lets take a look....private military corporations

Outsourcing the Pentagon
The following is according to the Center for Public Integrity's Outsourcing the Pentagon:

* "In April <2002>, the Army told Congress that its best guess was that the Army had between 124,000 and 605,000 service contract workers. In October, the Army announced that it would permit contractors to compete for "non-core" positions held by 154,910 civilian workers (more than half of the Army's civilian workforce) and 58,727 military personnel." <11>

* "In 2003, the IG reported that out of 113 service contract actions reviewed (with an estimated value of $17.8 billion), at least 98 had one or more problems, including inadequate competition, lack of surveillance, or inadequate price reasonableness determinations." <12>

* "The Freedom of Information Act applies to "agency" records. Contractors, in this context, are not "agencies," even where they perform decisional roles. Similarly, government officials are subject to a body of conflict of interest provisions, pay caps, limits on political activity, and labor rules that do not similarly constrain contractors who perform similar, even the same, work." <13>

* "Between 1998 and 2003, the Pentagon awarded more than $47 billion in contracts designated for small businesses to companies that have each earned more than $100 million from Defense Department contracts alone during that six year period." <14>

* "The homeland security industry is currently the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy, predicted to grow from a $5 billion industry in 2000 to $130 billion in 2010, according to the Homeland Security Research Corporation, a private California think tank." <15>
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Private_Military_Corporations#Outsourcing_the_Pentagon

A Very Private War
By Jeremy Scahill
Guardian
August 1, 2007
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2007/0801privatewar.htm

There are now 630 companies working in Iraq on contract for the US government, with personnel from more than 100 countries offering services ranging from cooking and driving to the protection of high-ranking army officers. Their 180,000 employees now outnumber America's 160,000 official troops. The precise number of mercenaries is unclear, but last year, a US government report identified 48,000 employees of private military/security firms.
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Outsourcing is increasingly extending to extremely sensitive sectors, including intelligence. The investigative blogger RJ Hillhouse, whose site TheSpyWhoBilledMe.com regularly breaks news on the clandestine world of private contractors and US intelligence, recently established that Washington spends $42bn (£21bn) annually on private intelligence contractors, up from $18bn in 2000. Currently, that spending represents 70% of the US intelligence budget.

But the mercenary forces are also diversifying geographically: in Latin America, the massive US firm DynCorp is operating in Colombia, Bolivia and other countries as part of the "war on drugs" - US defense contractors are receiving nearly half the $630m in US military aid for Colombia; in Africa, mercenaries are deploying in Somalia, Congo and Sudan and increasingly have their sights set on tapping into the hefty UN peacekeeping budget; inside the US, private security staff now outnumber official law enforcement. Heavily armed mercenaries were deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while there are proposals to privatise the US border patrol. Brooks, the private military industry lobbyist, says people should not become "overly obsessed with Iraq", saying his association's member companies "have more personnel working in UN and African Union peace operations than all but a handful of countries".
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In early 2005, Blackwater held an extravagant, invitation-only Greystone "inauguration" at the swanky Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, DC. The guest list for the seven-hour event included weapons manufacturers, oil companies and diplomats from the likes of Uzbekistan, Yemen, the Philippines, Romania, Indonesia, Tunisia, Algeria, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Kenya, Angola and Jordan. Several of those countries' defence or military attaches attended. "It is more difficult than ever for your country to successfully protect its interests against diverse and complicated threats in today's grey world," Greystone's promotional pamphlet told attendees. "Greystone is an international security services company that offers your country or organisation a complete solution to your most pressing security needs."
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While Blackwater has become one of the most powerful and influential private actors in international conflict since the launch of the war on terror, in many ways it is like a small, high-end boutique surrounded by megastores such as DynCorp, ArmourGroup and Erynis, operating in a $100bn industry. In fact, experts say, there are now more private military companies operating internationally than there are member nations at the UN.

Secret Unit Expands Rumsfeld's Domain
New Espionage Branch Delving Into CIA Territory

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page A01
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The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces.
Military and civilian participants said in interviews that the new unit has been operating in secret for two years -- in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places they declined to name. According to an early planning memorandum to Rumsfeld from Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the focus of the intelligence initiative is on "emerging target countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Philippines and Georgia." Myers and his staff declined to be interviewed.

