The Colonels Corner The Invisible Soldiers Part 10 Final

1:31:14

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Transcript

0:00 How are you today, Bridget? Oh, pretty good. Finally got the construction finished. Now I'm on to finishing and finishing. And then back to hunting blind. Never a dull moment. I'm telling you, if I had a day off, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Well, you're going to have a few, and we're going to enjoy it. Oh, my God, I'm so excited. Oh, my God, I'm so excited. I'm telling you.

0:32 We're going to try to rent a boat so we can go out on the water. The RV park is surrounded by water. And the last time we were there, we rented a pontoon boat because it's just amazing. Awesome. Great idea. I'm bringing my swimsuit. Just saying. We're going to need it. And all the world rejoiced. I'm telling you. Can I tell you a funny while everybody's piling in? Sure.

1:02 So yesterday, like, had to do some, oh, we'll call them rainy day projects. They were just stuff that kept getting down on the list. Finally got them done, had enough time to take a shower, and then start making dinner, got dinner done, cleaned up the kitchen. And about that time, the neighbor calls, who is an 88-year-old woman who we've adopted mutually. Right. And Billy had run up her a dinner. And then he's like, you know what?

1:32 I'm going to bring her up a cantaloupe or half a cantaloupe. So he does. And when he's up there, he notices for everybody who doesn't know, we live kind of rural anyway. And he notices a dog out across the road. And it's not uncommon that people dump dogs. It's an unfortunate part of living in the country. And so we see this dog and he tries to approach it and won't let him get close to it.

2:02 So he comes back home and he tells her about it. So she goes out. She's going to go get her lottery tickets. And there's the dog right next to her house. And so she calls. So I run up there with a bunch of dog food because I don't know what I'm going to encounter. And as soon as I start talking to the dog, the dog is just elated. I mean, and she comes barreling over to me and like dives into my arms.

2:28 and I'm like oh my gosh this is somebody's baby you know so I give her a bunch of food she inhales it and she's just loving on everything now Billy comes up because I needed a leash because I'm like can't leave her on the road because she'll get hit you know and uh anyway long story short my evening ended up last night where she and she is now a resident with Billy's sister who has a nice

2:59 beautiful pen with a six foot tall chain link fence all the way around it water and she even went out and got her a pool today so that she had a pool a cabana poor little dog is her lab she's like a labradormic and um we've called everywhere tried to check and she is her parents or her owners must have dumped her off

3:27 But she has gotten a new lease on life. And Billy's sister absolutely fell in love with her. And her dog fell in love with the new dog. So, you know, it just shows how God even controls and takes care of even our little furry friends. Yep, that's true. It's just amazing. If it hadn't been for the cantaloupe, the whole thing wouldn't have...

3:57 You see, it's all about the cantaloupe. I'm telling you. All right. Let's go live over here on Rumble. Why won't it let me go live? What the heck? Dropping too many truth bombs. Just saying. What the heck? All right. Let's try this again. Okay. Enter. It says upcoming. I know.

4:38 And when I hit go live. Oh, there it went. All right. I had to refresh my thing. OK, so we're going to try to cram the rest of this book into this session. So we start off this chapter with the U.S. version of the Trade Association for Private Military Contractors. It's called.

5:10 the International Stability Operations Association. Nothing like kind of hiding what you do in a name, but that's basically what it is. There's a guy that is largely associated with it by the name of Doug Brooks. And Doug Brooks had named this organization the International

5:41 Peace Operations Association, which started in 2001. Changing the name was his board's decision. And though Brooks didn't advocate the change, he understood why it was necessary. They wanted to disguise paramilitary operations under the name Peace, which is more Orwellian.

6:11 then maybe even the Office of Public Safety. And that's hard to beat. Disaster relief was something that they touted, you know, under the guise of peace. And Blackwater was highlighted with their role in Hurricane Katrina. They also focused on landmine removal.

6:42 and military training as peacekeepers. So the website of some of the members might include a snapshot or two of gun-toting men and camouflage fatigues, according to Brooks, but that was just part of their job. Part of his spiel in 2012 was a familiar one.

7:15 It was about how these companies could turn on a dime and go anywhere and do anything. They were a quick response group, and they used the slogan, FedEx can do things better, faster, cheaper than the U.S. Postal Service, and that's what these quote-unquote peacekeepers were capable of doing. So it was noted that Brooks liked to smile a lot, but he had a lot to smile about.

7:53 Because the industry that had developed was making billions and billions of dollars. In an article in their trade association publication called the Journal of International Peace Operations, Brooks wrote, quote, the private sector continues to be the nexus to success, unquote, in conflict and post-conflict environments.

8:22 But, of course, you have to then have conflict. And that's, of course, where the CIA comes in. This was good news for the man who, within a decade of starting the association, had brought in 53 members from around the globe, all of them doing quite well. Although the number of members was small compared to the hundreds, if not thousands, of private military companies,

8:50 The membership roster included all of the big ones, Triple Canopy, G4S, L3, SOC, DynCorp, and Academy. There were half a dozen member firms based in the UAE, mainly Dubai. Others came out of the UK, Bahrain, Cyprus, South Africa, South Korea, Kuwait, and Thailand.

9:19 Aegis was not a member. Helping its members to succeed, the association retained a well-known lobbying firm called J.A. Green and Company. It was ran by Jeff Green, who was a specialist in defense lobbying, who was the former counsel to the House Armed Services Committee, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

9:51 and former legislative director for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. And like many industry associations, this association held an annual meeting for the purpose of networking marketing with speakers, high-level military, government, and NGO officials from mainly the U.S. and the U.K. At the 2011 summit,

10:22 which took place in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, the association celebrated its 10th anniversary and unveiled its code of conduct. It was in step with the one that we've been talking about through this whole book that was set up in Switzerland under the International Code of Conduct, to which over 250 companies had signed on to. Brooks was a...

10:52 particularly proud of the association's slick magazine called JIPO, which was more akin to Fortune magazine or Soldier of Fortune, which we know both are propaganda pieces for the CIA. There were savvy full-page ads flashing the proudness of its member firms.

11:17 One for Tripoli Canopy has the slogan, you never know what threats lie ahead. Another one said, when the stakes are the highest, governments, Fortune 500 companies, and international organizations turn to Olive Group to enable their operations in developing and high-risk environments. But most of the 40 or 50 pages of the magazine were devoted to articles about global conflict and instability.

11:48 their bread and butter. Frequently, the articles were written about Africa. The writers, like the speakers at the summit, were not the ones that would expect for a group whose members sometimes referred to news stories as mercenaries. For example, a postgraduate student in international human rights law at Oxford University.

12:21 which is an MI6 recruitment, wrote that the legal complications of using drones, Brooks himself discussed the work of industry visionaries, including one who would put together what Brooks called the 3D plus 3P theory. In the past, the 3D, which was defense diplomacy and development, you know, right in line with USAID, defined U.S. foreign policy.

12:50 But in the future, wrote Brooks, there would be 3Ds and 3Ps, President Obama's public-private partnerships. As Brooks wrote, the 3D plus 3P approach would provide greater integration and coordination with the United States' big three foreign aid implicating agencies, the Department of Defense, the State Department.

13:19 and USAID, along with private sectors, who they actually all work for. This was the new model and could be the next big evolutionary step for this global industry. The private sector would be fully integrated into defense, diplomacy, and development. It was all so smooth and calm, and professionals in the association offices were all on board.

13:50 Though still smiling, Brooks would become testy at times, especially when the mercenary words were used to describe any part of the industry. He preferred private security companies, and he might spend more than a few minutes complaining about books on private military security companies, even the classic text like Peter Singer's Corporate Warriors.

