Is big business bad for 'our boys'?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first privatised war

Private contractors are carving up defence procurement. Nick Mathiason reports on a military coup

Sunday March 2, 2003
The Observer

More than 40,000 British troops are bracing themselves for action in the Gulf. 'Our Boys' are backed by hundreds of tanks, fighter jets and warships in what is the UK's biggest military build-up since the Falklands conflict.
But any imminent action against Iraq will be historic for another reason. This could be the last war fought by British armed forces predominantly in the public sector. The Ministry of Defence is poised to enter into a welter of partnerships with business, ushering in the most fundamental shake-up of the military for more than 100 years.

Entire training, logistics and supply operations are set to be hived off to big business in the most far-reaching intrusion of the private sector into what was considered the state's preserve. More than 900 procedural reviews by MoD officials and consultants are coming to a head. There are strong indications from within the ministry and unions that a shift is under way from the armed forces' procurement body being a 'decider and provider' of logistic support to an 'intelligent decider' that may contract out most requirements,.

The Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), which costs £6 billion a year - a quarter of the MoD's budget - is responsible for providing supplies such as arms, food and aircraft. It is the prime candidate for a radical shift away from traditional procurement.

Advised by McKinsey since last summer, a recently published DLO strategic plan said that to achieve its vision would require it to 'leverage industrial capacity and shape our relationship with industry'.

The shift will be welcomed by companies such as Compass and Sodexho, which provide food services, and a host of defence contractors.

Training of troops is the other main area of focus. BAE Systems and VT Group, the shipbuilder and defence PFI specialist, along with Thales and a number of building firms, are set to benefit hugely from lucrative new contracts. Training schools for the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are now separate, but they are set to amalgamate in what could be a property bonanza.

Most controversially, perhaps, management of the armed forces' secret files - which cover Northern Ireland, the Gulf war and a host of sensitive and historic areas - is set to be handed over to a private contractor. Two private firms are vying to take on the contract, move staff from west London to the North and computerise the records.

Alarm bells are ringing about Britain's fighting capability being fatally compromised by wide-ranging privatisation. Critics point to recent MoD procurement from the private sector as the shape of things to come, and list a number of botched or delayed key projects :

· Most glaring is the scandal over the multi-million-pound upgrade of RAF Nimrod aircraft, which suffered a setback because the wings built by BAE were the wrong size. Nimrods are used for reconnaissance and submarine hunting and have been deployed in every significant British military operation in the past 30 years. Not this one, though.

· New Apache helicopters, costing £27m each, are being mothballed at a cost of £6m. The National Audit Office (NAO) last November found pilot training was messed up because of an attempt to introduce competition into the regime, which cost an extra £34m. The helicopters are absent from the Gulf deployment.

· The SA80 rifle, once feted as the ultimate assault weapon, was the target of widespread complaints by soldiers. Made by BAE, it could not be fired in the left-handed position because ejected rounds hit the firer in the face, it was difficult to maintain in bad weather and the magazine fell out when carried against the body. The faults have since been corrected, according to the MoD.

· Halliburton, the oil and defence combine that US vice-president Dick Cheney worked for, was contracted to rebuild Devonport dockyard in Plymouth. Last December, an NAO report said the price had escalated from £505m to £933m and could be a lot more.

· Britain's Gulf build-up has already been dogged by supply shortages and equipment failures. Ten days ago it emerged that troops in Kuwait are so short of rations they are being sent food parcels by their families. Basics such as desert boots are unavailable. There are even reports of shortages of toilet paper.

'It was horrific logistical debacles during the Crimean War in 1854 and the Boer War in the early 1900s which forced government to take overall responsibility for procuring supplies and co-ordinating military training,' said Dean Rogers, negotiations officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents thousands of civil servants currently working in the armed services. 'Now there is a serious risk that this is all being unwound and the implications are truly frightening.'