The Strategic Support Branch was created to provide Rumsfeld with independent tools for the "full spectrum of humint operations," according to an internal account of its origin and mission. Human intelligence operations, a term used in counterpoint to technical means such as satellite photography, range from interrogation of prisoners and scouting of targets in wartime to the peacetime recruitment of foreign spies. A recent Pentagon memo states that recruited agents may include "notorious figures" whose links to the U.S. government would be embarrassing if disclosed.
Perhaps the most significant shift is the Defense Department's bid to conduct surreptitious missions, in friendly and unfriendly states, when conventional war is a distant or unlikely prospect -- activities that have traditionally been the province of the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Senior Rumsfeld advisers said those missions are central to what they called the department's predominant role in combating terrorist threats.
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Two longtime members of the House Intelligence Committee, a Democrat and a Republican, said they knew no details before being interviewed for this article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29414-2005Jan22.html

Review Article: The Worldwide Network of US Military Bases
The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel
By Jules Dufour*
Global Research
July 1, 2007
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2007/0701worldwide.htm
II. More than 1000 US Bases and/or Military Installations
The main sources of information on these military installations (e.g. C. Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases Worldwide.
In this regard, Hugh d’Andrade and Bob Wing's 2002 Map 1 entitled "U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the World, The Cost of 'Permanent War'", confirms the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries.
The US Military has bases in 63 countries. Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001 in seven countries.
In total, there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide.
These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million acres. According to Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data, the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S. territory, the total land area occupied by US military bases domestically within the US and internationally is of the order of 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J., 2007).
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/unifiedcommand/

Published: Sept. 10, 2007 at 3:17 PM
RESTON, Va., Sept. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. firm Raytheon said Monday it has won a new $15 billion Pentagon contract to help fight the war on drugs.

"The scope of work across all task orders is to provide equipment, material and services to the DOD's Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office -- CNTPO. Work began Aug. 24 and will end Aug. 23, 2012," the company said.
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"CNTPO is actively engaged in providing technology and services to meet the immediate and emerging needs of the combatant commanders and others involved in inter-agency and multinational operations to disrupt, deter and deny narcoterrorist and illegal drug activities," said Tom Arnsmeyer, vice president of the Homeland Security Solutions product line of RTSC's Integrated Support Solutions business.

"Raytheon is committed to providing the right solutions to CNTPO in this critical mission of supporting the DOD, other government agencies, and partner nations," Arnsmeyer said.

Raytheon said RTSC "provides technology solutions for defense, federal and commercial customers worldwide. It specializes in Mission Support, counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism, homeland security solutions, base and range operations and customized engineering and manufacturing."

Raytheon Co. said it had 2006 sales of $20.3 billion. The company described itself as "a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world."
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/09/10/raytheon_wins_15b_drugs_dod_war_contract/5781/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumberger_Limited
Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services corporation operating in approximately 80 countries, with about 70,000 people of 140 nationalities.
also.. software and information management...services for the groundwater industry.

Operating revenue in 2006 was US $19.23 billion with a market capitalization as of January 31, 2007, of US $74.5 billion.<1>
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In 1934, the Schlumberger Well Surveying Corporation was founded. This was later to become Schlumberger Well Services (and later Schlumberger Wireline & Testing). 1940 saw the company move its headquarters to the US oil capital, Houston, Texas. The next few decades brought numerous breakthroughs in Schlumberger's logging technology offerings
In 1956, the company known as Schlumberger Limited was officially set up in Curaçao as a holding company for all Schlumberger businesses. The American testing and production company Johnston Testers was acquired this year as well. 1960 marked the formation of the well-known Dowell Schlumberger (50% Schlumberger, 50% Dow Chemical), which specialized in pumping services for the oil industry. Two years later, Schlumberger Limited became listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Schlumberger purchased 50% of Forex in 1964 and merged it with 50% of Languedocienne to create the Neptune Drilling Company.
The remaining 50% of Forex was acquired the following year; Neptune was renamed Forex Neptune Drilling Company.
In 1979, Fairchild Camera and Instrument (including Fairchild Semiconductor), became a subsidiary of Schlumberger Limited.
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The SEDCO drilling rig company and half of Dowell of North America were acquired in 1984, resulting in the creation of another well-known Schlumberger trademark, the Anadrill drilling segment
Forex Neptune was merged with SEDCO to create the Sedco Forex Drilling Company the following year, when Schlumberger purchased Merlin and 50% of GECO.