14:20 or Alison Stanger's One Nation Under Contract. Brooks had marked his copies, filling margins with pencil comments and tagging pages of greatest consternation with yellow post-its. He disagreed with Singer, who had called the industry a $100 billion business in 2002. His revenue figures 10 years later were as low as $20 billion.

14:49 He was also annoyed at writers who hadn't bothered to interview him for their articles. That was worse than any label any writer had given him, such as Blackwater's Man in Washington. Brooks would be more than happy to meet with anyone writing about his association or its members so he could set the record straight. Barely a mile down the road, there were several legislators who were hoping for a public debate.

15:20 over the private military contractors. Among them was Illinois Jan Sikowski, who remained frustrated as ever by the challenging of collecting basic information about the industry. There are still no good numbers, she said, and without data, she felt that the private military security companies were masking the scope of America's foreign policy.

15:48 From her perspective, by 2012, the armed sector of the business could be controlled by placing it under direct control of a new chain of U.S. command. Her biggest worry was the same as it had been in 2007. We have here a war-making capability in a world where there is so much instability. The mix of people with weapons and the thirst for profit could dramatically increase.

16:17 the likelihood of catastrophic instability, which, of course, she foretold because that's exactly where we were prior to Trump getting back in office. Just the opposite of what they say. What is the impetus for peace if you're making profit off of war? Across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, columnist David Eisenberg also saw the merits of a debate.

16:49 The public indifference has been going on for too long, he said. Eisenberg's interest in private military contractor business went back to something he published in 1997 that was published in 1997 by a D.C.-based Center for Defense Information. This is a quote. In a world where there are tens of millions of soldiers serving in regular military forces,

17:17 then why is the subject of mercenaries important? Simply put, at a time when there is a trend towards military downsizing worldwide, coupled with continuing and perhaps more virulent conflicts in developing nations and a global trend towards privatization, there will be a continuing and possibly increased demand for services of trained military personnel capable of teaching combat skills and conducting combat.

17:46 If we wish to prevent them from possibly carrying out the same sort of atrocities that has gone on before, it is necessary to pay attention to them and try to ensure that they adhere to the same standards of international humanitarian dictated by the law for military forces. 15 years later, Eisenberg was still trying to clear the fog. Like Brooks, Eisenberg would not use the word mercenary.

18:17 Quote, they aren't mercenaries, and the truth is they are mostly decent people out there working hard, though not necessarily in the public interest, unquote. That didn't mean that he didn't look at the industry through the same lens as Brooks. He was very definitively a watchdog, which meant that he could be aggressive at times. And like everyone who delved into the private military and security sector.

18:47 Eisenberg was especially frustrated by trying to define precisely what the industry encompassed. No term fully captures what they do. It helps them to be undefined. If no one knows exactly what they do, it's hard to protest what they do. Eisenberg was careful to differentiate between the roles of watchdog and critic and did not consider himself to be a critic.

19:15 Mine is a Mr. Spock approach. I am not for them or against them. It is a fascinating phenomenon, and I track it partly as a labor of love. Although he unrelenting in his quest to raise the curtain on many of the uses of private military companies, the instances of misuse and waste, the contractor casualties and America's growing dependence on them.

19:45 He tried to be fair in his writings. He firmly believed that military contractors were permanent fixtures in America and the global economy. Congress had missed its chance to stop that long ago.

20:17 As I've said before, they are a fifth branch of the military or a fourth branch of government, unquote. He liked to compare the government's dependence on them to the creature clinging to human organs in the film Alien. That private military security companies were a permanent fact of life.

20:42 was old news to Major General Ed Cardin. In February 2012, he returned for a few weeks to the U.S. from South Korea, where he now commanded the Army's 2nd Infantry Division. He was more aware of the dependence on private military companies than ever. In the previous year, the general had been one of the three deputy command generals in Iraq. It had been his job to assist Lloyd Austin.

21:12 in planning and executing the army's transition out of Iraq. During that time, he had witnessed firsthand how indispensable the contractors had become. And because the U.S. was legally required to withdraw all military forces by the end of 2012, the government was forced to rely more than ever on the contractors. Quote, anywhere we can't use troops because of legal authority, we use...

21:39 private military security corporations, said Cordon. The drawdowns reshape the force. We'll contract it when we need to. Nowhere is this more evident than in replacing military support to the U.S. State Department with private military companies. That's crazy. So all we're doing

22:05 When Congress says to take the military out is transitioning the military mission to the State Department, who has no authority at all under the guise of private security companies. It was time now to take measure to identify exactly where such companies were going and to accelerate all efforts to monitor them, he said. Regarding oversight, Cardin believed that it might help if the government.

22:33 viewed them as weapons. Doing this could attract the kind of attention to the topic that it deserved. The way it works is that we must use them before someone else does. That's just crazy. In that way, we are most certainly, they are most certainly like weapons. And one way to control them would to bring them in for oversight. Like Sikowsky, General Cardin,

23:07 was convinced that private military companies, armed or unarmed, were already part of the establishment. Unlike Brooks, he agreed with Singer about the size of the industry. And unlike Eisenberg, he could never describe his close observations of the industry as a labor of love or even fascinating. For him, it was a matter of survival and obligation. Like them all, however, he was in favor of a public debate.

23:36 It concerned him that so many Americans knew nothing about it. And it was even worse considering the new technology of drones. That deeply concerned him. By 2012, there were two types of drone wars, one conducted by U.S. military in Afghanistan and one by the CIA in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Soon there were new drone bases in Ethiopia.

24:04 and the Arabian Peninsula, among others. At the same time, the State Department would have at least two drone, hold on, at least two dozen unarmed drones in Iraq for surveillance and more in Afghanistan as troop withdrawals began. The State Department needed drone operations for security purposes because the withdrawal of troops would end the use of armed

24:33 and unarmed drones under Pentagon and CIA authority in Iraq. Indeed, drones were another example of the State Department's takeover of functions that were normally military functions. Cardin's concern about the role of private military companies might play in supplying the expertise to operate drones. This was a new level of depersonalized warfare. The actual killing of enemies

25:01 would be two layers removed from the citizens of the nation, a machine operated by an employee of a private company. The more the citizen was removed from combat, did not see the blood of combat, the casualties, the ramifications of war, did not feel the passion of allegiance to the nation, the easier it would be for policymakers to take the nation to war. The general trained as he was to...

25:30 The general, trained as he was to foresee potential dangers, said, quote, In one year, it is hard to imagine all that's transpired. Last year, in 2011, only the military was talking about drones. Now everyone is. And we still don't have adequate accountability to oversee a system that can allow private contractors into an arena with drones. Look at what has happened in the past.

25:57 The larger concern is obvious. The private military companies are effectively part of policy now, but they are still invisible. And when the two worlds merge, what happens? A few months after Cardin's comments, one of the world's 10 largest private military companies, Academy, posted this recruitment ad on its website, quote, unmanned aerial vehicle operators job posting.

26:26 In North Carolina, the New Academy website on which the ad was posted read, quote, We are a professional organization serving as a solution provider to the U.S. government. We operate in the defense, training, logistics, and intelligence spaces, priding ourselves on providing our customers with world-class performance. We are quiet and dedicated professionals serving the government and commercial markets. Along with Triple E,

26:55 Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and other private military companies, Academy was also a member of the largest drone lobby in America. That was called the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The American public was unaware of the role of some private military contractors were playing in lobbying the FAA over drone regulations. But then, as Cardin implied, things were happening so quickly.

