PTI’s Tom Dempsey – Martyr? Or Just Another Unethical Cop?

It's disgusting that anyone aspires to being an academic has any relationship with mercenary organizations at any level. Check out the latest report on Blackwater and its ilk.

The Mercenary Revolution: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities

It's even more disturbing that there is any involvement by police, police educators, or police agencies with mercenaries. Too many of the police already see themselves as a force answerable to no one except their own. That's not democracy -- it's fascism.

"I'm here because war is wrong. But war for profit is just plain evil."

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

"Our corporate goal is to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the Postal Service."
- Erik Prince CEO of Blackwater USA

As the war in Iraq continues and the US Congress sheepishly debates withdrawal dates and timelines, it would do all of us good to understand the growing significance of private mercenaries, also known as private security forces. Few people have done as much investigation into this growing phenomenon as has Jeremy Scahill. He has been reporting and writing on the use of private mercenaries in Iraq and New Orleans in The Nation magazine and for Democracy Now! His book on the largest private mercenary firm, Blackwater, comes at a time when the anti-war movement needs a more sophisticated analysis of the US war in Iraq and the so-called War on Terrorism.

The founder and CEO of Blackwater is Erik Prince, son of Edgar Prince, the now deceased businessman from Holland, Michigan. Prince's background as a Western Michigander is not just limited to geography, the brother of Betsy DeVos has also embraced the conservative religious beliefs that his family promoted zealous, particularly with their money. Erik began his political career working as an intern for Gary Bauer at the Family Research Council and also worked in the Bush I White House, although he thought that this administration was too liberal. Prince disapproved of the Bush I administration to the extent that in 1992 he supported Patrick Buchanan for President, something that got him into trouble with his sister Betsy.

Unlike his family, which is part of the Christian Reformed Church, Erik Prince is a Catholic. He most likely became Catholic when he married his first wife, who died of cancer shortly after they were married. Interestingly enough, most of the leadership at Blackwater is also Catholic, albeit a conservative wing of the church that is quite reactionary. Erik Prince is personally connected to conservative Catholic groups like Catholic Answer, Crisis magazine, and a Grand Rapids-based group, the Acton Institute. But Prince has not abandoned his Protestant/Evangelical roots and is a close friend of Watergate criminal turned believer Chuck Colson. They have shared the podium on several occasions, even once at Calvin College. According to Scahill, Prince is aligning himself with a new Catholic/Evangelical alliance called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." The ECT manifesto states:

"The century now drawing to a close has been the greatest century of missionary expansion in Christian history. We pray and we believe that this expansion has prepared the way for yet greater missionary endeavor in the first century of the Third Millennium. The two communities in world Christianity that are most evangelistically assertive and most rapidly growing are Evangelicals and Catholics."

Prince's relationship to what Scahill calls the "Theocon" movement is not marginal. Prince himself writes about this relationship and it's importance, particularly with the mission of Blackwater. Prince says "Everybody carries guns, just like the Prophet Jeremiah rebuilding the temple in Israel - a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other."

The bulk of the book, however, is devoted to an understanding of Prince's creation known as Blackwater. Prince was a Navy Seal himself during the 1990s and felt that security issues were paramount for the future of the US. Blackwater was created in 1997, but its growth was influenced by several events in the years following. The first major event to propel Blackwater to the forefront of the "security" debate was the school shootings at Columbine in 1999. Blackwater responded by building a training facility called "R U Ready High" and that became a major training center for local law enforcement training on rapid response to such incidents. The second event was the attack against the USS Cole in October of 2000. With Prince's connection to the Navy, he was able to negotiate a contract worth $35.7 million to conduct "force protection training." However, the biggest incident that propelled Blackwater to its current status were the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Blackwater was quickly providing training and gaining contracts with the FBI, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Treasury and even the Department of Health and Human Services. These connections eventually led to the agency's work in Iraq, which landed them their most high profile contract - guarding Paul Bremer in Iraq. This no-bid contract was worth $27.7 million that included "personal security detail and two helicopters for Bremer." Not surprising, Bremer is also Catholic and has maintained an intimate relationship with Prince and Blackwater even after his reign in Iraq. This symbiotic relationship led Bremer to create Order 17 as his last political act in Iraq. Order 17 in effect protects those in the private mercenary business from being prosecuted from any wrongdoing. Once Blackwater made a name for themselves in Iraq business really took off.

Then Fallujah happened. Several Blackwater contractors were killed in what Scahill documents as a botched mission. This didn't stop the administration and Blackwater in using the Blackwater deaths as justification for a massive military assault on that city just after the 2004 Presidential election. Blackwater used the incident to hire its first lobbyist, Paul Behrends, from the Republican lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group.Here Prince's religious right connection paid off. Behrends was on the board of Christian Freedom International (CFI) with Prince for years. The CFI was founded by veterans from the Reagan administration, many of who were "major players in the Iran-Contra scandal." This lobbying certainly paid off.

Blackwater was able to expand in step with where US foreign policy interest lay. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, the US set up military bases in the Caspian region. In Azerbaijan, Blackwater "would be tasked with establishing and training an elite Azeri force modeled after the US Navy SEALs that would ultimately protect the interests of the US and its allies in a hostile region." This all occurred during a time when the US State Department said there were "restriction[s] on the right of citizens to peacefully change their government; torture and beating of persons in custody; arbitrary arrests and detention, particularly of political opponents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations; and police impunity."