Senior officers have voiced doubts in private about the imminent shift. They are training a searchlight at beleaguered Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, and asking if he is aware of the magnitude of the reviews undertaken by his department.

One prominent officer who contacted The Observer despaired at the prospect of a carve-up. 'The Army spent £3bn on Apache fighter helicopters. Training the pilots was a contract given to the private sector. The helicopters are ready but there are no pilots. They haven't been trained and I don't think they'll be ready for at least three years. This is a shambles. And yet the indications are the ministry is proceeding with wholesale privatisation.'

Last week six trade unions issued a joint statement responding to what they see as a 'revolution'. They concluded: 'Despite the assurance that the McKinsey report is not itself the basis for an implementation strategy, we can hardly ignore the view it expressed that DLO could reduce staff by 20-40 per cent... The supply chain has been rationalised and it seems those savings now merely form the baseline against which further private-sector involvement will deliver.'

In addition, unions responsible for Britain's 90,000-strong fighting force say the criteria for offering vast tranches of work in contracts worth billions of pounds are skewed in favour of business at the expense of in-house alternatives.

The MoD has been one of privatisation's standard bearers following the sale of Royal Ordnance in the early 1980s. It is now set to go into uncharted territory with everything bar its core competence up for grabs. A ministry spokesman said it had a duty to ensure value for money. It was not predisposed to privatisation but reform was necessary. 'We certainly don't accept our policies are daft, damaging and demoralising,' a spokesman said.

Hoon may be used to being vilified following flak over his decision to take a half-term family skiiing holiday as troops were being deployed to the Gulf. But as the MoD quick-steps into a new era, a new front against Hoon could be opening up among his own staff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,905673,00.html

Cheney cobra de una empresa contratada por el Pentágono




EL PERIÓDICO
LONDRES

La empresa Halliburton, que trabaja para el Pentágono, sigue pagando al vicepresidente de EEUU, Dick Cheney, casi un millón de euros anuales (166 millones de pesetas) por "compensaciones atrasadas", según consta en la declaración patrimonial del 2001 del segundo de George Bush.
Según informó ayer el diario británico The Guardian, Cheney, que abandonó Halliburton en el 2000, optó por recibir una indemnización durante cinco años para pagar menos impuestos.
El Pentágono rechazó ayer que existiera relación entre la presencia de Cheney en la empresa y el elevado número de contratos que ésta obtuvo de las Fuerzas Armadas. Halliburton, a través de su filial Kellog, Brown and Root, logró un contrato para extinguir los incendios en los pozos de petróleo iraquís si Sadam recurre a esta estratagema. Esa compañía se encargó de construir el campo de detención de Guantánamo, que costó 33 millones de euros. Halliburton fue elegida a dedo por la Administración de Bush para el proyecto de reconstrucción de Irak, dotado con 900 millones de euros.















Noticia publicada en la página 4 de la edición de Jueves, 13 de marzo de 2003 de El Periódico - edición impresa. Para ver la página completa, descargue el archivo en formato PDF

http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=5&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=32825&idseccio_PK=4&h=030313



