U.S. Army generals protected by private contractors paid $110,000 a year.

our army needs to be protected by civilians? that is not the army i was in. the republic neocon chickenhawks have ruined our army.

imagine being a major, in for 5 years making $60,000 a year, standing next to a 19 year old blackwater contractor making $110,000 a year? how would you feel?

the secretary of the army a bush appointee, approves of private contractors.

it all seems like high cost redundancy to me. wtf, over.

FYI, private security guards man the gates at bases here in the USA.

What's that tell you?

it was the house committee congressman Murtha chairs.

taxpayers paid about $220,000 with 110,000 of it divided up by all the profiteers. Tell me it's not so.

They rip us off with our lives, our income, our debt and then they cripple us.

And that doesn't even take in what they've done to the innocent people of Iraq.

When will someone in the military become a whistleblower. How long will the military brass participate in this grand theft?

over the last 4 years, maybe the contractors are protecting the Generals from their own troops!

If I'm stuck in Iraq, on my 2nd or 3rd tour, and I can't get out of the military and no one is making decisions that make sense, I might get frustrated enough to want to take out a big-wig just to wake some people up!

I`ve been wondering, how long has this country been using private contractors to "augment" our troops? I would love to know, exactly what is expected of the pc? "We" seem to be paying them an awful lot of money. But, what do they really provide?

...people were up in arms about the draft. As long as there's no draft this war could go on forever.
I'm figuring that's why BushCo pays the big bucks to privitize the military.

that time. They did the light jobs and did not carry a weapon.

congress is going to bring all this fraud to light. Republicans are scattering like cockroaches.

REMEMBER BUSH WANTING JOHN BOLTON TO BE AMBASSADOR -


WASHINGTON (April 21) - President Bush prodded the Senate on Thursday to confirm John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador and blamed politics for holding up the vote. Bush's 2004 presidential challenger said Bolton, if approved, would be weakened by the allegations against him.


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Two days after the Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee abruptly postponed plans to vote on the nomination, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he strongly supports Bolton, but "I can't speak for all of leadership" of the Senate GOP.

No top Senate Republican has voiced opposition to Bolton. But cracks in support by some GOP senators have put the nomination in question. The White House is lobbying three Republicans on the committee whose concern about Bolton's nomination derailed Tuesday's planned vote. Their worries has set in motion three more weeks of investigation into how Bolton treated subordinates who disagreed with his views.

Before speaking to a meeting of insurance agents about Social Security, Bush described Washington as a place where "sometimes politics gets in the way of doing the people's business."

"John's distinguished career and service to our nation demonstrates that he is the right man at the right time for this important assignment," Bush said.

As it resumed research Bolton, the Senate committee received a new accusation of abusive behavior by the nominee, according to a Democratic committee staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest allegation dates to the Reagan administration, when Bolton was general counsel for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and concerns reports that Bolton berated another agency employee and tried to get the person fired, said the aide, who would provide no further detail.

In addition, Thomas Hubbard, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea who served under Bush, challenged Bolton's testimony to the committee that he had praised Bolton for a 2003 speech denouncing Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, as a "tyrannical dictator."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hubbard said he advised Bolton against making the speech. The comments led North Korea to denounce Bolton as a "bloodsucker" and roiled already difficult talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

"I asked Bolton to tone the speech down," Hubbard said. Bolton agreed to some factual changes but went ahead with his denunciation of the North Korean leader.

Hubbard, now with a Washington law firm, also said Bolton berated him for failing two years ago to arrange a meeting for him with the president-elect of South Korea, Roh Moo-Hyun.

"He hung up on me," Hubbard said. "He was very angry."

An account of Hubbard's complaints first appeared on Newsweek's Web site on Wednesday.

Separately, former Secretary of State Colin Powell returned calls Thursday to senators who wanted to discuss questions that have been raised about Bolton, said Powell's spokeswoman, Peggy Cifrino. She gave no additional details. Powell was the only living former GOP secretary of state who did not sign a recent letter endorsing Bolton for the job.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who has evolved from a reluctant Bolton supporter to saying he wants more information, was among those who called Powell on Thursday, said Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan. He said Chafee would not divulge the specifics of the conversation.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said a hiatus is prudent while the committee explores allegations and questions about Bolton's fitness for the job.

If Bolton has not been candid about accusations against him, Kerry said in the Senate, "that is a serious problem, it's not politics."

Kerry also said if Bolton were to get the job "with proof that there is in fact a retribution system for not providing the intelligence according to what that person wanted ... that's a problem, it's a serious problem."

Republicans tried to shore up the nomination on the Senate floor, where both moderate and conservative lawmakers came to Bolton's defense.

Moderate Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., likened Bolton's ordeal to a death by a thousand cuts. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has sometimes been at odds with Bush, followed a short time later with a strong endorsement, saying Bolton's reputation as having a volatile temper should not disqualify him from a job where he could help steer needed reform at the world body.

"I believe John Bolton could provide the medicine the United Nations needs," McCain said.

The Senate committee reached no consensus Thursday on whether to ask Bolton to return for more questioning. Bolton testified for eight hours last week and answered more questions in writing, but has been unable to stem a stream of allegations that he mistreated people he worked with and let his temper get away from him.

Bolton himself has not commented since his testimony.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush was not doing any personal lobbying on the matter.

The committee is looking into roughly a dozen allegations that Bolton either verbally roughed up underlings or abused his authority in his current job as the State Department's arms control chief. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has come close to accusing Bolton of lying to senators, and Democratic committee staffers are double-checking some of his testimony against government records and through questions to top former intelligence officials.






APPARENTLY REPUBLICANS ARE FLEEING TO SAVE THEIR OWN SKIN NOW! -






Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton slams the new deal on North Korea’s nuclear program, saying it grants too many concessions and sends a "bad signal” to Iran.

"It is rewarding bad behavior of the North Koreans by promising fuel oil," said Bolton. "It's a bad signal to North Korea and it's a bad signal to Iran. It will say to countries like Iran and other would-be proliferators, if you just have enough patience, if you just have enough persistence, you’ll wear the United States down. They’ll give up on point after point after point.”


Under the announced terms of the accord reached in Beijing, North Korea will receive some $400 million in aid, including 1 million tons of fuel oil. An immediate shipment of 50,000 tons of fuel oil will be delivered in the next two months. If North Korea then agrees to shut down its nuclear facility at Yongbyon, an additional 950,000 tons of fuel will be provided, the Washington Times reports.



As part of the deal, the U.S. agreed to Pyongyang's demand to lift Treasury Department banking restrictions on Banco Delta Asia in Macao, which was laundering North Korean counterfeit $100 bills to finance the communist regime.

Giving up financial leverage on North Korea by agreeing to lift banking sanctions is a "huge" mistake, Bolton said.

"That leverage is what brought them to the table . . . The Chinese were paying them to come to the talks. Now we're paying them."

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