This constant growth for Blackwater posed a problem, in that they were not able to keep up with the growing demand for training and providing mercenary forces for "security duty." Again Prince turned to his past connections. He was stationed for a period of time in Chile while in the US military. It was here that he tapped into another military source. Jose Miguel Pizarro was an ex-military man in Chile that Prince knew. Pizarro, an ardent defender of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinichet eventually became Blackwater's main recruiter for mercenaries from Latin America. Soon, other Chilean mercenaries, Colombians and Hondurans would become contract workers for Blackwater in Iraq. This raises interesting questions about the type of people that Blackwater employs, considering many of them have worked as part of military or Para-military organizations with brutal track records.

Blackwater was also able to tap into veterans of the US intelligence community. Cofer Black a 37-year veteran of the CIA, was hired by Blackwater in February of 2005 as the company's vice chairman. Black had been appointed by Bush as his "coordinator of counterterrorism, with the rank of at large ambassador at the State Department." Soon after that the company scored another big insider in the person of Joseph Schmitz. Schmitz, before joining Blackwater was tasked with the job of overseeing all war contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Schmitz, whose connection to war profiteers was well known, determined after his investigation that "there was no wrong doing" with any of the private contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan. For those who have seen the documentary Iraq for Sale, you know this to be a bold lie. Shortly after Schmitz exonerated his friends in the war profiting industry he announced that he was going to work for Blackwater.

Schmitz is also part of the inner circle of Theocons with Prince. In a 2004 speech Schmitz said "No American today should ever doubt that we hold ourselves accountable to the rule of law under God. Here lies the fundamental difference between us and the terrorists." Schmitz is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, "a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems." In addition, Schmitz is a devotee to someone who fought alongside of George Washington, the Prussian militarist Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben. "Von Steuben is one of four men often cited by Blackwater officials as founding mercenaries of the United States." Erik Prince and the other Blackwater leadership, like Joseph Schmitz, think they are following in that tradition.

As Scahill's book was going to press he noted that Blackwater is now in the process of building 2 more facilities in the US - Illinois and California - and a jungle training facility in the Philippines. Those of us who are trying to have a healthy analysis of the US war in Iraq, the War on Terrorism and US foreign policy in general, would do well to read this book.

Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, (Nation Books, 2007).

From:
http://www.mediamouse.org/reviews/041307black.php

Tags: Blackwater, Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos, Dick DeVos, Michigan, Iraq, military, defense contractors, Henry Waxman, Kenneth Starr, Jack Abramoff, corruption, Supreme Court, conservatives, Republicans, George W. Bush (all tags)

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The Dark Crusade

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One would think that the UI Board of Trustees would engage in more extensive due diligence before signing memorandums of understandings with the likes of Blackwater. Who dropped the ball on this for the BOT is something that should also be investigated. Dempsey's poor ethical judgment is obviously not the only problem here.

The impeachments of Bush/Cheney seem to be fully unavoidable and fully overdue. The fascism has been flourishing in the country since 9/11.

Blackwater West

You would never imagine that California would need or want a Blackwater mercenary training facility. And you’d be right: California and the residents near where Blackwater wants to set up shop really don’t want Blackwater. After all, the Marines at Pendleton, a few miles down the road, keep us pretty safe.

Blackwater West, as they call it, will be created and run by the same folks who brought us four dead Americans with corpses strung up from a bridge in Fallujah. But as with so much else Blackwater does, the wishes of the people matter not one whit. It’s all about a buck and the ideology of fear.

Thursday night, KNBC spent nearly eight minutes of its thirty minute news program shining a bright light on this secretive, privately held company’s plans to set up an 824 acre training facility in East San Diego County. If seeing is believing, then have a look. The piece was a few months in the making and caught producer Frank Snepp’s attention because of his own CIA background and because 3,500 members of Courage Campaign here in California have petitioned our senators and Governor to stop this insidious band of rogues before they stop civil society in our state.

Blackwater thrives on secrecy and when you read and watch what’s going on with them, you see why. A year ago, Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films pried open the gates, just a little bit, with Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. In that film, we met the families who survived the brutal deaths of those four Blackwater employees sent into Fallujah without proper armaments, personnel or even a map. The families have been seeking legal redress for two years now, but Blackwater hired the best of the privateers, none other than Ken Starr, that paragon of justice, to help them keep their dirt out of the public view.

And then Jeremy Scahill wrote an entire book about Blackwater, which curled the few locks of hair I have left. But it goes on. On May 30, as reported in the Washington Post, Blackwater shot and killed an innocent Iraqi driver. The result? More ill will toward the United States soldiers fighting bravely daily and ironically more contracts for Blackwater.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Chicago says, “I understand this is war, but that’s absolutely no excuse for letting this very large force of armed private employees, dare I say mercenaries, run around without any accountability to anyone.” Schakowsky got an amendment into this next year’s defense appropriations bill to make such firms at least somewhat accountable, a new idea for Blackwater.

It’ll take years, if not decades, for the United States to recover from the ills this war in Iraq wrought. But, we can begin at home. We simply cannot allow Blackwater to set up shop in California. Conspiracy theorists often force odd fact patterns into unsustainable conclusions. Blackwater’s plans are no theory. They already boast of the largest private army on the planet. They are building armed airships and heavily armored troop carriers. They have a huge training facility at their headquarters in North Carolina, another outside of Chicago and now this one planned for southern California. As KNBC reports, Blackwater itself says that it would like to provide security at our border, something hitherto always the province of federal authorities. And a former Blackwater senior executive works in the Schwarzenegger administration. The company’s vice chair, Cofer Black, serves as senior advisor to Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney and as our friends at AlterNet point out, now heads a new Blackwater division designed to privatize the CIA.