> Ehécatl ha escrito:
> Is big business bad for 'our boys'?
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The first privatised war
>
> Private contractors are carving up defence procurement. Nick Mathiason reports on a military coup
>
> Sunday March 2, 2003
> The Observer
>
> More than 40,000 British troops are bracing themselves for action in the Gulf. 'Our Boys' are backed by hundreds of tanks, fighter jets and warships in what is the UK's biggest military build-up since the Falklands conflict.
> But any imminent action against Iraq will be historic for another reason. This could be the last war fought by British armed forces predominantly in the public sector. The Ministry of Defence is poised to enter into a welter of partnerships with business, ushering in the most fundamental shake-up of the military for more than 100 years.
>
> Entire training, logistics and supply operations are set to be hived off to big business in the most far-reaching intrusion of the private sector into what was considered the state's preserve. More than 900 procedural reviews by MoD officials and consultants are coming to a head. There are strong indications from within the ministry and unions that a shift is under way from the armed forces' procurement body being a 'decider and provider' of logistic support to an 'intelligent decider' that may contract out most requirements,.
>
> The Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), which costs £6 billion a year - a quarter of the MoD's budget - is responsible for providing supplies such as arms, food and aircraft. It is the prime candidate for a radical shift away from traditional procurement.
>
> Advised by McKinsey since last summer, a recently published DLO strategic plan said that to achieve its vision would require it to 'leverage industrial capacity and shape our relationship with industry'.
>
> The shift will be welcomed by companies such as Compass and Sodexho, which provide food services, and a host of defence contractors.
>
> Training of troops is the other main area of focus. BAE Systems and VT Group, the shipbuilder and defence PFI specialist, along with Thales and a number of building firms, are set to benefit hugely from lucrative new contracts. Training schools for the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are now separate, but they are set to amalgamate in what could be a property bonanza.
>
> Most controversially, perhaps, management of the armed forces' secret files - which cover Northern Ireland, the Gulf war and a host of sensitive and historic areas - is set to be handed over to a private contractor. Two private firms are vying to take on the contract, move staff from west London to the North and computerise the records.
>
> Alarm bells are ringing about Britain's fighting capability being fatally compromised by wide-ranging privatisation. Critics point to recent MoD procurement from the private sector as the shape of things to come, and list a number of botched or delayed key projects :
>
> · Most glaring is the scandal over the multi-million-pound upgrade of RAF Nimrod aircraft, which suffered a setback because the wings built by BAE were the wrong size. Nimrods are used for reconnaissance and submarine hunting and have been deployed in every significant British military operation in the past 30 years. Not this one, though.
>
> · New Apache helicopters, costing £27m each, are being mothballed at a cost of £6m. The National Audit Office (NAO) last November found pilot training was messed up because of an attempt to introduce competition into the regime, which cost an extra £34m. The helicopters are absent from the Gulf deployment.
>
> · The SA80 rifle, once feted as the ultimate assault weapon, was the target of widespread complaints by soldiers. Made by BAE, it could not be fired in the left-handed position because ejected rounds hit the firer in the face, it was difficult to maintain in bad weather and the magazine fell out when carried against the body. The faults have since been corrected, according to the MoD.
>
> · Halliburton, the oil and defence combine that US vice-president Dick Cheney worked for, was contracted to rebuild Devonport dockyard in Plymouth. Last December, an NAO report said the price had escalated from £505m to £933m and could be a lot more.
>
> · Britain's Gulf build-up has already been dogged by supply shortages and equipment failures. Ten days ago it emerged that troops in Kuwait are so short of rations they are being sent food parcels by their families. Basics such as desert boots are unavailable. There are even reports of shortages of toilet paper.
>
> 'It was horrific logistical debacles during the Crimean War in 1854 and the Boer War in the early 1900s which forced government to take overall responsibility for procuring supplies and co-ordinating military training,' said Dean Rogers, negotiations officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents thousands of civil servants currently working in the armed services. 'Now there is a serious risk that this is all being unwound and the implications are truly frightening.'
>
> Senior officers have voiced doubts in private about the imminent shift. They are training a searchlight at beleaguered Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, and asking if he is aware of the magnitude of the reviews undertaken by his department.
>
> One prominent officer who contacted The Observer despaired at the prospect of a carve-up. 'The Army spent £3bn on Apache fighter helicopters. Training the pilots was a contract given to the private sector. The helicopters are ready but there are no pilots. They haven't been trained and I don't think they'll be ready for at least three years. This is a shambles. And yet the indications are the ministry is proceeding with wholesale privatisation.'
>
> Last week six trade unions issued a joint statement responding to what they see as a 'revolution'. They concluded: 'Despite the assurance that the McKinsey report is not itself the basis for an implementation strategy, we can hardly ignore the view it expressed that DLO could reduce staff by 20-40 per cent... The supply chain has been rationalised and it seems those savings now merely form the baseline against which further private-sector involvement will deliver.'
>
> In addition, unions responsible for Britain's 90,000-strong fighting force say the criteria for offering vast tranches of work in contracts worth billions of pounds are skewed in favour of business at the expense of in-house alternatives.
>
> The MoD has been one of privatisation's standard bearers following the sale of Royal Ordnance in the early 1980s. It is now set to go into uncharted territory with everything bar its core competence up for grabs. A ministry spokesman said it had a duty to ensure value for money. It was not predisposed to privatisation but reform was necessary. 'We certainly don't accept our policies are daft, damaging and demoralising,' a spokesman said.
>
> Hoon may be used to being vilified following flak over his decision to take a half-term family skiiing holiday as troops were being deployed to the Gulf. But as the MoD quick-steps into a new era, a new front against Hoon could be opening up among his own staff.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,905673,00.html

