Does This Seem Like A Good Idea To Anyone?
Published by BG on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 7:21 AM.Drug WarRant
It's bad enough when government agencies are all lobbying for a chunk of drug war cash. But when you get private companies into the act as well, then the entire power structure has a financial stake in continuing and escalating the destruction.
Lucrative private players have been heavily in the mix for years, from drug testing companies to privately owned prisons -- all lobbying for harsher drug laws.
A couple of other instances have been in the news lately.
LinkThe Defense Department has picked five companies, four of them from the Washington area, for a contract to support the Pentagon's counter-narcoterrorism activities. The government may spend as much as $15 billion through the five-year contract.
The local companies are Arinc of Annapolis, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Raytheon Technical Services of Reston and Northrop Grumman Information Technology of McLean. The fifth company is Blackwater USA of Moyock, N.C.
Let's be clear, the only thing I can possibly think Blackwater might be enlisted in the "Drug War" to do is provide military/police/SWAT-type services. If the intention is for them to deliver these services in application of US law, I can think of all sorts of problems with the outsourcing of law enforcement. These guys aren't exactly security guards at the mall, you'd use them to break down doors at suspected meth labs. Nothing could possibly go wrong doing that, right?
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