Four US Contractors Missing – No One Looks For Them

Cutting Costs, Bending Rules, And a Trail of Broken Lives

Ambush in Iraq Last November Left Four Americans Missing And a String of Questions About the Firm They Worked For

By Steve Fainar Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD — The convoy was ambushed in broad daylight last Nov. 16, dozens of armed men swarming over 37 tractor-trailers stretching for more than a mile on southern Iraq’s main highway. The attackers seized four Americans and an Austrian employed by Crescent Security Group, a small private security firm. Then they fled.

None of the hostages has been found, eight months after one of the largest and most brazen kidnappings of Americans since the March 2003 invasion.

Crescent is shuttered, like dozens of other companies that have come and gone in Iraq’s booming market for private security services. The firm leaves behind a trail of broken lives and a record of alleged misconduct. In March, the U.S. military barred Crescent from U.S. bases after it was found with weapons prohibited for private security companies, including rocket launchers and grenades, according to documents and interviews with former Crescent employees and U.S. officials.

Crescent violated U.S. military regulations while being paid millions of dollars to support the U.S.-led mission in Iraq. The company routinely sacrificed safety to cut costs.

By this year, the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, a trade group based in Baghdad’s Green Zone, listed 177 active foreign and Iraqi security companies. The Pentagon has said that some 20,000 security contractors support the U.S.-led coalition, although some estimates are considerably higher.

The industry is largely unregulated by the U.S. and Iraqi governments, leaving companies to establish their own standards for operating on the battlefield.

These contractors are not security cleared, but will be soon according to new pentagon rules are lowering the standards as we speak. Crescent had managers with criminal records and allowed employees to carry armaments which is a felony. Maybe this is why the US is not looking for them. The US is not very good at admitting it’s shortcomings. Few countries are. Cutting corners with contractors is one thing, but, cutting corners with the Constitution is quite another. Lets get rid of these lying bastards ASAP

When They Come Home Will Gangs Be Worse

Gangs Spreading In The Military

CBS Story

Evidence of gang culture and gang activity in the military is increasing so much an FBI report calls it “a threat to law enforcement and national security.” The signs are chilling: Marines in gang attire on Paris Island; paratroopers flashing gang hand signs at a nightclub near Ft. Bragg; infantrymen showing-off gang tattoos at Ft. Hood.

“It’s obvious that many of these people do not give up their gang affiliations,” said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne. He monitors gang activity at the base and across the military.

“If we weren’t in the middle of fighting a war, yes, I think the military would have a lot more control over this issue,” Glass said. “But with a war going on, I think it’s very difficult to do.”

Gang activity clues are appearing in Iraq and Afghanistan, too. Gang graffiti is sprayed on blast walls – even on Humvees. Kilroy – the doodle made famous by U.S. soldiers in World War II – is here, but so is the star emblem of the Gangster Disciples.

Gangs Using Military For Training, Experts Say

“When individuals go into the military, they are taught how to use weapons, defensive tactics, and the use of a lot of sophisticated techniques,” said LaRae Quy, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “They take that back on the streets with them. This is a legitimate concern for law enforcement.”

The rise in gang activity coincides with the increase in recruits with records. Since 2003, 125,000 recruits with criminal histories have been granted what are known as “moral waivers” for felonies including robbery and assault.

Sub-cultures abound within larger societies. The military, prisons, cities, neighborhoods spawn small groups who survive with the tools available to them. Gangs are the natural tribal inclinations for humans who feel threatened and angry at the wealth and respect outside their reach. Yes, the military will rehabilitate a great number of gang members, but those who have really bad experiences will take their training back to their gangs. They will continue to prey upon the same citizens, but this time with military, leadership, battlefield experience and blood on their hands. Gangs are our domestic terrorists, and our recruiting wavers allow us to train them better ways to kill.

Update:  I just had to borrow this cartoon from BrainsandEggs, it fits my point!

OpEd: All Answers Are Selfish And Shallow

It is a slow news day at 9:00 AM CST – every story is more of the same with little spin left. So, I have decided to share my feelings about different stuff.

• Religion: In my youth I was religious because it was expected, conventional and socially acceptable. I was a passionate seeker determined to find the source of truth, looking for God everywhere. No religion or philosophy was left unturned. I found crumbs of truth everywhere – but, not consolidated into just ONE. Religion is environmental, each individual is planted in the religious soil they were born in. Religion is our personal guidance throughout our lives. As we grow, we have the choice of being a ‘Sunflower’ who faces the Sun as it moves across the sky or the choice of a happy mushroom sitting in the dark nourished by nature’s fertilizer. Truth is in the eye of the beholder, it is a conglomerate of our personal experiences and environment. Our ability to see beyond our personal world determines what we understand as Truth. Earth’s population and the earth evolves. Life is not a static thing that is dictated by the mouth of another human, it is a constantly changing physical, mental, bio-chemical event influenced by everything.

• Politics: Don’t get me started. But. Politics is supposed to be the RESPONSIBLE voice of the population it represents. Politicians are supposed to weigh the needs of the individuals they represent and balance those needs with the stability of the whole group. At the national level, seek balance without conflict with other nations while insuring the safety of its own. When a nation enters into conflict, it must be the absolutely last choice. Provocations are tests of the intelligence of a political nation. Common good (whoever defines it) should be the priority, however, the common good has been hijacked by the powerful (we chose) and bent to their own purposes. This year of 2007 is a prelude to another political event that will be dictated by the powerful in this country. This country has the opportunity to decide WHO is powerful. This country of individuals must act responsibly or show it’s ignorance to the world. The United States of America is a nations among other nations. The difference between being a world leader and world bully is what determines the safety of the individuals in this nation. Look at the whole world before you choose who you give your power to!

• Choices: Our personal choices are what make us individual human beings. People who impose their personal beliefs are creating clones. Spiritual inbreeding has done more damage in this world than any comet, volcano, tsunami or electro-magnetic shift. Spiritual inbreeding is a dangerous mental disease. Spirit is alive and multi-dimensional. Human beings are distinguished from other mammals because we are supposed to be self-aware, see future possibilities and use logic to solve problems. Human beings, collectively have the power to make this planet life supporting or life extinguishing. Environment or War. Humans who care will decide.

Our choices will be selfish and shallow whatever we decide – our own wellbeing will trump our neighbor’s wellbeing every time. Our view of WHO our neighbors are will determine how shallow we are. Next door neighbors, next nation neighbors or next planet, the welfare of our neighbors are what will determine our survivability as a planet.