In the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina two years ago, Blackwater paramilitary personnel surfaced in New Orleans providing security. The only problem was, they had been neither invited nor hired. They were just there, toting machine guns, ready to do whatever they defined at the time as their jobs.

How long before we see Blackwater’s trained killers turning up in metropolitan Los Angeles after an earthquake or fire, uninvited, soliciting work? On May 1, 2007, we saw what happens when a well-trained police force gets out of control. Imagine what will happen if a bunch of former special operations soldiers, who are trained to kill show up in an urban setting. And then, say no to Blackwater. We can’t have them here. Not now. Not ever.

Rick Jacobs chaired Howard Dean’s 2003 presidential campaign in California. He is currently Chair and Founder of the Courage Campaign, a progressive political organization in California. He is also the Chair and Co-Founder of Brave New Films, the documentary film company. Jacobs was co-executive producer of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.

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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com">© 2007 Huffington Pos</a>

Lions Devour Christians in Weekend Rout
by Olga Bonfiglio

Last weekend was a tough one for the Christians who continued the struggle to maintain their spiritual legacy at the hands of the Lions who packed their defensive line with both the obfuscation of the Gospels and the utter disregard for the principles and responsibilities of a free and diverse democratic society. Look at these news items:

* A 15-year old girl was punitively dragged on her stomach from a rope tied to a van at Love Demonstrated Ministries’ boot camp near Corpus Christi because she failed to keep up with a running exercise. A retired U.S. Air Force instructor is the “commandant” of the camp that was created to “re-instill the values that have been lost in our society for a couple of generations, values such as discipline, morality, unity and integrity,” according to the camp’s Web site. The ministry is supported by both private and government funds amounting to $314,673 to operate the camp season of only 32 days with $278,549 going for salaries. Licensed camps in Texas are supposed to be at least 11 weeks long.

* At the last minute, the High Point Church, a nondenominational megachurch in Arlington, Texas, reneged on its offer to provide a memorial service for its deceased janitor, a Navy veteran of the first Gulf war, when staff members discovered he was gay. Because the church’s principles deem homosexuality a sin, the pastor feared that the membership would regard the memorial service an endorsement of the gay lifestyle.

* U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo in his quest for support from Religious Right Republicans at Iowa’s Straw Poll spewed out hate speech against minorities, immigrants, believers in evolution and even a foot washing sink installed in public bathrooms at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, which attracts significant numbers of Muslim students.

These stories illustrate the blatant hypocrisy and gall the Lions assume because they believe they have God on their side. They then denounce other people who have religious beliefs different from their own. These incredibly moralistic people believe that Americans have too much freedom (a là the 1960s) and not enough Jesus so they have advanced an agenda that is anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-science and anti-Constitution.

They also claim to be very patriotic so that’s why they call peace activists and anyone who disagrees with the president a traitor. During the research for my book I interviewed one Bush supporter who said that the war in Iraq was a good idea. “The world is coming to an end anyway,” she said, “we might as well get started.” For a long time I couldn’t understand her motivation but have since discovered that she is a Dominionist, one who is focused on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Armageddon, the end of the world-and salvation for believers like her. Dominionists see September 11, then, as an opportunity for a revitalized crusade against the infidel in the Middle East. There are 38 million Dominionists in our country or 12.5 percent of our population and they have gained a significant foothold in our government, our military and our courts.

Of course, the Dominionists are not the complete picture of religion’s influence on America. According to a worldwide study of 80 countries by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, the United States is one of the most religious countries in the world with about 46 percent of American adults attending church at least once a week, not counting weddings, funerals and christenings, compared with 14 percent of adults in Great Britain, 8 percent in France, 7 percent in Sweden and 4 percent in Japan. Yesterday Catholics celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (when the Blessed Mother is resurrected) and the Cathedral in my town was packed-for the noon Mass, the third Mass of the day!

Such a devotion to religion among Americans should have something to show for it but I’m afraid the Christian message has been lost in our quest to be rich, powerful and secure. For Christians the criteria for goodness are found in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5), where Jesus says: take care of the poor and suffering and those who can’t defend themselves as in “Blessed are the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the meek.” To do this, he says, we must seek justice and be merciful, truthful and peaceful. Another key text that is found not only in Christian texts but in Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and all the other major religions is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

These rules seem pretty straightforward, however, religious people oftentimes believe that once they are on board with the Lord, they are clean, clear, and comfortable from any danger of wrong-doing. Such arrogance will not save them from sin but such a focus on the hereafter will divert attention away from the people and the problems down here on earth. Actually, sin comes in two packages: sins against God and sins against the community. Ironically, the sins against God (idolatry, worship of other gods, keeping the Sabbath) seem a lot less harmless than the sins against the community (adultery, lying, stealing, killing, coveting). As for those people who hold positions of power, these sins against community have a great impact on large numbers of people so we need to be careful about who we elect as our leaders.