Schlumberger's Information Network, or SINet, launched in 1985, is the world's second largest internal corporate network and the first commercial ARPANet-based intranet.

In 1987, Schlumberger completed their purchases of Neptune (North America), Bosco and Cori (Italy), and Allmess (Germany).
That same year, National Semiconductor acquired Fairchild Semiconductor from Schlumberger for $122 million, and the domain name www.slb.com was registered by the company.
In 1991, Schlumberger acquired PRAKLA-SEISMOS
Schlumberger acquired the software company GeoQuest Systems, Inc. in 1992.
The remainder of the decade saw Schlumberger buy out the petroleum division, AEG meter, and ECLIPSE reservoir study team Intera Technolgies Corp.
A joint venture between Schlumberger and Cable & Wireless plc saw the creation of Omnes, which today handles all of Schlumberger's internal IT business. Oilphase and Camco International were also purchased.

In 1999, Schlumberger and Smith International created a joint venture, M-I L.L.C., the world's largest drilling fluids (or mud) company. The company consists of 60% Smith International, and 40% Schlumberger. Since the joint venture was prohibited by a 1994 antitrust consent decree barring Smith from selling or combining their fluids business with certain other companies, including Schlumberger, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. found Smith International Inc. and Schlumberger Ltd. guilty of criminal contempt and fined each company $750,000 and placed each company on five years probation. Both companies also agreed to pay a total of $13.1 million, representing a full disgorgement of all of the joint venture's profits during the time the companies were in contempt.<2>

the Geco-Prakla division was merged with Western Geophysical to create the seismic contracting company WesternGeco, of which Schlumberger held a 70% stake, the remaining 30% belonging to competitor Baker Hughes. Under new business policy, the company got rid of its famous brand names in the oilfield service industry viz, Anadrill, Dowell, GeoQuest, Geco-Prakla, Wireline & Testing in order to promote and sell its oil & gas services under the single trading name of Schlumberger Oilfield Services (OFS). Also that year, Sedco Forex was spun off, and merged with Transocean Drilling company.

The following year, Schlumberger acquired the IT consultancy company Sema plc for $5.2 billion. The company was an Athens 2004 Summer Olympics partner, but Schlumberger's venture into IT consultancy did not pay off, and divestiture of Sema to Atos Origin was completed that year for $1.5 billion. That same year, the Cards division was divested through an IPO to form Axalto, which later merged with its competitor Gemplus to form Gemalto. In 2003 the Automated Test Equipment group, part of the 1979 Fairchild Semiconductor acquisition, was spun off to NPTest Holding, which later sold it to Credence.

On January 10, 2005 Schlumberger purchased Waterloo Hydrogeologic,<1> which was followed by several other groundwater industry related companies, such as Westbay Instruments, and Van Essen Instruments.
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On April 21, 2006, Schlumberger purchased of the remaining 30% stake in WesternGeco from Baker Hughes for US$2.4 billion.

In 2006, Schlumberger built a new research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts to replace the Ridgefield, Connecticut research center. The move was completed at the end of 2006. The new facility joins the other research centers operated by the company in Cambridge, England; Moscow, Russia; Stavanger, Norway; and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

BOSTON, MA USA
BOSTON, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Cabot Industrial Trust (NYSE: CTR), a
national developer, owner and operator of industrial property, announced the
formation of a joint venture with GE Capital Real Estate to acquire and
develop workspace and multi-tenant industrial properties. Cabot is the
operating partner and will be paid acquisition, development and management
fees for services it provides to the venture. In addition, Cabot Industrial
Trust can earn incremental cash flow participation if GE Capital Real Estate
achieves certain return thresholds.
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GE Capital Real Estate, ( http://www.gecapitalrealestate.com ) headquartered in
Stamford, Conn., is one of the industry's leading global sources for
commercial real estate capital through Structured Finance, Equity and Capital
Markets products with a portfolio of over $18 billion. GE Capital, with
assets of over $345 billion, is a global, diversified financial services
company with 28 specialized businesses. A wholly owned subsidiary of General
Electric Company, GE Capital, based in Stamford, Conn., provides equipment
management, mid-market and specialized financing, specialty insurance and a
variety of consumer services, such as car leasing, home mortgages and credit
cards, to businesses and individuals around the world. GE is a diversified
manufacturing, technology and services company with operations worldwide.

