The reaction of Blackwater is more telling and supportive of the overall theme. By the next day, they had hired a lobbying firm to make the right contacts and insure their viability as a contractor. Visits to Senators Warner and Santorum and Representative Hunter were apparently successful as Blackwater suffered no adverse consequences, and indeed managed to garner even more contracts, doubling their value in 2004 and raising it to $221 million in 2005.
"We gotta get outta this place." — The Animals
Moving on to the Abu Ghraib prison and the scandal that erupted in October 2003, Greenwald again finds private contractors doing the work previously reserved for the military and CIA. When photos surfaced showing abuse of the detainees, several soldiers were charged and court-martialed, the most famous being Lynndie England and Charles Graner of the 372nd Military Police company.
In the film, former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski claims surprise when viewing the photos and seeing civilians inside the cells, giving the impression that this was first indication she had that contractors employed by CACI were active within the prison. But it was no surprise to the enlisted men who were interviewed. One Army interrogator even recounts a conversation with a CACI employee who told him he made four to five times the money for doing the same job.
Another man filmed in silhouette explains that CACI contractors were given the rules of interrogation, but with a "wink and a nod" that provided the chain of command "plausible deniability" as to the actual methods used. To date, none of these private contractors have been held accountable.
To facilitate interrogations of detainees, a company called Titan employed under contract as many as 4,000 linguists. One of the men hired claims his interview over the phone lasted only a minute, and that no further training was provided. He also claims many of the translators were only partially fluent in English, and they performed their work without supervision or follow up. Obviously under these circumstances the potential for misunderstanding exists and the consequences not only include bad intelligence, but for our military men and women in the field it could be catastrophic.
An amendment authored by Senator Dodd of Connecticut to limit or prohibit the use of private contractors for detention and interrogation of prisoners was defeated, like Senator Dorgan’s amendments, along party lines.
"Highway to hell" — AC/DC
Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR (aka Kellogg, Brown & Root) has long been a target for critics because of their acquisition of no bid contracts, and, of course, Vice President Cheney’s association with the firm. Iraq For Sale highlights the firm’s involvement in logistical transport, and services provided for our troops, such as water purification, meals, and laundry.
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