27:26 There was even a relatively new firm in New Mexico that was planning to sell drones directly to private military companies. It called its product Silent Falcon. In the summer of 2012, while private military companies were quietly moving into the drone business, the US government's reliance on private military contractors continued to exceed the level of accountability.

27:57 And yet again, someone in Congress was sponsoring a bill to rein it in. In August, Representative John Tierney of Massachusetts introduced Oversight and Accountability and More Time Contracting Act of 2012. That created new positions in the State Department, the Pentagon, and USAID to monitor private contractors more closely. It also demanded that U.S. contracting agencies require certain information about

28:26 companies seeking contracts, including full identities, past performances, and previous corporate names. What were their parent, subsidiary, and successor entities? In other words, he wanted to track how often they change their name because of crap that they get involved in, as was the case with Blackwater and others through the years.

28:57 We want to know the history of contractors and make sure that they can't get away by just changing their name. There has to be some consistency. So who were you before you were Academy? Tierney was the top Democrat on the subcommittee for national security of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In Congress since 1996, he had tried to uncover contractor abuses and track the work of war profiteers.

29:28 He was also the congressman who introduced the legislation that launched the commission on wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three years later, he initiated a probe that uncovered an extortion racket initiated by U.S. contractors funneling funds to warlords and insurgents in Afghanistan. Let me say that again. He initiated a probe that uncovered an extortion racket.

29:56 initiated by U.S. contractors funneling funds to warlords and insurgents in Afghanistan. So the private military contractors of the State Department was funneling money to the people that they were supposedly supposed to be against.

30:21 In 2011, he drew attention to the State Department's private armed security forces, noting that although they were employed by the State Department, armed contractors would end up in situations requiring them to engage in combat. It was that potential scenario and the role of private contractors under contract with the State Department would play after the troop withdrawal in both Iraq and Afghanistan that inspired his push for oversight. Tierney.

30:52 was especially concerned about the government's habit of awarding contracts to companies with bad track records, histories of human rights abuses, unresolved allegations of fraud, or longstanding active legal cases. Ironically, on the same day that H.R. 6360, his legislation, was introduced,

31:16 A multi-billion dollar legal settlement between the U.S. government and Blackwater, now called Academy, was announced. In a case in which the company was accused of violating arms export controls and federal firearm rules, the company agreed to pay $7.5 million. The charges were similar to those in another case involving Blackwater, one that had resulted in $42 million settlement.

31:45 Just in 2010, increased incensed about the 2012 fine, Tierney told the press that it was simply not a big enough punishment to stop such illegal behavior, whether by the former Blackwater or any other firm. If you look at the magnitude of the problem, it doesn't seem to be much more than a slap on the wrist. This was not their first time having this kind of problem.

32:15 In a letter to the Justice Department, he wrote that the settlement did not adequately serve the public interest or protect national security for a company that the U.S. government previously found to be systematically noncompliant with arms export controls. That means literally trafficking arms and yet holds billions of dollars of U.S. contracts. It is extremely difficult to understand.

32:46 how it was determined that that penalty fit the offense. In an interview in September, Tierney said, this had been a repeat problem that goes on, and it's not just Blackwater. We've had other private military companies taking millions of dollars from taxpayers, repeatedly making questionable decisions. If we don't hold them accountable, then it's going to keep happening. He wanted both the Pentagon and State Department to...

33:17 suspend and disbar academy to set an example in response a spokesperson for academy told the media that they were inherited issues that were now outdated you know because we changed our name today they said quote today academy is working to become the industry leader in governance compliance and regulatory matters it is fair to say and important to note

33:44 that the company has once known as Blackwater simply doesn't exist anymore. It's now Academy. Unquote. That's utter bullshit. The same people are there. Barely a month after Tierney had introduced his bill, the Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency, DIA, announced the winners of a multi-million dollar contract for counterterrorism training of personnel leaving for overseas deployments in hostile environments. There were six.

34:16 Companies competing, Academy, Triple Canopy, G4S, Team Crucible, Washington Security Group, and Signature Science. It was not a huge multi-billion dollar contract like the Worldwide Protective Services contract out of the State Department in 2010, but Tierney regarded it as yet another example of critical imbalances between accountability and power.

34:46 Triple Canopy and G4S had recently been caught in a web of allegations of misconduct. Triple Canopy, which had accumulated roughly $2 billion in U.S. contracts by the time it won this new contract, was facing allegations based on whistleblower complaints that led to a Justice Department charge claiming the...

35:10 Company had billed the U.S. government for hundreds of Uganda security guards who failed to meet firearm proficiency requirements. We've heard that before. Prosecutors claim the company had falsified test scores to make the workers appear to meet the requirements and that it continued to bill the government as if they were fully qualified. For a government contractor to knowingly provide deficient security services, it is, as it is alleged in this case, is unthinkable.

35:40 especially in a war zone. An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department said at the time of the 2012 court filing, a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia added, we will not tolerate government contractors anywhere in the world who seek to defraud the U.S. government through deliberate or reckless conduct that violates requirements and risks the security of government personnel. At the same time,

36:10 G4S, which by 2012 was the second largest non-government employer in the world after Walmart. Let me say that again. G4S, a private defense contractor, military contractor, was the second largest non-government employer in the world after Walmart.

36:41 strong guards, had had its own problems in the months leading up to the new Pentagon contract. In July, it came under fire when the news broke in London that it had recruited and trained only 4,000 of the 13,700 guards it was contracted to provide for the London Olympics. At the time, the policy director of the British group wore on want.

37:08 said that the G4S Olympic scandal exposes the danger of governments' blind faith in the power of the market to deliver everything from policing to war. They also warned, quote,

37:38 will be unable to hold them accountable, unquote. Representative Tierney's attempt to make the companies and his own government accountable was based on the good old-fashioned intent. With the private military security companies moving into the drone business, transparency was indeed more important than ever. But whether it was Senkowski's trying to phase out the industry or Tierney's trying to usher in a tighter system of control,

38:06 Privatized defense and security in America was unstoppable. In only a decade, these companies had become indispensable to the national security agenda without any public discourse. At times, it seemed almost like a fictional story in which citizens of a nation lived in two separate realities. Their government might tell them that the war was over, that troops were coming home, the defense expenditures were being cut, and the citizens of one reality would be pleased.

38:35 War would no longer be on their minds, but the citizens in the other reality would continue to fret about the undeclared wars of the new century. They would worry about their fellow citizens didn't know and were unable to see, like fog clouding a specific place. There was a barrier between the two worlds, though sometimes the mist would be clear, exposing bits of truth. In the coming months, there would be two such events. The first occurred.

39:05 on September 11, 2012, with the assault on Benghazi in Libya, resulting in the death of Christopher Stevens and three others. In the aftermath of the tragedy, reporters investigating diplomatic security dug for details about the private security contractors. Below is a portion of the press briefing on September 14. The question. The claim was made yesterday that a company

39:34 That is a spinoff of Blackwater, in fact, proposed and contracted the U.S. government for this particular kind of eventuality. And it was caught up in some sort of bureaucratic. And then Victoria Nuland, who was the spokesperson, cut him off. Completely untrue. With regard to Libya, I checked this morning. At no time did we plan to hire a private security company for Libya. The question.

40:00 The same questionnaire. You said that at no time did you have contracts with private security companies in Libya? She said, correct. That was not correct. That was a bold-faced lie, and she knew it. In February of that year, the State Department had signed a contract for security guards and patrol services for a job described as local guard program Benghazi, Libya.

40:26 The award was for $387,000 initially with an extension option, which could grow it to $783,000. However, the State Department had not listed any particular company as having received the contract. Instead, the contract winner was identified under a bogus line called a miscellaneous foreign awardee.

