Mission & Justice

Nick Turse; 14/5/08

In April, a review of 2006 congressional financial disclosure statements by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that lawmakers have as much as $196 million “invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war.” An Associated Press article on the report, however, offered a caveat: “Not all the companies invested in by lawmakers are typical defense contractors. Corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts.” But the Associated Press is wrong. The fact is that corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson are, indeed, typical defense contractors. To suggest that such companies, and tens of thousands like them, receive defense-related contracts only at the odd, aberrant moment is specious at best. In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous farewell address as president, warned of the “acquisition of unwarranted influence” by what he called the “military-industrial complex” in the United States.

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8/5/08

Iraqis employed at the British embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone claim to have been sexually abused, the Times has reported. The British Foreign Office has received complaints from an Iraqi cleaner and two cooks that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists at the embassy, the report said Thursday. Accusations have been made against British employees of the US service company KBR which was responsible for catering at several embassies in Baghdad.

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30/4/08

A second US military aircraft carrier has been placed in the Gulf as a “reminder” of the country’s power in the region. Robert Gates, the US secretary of state, made the comments on a trip to Mexico City on Tuesday, but added that the addition was temporary. He said that the move was not an escalation of US forces in the region or a precursor to military action against Iran. “This deployment has been planned for a long time,” he said. I don’t think we’ll have two carriers there for a protracted period of time. So I don’t see it as an escalation. “I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder.”

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Brendan Nicholson; 12/4/08

An Australian-Controlled company whose employees killed three Iraqi civilians in Iraq is employed by the Australian Defence Force to provide building materials for projects in Afghanistan. Unity Resources staff were involved in the shooting of two women, Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal, in Baghdad in October, 2007 and in the slaying of 72-year-old university professor Kays Juma in March 2006. Professor Juma, an Australian permanent resident, spent much of his time in Baghdad with his Australian wife, Barbara. He was shot dead when he failed to stop at a checkpoint. The Seven Network reported last night that Unity Resources, run by former Australian soldiers, had been paid more than $750,000 for a series of defence contracts. The ADF responded that Unity Resources provided logistical support to Australian forces in Afghanistan and was not employed in a security role. Its task was to obtain and deliver construction materials.

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Suzanne Gamboa; 11/4/08;
A woman who says she was raped while working for a foreign contractor in Iraq has detailed the experience in a congressional hearing as another woman who made similar allegations before Congress last year listened and fought back tears.

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