Global Eye -- BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
29.03.2003 [06:19]

*http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=961&sesid=2

Before the first cruise missile crushed the first skull of the first child killed in the first installment of George W. Bush's crusade for world dominion, the unelected plutocrats occupying the White House were already plying their corporate cronies with fat contracts to "repair" the murderous devastation they were about to unleash on Iraq. There was, of course, no open bidding allowed in the process; just a few "selected" companies -- selected for their preponderance of campaign bribes to the Bushist Party, that is -- "invited" to submit their wish lists to the War Profiteer-in-Chief?.

It should come as no surprise that one of the leading beneficiaries of this hugger-mugger largess is our old friend, Halliburton Corp., the military-energy servicing conglomerate. Halliburton, headed by Vice Profiteer Dick Cheney until the Bushist coup d'etat in 2000, is already reaping billions from the Bush wars -- which Cheney himself says "might not end in our lifetime."

Cheney is an old hand at this kind of death merchanting, of course. In the first Bush-Iraq? War, Cheney, playing the role now filled by Don Rumsfeld -- a squinting, smirking, lying Secretary of Defense -- directed the massacre of some 100,000 Iraqis, many of whom were buried alive, or machine-gunned while retreating along the "Highway of Death," or annihilated in sneak attacks launched after a ceasefire had been called. When George I and his triumphant conquerors were unceremoniously booted out of office less than two years later by that radical fringe group so hated by the Bushists -- the American people -- Cheney made a soft landing at Halliburton.

There, he grew rich on government contracts and taxpayer-supported credits doled out by his old pals in the military-industrial complex. He also hooked up with attractive foreign partners -- like Saddam Hussein, the "worse-than-Hitler" dictator who paid Cheney $73 million to rebuild the oil fields that had been destroyed by, er, Dick Cheney. And while the Halliburton honcho became a multimillionaire many times over, some of his employees were not so lucky -- Cheney ashcanned more than 10,000 workers during his boardroom reign. (At least, he didn't bury them alive.)

Old news, you say? Irrelevant to the current crisis? Surely, now that Cheney has been translated to glory as the nation's second-highest public servant, he is beyond any taint of grubby material concerns? Au contraire, as those ever-dastardly French like to say. At this very moment, while the smoke is still rising from the rubble of Baghdad, while the bodies of the unburied dead are still rotting in the desert wastes, Dick Cheney is receiving $1 million a year in so-called "deferred compensation" from Halliburton. That's a million smackers from a private company that profits directly from the mass slaughter in Iraq, going into the pockets of the "public servant" who is, as the sycophantic media never tires of telling us, the power behind George W.'s throne -- and a prime architect of the war.