40:53 Bringing to mind the category of funding that the Commission on Wartime Contracting had noted in its final report back in 2011, the one that showed a total expense of $38 billion, they were hiding it under a different line. That particular line included DOD, State Department, USAID contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan based on an audit that since 2002

41:24 And no one could find as a result of the audit what it was for. Well, we found out it was for private military contractors. The contract was with Blue Mountain Group, a company based in Wales and started by two former SAS soldiers in 2001. And SAS, by the way, is the organization that reports directly to.

41:52 the royal family, and is involved in Operation Gladio. The name of the company and its logo came from a poem inscribed on a clock tower at their headquarters. We are the pilgrim masters. We shall go always a little further. It may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow across the angry or the glimmering sea.

42:23 Blue Mountain. On its website, Blue Mountain noted that it provided security solutions and training services in more than 20 countries around the world, with a client list that included the UN and the International Monetary Fund. Our core expertise derives from our heritage, gained for many years in the UK Special Forces. In Libya,

42:47 Blue Mountain was one of the very few private security companies that was authorized to operate inside of Libya because of a partnership with a local Libyan company. The fact that the company was already working in Libya hastened the U.S. government's ability to add security in Benghazi, and one source noted using the miscellaneous award designation may also have speeded up the process because it eliminated

43:17 all of the checks and balances that were supposed to be done in order to award the contract. In other words, Blue Mountain became a quick fix. Later at a congressional hearing, a former regional security officer for the U.S. Embassy in Libya would testify that contracting for Benghazi security was largely based on our concern of how long we would be in Benghazi. We were concerned that if we retained or brought on board

43:47 full-time employees, we would have to find them a position afterwards. And what were the consequences of this quick convenience? To patrol the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Blue Mountain hired local guards. But who were they? What were their backgrounds? What was their training? And what was possible? And was it possible that any of them had ties to men who instigated the attacks?

44:18 Well, we don't know because we were just interested in a quick fix. On September 17th, Wired Magazine broke the story that the State Department had given out inaccurate information about private security contractors in Benghazi, as there was indeed a private military security contractor under contract to the State Department for Security in Benghazi at the consulate. The next day, September 18th briefing,

44:47 Victoria Newland came out and corrected herself. Her statement, quote, there was an error in what I said. The external security, external armed security, as we have been saying, outside the perimeter was fully handled by the Libyan side. There was no contract contracting out of that. There was a group called Blue Mountain Group, which is a private security company with permits to operate in Libya.

45:17 They were hired to provide local Libyan guards who operated inside the gate doing things like operating the security access equipment, screening cars, that kind of thing. Now, let me just point out again, everything she just said was a lie. So they did. She said there's no contract. There was a contract. There was a contract with Blue Mountain paid for by the State Department. They had to partner with a local company.

45:47 who was doing business in Libya because they weren't allowed to be there doing what they were doing. Someone asked the question. So to clarify, there were contractors by the U.S. State Department or another agency called Blue Mountain. And then she says they were contracted by the department. So again, she just contradicted herself. And Blue Mountain is a British company, question mark?

46:19 I'm going to have to let them self-identify on that front, but the people who were hired were Libyans. There's nothing else that I have that needs correcting at the moment. In the days ahead, the government repeatedly referred to two of the four men murdered at the consulate as former Navy SEALs, which they were.

46:52 staff, which recruited former U.S. Special Forces operatives. At least half of the work of the GRS was performed by private contractors, and much of it consisted of guarding CIA spies. Clearly, the role of private contractors in America diplomatic security and its counterterrorism strategies in general was not something the State Department was eager to share.

47:21 But then in 2013, in the months following the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, another eye-opening event would expose even more bits of truth about the industry. On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, March 20, 2013, there was predictable finger-pointing over the causes of going to war there, and there were commentary focusing on the unprecedented role of private military security companies. Quote,

47:51 The Iraq war might be the best remembered as America's most privatized military engagement to date, with contractors hired by the Pentagon actually outnumbering troops on the ground, unquote. That was written in the Christian Science Monitor. And from an analyst at the Center for Public Integrity, they stated, although the war's tremendous costs helped to undermine U.S. economy, the fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan

48:20 was a financial boon to the private military security companies. It was a time of reflection, as all such anniversaries are, but for anyone trying to define the scope of the boom, it was also a time of immense frustration. No organization in the world can supply indisputable figures for the industry, much less how much money was being spent. Later in the year, the UN would issue a report claiming,

48:51 that it was a $244 billion industry, growing at the rate of 7.4%, and that U.S. thus far was the single biggest consumer of private military and security services, and that the Pentagon had spent $44 billion in 2012 alone on private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the total cost...

49:20 in the Iraq war was a bonanza. Some commentators depended on facts out of the final report of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which included both the Iraq and Afghanistan war, and estimated that all associated multi-billion dollar costs, including the memorable detail that between $31 billion and $60 billion was lost just to fraud, waste, and abuse.

49:49 The Financial Times wrote that Blackwater and Triple Canopy alone made at least $3 billion. Other articles using the word around, possibly as much or more than, talked about $29 billion gap between the commission's two estimated totals for contractor fraud and abuse. The transparency is very poor, wrote someone at the Harvard Kennedy School.

50:17 who had been trying to answer two questions. How much did the Iraq war cost, including private military? And where exactly did the money go? The research, which required reading hundreds and thousands of contracts as well as financial documents, was taxing because many of the Pentagon's core tracking databases were oddly dysfunctional. Although only a...

50:47 Partial picture was possible. The countries with the most firms operating worldwide was clearly the United States and Great Britain. Wow, that's weird. There were firms also coming out of Russia, Israel, France, and Dubai. The newest nation to enter it was China. Its biggest firm in China was Shangdao Huawei Security Group, was zeroing in on opportunities overseas, especially in Africa.

51:21 It was also targeting the Iraq market, a maneuver based on the belief that there would be work after the current contractors left. And there would also be work in Afghanistan, where there were rich reserves of lithium, copper, cobalt, and other materials that was attractive to China. Well aware of business opportunities in Africa, by the way, of China was Eric Prince, who would soon become the chairman of Frontier Services Group.

51:50 an African-focused security company based in Hong Kong and in business with China's largest state-owned conglomerate, CITIC Group. As Wall Street Journal noted, Beijing has titanic ambitions to tap Africa's resources, including $1 trillion in planned spending on roads, railways, and airports.

52:19 Eric Prince wanted in. By 2013, there was some consensus among experts about the biggest firms providing security and defense services globally. At the head of the list was Great Britain's G4S, which had a presence in at least 100 countries. Also high up on the list was Australian-owned Unity Resource Group, the British firm Inris, and the Asian security group

52:47 a large Afghani firm headquartered in Kabul with ties to Afghanistan's President Karzai. There was Defion International, which was based in Peru, with offices in Iraq, Dubai, Philippines, and Sri Lanka, often supplied private military personnel from Latin America to other firms, including Triple Canopy.

53:12 and always listed among the top companies were Academy, DynCorp, Triple Canopy, and Aegis. Such lists, though, were based largely on firms that had been operating in conflict-ridden zones during the past decade and were always helpful in assessing the industry's ever-expanding market. For instance, South Florida, and especially Miami, had become a hub for private military companies. Weird.

53:42 since that's also the hub for the CIA doing operations overseas. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. They had more companies sprouting up than anywhere else in the country. Camouflaged by parties and palm trees and close to troubled spots in the Caribbean and Latin America, Miami was a boontown for mercenaries. One report noted that at least a thousand such firms in South Florida

54:10 with specializing in maritime securities, companies like Armed Piracy Defense, Global Marine Security, Sea Guard Security, and Secure Waters Security Group. Showing the tracking difficulties was the fact that only 10 of the firms on South Florida's list had signed on to the International Code of Conduct in 2013.