Upon being interviewed for his first book, former President Bill Clinton admitted that the great mistake of his presidency was his relationship with Monica Lewinsky “because I could.” The effect of his indiscretion took two years away from more important issues like the environment, health care, unemployment, education-and, in retrospect, handling terrorism in the world. Likewise, President George W. Bush has used September 11 and created the War on Terror with all its spin-offs because he could. His actions have resulted in the killing of hundreds of thousands of people, the displacement of a million Iraqis with unrest throughout the Middle East, the sell-off of our military to private companies, the downsizing of government services for Americans, especially the poor, the loss of a major American city, the continued deterioration of our infrastructure, a ruined national reputation, a Constitutional crisis, mistrust in government-and all this at in incredible waste of taxpayer dollars. Both of these men claim Christianity as their religion yet they committed these egregious offenses against the community, the nation.

How can we hold all these professed Christians accountable for their actions? Unfortunately, Jesus also warns us that those who follow his path will be criticized, laughed at, shunned and even persecuted by those who hold the power. We have seen that play out especially viciously with this administration. So the question for the Christian-or any religious person-who confronts an injustice in society is: am I going to speak truth to power or will I co-opt myself to the powerful. If we don’t act on the former option, I’m afraid we all will continue to be devoured by the Lions.

-----------------
Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq. She has written for several national magazines on the subjects of social justice and religion. Her website is www.OlgaBonfiglio.com.

WILL AM580 News is reporting that the University of Illinois canceled the contract between it and the Blackwater mercenary corporation as of last Wednesday, August 15, 2007. Chancellor Richard Herman sent a letter dated that day to Blackwater, calling it "inconsistent with university policy."

This raises the issue of whether it ever was approved by the University's Board of Trustees, as was previously reported in the media. Perhaps the BoT was so embarrassed about have been hornswoggled by PTI Director Tom Dempsey that it decided to order Chancellor Herman to cancel it without mentioning their role. This issue needs to be more fully explored, as their approval of it, if that is what occurred, raises significant issues about their process and oversight responsibility.

Whatever the case, Herman apparently indicated in the letter that Dempsey negotiated the contract tying the University to Blackwater for five years on his own "personal" initiative. Dempsey's future as head of PTI was not mentioned in the AM580 report, but one has to wonder whether the University would want to retain an administrator whose personal judgment and ethics is so questionable as to engage in such behavior and then to effectively "double-dip" his income with Blackwater's mercenaries while being on paid vacation from his job at the University.

The News-Gazette carried more info on the cancellation in this evening's edition.

Herman's letter to Blackwater stated, "The (memorandum of understanding) was entered into without the knowledge or consent of any campus official in the Police Training Institute direct reporting line. These same officials were not consulted during the development of the agreement and were bypassed during the approval process."

I guess that is what happens when you get mixed up with a disreputable outfit like Blackwater, who's used to doing business on the sly and without concern about what the public might think. They don't need no stinkin' badges!

Herman also requested that Blackwater "remove any reference to a partnership with the University of Illinois in all external communications." It's pretty clear that the university feels that its association with the mercenaries is pretty embarrassing, beyond the scandal involved in the contract itself.

UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler stated, "When it became apparent that the appropriate protocol had not been followed, we needed to step back and look at the big picture and make sure this agreement was in the best interests of the university."

Basically, what happened was that Dempsey's campus chain of command was through Institute of Aviation Director Tom Emanuel, then Provost Linda Katehi. They were bypassed by Dempsey in getting the contract approved when he apparently went to UI Comptroller Walter Knorr and Michele Thompson, secretary of the Board of Trustees, instead. The N-G noted "both are university-level employees, and not campus-based."

So does the BoT let their secretary make decisions? The N-G article seems to indicate that, since it doesn't mention that the BoT approved the contract, although past press reports indicated that it was approved at that level. Something smells about this beyond Dempsey. Maybe the BoT wants someone else lower down the food chain to take the fall on this one?

While I agree the "chief" had to go, I'm sure some of his supporters will be wondering what made that different, since the chain of command was pretty much bypassed by the Board of Trustees in that case, too. This mess gets curiouser and curiouser.

However, "as of this morning, Dempsey was still a university employee, Kaler said." A pool on how much longer Dempsey will be around sounds like a safer bet than the UI football team at this point.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-blackwater22aug22,0,5447853.story
chicagotribune.com
TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE
U. of I., military company cut ties
Possible conflict cited in ending pact with Blackwater

By E.A. Torriero and Jodi S. Cohen

Tribune staff reporters

August 22, 2007

The University of Illinois has canceled a partnership between its prestigious police-training institute and controversial military contractor Blackwater USA, citing a possible conflict of interest.University officials say the institute's director, Tom Dempsey, was not upfront about a personal agreement he made to work as a contractor for Blackwater, even as he planned the official partnership. The university continues to investigate the case while Dempsey remains on leave, using accrued vacation time to work for Blackwater in Afghanistan training local police in drug enforcement.

University officials began investigating the ties with Blackwater after a Tribune report in late July. Since then, the Tribune has obtained e-mails between Dempsey and other university employees showing he was arranging Blackwater's partnership with the university while putting a deal for himself into motion.

Dempsey also asked some of his employees at the institute not to talk about his work for Blackwater, according to e-mail printouts dating to April.

In separate e-mail correspondence with the Tribune, Dempsey said he does not see a conflict between his work in Afghanistan and his role in executing the partnership with Blackwater, a pact that allows the state institute and private contractor to exchange staff and students, share facilities and collaborate on training.

He says he went through the proper channels to obtain permission for each venture and did not try to deceive anybody.

But in a pointed exchange with Dempsey, university officials said that he did not meet his obligation to tell ranking officials the whole story.

"The facts are that you were negotiating both the [Blackwater partnership] and future employment with Blackwater at the same time and no one above you was informed of both of these relationships," Peg Rawles, an associate chancellor, said in a recent e-mail to Dempsey. "The chronology raises more questions than answers."

