In the case of privatization at the USPS, the latest GAO report reads more like a big April Fool's joke than reality and contains such ludicrous excuses for privatization that any competent person  would be embarrassed to make them.

crossposted from unbossed

A few years ago, Frontline aired an investigative report into the use of private contractors, including private security contractors mercenaries. link

That report was devastating in its findings, primarily that the use of private security contractors mercenaries was contributing to unrest and was taking the military away from its mission in order to protect the private security contractors mercenaries.

Crossposted from unbossed.

If you didn't catch it there is an article on CNN on the latest on the issue of who's too blame for the 19 soldiers that died in Iraq.....trying to get clean.

Don your rubber soled shoes and gloves, pick up your non-conducting tools, and follow me down the conduit.  And don't forget to trip the breaker.

Reading the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo on how do do federal privatization is more than wading through and obfuscatory sea of acronyms. The language reminds me of nothing so much as a slave auction. Take, for example, the wording used to mean federal employees who will lose their jobs to private contractors - Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act workforce inventory.

Workers as inventory. Things. Who can care about the fate of mere inventory? Especially when it is all done in a FAIR way.

crossposted from unbossed

The Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure finally, finally held a hearing this past week, on July 24 on the role of tax subsidies in creating the boom in states leasing their highways. Tax and Financing Aspects of Highway Public-Private Partnerships. The hearing was before the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure. Senator Bingaman's opening statement may be found here. It was not linked at the hearing website, so it took some searching to find it.

Here is what the witnesses had to say.

crossposted from unbossed

As some may know, I have been following for months the scandal of the high number of American soldiers electrocuted in Iraq.  I have focused on the saga of Cheryl Harris, who I have come to know and assist, whose son Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted in January (the military at first blamed him for carrying an appliance into a shower room), causing her to launch her own heroic probe.  Since then she has inspired congressional, military and media probes (such as last week's frontpage New York Times piece by James Risen).

Her senator, Bob Casey, has helped her,  and his office has kept me abreast of his activities, including yesterday's big meeting with a KBR -- the contractor targeted in much of this -- rep.  

Until yesterday 13 electocutions had been admitted by the military.  Yesterday, surprisingly, came news of more.

Last week, I posted an interviewI did with former KBR worker, Ben Carter, and the reaction I got was huge. Many, many people congratulated Ben on having the courage to face public scrutiny in order to bring the abuses of KBR to the public, and hundreds of you sent an email to DoD Chief Financial Officer, Tina Jonas (or signed the petitionto her after she blocked her email address), asking her to cut off funding to KBR until a full public investigation is made into each of their alleged abuses.

I had ended my post with a heads up that the following week (meaning, today) I would be posting a breaking new story from Ben about a lawsuit against the contracting company that has been kept hidden by the Department of Justice. Well, bad news: Ben's story is so hot, it hasn't gotten the legal clearance to go public yet. I have been told to hold out for a few more days on that, so keep your fingers crossed!

One of the reasons I felt so buoyed by all the support shown for Ben is that I had long felt disturbed by both the magnitude of corruption among war contractors and the lack of coverage on the issue in the press.

So, I was reading the NYTimes and I found this stunning story that is sure to capture the attention of Americans of every political persuasion:

Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

But I'm sure that KBR and the Bush regime will take care of this as soon as they are told about it.

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for American troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a “systemic problem” with electrical work.

But the Pentagon did little to address the issue until a Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, was electrocuted in January while showering.

For a long time now, I have been following the KBR corruption storyline: the dirty water, the electrocutions, the rape cover ups and the tax dodging.

KBR was turned loose on our troops because the Bush administration's blind adherence to right-wing dogma — "government bad, private industry good" — drove it to outsource the management of the war to dozens of private contractors. And, no surprise, the abuses don't end with KBR

crossposted from unbossed

This is about privatization. About five years ago, IT privatization was all the rage in the federal government. For reasons that have always escaped me, pro-privatization groups argued - successfully (and this is the part I find unbelievable) - that contracting out an agency's IT work is a no-brainer and would lead only to good.

Update: After receiving an influx of emails prompted by this story, the Cheif Financial Officer, Tina Jonas, took down or blocked her email address. This may cause you to get an error message. We are now compiling signatures for a petition, which will be sent to her: http://progressivefuture.org/...

[cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org]

Ben Carter is a water safety expert and a caring family man. Passionate about his work, Carter went to Iraq to support the troops and reconstruction efforts. Yet soon after he arrived in Iraq he found KBR/Halliburton cutting essential corners, resulting in U.S. troops being forced to shower in wastewater. KBR’s indifference to the contaminated water led Carter to resign. Since leaving Iraq he’s spoken out about Halliburton, was one of the subjects of Brave New Films' "Iraq For Sale," testified before the Democratic Policy Committee and worked to warn soldiers of the dangers of contaminated water.

An appalling discovery of US private contractors training the Mexican army in torture has received little attention in the United States despite the underlying issue about the influence of companies such as Blackwater Worldwide and Dynocorp establishing torture techniques abroad. The videos which surfaced in Mexico show an English speaking man directing actions against fellow officers.

In one video, Special Tactical Group officers squirt mineral water up the nose of another officer, a torture technique commonly utilized by Mexican police. The man's head is also shoved into a hole which supposedly contains rats and feces

In the other, the unidentified contractor drags an officer through a puddle of his own vomit as punishment for failure to complete a training exercise. The company involved in this tape is currently unknown.

Warning, the videos contain graphic images.

I know, you're disappointed to miss out on another thrillingly breathless tome on FISA and how We! All! Must! Do! Something! Now!

While you were reading the last 40 FISA diaries, something else happened which people should note.

So some good will come from the death of Ryan Maseth after all. The Pentagon -- after Ryan's mother, and my friend, Cheryl Harris, brought his death by electrocution to national attention --  has just ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR, the major military contractor.

Cheryl, as I have written here previously, has  researched other electrocutions and pressed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR. You remember: the military lied to her in trying to blame it all on him.

The senator from Cheryl's state, Pennsylvania, Bob Casey made public on Monday afternoon a written statement by Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.  Petraeus informed Congress of the new inspections -- while also disclosing that at least 13 U.S. soldiers had been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began, and many others had received electrical shocks. Until now, the Pentagon had said 12 had been electrocuted.

**I'm curious about what you all think of the arrangement  that (according to the Independent (UK)):

The US has accepted that foreign contractors in Iraq will no longer have immunity from Iraqi law under a new security agreement now under negotiation, says the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari.

I would hope that such an arrangement, if it goes through, signals the realization that we are leaving Iraq sooner rather than later.

The administration has so robustly protected these criminals that I can only assume that they know they will no longer be protected and are doing all they can to distance themselves from the crimes committed by the contractors.  I'm also assuming that, with no immunity, the contractors will be less willing to stay.  

Blackwater is going for huge contracts with the defense department domestically, so maybe they see their path to continued thievery on the home front.  

crossposted from unbossed

Longtime unbossed readers will know that highway privatization has been one of our themes. They will remember the 2005 Roads Scholars series (with a link on the right column) that revealed the existence of a noncompete agreement as part of the Denver E-470 deal and laid out issues commonly part of highway privatization. Over the years since then, we have returned to this issue, and now it's time to look at Pennsylvania and the Turnpike privatization deal.

An internal audit of some $8 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud, in some cases lacking even basic invoices explaining how the money was spent.

Audit: 98% Of Iraq Contractors Failed To Comply With Fraud Regulations

Unbelievable. The IRS puts the screws to any little guy for the slightest infraction...oh, except big companies that it costs too much in time and money to track down...BUT...THERE'S NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE US GOVT IN RUNNING IT'S WAR ON OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!

I would love to think that my personal tax dollars are going to, say, the GI bill, Medicare, or even some form of school improvement initiative. I wouldn't even mind my dollars being used to assist the military in acquiring the proper armor for our troops...but this is unforgivable.

Something needs to be done.

The New York Times has an article up detailing the Army's lack of oversight and accountability regarding both taxpayer dollars and Iraqi funds used to pay contracts in Iraq.  Rep. Waxman, and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had a hearing today regarding an internal Pentagon audit.

A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

...almost none of the payments [made by the Army] followed federal rules and ... in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

... not exactly chump change.  More over the flip.