54:36 companies from 70 nations had signed by that point. How to bring more companies in to agree to the code and regulations was a challenge. They had a new association that was established, the latest development in a quest for international oversight. By the 10th anniversary of the war, there had been the launching pad.

55:02 Aegis was operating in 12 nations and was especially busy in diplomatic security work in maritime security. As its website noted, government and diplomatic contracts are part of the lifeblood of Aegis. Since the company was founded in 2002, we have consistently and successfully supported governments in representing themselves and their citizens around the world. Also, according to their website, the total value of U.S. contracts in Iraq

55:30 was $1.3 billion. Aegis had been one of the first private militaries to fly into Libya after the victory of the NATO-led forces in 2012 to facilitate Western business opportunities. Because that's what this is all about. They provided personal protection, housing, and built relationships with local power brokers so businessmen can come in and exploit Libya like they exploit everybody else.

56:02 And we pay for it. In Afghanistan, it would be one of the last companies standing. By the summer of 2013, there were more than 100,000 private contractors working for the DOD in Afghanistan. This figure would not include contractors working for USAID or the State Department, the latter of which had been awarded nearly $500 million to Aegis for securing the embassy and consul.

56:34 consulates in Afghanistan. Aegis, as journalist Charles Glass wrote in Harper Magazine in 2012, was the elite private force in Afghanistan. This would be for years to come, despite Afghan President Karzai's order to expel all private military by March 20, 2012. The order, known as Decree 62, did not include

57:02 embassy security protection and thus Aegis could stay. Even the British Foreign Office, which had nearly declared war on Spicer in 1990, wanted Aegis to guard some of its embassies. We've built a brand. We've built a reputation. We've dispelled all the myths of us being mercenaries, Spicer told Glass, though the story wasn't over yet considering the overseeing American security in Afghanistan was a volatile mission.

57:31 It had nine years since the headlines that marked Aegis' rise from winning the largest security contract in Iraq. Now, Spicer and his company rarely have ever made the news, nor did the industry he helped launch. By 2013, these businesses sought a delicate balance between marketing and their services and corporate clients and keeping a low profile. Clearly, they were succeeding.

57:57 So little was known about them that even their growing role in diplomatic security never got talked about, including during Benghazi. But in the late spring of 2013, another event happened that drew more attention. A 29 year old computer technician, Edwards noted, loaded highly classified U.S. documentation onto a flash drive before leaving his job at NSA.

58:26 as a contractor himself, from Booz Allen Hamilton, which is a CIA front. At a hotel in Hong Kong, he divulged top secret information to two journalists from Britain's Guardian, which on June 5th published its first exclusive article based on Snowden's leak. It was the unnerving story that exposed a secret court.

58:54 order forcing Verizon to release the phone records of millions of Americans to the U.S. government. The next story, on June 6th, claimed that NSA had direct access to data stored by Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. On June 7th, President Obama defended the NSA, saying you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. On June 9th, Snowden told the world what he had done, saying,

59:24 intention of hiding who i am because i have done nothing wrong now there's a lot of people that think that the cia didn't want nsa having the same information that they have and that's the whole reason why snowden did what he did whether that's true or not i don't know but there are a lot of people that think that that this was the cia's way of smacking the nsa soon

59:54 In addition to the security leaks, the American public would learn a lot about Snowden's former employer. For instance, 76% of the 25,000 employees at Booz Allen had classified clearances. 76%. You think they're not doing CIA work? Income to pay these people came from government contracts. In the fiscal year March 2013,

1:00:28 It had $5.76 billion in revenue, of which $1.3 billion came from the intelligence services. Like the NSA, like the CIA, a company announcement in early 2013 had revealed two new contracts to include the Homeland Security.

1:01:02 billion dollars. Booz Allen kept a low profile. Like many of the other companies doing this type of work, it was 100 percent in bed with the government. In Iraq, it was under contract with the Pentagon and Defense Information Servancy Agency, DISA, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and NSA. Well practiced in the task of collecting personal data.

1:01:31 Booz Allen had once been the main contractor on a massive data collection project called Total Information Awareness, TIA, secretly established in the aftermath of 9-11 by DARPA. The firm set out to collect credit card receipts, phone records of individuals identified as potential terrorists. That would be you and I. Congress considered the program an affront to civil liberties. Although Booz Allen could not.

1:02:03 be referred to as a private military security company, it may have been the very first one. And I would suggest that it is. It was a private cyber security contractor. And what has become known as a cyber contractor complex, whatever the company's label, its newsworthiness in 2013 gave the public a glimpse at the privatization revolution in the government.

1:02:33 As threads of secrecy unraveled, Americans learned that nearly 70% of their nation's intelligence budgets was outsourced to private firms. And at the NSA, Booz Allen was conducting massive surveillance of citizens' phone information. The Obama administration chief intelligence officer, none other than James Clapper, was a former Booz Allen executive.

1:03:03 while the former chief intelligence officer in the Bush administration now working at Booz Allen as well. That's why we know that this is not a Democrat or a Republican issue. This was, as one observer said, the revolving door in the purest form. The New York Times editorial pointed out that governments' over-reliance on contractors, noting witnesses from a 2011 congressional hearing,

1:03:30 who expressed concerns about the conflicts of interest, blurred lines of authority, and diminished accountability. It also noted that over 500,000 private sector employees had top-secret government clearances, which in fact made breaches more likely. The Times went on to say outsourcing bath swaths of national security has gone too far with no scrutiny.

1:03:56 Academics and analysts have been analyzing the details of privatization of defense and national security for a decade, including scandals and alleged abuse and congressional commissions begging for reform. The general public has remained mostly in the dark. The scandal was different. It was visceral. Commentators said the NSA was watching people based on a premise of guilt until proven innocent.

1:04:24 President Obama announced plans to overhaul key parts of the surveillance system, but the scandal grew. It involved the NSA monitoring foreign governments, and the Wall Street Journal revealed that the agency's battalion of private contractors had the capacity to spy on 75% of all U.S. internet-based communications, far more than originally revealed. And again,

1:04:48 The more you go on about this and the fact that the CIA is sitting over here doing the exact same thing, but all of the light is being shined on the NSA tells you everything that you need to know about the whole setup. Ironically, on the very day of the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Senate Committee on the Judiciary conducted a hearing called Time Change, the Future of Drones in America, Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations.

1:05:17 By then, the drone business was exploding and its proliferation was evoking reactions from human rights advocates who worried about privacy violation, trade regulators who were concerned about the possibility of companies selling drones to unfriendly nations, from aviation experts who were trying to figure out how drones could safely be introduced to U.S. airspace, and from close observers of private military companies that were anxious.

1:05:44 to restrict their use. There were three facts at the time that most Americans didn't know about drones. How labor-intensive a military drone mission could be, how deeply involved the drone industry private contractors had become, and how drones could change life in America. At a hearing, it was disclosed that the previous decade of U.S. inventory of unmanned vehicles had grown from 167 to over 7,000.

1:06:15 To continue at such a pace, the government was increasingly dependent upon private contractors to operate the drones. And then it talks about the maintenance, logistics leg of the drones. Along with Academy, Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and many others, SAIC, another CIA cutout, was a member of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

1:06:45 a 15-year-old lobby group that had its roots in the 1970s America, when unmanned vehicles were starting to appear. In 2011, there were more than 7,000 members that had become part of the global force, and they were advocating for U.S. legislation.

