It still boggels my mind that some people were sitting around (well they could have been standing) and they were thinking what sort of job they could get gvoernment contracts for and someone said, “Maybe they’ll let us do the interrogations?” I mean soldiers lives depend on this information so I would think they would want a hand in getting the information. I don’t think the NYC police department would ever say, “We dont’ have enough guys, lets hire a private detective to question these people”.
I work for a defense contractor. The contract we work on builds support systems for the Tomahawk cruise missile.
I know other people who work for government contractors. They sell the government everything from computer services to office furniture.
“Contractor”, for purposes of government work, means an individual or company working on a contract granted by the government. That’s all. It could be for painting. It could be for feeding tourists in a national park snack bar. It could be for security work. There are many companies and individuals doing a lot of specialized work for the government under these contracts.
Passaro was an Army Ranger that took unpaid leave so he could come in as a contractor, hired by the CIA. A woman who knew him described him on one of the news shows last night as being an extremely violent individual. What kinda blew me away is that the guy’s also a medic.
Yes. The actual cause of death is unknown. The deceased also had a heart condition and retrieval of his body so an autopsy can be performed is at present impossible since he’s buried in a remote region that’s too dangerous to re-enter because of ongoing hostilities.
I never, ever, in a billion years thought I would ever say this, but Rumsfeld, the generals who knew of the torture, the companies that supplied the mercenaries, the mercenaries themselves, and possibly President Bush if it can be proven that he knew about the torture, should be indicted for war crimes.
And all you Pubbie diehards who excuse this is “blowing off steam” or justr part of ordinary interogation are beneath contempt.
If anybody said this was just “blowing off steam” in a context other than tongue in cheek then I’m in agreement with you. But it would appear everyone here is condemming Passaro’s actions (with the possible exception of Bear_Nenno).
So who are all the pubbies here that you say deserve being beneath your contempt because I sure as hell don’t see anyone here condoning this despicable behaviour… or is just being “pubbies” reason enough?
Rush Limbaugh and his fan club are who I was thinking of particularly, but it also goes to anyone who might be thinking that or saying it elsewhere. And there are some usual suspects I have in mind, but since they aren’t posting in this thread, I won’t name them.
And right now, I can’t find any reason for anyone to vote for Bush. If you (the general You, not any one person) remain a Bush supporter even after all that has happened, then there is something wrong with you.
There were two South African “Contractors” killed in one of the suicide bombings 2 months ago. The two of them had done time previously for vigilante actions as part of the Apartheid regime. I’ll dig up a cite for you soon.
You see, now, why the use of the word pisses me off. It’s intentionally misleading, and the press is giving the govt/military a pass on it. If they even said ‘security contractor’ or something, so that it would be understood that the folks in question aren’t construction dudes, that would be something. And what’s more, the next time the person in question might actually be someone who isn’t a hired goon, who’s actually providing non-military services, but I won’t realize that because I’m not being given the relevant information by the press. I suppose it’s too much to ask that they just do their jobs and report what’s happening.
I don’t disagree that “mercenary” is exactly what these “security contractors” are up to but I too, while knowing exactly what they were doing, had yet to mentally assign them the merc monniker because I’d always associated it with those performing shall we call it “foreign service.”
As far as I know these security contractors are Americans. Maybe that’s why they get the “SC” and not the “M” designation… purely a semantical and not political distinction. Just a WAG…
Technically you are 100% correct (hey, I’m a government contractor too).
On the other hand, I also think it’s correct to point out that, for the average American, the term “government contractor” brings up images of regular folks doing white-collar or blue-collar work, not camo-clad guys toting semiautomatic rifles and a full pack. In this sense, the repeated use of “government contractor” seems to me like a deliberate attempt to mislead the populace.
To keep with your analogy, imagine if the NYC police department really was short of detectives. But we need to modify it slightly and say that the average detective only spends 5-10 years with the department. After that, they move on to better things and better pay. So every year the brightest and most experienced detectives retire and move on. They want a job that pays more money, and the city only pays, say $65,000 a year for a 10 year detective.
The city would be pretty desperate for help if anything really big came about. Say, like a huge serial killing ring or a war in the gulf or something
These very experienced retired detectives are pretty smart. And they know how the government works and they know people in high places. So they start a company. Then they send in their bid to the city. They say Dicks For Hire wants $120,000 for six months tax free per man. And we’ll do all the hard stuff, and take a lot of load off your other detectives. Plus, since we are our own company, we can get away with some stuff the city can’t. But we’ll produce results, and that’s what is important.
I hope that was at least a little understandable. Theses contractors are retired military guys who are usually pretty good at what they do. If you were able to ETS and a company offered you over $100,000 tax free (mostly tax free) for only six months of “action”, and the Army was offering you base pay for your rank plus combat pay (less than a third of that), would you re-enlist? Or would you go over as a contractor? Most of these companys I’m aware of only hire combat MOS soldiers and medics. They don’t hire Army secretaries or other support roles. They are always looking for more guys, you just have to know where to apply.
