Chalmers Johnson - The Sorrows of Empire - Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

59. Tim Weiner, Blank Check (New York: Warner Books, 1990), p. 178.

60. Ibid., pp. 172–98; and Stephen D. Goose, “Low-Intensity Warfare: The Warriors and Their Weapons,” in Klare and Kornbluh, Low-Intensity Warfare, p. 87.

61. Martin, “Billions for War”; and Rowan Scarborough, “Commandos Resist Loss of Purchasing Authority,” Washington Times, October 17, 2002.

62. Tom Bowman, “Special Forces’ Role May Expand,” Baltimore Sun, August 3, 2002; Pamela Hess, “Panel Wants $7 Billion Elite Counter-Terror Units,” United Press International, September 26, 2002; and William M. Arkin, “The Secret War: Frustrated by Intelligence Failures, the Defense Department Is Dramatically Expanding Its ‘Black World’ of Covert Operations,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2002.

63. New York Times, op-ed, August 21, 2002.

64. Greg Miller, “Military Wants Its Own Spies,” Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2003.

5: SURROGATE SOLDIERS AND PRIVATE MERCENARIES

1. See A. J. Langguth, Our Vietnam: The War, 1954–1975 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), pp. 184–85. Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the right-wing think tank, the Hoover Institution, located on the campus of Stanford University, advocates that the United States solve its military manpower needs by creating an American version of the French foreign legion. See his “All They Can Be, except American,” New York Times, February 18, 2003.

2. See Tamar Gabelnick, “Security Assistance after September 11,” Foreign Policy in Focus 7:4 (May 2002); and North American Congress on Latin America, “15,000 Latin Americans Trained by the U.S. Military Last Year,” June 27, 2002, .

3 Lora Lumpe, “U.S. Foreign Military Training: Global Reach, Global Power, and Oversight Issues,” Foreign Policy in Focus, Special Report, May 2002.

4. See, for example, reports of the U.S. Special Forces attack of January 24, 2002, on the Afghan village of Uruzgan. After killing at least nineteen villagers, the Americans, wearing masks, took twenty-seven men prisoner. They bound and tortured them for several days and then shot some of the bound prisoners in the back. It turned out that none of them were members of the Taliban or al-Qaeda. One officer said, “We are sorry. We committed a mistake bombing this place.” The CIA distributed reparations money to the families of those killed (Molly Moore, “Villagers Released by American Troops Say They Were Beaten, Kept in ‘Cage,’” Washington Post, February 11, 2002).

5. Quoted in Victoria Garcia, “U.S. Foreign Military Training: A Shift in Focus,” Center for Defense Information, “Terrorism Project,” April 8, 2002.

6. On the roles of the CIA and the Pentagon in the overthrow of democracy in Brazil and the fostering of military takeovers in Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, see A. J. Langguth, Hidden Terrors (New York: Pantheon, 1978).

7. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991), p. 306.

8. Linda Robinson, “America’s Secret Armies: A Swarm of Private Contractors Bedevils the U.S. Military,” U.S. News & World Report, November 4, 2002; James Gerstenzang, “Vinnell Corp., Targeted in Riyadh Before, Loses 9 More Workers,” Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2003.

9. Dana Priest, “U.S. Instructed Latins on Executions, Torture,” Washington Post, September 21, 1996. Also see Raymond Ker, “CIA and School of the Americas,” MediaMonitors, November 26, 2001, .

10. The Athenaeum, “The Sepoy Mutiny—India, 1857,” .

11. George Crile, Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History—the Arming of the Mujahideen (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003).

12. See International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, “Making a Killing: The Business of War,” October 28, 2002, a segment of a Center for Public Integrity eleven-part series, ; Deborah Avant, “Private Military Companies Part of U.S. Global Reach,” Progressive Response 6:17 (June 7, 2002); Robinson, “America’s Secret Armies”; Esther Schrader, “U.S. Companies Hired to Train Foreign Armies,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002; James Dao, “U.S. Company to Take Over Karzai Safety,” New York Times, September 19, 2002; Leslie Wayne, “America’s For-Profit Secret Army,” New York Times, October 13,2002; David Isenberg, “Security for Sale in Afghanistan,” Asia Times, January 6, 2003; and Isenberg, “There’s No Business like Security Business,” Asia Times, April 30, 2003.

13. Quoted in Lumpe, “U.S. Foreign Military Training.”

14. Robinson, “America’s Secret Armies”; and John J. Lumpkin, “Spy Plane Too Costly for Operations,” Associated Press, August 28, 2002.

15. Halliburton Company Web Site, “Halliburton Awarded Services Contract to Support Troops in Balkans,” February 18,1999, .

16. Kathleen Hennessey, “A Contract to Spend,” Mother Jones, May 23, 2002; “The Biggest Camp There Is: Houses Being Built for 5,000 Personnel at Camp Bondsteel,” September 27, 1999, ; Global Security Organization, “Camp Bondsteel,” . Also see Ivana Avramovic, “Civilians Take Over Security at Bosnia’s Task Force Eagle Base Camps,” Stars & Stripes, August 17, 2002.

17. Robert Bryce, “The Candidate from Brown & Root,” Austin Chronicle, August 28, 2000.

18. Lee Drutman and Charlie Gray, “Cheney, Halliburton and the Spoils of War,” Citizen Works, April 4, 2003, .

19. See, inter alia, Robert Caro, LBJ: Master of the Senate (New York: Knopf, 2002); Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller, “Cheney Led Halliburton to Feast at Federal Trough,” Investigative Report, Center for Public Integrity, ; Martin A. Lee, “Reality Bites,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 13, 2000; Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., “In Tough Times, a Company Finds Profits in Terror War,” New York Times, July 13, 2002; Frank Rich, “The Road to Perdition,” New York Times, July 20, 2002; and Molly Ivins, “Dirtied by Iraqi Oil,” Creators Syndicate, September 5,2002.

20. Paul Stuart, “Camp Bondsteel and America’s Plans to Control Caspian Oil,” World Socialist Web Site, April 29, 2002.

21. James K. Galbraith, “The Unbearable Costs of Empire,” American Prospect 13:21 (November 18, 2002).

22. Tech. Sgt. Theresa McCullough, “U.S. Tankers Deploy to Bulgaria,” Air Force Link, November 21, 2001; Ian Traynor, “Payback Time for America’s Allies as GIs Set Up Camp in the New Europe,” Guardian, March 4, 2003; Doug Sanders, “Ex-Enemy Helping U.S. Fight in Iraq,” Globe and Mail, March 20, 2003; Global Security Organization, “Burgas Airport,” .

23. Global Security Organization, “Camp Doha,” .

24. “Top 200 Contractors 2000,” Government Executive Magazine, August 1, 2000.

25. Global Security Organization, “Camp Doha.”

26. Patrick E. Tyler, “Two U.S. Computer Workers Are Shot, One Fatally, Near Army Base in Kuwait,” New York Times, January 22, 2003; Craig D. Rose and Penni Crabtree, “Tapestry Solutions Is a Software Supplier,” San Diego Union-Tribune, January 22, 2003; Kenneth Bredemeier, “Thousands of Private Contractors Support U.S. Forces in Persian Gulf,” Washington Post, March 3, 2003.

6: THE EMPIRE OF BASES

1. Center for Defense Information, “The Global Network of United States Military Bases,” Defense Monitor 18:2 (1989).