1:07:07 The aerospace industry experts were predicting that the ensuing decade, the industry would have added 100,000 new jobs to the American workforce for drones. By 2020, over 30,000 drones could be flying in the skies over America. A specific portion of those would be operated out of local police departments. Within 90 days of the 2012 law, they were allowed to fly.

1:07:34 under rigid requirements such as flying them under 400 feet. In anticipation of a 2015 deadline, drone manufacturers were marketing drones already used in war zones and designing new ones for law enforcement. AeroVironment, a Pasadena-based company, supplied a significant portion of the Pentagon's UAVs.

1:08:04 and was known for its hummingbird drone. For police, they touted it as rugged and reliable. It fits easily in the trunk of the car and can be assembled in five minutes. In the summer of 2013, when Americans were learning about surveillance in their emails and telephone calls, the government was creating a surveillance state using drones.

1:08:34 It was referred to as Wide Area Persistent Stare. The technology offered the surveillance scope of 100 predator drones staring all at once all over an area the size of a city. ARGUS is its official name. Its acronym is Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance. And then there's a DASH imagery system.

1:09:01 It had been developed to improve U.S. Army surveillance in protecting troops. What was revolutionary was not its wide surveillance, but its high-resolution video. From as high as 17,000 feet in the air, Argus could view objects as low as six inches from the ground. If used domestically, which according to most accounts was inevitable,

1:09:25 Such capability advanced the surveillance power of the government to unparalleled levels, which worried government watchdogs. Even in our pessimistic moments, we didn't think that every street, every lot, garden, and field would be subject to video monitoring anytime soon, the ACLU said. But that is precisely what this technology enabled.

1:09:53 A powerful aerial surveillance system could easily be mounted on drones, which is especially appealing to law enforcement and homeland security. And by the way, all of that could have been used at the border to prevent any of what happened at the border. But no, we're just going to use it on American people, not the foreigners coming into America.

1:10:19 This time, unlike the explosion of private military security companies in Iraq, there was a chance to establish accountability before the gold rush began. In Iraq, an industry that instigated a major shift in how we defend and source our nation took off before any rules or regulations could be put in place. The collateral damage was massive, causing death, injury and the death of innocent people, including the people we depended upon.

1:10:47 for traditional military forces. For most Americans that summer, the NSA revelations were so shocking that they overwhelmed other stories, including news of the $46 billion immigration reform and border security bill approved in the U.S. Senate, a potential surprise for private military and security companies, calling for persistent surveillance of the 2,000 miles of U.S. border.

1:11:16 The bill would fund sophisticated surveillance programs proven useful in Iraq and Afghanistan. There would also be an increase from 20,000 to 40,000 border agents. If the House passed the bill and the president signed it into law, many soldiers returning from Iraq would be hired by the private military companies on the border, not as border guards working for the government, but under private military contracts.

1:11:42 But even if the bill were never to be enacted, the federal government was unable to expand its border security. The border states would likely take the initiative. Either way, the drone industry and private military contractors would profit. The bill that summer offered a glimpse at the future in which migration was a new frontier for private military companies. The most frequent cited, let's see, to be sure.

1:12:12 These were companies that would assist in America's quest for greater security, but they did not belong to America. Despite the nation's decisive role in launching their industry.

1:12:23 They belong to whatever government, corporation, or NGO sought their services. In the early months of 2014, a reminder of the private military company's independence became apparent. In Iraq, where al-Qaeda forces were strengthening and violence was escalating, the Iraqi government was purchasing more than $6 billion in military equipment from the U.S. And that's why they do it. You keep the chaos going.

1:12:51 By shooting innocent civilians in gathering more people that's going to oppose the puppet government that the U.S. installed to include sending CIA trained Al Qaeda in to join them. And this perpetual instability then generates military industrial complex cells. That's the whole purpose of the whole thing.

1:13:23 So that's the end of the story. It shows you in a nutshell exactly what goes on. The creation of instability generates the demand for profit. And there's literally no better modern day example than looking at private military companies and who now owns them all.

1:13:54 As we talked about before, how they all consolidated. Now they're owned by the same people that own the military cells that are profiting off of the instability. SR-71? Thank you, Colonel, and thank everyone for attending here on Spaces and on Rumble. It just blows my mind when we start talking about the amount of money that's spent on PMCs. And what really I...

1:14:26 I don't know how we could possibly solve some of this because all of this is legal and hired by the State Department. So whether or not President Trump or any president would be aware of what PMCs have been hired and what they're doing becomes suspect. It's that one bit of removal from everything that goes on. Thank you, Colonel.

1:14:58 Sure. The reality of this is it's a sleight of hands on purpose. It's like the magic, the magician who says, look over here at this hand where we're drawing down all of the military and don't pay any attention to this hand where we're growing all of the private military security. And by turning it over to the State Department, private military security contractors,

1:15:28 They're going to go in and shoot up civilians. That generates chaos and instability in these locations that gather even more terrorists to create even more havoc. And then the private military contractors have even more of a job. And you can sell more weapons from the military industrial complex to your new puppet government and slaughter more people.

1:15:56 It's the perpetual cycle of them, and we're paying for all of it. We're paying for the CIA-trained al-Qaeda people coming in against our public government, and we're paying to support the public government. We're literally paying for both sides. Stella, go ahead. I am just floored. I had no idea how they got away with all that stuff and how they still do.

1:16:28 It totally is just a total rinse, repeat and recycle. The perpetual things of war taking over mass chaos. And like you said, they're hiring. It's just insane. I mean, it's just insane. And like you said, we're paying for it. We didn't know. I mean, up until Benghazi, I had no idea how deep and bad it really was. And then after hearing this from a different side of it, it's just mind blowing.

1:17:00 Yeah. And I knew I did not know about Blue Mountain, but I knew that while they referred to them as Navy SEALs, they weren't over there as Navy SEALs. They were over there as contractors. I would love to know whether Chris Pronto, the guy that wrote the 13 Days, if he was under contract to.

1:17:27 um blue mountain because he he was one of the um people there um i i think it would be very interesting to um talk to him about the whole thing so yeah this makes me realize how much deeper well i mean how all this stuff ties together so

1:17:49 Like anyone who participated in any of this stuff that was in Obama's administration and stuff and these dealings that were in this pause thing. But, you know, even people, it's just insane. Like you said, it doesn't matter which party. It's just, it's everywhere. It's a cancer that's everywhere. And hopefully now things are getting shut down, you know, with like USAID being shut down, ActBlue being more.

1:18:13 You know, with some of the other ones that you've talked about is, you know, maybe do you think that with them cutting off these things that these black ops, I mean, black ops, black water, black stone, black rock. I mean, give me a break with all these black stuff and black hats, too. Yeah, I do. USAID was a big source of this destabilization.

1:18:38 as a CIA front under the guise of, you know, doing humanitarian stuff. They were a big source of money. That doesn't mean that they don't still have money, but it is one leg of the table that's been kicked out. So, yeah. SR-71, did you have something? Thank you, Colonel. You did mention Victoria Nuland and how she skated through a lot of this.

1:19:08 And what's funny is, well, not funny, I guess ironic, is throughout all of this, she could always say, yes, I didn't do it. Okay. But if you follow her and where she went after all of this, her husband was involved in PMCs. And now she is, of course, working now with Covington and Burlington as a senior advisor. Okay.

1:19:38 So that gives you a good idea how they keep everything. Shall I say two steps away from me? Oh, don't look at me because I really didn't have anything to do with it. But if you really dig deeper, you find out. I think you had a lot to do with it. Yes, that's right. No, you're you're absolutely. Southern, go ahead. It is stunning to me how.

