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The Intelligence Industrial Complex and the Ex-President's Club
Spies for Hire: Carlyle Group to Become Owner of “One of America’s Largest Private Intelligence Armies”
The secretive investment fund the Carlyle Group is in the process of buying part of Booz Allen Hamiliton, the major military and intelligence contractor. We speak with investigative journalist Tim Shorrock, author of the new book Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
AMY GOODMAN: The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest and most secretive investment funds. Nicknamed the Ex-President’s Club, Carlyle’s employees have included both President Bush, H.W. and George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. Amidst growing public scrutiny over its dealings, the company has recently scaled back its holdings in military contractors and its links to controversial political figures.
But that appears to be changing. On Friday, the intelligence firm Booz Allen Hamilton said it would sell its government-oriented unit to Carlyle Group for $2.5 billion. Booz Allen has been a major figure in the privatization of government intelligence. Current National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell was Booz Allen’s director of defense programs before his appointment last year. Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the Bush administration’s most controversial counterterror programs, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. The Carlyle-Booz Allen deal awaits shareholder and regulator approval.
Tim Shorrock is the author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. In a new article for CorpWatch, Shorrock says Carlyle’s purchase of Booz Allen would lead to its “re-[emergence] as the owner of one of America’s largest private intelligence armies.” Tim Shorrock joins us now from Washington, D.C. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Tim.
TIM SHORROCK: Well, in my book Spies for Hire, I describe this intelligence-industrial complex as a $50 billion industry, and I base that on what our intelligence budget is now and figures I’ve gotten on the percentage of money that’s actually spent on contracts. It’s about 70 percent of our entire intelligence budget goes to private contracts.
DN! transcript or DN! video
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Barack Obama attracts 75,000 in Portland, Oregon.
Do you hear me?
75,000!
● Barack Obama held his biggest rally to date in here on Saturday. The Democratic frontrunner attracted a crowd of 75,000 according to Duane Bray, battalion chief with Portland Fire and Rescue.
(pointed out by 99)
The Republicans and McCain want to privatize social security. Excuse me? Isn't the economy crashing? Isn't that the same economy they want to "privatize" your social security into? Kiss your social security goodbye! If McCain gets in there! They got everything off you: paid overtime in some cases, stagnated wages...now they want your social security, and they're going to get it! The Republicans have wanted to undo social security by "privatizing" it! Right! They're trying to "help you"!!! Right!!! Bush already tried it, and the Democrats in congress bitch-slapped him!
● Hours before being greeted by the biggest crowd of his campaign, Democrat Barack Obama quietly told a small group of seniors Sunday that Republican John McCain would threaten the Social Security they depend on because he supports privatizing the program.
George Carlin: "...now they're coming after your social security!"
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What is President's excuse for his threatening to veto Jim Webb's GI Bill?
Jim Webb: "The Republican Party...continually seeks to politicize military service for its own ends even as it uses their sacrifices as a political shield against criticism for its failed policies," Webb wrote in his book, A Time to Fight. "And in that sense, it is now the Republican Party that most glaringly does not understand the true nature of military service."
● Webb: Bush would be first to veto veterans' benefits
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● Foreclosure surge a cash cow for professional squatters
● Bush ends 5-day Middle East trip with few concrete gains
● Making more friends in the Arab world: BAGHDAD — The commander of United States troops in Baghdad asked local leaders and tribal sheiks this weekend for their forgiveness after the discovery that a soldier had used a Koran for target practice at a shooting range.
● Experts: Economy to weaken. Forecasters see a weak economy even if housing and credit improve. They say it will slow to 1.4 percent.
BULLSHIT!!!
Another FAKE Osama Bin Laden tape released to scare everyone. Now, AP doesn't even say where it came from, or if it was authenticated! What color beard does he have this time? Right!!! The corporate media is making a FOOL out of you!!! Christ! Are you reading these AP articles? How they now skip over the part of where it came from and if it's authentic??? They just publish a bunch of bullshit!!!
● Another FAKE Bin Laden tape to scare you with!
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NEPA:
● Now that we have all these energy saving light bulbs, where do we dispose of them when the time comes?
● Wilkes-Barre became the 104th city in the nation to graduate a class of Guardian Angels – the 29-year-old organization whose red beret-wearing volunteers safeguard streets, subways and other public areas from dusk until dawn, without weapons.
● Another church in the area closes.