Documents obtained by the Tribune also show that Dempsey asked institute workers to cover up for him in his absence.

"How about a party line if anyone even inquires," Dempsey wrote to a colleague in May. "If anyone pins you down, not a problem being honest but I'd leave Blackwater's name out of the conversation."

After the Tribune began inquiring about Blackwater, Dempsey wrote to a colleague: "I am confident you did not tell anyone ... I was working for [Blackwater]."

In the letter to Blackwater ending the agreement, U. of. I. Chancellor Richard Herman said that it was entered into "in a manner which was inconsistent with university policy," without the knowledge or consent of anyone in the police training institute's direct reporting line.

University spokeswoman Robin Kaler said it was problematic that university officials who approved the training institute's agreement with Blackwater did not know about Dempsey's consulting job. The Blackwater agreement was executed through one branch of the university system while the vacation request was put in through another.

"When an administrator is asked to sign off on something like this, he or she needs to have the complete picture," Kaler said.

Kaler said university officials are reviewing ways to tighten approval procedures. They also are considering whether Dempsey, 58, will retain his $118,178 a year job.

A Blackwater spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

No money has been exchanged between the university and Blackwater, although Blackwater stood to gain prestige by partnering with the highly-regarded institute, located in Champaign.

Dempsey has claimed that the institute, which trains state police officers, would benefit from Blackwater's expertise in international law enforcement.

Dempsey's e-mails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, suggest he does not believe he withheld information from the university and he feels betrayed by officials who have not defended him publicly.

"If it wasn't for needing to support my family and clear my name I would tell the university to [expletive] themselves," Dempsey wrote in an Aug. 2 e-mail to three people, possibly colleagues or personal friends.

Dempsey told the Tribune that his work for Blackwater not only enhances the university's reputation in police training, but also fulfills a national agenda in protecting the country while helping U.S. allies.

"This opportunity is a once in a lifetime chance to play a small role in efforts to assist the Afghan police in addressing the opium problem that plagues their nation," he wrote.

Blackwater, which provides private paramilitary forces for America's war on terror, has become a lightning rod for anti-war passions. It is already facing controversy surrounding a training facility opened last spring in northwestern Illinois.

In May, Dempsey signed the partnership agreement between his institute and Blackwater. The agreement also was signed by representatives from the U. of I. offices of the general counsel, comptroller and secretary to the board of trustees.

Also, in May and June, Dempsey took several days off from the university to work with Blackwater, according to e-mail communications between Dempsey and an office assistant at the institute.

In July, he submitted a written request for an extended leave to consult for Blackwater, saying that he viewed it as "a once in a lifetime opportunity similar to climbing Mt. Everest or exploring the Amazon."

In July, Dempsey also signed the university's conflict policy, which requires employees to disclose whether, through an outside venture, they have a "significant relationship" -- defined as $10,000 or more -- with a company doing business with the university. Dempsey indicated that he did not.

Dempsey told Rawles he is being paid $300 a day, and told the Tribune that his compensation has been "scaled" to meet campus requirements regarding non-university employment.

But he wrote to colleagues on July 31 that because of earnings limits he was not aware of, he might have to return in late August, earlier than he had planned. "I truly fear the university is going to terminate my employment," he wrote Aug. 8 to a colleague. "I'm not sure I want to work somewhere I am not wanted ... I am saddened because we accomplished a lot and I like my job."

----------

etorriero@tribune.com

jscohen@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Does the reality of what the "drug war" is doing to police sound familiar yet? History shows the same trends were present during the Prohibition of alcohol era.

Secret police, unaccountable to anyone in particualr, except themselves.

Abuses of authority, like Dempsey's thinking that the rules don't apply to him -- thereby setting an example for other police. You have to wonder what the quality of personal leadership and example was he showed to other police he trained and led.

Fudging evidence to make the case the police want made, instead of doing what's right.

Covering for Blackwater, Dempsey screwed the state of Illinois and the University. How many victims of the "drug war" sit in prison because some cop lied, made up "facts", or just plain doesn't care that their sloppy work sent someone to jail unjustly? But there will not be spotlight on those cases, like Dempsey's. Those who the state is doing injustice to because of official corruption will just do their time. Dempsey will probably get a fat separation package, even after telling "the university to [expletive] themselves." The best the public can probably hope for here is that the state will revoke his pension, if he's convicted of any crime. And that's doubtful in Champaign County. The state's attorney has repeatedly overlooked taking the kind of dogged pursuit against police that she has against ordinary citizens when it comes to solid evidence of police crime.

You can clearly see that Dempsey is using the "drug war" as a distraction from his own abuses of authority. Almost as disturbing is that the News-Gazette gave him a platform to make his case, poisoning the well of public opinion in his favor. Then the News-Gazette is running stories like yesterday's that paper over more than they reveal about both Dempsey's corruption and the university's soft-pedaling of what they've discovered about his behavior.

The use of secret police is something that has caused nothing but problems in American history and in the history of many other nations. The justifications for secrecy, perhaps reasonable in a few very limited situations, when expanded into vast, hidden empires with limited to no substantial oversight by society, always end in corruption, abuse, and injustice. We should as a society take a lesson from Prohibition, from McCarthyism, from the abusive practices against protesters of the wars in Vietnam, Central America, and the current Iraq war, all of which have been documented after the fact. Then we need only look at the Nazis, Stalin's regime, even Saddam Hussein, all of which were propped up by reliance on secret police.

