A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Of course Afghan government can’t live without privatised forces

Posted: 02 Nov 2011

Don’t believe anybody who says that private security and mercenaries won’t increasingly be in the front-line of US-led wars (if not in the headlines). The New York Times reports:

President Hamid Karzai’s plan to disband private security companies that protect billions of dollars worth of aid projects and replace them with government forces is fraught with problems and unlikely to meet the president’s March deadline to complete the transition, according to a six-month assessment of the program.

The assessment, conducted by NATO and the Afghan Interior Ministry, outlines dozens of issues that have slowed the development of the new security force and raises questions about the government’s capacity to carry out and sustain the program and others as international aid and military support dwindle in coming years.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, comes as international development companies are becoming increasingly worried about the security of their workers, many of whom are Afghans.

Mr. Karzai has said that replacing the private companies with his country’s forces is an important step toward Afghan sovereignty. Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has also made it a central issue, according to a Western official.

“It’s become a top priority because if it doesn’t work, everything grinds to a halt,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. “If it isn’t sorted out, everyone will pull out because they don’t want some fly-by-night security protecting them.”

NATO, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development are setting up a task force that could grow to more than 170 people to advise and help train the guard force, according to a senior American official and a senior NATO official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Pentagon will also be asking Congress to appropriate $35 million to $40 million in new and reallocated money to pay for the task force, a senior NATO official said.

The assessment makes it clear that much work needs to be done. Of 166 “essential” criteria to determine if the government was able to recruit, train and sustain the guard force, less than a third could be fully met, the assessment found. Sixty-three of the measurements could not be met at all.

Among the shortfalls: the program, which is overseen by the Interior Ministry, “has no money available to procure necessary supplies and equipment”; its training center is not teaching leadership skills and cannot generate enough guards to meet the forecasted demand; and the ministry has failed to provide the seed money — about $10 million — to prop up a state-owned business to run the program.

The program has already failed to supply personnel and equipment for some of its contracts, the report said. Its authors concluded that the police protection force “is not on track” to assume the responsibilities of the private security companies by March.

With Libya “free”, the Islamic Republic may soon receive freedom bombing

Posted: 02 Nov 2011

Peace-loving Britain, America and Israel may soon engage in yet another “liberation” in the Middle East:

Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign.

They also believe the US would ask permission to launch attacks from Diego Garcia, the British Indian ocean territory, which the Americans have used previously for conflicts in the Middle East.

The Guardian has spoken to a number of Whitehall and defence officials over recent weeks who said Iran was once again becoming the focus of diplomatic concern after the revolution in Libya.

They made clear that Barack Obama, has no wish to embark on a new and provocative military venture before next November’s presidential election.

But they warned the calculations could change because of mounting anxiety over intelligence gathered by western agencies, and the more belligerent posture that Iran appears to have been taking.

Wikileaks on real role of New York Times in setting media agendas

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 08:20 AM PDT

Julian Assange on The New York Times: Part 1 from NYT eXaminer on Vimeo.

Assange on British court’s approval of extradition to Sweden

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 08:01 AM PDT

More here.

Noam Chomsky speaks at #OccupySydney, 2 November 2011

Posted: 02 Nov 2011

Last night, just before Noam Chomsky delivered the 2011 Sydney Peace Prize, he spoke at #OccupySydney. I filmed his short appearance:

Some of my photos from the Chomsky visit here and here.

The never-ending march of Serco in Western Australia

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:30 PM PDT

So:

The State Government has announced the company Serco is its preferred tenderer for services at a new young adults corrective centre.

The Corrective Services Minister Terry Redman says the company was chosen to provide services at the facility in Murdoch after an extensive evaluation of its standards.

Mr Redman says Serco’s performance will be closely monitored by both the Government and the Inspector of Custodial Services.