This is money that Cheney wouldn't get if Halliburton went down the tubes -- a prospect it faced in the early days of the Regime, due to a boneheaded merger engineered by its former CEO, a guy named, er, Dick Cheney. In a deal apparently sealed during a golf game with an old crony, Cheney acquired a subsidiary, Dresser Industries -- a firm associated with the Bush family for more than 70 years -- which was facing billions of dollars in liability claims for its unsafe use of asbestos. Dresser's bigwigs doubtless made out like bandits from the deal, and Cheney left the mess behind when the grateful Bushes put him on the presidential ticket, but there was serious concern that Halliburton itself would be forced into bankruptcy -- unless it found massive new sources of secure funding to offset the financial "shock and awe" of the asbestos lawsuits.

Then lo and behold, after Sept. 11, Halliburton received a multibillion-dollar, open-ended, no-bid contract to build and service U.S. military bases and operations all over the world. It also won several shorter-term contracts, such as expanding the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, where the Regime is holding unnamed, uncharged suspected terrorists in violation of the Geneva Convention. With this fountain of federal money pouring into its coffers -- and Bushist operatives in Congress pushing legislation to restrict asbestos lawsuits -- Halliburton was able to hammer out a surprisingly favorable settlement deal with the asbestos victims. The company -- and Cheney's million-dollar paychecks -- were saved. Praise Allah!

Halliburton is just the tip of the slagheap, of course. Daddy Bush's popsicle stand, the Carlyle Group -- which controls a vast network of defense firms and "security" operations around the world -- is also panning gold from the streams of blood pouring down the ancient tracks of Babylon. Junior Bush -- who like a kept woman made his own influence-peddling fortune through services rendered to a series of sugar daddies -- has conveniently gutted the national inheritance tax, swelling his own eventual bottom line when his father joins the legions of Panamanian, Iranian, Afghan, Iraqi -- and American -- dead he and his son have sent down to Sheol.

Never in American history has a group of government leaders profited so directly from war -- never. Like their brothers-in-arms, Saddam's Baathists, the Bushists treat their own country like a sacked town, looting the treasury for their family retainers and turning public policy to private gain. Like Saddam, they feed on fear and glorify aggression. Like Saddam, they have dishonored their nation and betrayed its people.

But the money sure is good, eh, Dick?
http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=961&sesid=2