The "drug war" is totally dependent on secret police and Dempsey's invocation of it as justifying his own abuses just shows you it's the first excuse a crooked cop reaches for when he's caught screwing the public. Drug abuse, when it actually is a problem (for instance, the excellent article elsewhere here on the website argues that marijuana isn't a problem -- and it's 90% of the "drug war's" targets) is a social and medical problem, not one that law enforcement can do anything but make worse, by driving it underground and into the hands of those who'll use blackmarkets for their own profit at society's expense. Those sorts of criminals are as reliant as the secret police on bad policy in the form of the "drug war" for their daily bread and butter.

We'd all be better off by taking a new, least harm approach to the real problems of drug abuse, rather than continuing a failed and endless war that won't ever be won, because it will no longer supply the cushy jobs, prestige and lack of personal accountability that the "drug war" provides for both police and drug dealing networks.

Heck, one example is the one Dempsey is pulling out of his bag -- the Taliban did a better job than the US invasion did in keeping opium under control. Now it's a bigger problem that people like Blackwater and Dempsey rush into in search of profit. The public should start paying attention to this oh-so-familiar outcome, because we're paying for it through our taxes, the injustices in our society they perpetuate, and the fact that secret police are always saying they need just more money and tougher laws and they'll solve the problem for us -- someday. It's a scam. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It's about time we start realizing that hammering down all the nails doesn't solve our problems, but does keep selling a lot of unnecessary hammers and keeps a lot of lazy workers feeding at the public trough.

BTW, I wanted to add that what I've written above is by no means a blanket indictment of all police. Many, if not most, are honest, hardworking, even courageous.

My point, if it was not completely clear, is that the "drug war" is inevitably corrupting. It needs to be limited to targeting those who use it to benefit themselves at the expense of otehrs. In its current form, it's not. It focuses on individuals, most of whom engage in no other illegal activity than possessing and using substances which society has made illegal, for good reasons or not.

It's a myth that drug use is tied directly to crime. Most people who choose to use drugs don't want that kind of attention from the police. They just want to be left alone. Most people who use alcohol are exactly the same. They otherwise behave themselves and avoid breaking the law. True, a few do endanger others with their behavior and it's reasonable that society should sanction such behavior, like drunken driving. The same should happen with drugs. Focus on the problem people, rather than on a substance.

The problem for the police is that, by being asked to attack individuals who are otherwise law-abiding, they drive the whole population of those who use drugs underground. They alienate the very people who might otherwise assist the police and society in helping get the bad apples off the street. By creating a blackmarket, society multiplies drug problems, rather than finding better strategies that reduce problems cased by a few people using drugs. The only ones who attract attention are those who foolishly break other laws, for the most part. Then the press and politicians use the antics of a few to condemn the majority. How would people feel if all alcohol users were treated like drunken drivers? That would be unfair, unjust, anti-American, and counter-productive. And that's exactly where we are now as a society with the "drug war."

Plus the fact that it is also corrupting some of the police and diverting precious law enforcement resources to trying to solve social and medical problems. Where there are actual identifiable problems, we should wisely focus on dealing with those people who engage in anti-social behavior, whether its drunken driving or gangbanging.

CheneyBush’s “Mercenary” Legions
by Bernard Weiner

“Outsourcing” jobs overseas is only the tip of the iceberg. How about the CheneyBush Administration “outsourcing” our military, our intelligence-gathering, our nation’s soul?

Taking private enterprise way beyond what is reasonable, or desirable, or safe, the CheneyBush Administration has turned over a huge raft of national-security functions to those not adequately trained, not accountable to the public or the law, not showing up on the political radar.

In short, CheneyBush have created what amounts to their own private legions — soldiers, intelligence analysts, security guards, construction experts, supply specialists, et al. — in effect, a “mercenary” force bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.

That’s why there will probably be no draft: There is no guarantee of loyalty from those dragooned into service. Besides, many draftees have politically-connected constituencies. But when one’s mercenary “volunteer” forces are totally beholden to the paymaster for their livelihood and under-the-table payoffs, they will dance with them that brung ‘em.

These are no small numbers. It’s estimated that in addition to the 160,000 regular troops in the field in Iraq, CheneyBush control anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 private assets (”independent contractors”). Nobody’s even sure under what “rules of engagement” these guys — many in security and reconstruction fields — operate, or whether they are accountable to anyone other than their corporate bosses’ and the financial “bottom line.”

History shows us the dangers involved when leaders have large extra-institutional forces at their command, such as the Praetorian Guards and Legions of ancient Roman Caesars, Hitler’s Brownshirts, Saddam’s Republican Guards, the private militias of political and religious leaders today in Iraq, Blackwater forces in control of New Orleans after Katrina, etc. By and large, these mercenaries swear allegiance to their employer, not to the rule of law, not to any constitution. The catastrophic damage done to democracy by the existence, and power, of these private forces can’t be over-stated.

News flash: Blackwater, the huge corporation that CheneyBush rely on for most of the non-military functions in Iraq and elsewhere, is buying combat aircraft. Do we really want a private air force, effectively operating under the aegis of the Executive Branch, conducting secret ops in our names?

Purchasing Intelligence

In America’s current case, there is also this ominous danger: Accurate intelligence is an absolute necessity in warfare and war-planning, but CheneyBush are increasingly going outside the usual intelligence channels and hiring private intel corporations. Even with the mass purgings in governmental intelligence agencies of those not sufficiently “Bush-loyal,” Cheney in particular doesn’t trust the CIA and the State Department’s intel analysts, never has and never will. So we get this recent story from veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus:

“The Defense Intelligence Agency is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon’s top spying agency.

