privatized DoD

This document is some very artful bureaucratese on how the USA is, and is not, using "mercenaries" in its ever expanding "war on terror" (read, war to control Central Asian and Middle Eastern energy reserves). Consider only this choice jewel:

"Comment: Opposition to the use of mercenaries in the U.S. Department of Defense " Response: The DoD does not use mercenaries. Article 47 of Additional Protocol I to Geneva Conventions provides an internationally accepted definition of mercenaries. The elements of that definition clearly exclude PSCs under contract to DoD. Private security contractors do not perform military functions, but rather, they carry out functions similar to those performed by security guards in the United States and elsewhere. We agree that the behavior of PSCs may affect the national security goals of the U.S. and for this reason we have published guidance on the selection, oversight, and management of private security contractors operating in contingency operations. "Comment: DoD personnel do not want PSCs in a combat situation " Response: The primary role of the armed forces is combat: to close with and destroy enemy armed forces through firepower, maneuver, and shock action. Defense of military personnel and activities against organized attack is a military responsibility. DoD allocates military personnel to these high priority combat and other critical combat support missions. Private Security Companies contracted by the U.S. government protect personnel, facilities and activities against criminal activity, including individual acts of terrorism. They are specifically prohibited from engaging in combat (offensive) operations and certain security functions. DoD PSCs have performed well and are very important to our mission accomplishment in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. "Comment: PSCs should receive Veteran's Affairs benefits for injuries sustained while protecting the country " Response: PSCs and other contractors employed by the U.S. government who perform work outside of the United States are covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA). The LHWCA provides disability compensation and medical benefits to employees and death benefits to eligible survivors of employees of U.S. government contractors who perform work overseas."

I have to confess, that in a world where out government is increasingly only responsive to the needs of the corporate elite, to the grandiose geopolitical ambitions of its "planners and thinkers" playing at being Prince Metternich on the "grand chessboard" in an idealistic "unipolar world", the idea of privatized security functions scares the daylights out of me. There will, of course, be readers out there who will reassure me that the DOD has been using such private security companies for a long time, and this I readily acknowledge is true. But what drew my attention in the above quotation was the prohibition of such private security forces from performing offensive military operations.

But what about "defensive" ones? And what, exactly, is the definition, of such operations? Such mercenaries, for let's be honest here, that's exactly what they are, would not have to be loyal nor swear to defend the US Constitution (not that it's in great shape anyway), but would ultimately be beholden, like the knights of the Middle Ages, to their sovereign liege lord, namely, the corporation employing them.In a world where corporations increasingly usurp governmental functions, one can even imagine the nightmarish possibility that their internecine economic wars, hostile takeovers, mergers, and so on, would be accompanied by similar private armies and private "wars." Of course, it's only a science fiction possibility now, but it's a step closer. It's a dangerous precedent, for note that all-important sentence: "Companies contracted by the U.S. government protect personnel, facilities and activities against criminal activity, including individual acts of terrorism."

The next step? Look for "Gestapo, Inc." to be trading shares on the NYSE. Oh yea, I forgot, they did, and it was called I.G. Farben.

 

 

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

7 Comments

  1. Vinnie on August 24, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    Just in case anyone is interested, here’s why all of these things are being done and are now out in the open. We’ve been under the Lieber Code since the war of northern aggression. Here’s the document they use to justify what they’re doing.

    http://www.civilwarhome.com/liebercode.htm



  2. Mel Hatfield on August 22, 2011 at 4:09 am

    Look for DOD to follow up this wonderfully crafted statement with:

    War is Peace
    Good is bad
    Black is white



  3. MattB on August 22, 2011 at 1:21 am

    So if you declare yourself to be an independant sovereign entity, can you then hire a mercenary to protect you?



  4. Thomas Marz on August 21, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    A 10 million man march on Washington?



  5. Jon Norris on August 21, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    Private “security” contractors have indeed been around for a long time. Witness Wackenhut and Pinkerton. Pinkerton has a long tradition of being the trained dogs of the elite in this country.

    It has been CIA practice to use private contractors, probably since its inception, because they provide plausible deniability – called “cutouts” in the spook world. They are expendable assets who can be turned into “out of control private groups” at a moment’s notice for media consumption. I would be willing to bet that it was an idea that originated with Nazis.

    The biggest difference here is the extent to which they are being used and the visibility. Like torture, what was once a “dirty little secret” is now held forth as completely proper behavior, even though anyone in their right mind would scream “FOUL!” It is more of the “less is more,” “war is peace” doublethink coming out of DC these days.

    Just one more example of our leaders selling us out.



  6. Robert Totten on August 21, 2011 at 8:52 am

    Don’t much care about the name or the mission statement just remember the guys “Protecting” BP’s interests in the Gulf. They got pretty snotty with plain ole harmless Americans and journalists. They also seemed to view regular law as being something lower down in the food chain. Imagine that when TSHTF and see how they react— it ain’t going to be pretty or I imagine Constitutionally correct. More of an SS approach, and it looks like they will be protected/shielded by the FEDS—automatically making you the “Terrorist”. Between them and the LEO’s doing their “Special” training (Urban Control)(Fusion Centers) (FEMA) and a few other groups– I get a real Bad Feeling.



  7. Citizen Quasar on August 21, 2011 at 5:52 am

    “Companies contracted by the U.S. government (a corporation itself) [to] protect personnel, facilities and activities against criminal activity, including individual acts of terrorism” can very well be interpreted to mean Timothy Geitner’s personal bunker (to just pull a name out of a hat) is to be staffed and guarded by these “non-military” personnel when the ‘S’ REALLY ‘HTF.’

    I suppose it all depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is. Say, wasn’t the man who said that the Commander-In-Chief at that time? You know, the one who tells DOD what to do? In writing?

    As for whether or not these civilian contractors will engage in offensive “kinetic action” in addition to just defensive “kinetic action,” one need only remember when the inhabitants of Fallujah, Iraq ambushed and killed, and then burned and mutilated and hung, the bodies of some “private security contractors” employed by Blackwater (What’s in a name, huh?).

    Judging from the pictures of this incident, no small number of people participated in this atrocity. This tells me that these “private security contractors” must have done something very “offensive” to have elicited such a response from the locals.

    Of course, this whole incident was billed in the CORPORATE media as Iraqi hatred for American “freedoms.”



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