My source in Western Australia tells me:

Prior to the last election the [Liberal] Barnett mob gave a undertaking this facility would not be privatised but after they were elected  they reversed that decision and decided to privatise the facility. Serco had a couple of years to lobby and prepare for the tender. Serco were the only tenderer, they were actively involved in developing the specifications for the facility and its various programs and it is reputed that a senior executive with responsibility for the facility within DoCS has links with Serco.

Contract management WA style!

The Community and Public Sector Union knows what this latest contract means; less jobs, lower wages and less accountability:

The CPSU/CSA has condemned the Barnett Government’s announcement today that multi-national company Serco will operate a new Young Adults Facility in Western Australia.

CPSU/CSA Secretary, Toni Walkington, says that the decision to outsource the new Young Adults facility will be disastrous for the state and put public safety at risk.

“Colin Barnett’s Government says they care about Law & Order but they are outsourcing key parts of the justice system to private companies, said Ms Walkington.

“Private companies exist to make profits for their shareholders – they do not exist to keep the community safe. Over recent months serious doubts have been cast over multi-nationals and their management of prisons, detention centres and public services.

A recent comprehensive evaluation of public versus private management of a new facility shows there is no benefit to the state from outsourcing this facility.

If the State Government walks away from its responsibilities it will not be able to protect the community.”

Ms Walkington said that a government that talks tough on Law & Order should not be outsourcing jobs in the justice system and putting public safety at risk.

Spirit of resistance still lives inside Iran

Posted: 01 Nov 2011

A new graphic novel, Zahra’s Paradise, is released that shows the long and ongoing struggle of Iranians for a better, safer and non-fundamentalist future. The New York Review of Books:

The people that Zahra and Hassan come across in their quest tell them stories: of missing relatives, confiscated property, executions, and the like. Hassan, for example, visits at his home a young man who shared a cell with Mehdi and others at Kahrizak Prison—the Tehran detention center where both male and female prisoners were allegedly assaulted and tortured during the 2009 protests. He describes these horrors: “I was raped! Raped in the name of their God, in the name of their Iran! Raped in the name of their prophet…It is their Islamic republic—not me—that is covered in filth!” Khalil’s drawings reconstruct this event as the young man is remembering them: his interrogators forcing him to face a cell wall; his trousers being pulled down; the document he was forced to sign afterwards, presumably saying he was well treated.

The novel’s drawings often reveal this kind of terrible irony. They represent a distinctly Iranian style of humor, a means of puncturing pretence and power. Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, is depicted as the Caliph of an all-male harem, choosing a new favorite among the politicians and clerics who are vying for his attention. The Revolutionary Court is pictured as a Kafkaesque maze of stairs, running upside down and sideways and seemingly going nowhere. Iran’s judiciary is evoked by a huge, gaping set of a mullah’s jaws. Moving stairs and runways, carrying an endless line of the accused enter the jaws from one side; they emerge from the maws of the mullah, after side trips to the torture chamber and the confession room, carrying signs of their prison sentences: “10 years,” “2 years,” “17 years.”

The protagonists of Zahra’s Paradise are in many ways representative types. Zahra is like the thousands of mothers who in Iran today persist in the search for missing sons and daughters and who courageously demonstrate before detention centers and in public parks, and issue open letters to the authorities seeking the freedom of their incarcerated children. Even today, a number of these mothers gather every Saturday in a Tehran park for this purpose, often risking arrest. This gathering is included in the book, and the police are shown dispersing the women. The brother, Hassan, provides an entrée into the world of Iran’s irreverent youth culture: into bedrooms plastered with posters, endless hours on the internet, intense camaraderie and the furtive but easy interaction between men and women in internet cafes. A taxi driver, taking Zahra and Hassan on their ronds, abandons his cab in the middle of Tehran’s perennially snarled traffic to fetch himself and his passengers a glass of his favorite watermelon juice. As the drawing appropriately shows, his absence hardly matters, since the traffic is not moving at all.

Chomsky warmly welcomed in Sydney

Posted: 01 Nov 2011