“The proposed contracts, outlined in a recent early notice of the DIA’s plans, reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department’s intelligence-related work and fit a well-established pattern of Bush administration transfers of government work to private contractors.

…”The DIA did not specify exactly what it wants the contractors to do but said it is seeking teams to fulfill ‘operational and mission requirements’ that include intelligence ‘Gathering and Collection, Analysis, Utilization, and Strategy and Support’.”

By outsourcing, CheneyBush, of course, get the intelligence they pay for, rather than risking that some CIA or State Department analysts might tell them intel-truths they don’t want to hear, as was the case with Iraq.

Lowering The Recruiting Bar

How did CheneyBush begin to assemble their mercenary forces for the reckless misadventure in Iraq? At first, they started out with an all-”volunteer” army of sterling patriotic recruits, high school graduates, many from lower- and middle-middle circumstances, not well-connected politically, many underemployed and desirous of a stable career. But the brutality and criminality and constant fear of the Iraq War (never knowing for sure if civilians were good guys or bad guys, U.S. death rates going up, horrific injuries to body, brain and psyche) took their toll on the troops, suicide and post-traumatic rates mushroomed, and recruitment of top prospects plummeted.

As a result, the U.S. military felt forced to relax its high standards in order to even come close to meeting its replacement quotas. High schoolers and dropouts were prime targets of unscrupulous recruiters. Don’t have a high school diploma? Don’t need one. Felony record? Don’t worry about it; we’ve got “moral waivers” now. Poor physical health? Here, have some more pizza and desserts. A gang member on the streets of L.A.? Here’s your assault rifle, soldier, and welcome to the brotherhood.

And when lowering the standards still didn’t yield the required numbers, the military went to simple bribery. Sign up now and get a $25,000 signing bonus. Not enough? How about $30K?

The military also is trolling for mercenary recruits among non-citizens in Latin America and elsewhere; those who sign up with the U.S. military are told that it could take them six months to become a U.S. citizen rather than 12 years.

But even with all those waivers and inducements, many potential recruits stay away; they are quite aware that troops in Iraq face serial deployments, rotations extended to 15 months each time, a constant high rate of deaths and injuries. Check out what seven serving NCOs have to say in the New York Times about the realities of this war. So it’s no wonder that the Administration has taken to increasing the hiring of “independent contractors,” at high salaries, to carry out tasks often associated with the professional military.

No wonder the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and perhaps even Defense Secretary Gates, are suggesting, as best they can without being summarily dismissed by the political lunatics in charge, that the U.S. military is stretched as thin as it can get in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that initiating more hostilities with other countries in the region (Iran and Syria come to mind) would not make much military or any other kind of sense.

Outsourcing Extreme Torture

In addition to outsourcing its military and intel gathering, one has to mention the outsourcing of interrogation and torture, especially of High Value Prisoners (HVPs). (Torture, as we all know by now, under CheneyBush, is officially-sanctioned state policy.)

CheneyBush send these suspects on CIA planes to secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad and then often forward the more recalcitrant detainees and other HVP to countries that specialize in especially brutal torture, including Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, even Syria.

These “rendition” flights abroad are not only to keep the U.S. vaguely in line with the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law, but also because those other nations have torturing down to a science by now, and, as long as these countries get paid off well, seem to have few moral scruples about breaking down the minds and bodies of prisoners sometimes even to the point of death.

“Catapulting The Propaganda”

The Administration sees the same polling numbers as the Democrats do and realizes that in order to be able to continue its surge at least through Election Day 2008 — which would, they believe, get CheneyBush off the blame-hook for the “loss” of Iraq — they need to mount an enormous public-relations campaign to cancel out the lies and sell the escalated war to the American public and Congress. Scapegoats for that “loss” are already being put in place: al-Maliki, the Democrats, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Petraeus, etc. etc. Never Cheney, never Bush.

When governmental policies stink, no policies are changed; instead, the common practice is to tell more lies and hire public-relations firms to disguise the crap being peddled by dousing it heavily with rose petals. Sell your policies like soap or perfume; the theory rests on a belief that enough Americans will buy the fragrant, handsomely-packaged new product to make politicians think twice about opposing Administration policy.

And so the Pentagon has set up an Iraq Communications Desk to coordinate the campaign to sell the Petraeus Report findings, and, through a covert “cut-out” organization, a new White House-connected group called Freedom Watch has launched a $15 million pro-war propaganda campaign in various media markets. The spots already are running, and they often feature Iraq War veterans and/or their surviving family members delivering the White House spin (”patience,” “we’re making progress in Iraq,” “stop them there so they can’t come here,” etc. etc.).

In coordination with the Freedom Watch campaign, a powerful P.R. program has begun to aid in the transition away from the prickly Iraqi prime minister al-Maliki, to a more malleable, pro-U.S. figure, most likely former prime minister (and former CIA asset) Ayad Allawi. Hired to coordinate the campaign is the GOP lobbying outfit of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers.

CheneyBush are peddling the continue-the-surge idea because that’s all they’ve got at this stage. That and the long-discredited attempt to link Iraq and 9/11 in the public mind. And why not? That latter lie worked for a few years after 9/11, so why not haul it out again? Haul out anything again that might confuse the American citizenry and bump up the pro-surge numbers so as to divide the Democrats and keep the war going at least past Election Day 2008 and, ideally, keep U.S. troops in their permanent Iraq bases for another decade or two.