1:20:14 Our government's been managing our tax dollars, and we shouldn't even be surprised anymore at this point. But I understand now why they did not want Tulsi Gabbard getting the DNI position, because it brings all of them together.

1:20:34 and not have the right and left hand not having a conversation. So I think it will help uncover, reveal, and take out a lot of this mess.

1:20:47 If we don't have accountability, we can't trust our government. And I know Trump is doing as fast as he can go. I mean, he's been there like 200 days, and we're already seeing increase in income in homes is over $1,000. We're starting to see prices coming down, inflation's going down, job numbers are up. And as of June, we now have more American-born workers.

1:21:16 in jobs than we do foreign-born. So things are flipping around and the tariffs are helping. But he's fighting against the Anglo-Dutch system globally trying to do the tariffs because that gives us control and not the oligarchs of the world. But the reality is Stella brought... You cut out.

1:21:45 Yeah, somebody was calling me. I apologize. USAID, one thing I've learned from the colonel is it's a small group of people. They just keep moving around to different departments and organizations or government positions. And USAID, guess who's taking up the mantle? Hillary, Bill, and Chesley.

1:22:10 in chelsea they have a big thing in the un early september because they see that we're not managing the humanitarian effort and they're going to step in and save us so that we can take care of people of the world so guess where the money's going to start coming from

1:22:29 And then I dug into the UN. We have a lot of NGOs that we're paying for under the UN umbrella. So we still have tech dollars going out in these billionaire NGOs so they have a slush fund. So we still have that. But the reality is creating a crisis and then bringing military in and then doing the contractors so the boys up top can make a lot of money all the way up through.

1:22:57 the International Syndicate, because that's how money was. Forever wars, they got paid on both sides. That's not changed. And we're the war part of the three-legged, what do you call it, steps, whatever, the unholy trinity, the Vatican.

1:23:18 Bank of London, and D.C. We're war. Vatican says they're faith, but they're grueling under-the-cover bankers. And you got London. Well, Trump federalized in D.C. because of all the things that are happening there where people are getting hurt, murdered, etc., etc.

1:23:36 It's kind of opening the door, and if Congress will get some balls, because they have a lot of control over D.C., where we can start managing that and make sure money is going in the right place. I think we have the right cabinet and the right teams in place, but we're done with this. And thanks to you, Colonel, we know how to look at things now, and we know how to ask better questions, and we're not taking things at face value anymore. We're saying why.

1:24:06 prove it. And we want receipts. We're not just taking things and agreeing that's okay. And the media is destroyed. We don't believe the media anymore. So they're losing money big time. And the big advertisers are not getting the return on it. So we're going to start seeing that whole thing drop. But bottom line,

1:24:33 We have a coup continually trying to happen here in the U.S. And I just hope we're strong enough to continue to maintain and move forward. And I always say this whenever I get a chance, we have to really turn out in the midterms so that we can keep this moving. Because this is the moment in history that we have, and I don't know if we'll have this again.

1:24:59 Colonel, I can't thank you enough for this. This has made me more responsible in getting out to our constituents here in Western North Carolina and educating because that's how we're going to win. We learn and then we share and we educate and that changes behavior. But we need to be more active. Yeah, I firmly believe that there is a window and if accountability does not happen,

1:25:31 um we no longer have a country um we've not had a republic for a hundred years um 100 we are not going to have a country moving forward if this is not um addressed in an accountability way where people go to jail um they are held accountable because you just you literally can't

1:25:59 forward. You have no incentive to pay any tax at all for a government that has no accountability to we the people at all. Why do we even have a military if our military is used based on fake CIA intelligence?

1:26:26 to get our military to basically be a paramilitary force for corporate interest. Every part of our country has been stolen from us. It does not function as a republic. And this is it. This is kind of the line in the sand that we have to see accountability.

1:26:55 People have to be, and me personally, I want 5 a.m. raids. I want people walked out in leg irons. I want these people on the television. I want trials that are televised. I want every piece of this exposed to the entire world to let people know we're done with it. And not only for the American people.

1:27:24 but for the worldwide population that has been devastated by what these assholes have done around the world in our name. It has to be public. It has to be accountability. And I'm here for it. Stella, go ahead. And I want public executions. Well, I will leave that up to the justice.

1:27:55 It would not break my heart if that's the solution, obviously. But, yeah, if they committed death warrant offenses, that absolutely needs to happen. So, anyway.

1:28:20 broke they're going broke just know that they're going broke don't worry about it I'm keeping an eye on Vegas and you know our revenues are down low they can't even freaking hide them anymore it's freaking glorious okay so two things we will be doing an alpha warrior show tonight it's going to be a little wonky because he is in um South Dakota for one of those uh bad land meetups

1:28:46 So he's not going to be in his home studio, but we're going to pull it off anyway. We are going to be talking about Columbia since the Colombian presidential candidate just died after he was shot a couple of months ago. So I thought that it would be interesting to do that. And we will do the Columbia book, whether it's our next book or not. I don't know, but we're definitely going to do it because.

1:29:13 It literally changes everything you think you know about Columbia. It's crazy. And I am going to try. Hold on. I got to bring this up. Tomorrow, I am sitting right now outside the gates of Fort Benning. And tomorrow.

1:29:38 I am going to try to get into the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, which is the successor to the School of Americas. So I'm going to go on base and I'm going to try to get a tour of that facility. I don't know whether I'll be successful or not, but I'm going to try. And I am very, very excited about that. So anyway.

1:30:08 If anybody knows anybody that's stationed at Fort Benning, please DM me. I dare help. But anyway, I'm going to try. So you guys take care. And you're in the town my grandma lived in, Donnie Vision. This is a really neat town. I've been to Columbus before. You guys know I was stationed at Warner Robins. I love this area. Wonderful people.

1:30:41 Columbus is a really cool town. We're going to go enjoy the river and some of the local things over the next couple of days. And then we will be moving on to Nashville and Bridget after we leave here. Very excited about that. Absolutely. All right, guys. Take care. I'll see you tonight at 930 East Coast time.

1:31:13 Thank you, Karin.

Entities here

United States28 Iran19 U.S. State Department18 Blackwater18 Doug Brooks13 Afghanistan11 Blue Mountain Group9 Triple Canopy9 Ed Cardin9 USAID8 Aegis Defense Services8 Benghazi7 Libya7 John Tierney7 David Eisenberg7 Booz Allen Hamilton6 International Peace Operations Association6 DynCorp4 Department of Defense4 Barack Obama3 Iran-Iraq War3 U.S. Department of Justice3 Dubai3 United Kingdom3 Peter Singer3 Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan3 Miami3 Al Qaeda3 Victoria Nuland3 Edward Snowden3 Jan Schakowsky3 The New York Times2 Washington, D.C.2 China2 School of the Americas2 Journal of International Peace Operations2 Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International2 Tim Spicer2 The Wall Street Journal2 Hamid Karzai2

Claims made here

Doug Brooks founded International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 5:10

“the International Stability Operations Association. Nothing like kind of hiding what you do in a name, but that's basically what it is. There's a guy that is largely associated with it by the name of …”

International Peace Operations Association member_of Triple Canopy book_quoted ▶ 8:50

“The membership roster included all of the big ones, Triple Canopy, G4S, L3, SOC, DynCorp, and Academy. There were half a dozen member firms based in the UAE, mainly Dubai. Others came out of the UK, B…”

International Peace Operations Association member_of Blackwater book_quoted ▶ 8:50