Chris Floyd/The Moscow Times


http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=961&sesid=2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Ehécatl ha escrito:
> Is big business bad for 'our boys'?
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The first privatised war
>
> Private contractors are carving up defence procurement. Nick Mathiason reports on a military coup
>
> Sunday March 2, 2003
> The Observer
>
> More than 40,000 British troops are bracing themselves for action in the Gulf. 'Our Boys' are backed by hundreds of tanks, fighter jets and warships in what is the UK's biggest military build-up since the Falklands conflict.
> But any imminent action against Iraq will be historic for another reason. This could be the last war fought by British armed forces predominantly in the public sector. The Ministry of Defence is poised to enter into a welter of partnerships with business, ushering in the most fundamental shake-up of the military for more than 100 years.
>
> Entire training, logistics and supply operations are set to be hived off to big business in the most far-reaching intrusion of the private sector into what was considered the state's preserve. More than 900 procedural reviews by MoD officials and consultants are coming to a head. There are strong indications from within the ministry and unions that a shift is under way from the armed forces' procurement body being a 'decider and provider' of logistic support to an 'intelligent decider' that may contract out most requirements,.
>
> The Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), which costs £6 billion a year - a quarter of the MoD's budget - is responsible for providing supplies such as arms, food and aircraft. It is the prime candidate for a radical shift away from traditional procurement.
>
> Advised by McKinsey since last summer, a recently published DLO strategic plan said that to achieve its vision would require it to 'leverage industrial capacity and shape our relationship with industry'.
>
> The shift will be welcomed by companies such as Compass and Sodexho, which provide food services, and a host of defence contractors.
>
> Training of troops is the other main area of focus. BAE Systems and VT Group, the shipbuilder and defence PFI specialist, along with Thales and a number of building firms, are set to benefit hugely from lucrative new contracts. Training schools for the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are now separate, but they are set to amalgamate in what could be a property bonanza.
>
> Most controversially, perhaps, management of the armed forces' secret files - which cover Northern Ireland, the Gulf war and a host of sensitive and historic areas - is set to be handed over to a private contractor. Two private firms are vying to take on the contract, move staff from west London to the North and computerise the records.
>
> Alarm bells are ringing about Britain's fighting capability being fatally compromised by wide-ranging privatisation. Critics point to recent MoD procurement from the private sector as the shape of things to come, and list a number of botched or delayed key projects :
>
> · Most glaring is the scandal over the multi-million-pound upgrade of RAF Nimrod aircraft, which suffered a setback because the wings built by BAE were the wrong size. Nimrods are used for reconnaissance and submarine hunting and have been deployed in every significant British military operation in the past 30 years. Not this one, though.
>
> · New Apache helicopters, costing £27m each, are being mothballed at a cost of £6m. The National Audit Office (NAO) last November found pilot training was messed up because of an attempt to introduce competition into the regime, which cost an extra £34m. The helicopters are absent from the Gulf deployment.
>
> · The SA80 rifle, once feted as the ultimate assault weapon, was the target of widespread complaints by soldiers. Made by BAE, it could not be fired in the left-handed position because ejected rounds hit the firer in the face, it was difficult to maintain in bad weather and the magazine fell out when carried against the body. The faults have since been corrected, according to the MoD.
>
> · Halliburton, the oil and defence combine that US vice-president Dick Cheney worked for, was contracted to rebuild Devonport dockyard in Plymouth. Last December, an NAO report said the price had escalated from £505m to £933m and could be a lot more.
>
> · Britain's Gulf build-up has already been dogged by supply shortages and equipment failures. Ten days ago it emerged that troops in Kuwait are so short of rations they are being sent food parcels by their families. Basics such as desert boots are unavailable. There are even reports of shortages of toilet paper.
>
> 'It was horrific logistical debacles during the Crimean War in 1854 and the Boer War in the early 1900s which forced government to take overall responsibility for procuring supplies and co-ordinating military training,' said Dean Rogers, negotiations officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents thousands of civil servants currently working in the armed services. 'Now there is a serious risk that this is all being unwound and the implications are truly frightening.'
>
> Senior officers have voiced doubts in private about the imminent shift. They are training a searchlight at beleaguered Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, and asking if he is aware of the magnitude of the reviews undertaken by his department.
>
> One prominent officer who contacted The Observer despaired at the prospect of a carve-up. 'The Army spent £3bn on Apache fighter helicopters. Training the pilots was a contract given to the private sector. The helicopters are ready but there are no pilots. They haven't been trained and I don't think they'll be ready for at least three years. This is a shambles. And yet the indications are the ministry is proceeding with wholesale privatisation.'
>
> Last week six trade unions issued a joint statement responding to what they see as a 'revolution'. They concluded: 'Despite the assurance that the McKinsey report is not itself the basis for an implementation strategy, we can hardly ignore the view it expressed that DLO could reduce staff by 20-40 per cent... The supply chain has been rationalised and it seems those savings now merely form the baseline against which further private-sector involvement will deliver.'
>
> In addition, unions responsible for Britain's 90,000-strong fighting force say the criteria for offering vast tranches of work in contracts worth billions of pounds are skewed in favour of business at the expense of in-house alternatives.
>
> The MoD has been one of privatisation's standard bearers following the sale of Royal Ordnance in the early 1980s. It is now set to go into uncharted territory with everything bar its core competence up for grabs. A ministry spokesman said it had a duty to ensure value for money. It was not predisposed to privatisation but reform was necessary. 'We certainly don't accept our policies are daft, damaging and demoralising,' a spokesman said.
>
> Hoon may be used to being vilified following flak over his decision to take a half-term family skiiing holiday as troops were being deployed to the Gulf. But as the MoD quick-steps into a new era, a new front against Hoon could be opening up among his own staff.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,905673,00.html