Or, at the very least, FUBAR the situation there so badly that a Democratic president in 2009 would be unable to extricate U.S. forces easily or maybe even at all.

Thinking The Unthinkable

And, if CheneyBush are unable to keep the U.S. public from demanding that Congress close down this quagmire of a war, they might well decide to unleash their ultimate weapon of mass distraction by finding a good reason to attack Iran “pre-emptively” (via a false-flag operation?). When Iran responds in self-defense by attacking U.S. assets in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, the American public will be told that it’s imperative that the U.S. must fight in Iraq and Iran to stop the Muslim hordes from taking over the world, and controlling “our” oil.

Think it won’t happen? Think Iran is not in the planning bombsights right now? Dream on. The CheneyBush gang is desperate and will do anything, including using nuclear weaponry, to maintain its power and control. Former Middle East CIA specialist Bob Baer says that senior intelligence officials told him recently that CheneyBush are likely to attack Iran within six months.

Most Americans didn’t think CheneyBush would be crazy enough to invade and occupy Iraq. We should have learned our lesson by now; these ideological zealots are unhinged enough to do it again.

And it looks like the Democrats, who should be forcefully leading the opposition to stop the Iraq War and to prevent the Iran War, are going to be enablers of CheneyBush policy once again, either out of stupidity or political cowardice. That’s the moral tragedy of where we are in late-2007.

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Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer/editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).

© Copyright 2007 by Bernard Weiner

Drug War’s Latest Achievement: Boosting Global Terrorism
by Neal Peirce

Thirty-eight million arrests, most for simple possession. Lives ruined, families disrupted. America turned into the most prison-happy nation on the face of the earth. Illegal rewards incentivizing shooting fields in inner-city neighborhoods - enough bloodshed to appall even an Al Capone. More than $1 trillion in taxpayer outlays.

Thirty-six years after President Richard Nixon inaugurated this country’s misbegotten “war on drugs,” worldwide narcotics markets are booming, drug-ring profits are higher than ever, and drugs cost less than ever on the street.

Our “war” is a miserable, incredibly costly failure.

But now, we’re learning, there’s a jarring new dimension. The drug war is directly feeding international terrorism. The most startling new evidence comes from Afghanistan, where the U.S. is leading a full-blown NATO campaign to eradicate production of poppies, the plant from which heroin is derived.

Colossal failure is already apparent. Afghanistan is producing 95 percent of the world’s poppies; production rose 58 percent last year alone.

And the biggest beneficiary? It’s the Taliban, gaining popularity as it protects local poppy farmers against the Western-led eradication campaign. Then it becomes the opium sales agent into international markets, reaping huge amounts of money it can plow back into its terrorist campaign against the West.

One result, it’s fair to say: American soldiers, dying in skirmishes in Afghanistan, are the latest casualties in the international campaign we’ve waged incessantly - with friendly governments, inside the U.N., wherever we’ve had the chance - to make drugs globally illegal. American administrations, Republican and Democratic, persistently blame foreign countries and international drug supplies for our own domestic narcotics appetite.

And then, notes Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, “we go to countries like Afghanistan, spend millions or billions over the years to spray poppies and coca plants, in the process risking poisoning of other crops and people on the ground. And despite that, every year we see bumper crops.”

The other prime example is “Plan Colombia” - our multiyear, $4.7 billion (so far) campaign to stamp out coca production through spraying Colombia’s farms, together with providing the Colombian government with military helicopters and sensitive intelligence-gathering technology. Our billions are also supposed to fight back FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - a 17,000-strong peasant-based army described by international crime and terrorism expert Misha Glenny as “by far the largest terrorist organization in the Southern Hemisphere.” But FARC, like the Taliban, allies itself with local farmers and finances operations through the drug trade. Last year, coca production was up 8 percent.

Will we ever learn? President Bush now wants to channel about $1 billion to Mexico to fight “narco-trafficking and violence on our border.” Like past Mexican presidents, Felipe Calderón has pledged a major anti-trafficking campaign, fighting drug cartels responsible just this year for more than 1,000 murders (including reporters, police and judges).

But more drug-fighting money to Mexico won’t do any good, says Cole: The United States’ prohibition policy has created a “super-obscene profit motive.”

Will we find a presidential candidate willing to talk to us honestly about our disaster-strewn policy, to suggest rational paths toward drug legalization? To credit us with intelligence - that if we cared enough about our health to reduce drastically our consumption of readily available red meat, alcohol and tobacco, we might just be smart enough to resist dangerous narcotics?

I’m not holding my breath. Though, refreshingly, the rest of the world is starting to think afresh.

A prime example: The Senlis Council, a European-Canadian drug-policy institute that’s done major research in Afghanistan, proposes licensing Afghanistan with the International Narcotics Control Board to sell its opium legally. Even a Western subsidy to pay Afghan farmers the same price the Taliban and drug lords do - about $600 million a year - would be well below what we’re spending on eradication. And addiction is rare among pain patients.

Here’s a chance for the West to spend money, visibly, helping poor Afghan farmers survive, instead of destroying their livelihoods. Simultaneously, the Taliban would lose its big revenue source for terrorist activities. Couldn’t we be this humanitarian and smart - for once?

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Neal Peirce’s column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is nrp_at_citistates.com

© 2007 The Seattle Times