International Peace Operations Association member_of DynCorp book_quoted ▶ 8:50

Jeff Green headed Gray and Company book_quoted ▶ 9:19

“Aegis was not a member. Helping its members to succeed, the association retained a well-known lobbying firm called J.A. Green and Company. It was ran by Jeff Green, who was a specialist in defense lob…”

Jeff Green member_of House Armed Services Committee book_quoted ▶ 9:19

International Peace Operations Association funded Gray and Company book_quoted ▶ 9:19

Jeff Green member_of Coalition Provisional Authority book_quoted ▶ 9:51

“and former legislative director for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. And like many industry associations, this association held an annual meeting for the purpose of networking marketing wi…”

International Peace Operations Association member_of International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers book_quoted ▶ 10:22

“which took place in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, the association celebrated its 10th anniversary and unveiled its code of conduct. It was in step with the one that we've been talking abou…”

Peter Singer exposed International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 14:20

“or Alison Stanger's One Nation Under Contract. Brooks had marked his copies, filling margins with pencil comments and tagging pages of greatest consternation with yellow post-its. He disagreed with Si…”

Jan Schakowsky exposed International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 15:20

“over the private military contractors. Among them was Illinois Jan Sikowski, who remained frustrated as ever by the challenging of collecting basic information about the industry. There are still no g…”

David Eisenberg exposed International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 16:49

“The public indifference has been going on for too long, he said. Eisenberg's interest in private military contractor business went back to something he published in 1997 that was published in 1997 by …”

Ed Cardin member_of Coalition Provisional Authority book_quoted ▶ 20:42

“was old news to Major General Ed Cardin. In February 2012, he returned for a few weeks to the U.S. from South Korea, where he now commanded the Army's 2nd Infantry Division. He was more aware of the d…”

Ed Cardin member_of 19th Infantry Division book_quoted ▶ 20:42

Ed Cardin exposed U.S. State Department book_quoted ▶ 21:39

“private military security corporations, said Cordon. The drawdowns reshape the force. We'll contract it when we need to. Nowhere is this more evident than in replacing military support to the U.S. Sta…”

Blackwater member_of Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International book_quoted ▶ 26:55

“Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and other private military companies, Academy was also a member of the largest drone lobby in America. That was called the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International…”

Triple Canopy member_of Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International book_quoted ▶ 26:55

DynCorp member_of Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International book_quoted ▶ 26:55

John Tierney exposed International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 27:57

“And yet again, someone in Congress was sponsoring a bill to rein it in. In August, Representative John Tierney of Massachusetts introduced Oversight and Accountability and More Time Contracting Act of…”

John Tierney exposed Coalition Provisional Authority book_quoted ▶ 29:28

“He was also the congressman who introduced the legislation that launched the commission on wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three years later, he initiated a probe that uncovered an extort…”

John Tierney exposed International Peace Operations Association book_quoted ▶ 29:28

Blackwater paid United States documented ▶ 31:16

“A multi-billion dollar legal settlement between the U.S. government and Blackwater, now called Academy, was announced. In a case in which the company was accused of violating arms export controls and …”

Defense Intelligence Agency funded Washington Security Group documented ▶ 33:44

“that the company has once known as Blackwater simply doesn't exist anymore. It's now Academy. Unquote. That's utter bullshit. The same people are there. Barely a month after Tierney had introduced his…”

Defense Intelligence Agency funded Triple Canopy documented ▶ 33:44

Defense Intelligence Agency funded Team Crucible documented ▶ 33:44

Defense Intelligence Agency funded Blackwater documented ▶ 33:44

Defense Intelligence Agency funded Signature Science documented ▶ 33:44

Triple Canopy overbilled_or_diverted U.S. Department of Justice documented ▶ 35:10

“Company had billed the U.S. government for hundreds of Uganda security guards who failed to meet firearm proficiency requirements. We've heard that before. Prosecutors claim the company had falsified …”

U.S. State Department funded Blue Mountain Group documented ▶ 40:00

“The same questionnaire. You said that at no time did you have contracts with private security companies in Libya? She said, correct. That was not correct. That was a bold-faced lie, and she knew it. I…”

Blue Mountain Group member_of IMF documented ▶ 42:23

“Blue Mountain. On its website, Blue Mountain noted that it provided security solutions and training services in more than 20 countries around the world, with a client list that included the UN and the…”

Shangdao Huawei Security Group member_of China documented ▶ 50:47

“Partial picture was possible. The countries with the most firms operating worldwide was clearly the United States and Great Britain. Wow, that's weird. There were firms also coming out of Russia, Isra…”

Frontier Services Group member_of Citigroup documented ▶ 51:50

“an African-focused security company based in Hong Kong and in business with China's largest state-owned conglomerate, CITIC Group. As Wall Street Journal noted, Beijing has titanic ambitions to tap Af…”

Hilton International supplied_arms_to Triple Canopy documented ▶ 52:47

“a large Afghani firm headquartered in Kabul with ties to Afghanistan's President Karzai. There was Defion International, which was based in Peru, with offices in Iraq, Dubai, Philippines, and Sri Lank…”

U.S. State Department funded Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 56:02

“And we pay for it. In Afghanistan, it would be one of the last companies standing. By the summer of 2013, there were more than 100,000 private contractors working for the DOD in Afghanistan. This figu…”

Charles Glass exposed Aegis Defense Services book_quoted ▶ 56:34

“consulates in Afghanistan. Aegis, as journalist Charles Glass wrote in Harper Magazine in 2012, was the elite private force in Afghanistan. This would be for years to come, despite Afghan President Ka…”

Hamid Karzai removed_from_power Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 56:34

U.S. State Department funded Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 57:02

“embassy security protection and thus Aegis could stay. Even the British Foreign Office, which had nearly declared war on Spicer in 1990, wanted Aegis to guard some of its embassies. We've built a bran…”

Edward Snowden member_of Booz Allen Hamilton documented ▶ 57:57

“So little was known about them that even their growing role in diplomatic security never got talked about, including during Benghazi. But in the late spring of 2013, another event happened that drew m…”

The Guardian exposed Edward Snowden documented ▶ 58:26

“as a contractor himself, from Booz Allen Hamilton, which is a CIA front. At a hotel in Hong Kong, he divulged top secret information to two journalists from Britain's Guardian, which on June 5th publi…”

Booz Allen Hamilton member_of U.S. Department of Homeland Security documented ▶ 1:01:02

“billion dollars. Booz Allen kept a low profile. Like many of the other companies doing this type of work, it was 100 percent in bed with the government. In Iraq, it was under contract with the Pentago…”

Booz Allen Hamilton member_of Defense Information Systems Agency documented ▶ 1:01:02

DARPA founded Total Information Awareness documented ▶ 1:01:31

“Booz Allen had once been the main contractor on a massive data collection project called Total Information Awareness, TIA, secretly established in the aftermath of 9-11 by DARPA. The firm set out to c…”

Booz Allen Hamilton funded Total Information Awareness documented ▶ 1:01:31

James Clapper member_of Booz Allen Hamilton documented ▶ 1:02:33

“As threads of secrecy unraveled, Americans learned that nearly 70% of their nation's intelligence budgets was outsourced to private firms. And at the NSA, Booz Allen was conducting massive surveillanc…”

AeroVironment supplied_arms_to Pentagon documented ▶ 1:07:34

“under rigid requirements such as flying them under 400 feet. In anticipation of a 2015 deadline, drone manufacturers were marketing drones already used in war zones and designing new ones for law enfo…”

Victoria Nuland member_of Covington & Burling documented ▶ 1:19:08

“And what's funny is, well, not funny, I guess ironic, is throughout all of this, she could always say, yes, I didn't do it. Okay. But if you follow her and where she went after all of this, her husban…”