Cabot Industrial Trust is a fully integrated real estate company that
specializes in the ownership, acquisition and development of industrial
properties with 350 properties containing 42 million square feet in 22 states
at June 30, 2000. The Company also manages an additional 10 million square
feet of property for investment advisory accounts and for joint venture
accounts at June 30, 2000. Cabot Industrial Trust focuses on a broad spectrum
of industrial property types nationwide, including large bulk distribution
facilities, multitenant distribution facilities and workspace properties.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-02-2000/0001327076&EDATE=

Franz F. Colloredo-Mansfeld, 44, Managing Partner, has 13 years of real estate experience and has been employed with Cabot for 11 years. Mr. Colloredo-Mansfeld is responsible for the management of the firm and serves on the Investment Committee. Mr. Colloredo-Mansfeld initiated strategies for the Cabot REIT to gain access to the public markets as a real estate investment trust. While with the Cabot REIT, Franz Colloredo-Mansfeld served as Chief Financial Officer. He served as a Senior Vice President of Cabot Partners from 1996-1997. He was a Senior Engagement Manager of McKinsey & Company, Inc. where he worked from 1992 through 1996. He previously worked for the Deutsche Bank real estate investment group in 1992 and was a Robert Bosch Fellow at the German Central Bank (Bundesbank) in Frankfurt, Germany in 1991. He was also an investment banker with Merrill Lynch & Co. from 1986 through 1989, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Colloredo-Mansfeld is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. Mr. Colloredo-Mansfeld is a trustee of a number of charitable institutions including The Groton School, The Trustees of Reservations and The Sabre Foundation. He is a director of Gilbane Inc. and a member of the Urban Land Institute, and the Pension Real Estate Association.

Franz F. Colloredo-Mansfeld is Managing Partner, founder and CEO of Cabot Properties, a private equity real estate investment firm and sponsor of the Cabot Industrial Value Fund II. Colloredo-Mansfeld previously worked for the Deutsche Bank real estate investment group, and is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

Published: July 31, 1988

LEAD: At St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Cambridge, Mass., Anne Robertson Dowden, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donald S. Dowden of Islip, L.I., was married yesterday to Franz Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld of Hamilton, Mass. The Rev. John E. MacInnis performed the ceremony.

At St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Cambridge, Mass., Anne Robertson Dowden, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donald S. Dowden of Islip, L.I., was married yesterday to Franz Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld of Hamilton, Mass. The Rev. John E. MacInnis performed the ceremony.
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The bridegroom, a graduate of the Groton School and Harvard, was until recently an associate in mergers and acquistions at Merrill Lynch & Company in London, and is now assigned to the company's Tokyo office. His father is the chairman and chief executive officer at Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a real-estate development company in Boston. His mother, Susanna Lawrence Colloredo-Mansfeld, owns Black Rock Stables in Hamilton.

Mr. Colloredo-Mansfeld is a grandson of John E. Lawrence of Hamilton and the late Anne Tuckerman Lawrence and of the late Count and Countess Franz Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld of Vienna and London. Mr. Lawrence recently retired as the president of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and as the chairman of James Lawrence & Company, an export-import concern in Boston.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD71731F932A05754C0A96E948260

Court orders Opocno castle restitution
Government officials claim ruling for former owners weakens Benes Decrees
By KEVIN LIVINGSTON - The Prague Post staff writer
A court's decision to return the Opocno castle to its former owners raises questions about the state's reliance on the controversial Benes Decrees as a justification for refusing to restitute some properties, government officials said.
A regional court in Hradec Kralove ruled May 13 (2003) that the castle, seized by occupying Nazis and later the communist regime, must be turned over to Kristina Colloredo-Mansfeld. She has battled the state for control of the property for more than nine years.
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The government had claimed that Josef Colloredo-Mansfeld, Kristina Colloredo- Mansfeld's father and previous owner of the Renaissance-era castle, was not entitled to restitution because he had applied for citizenship in Nazi Germany in 1940. The regional court rejected that claim.
http://opocno-city.opocno.cz/castle-restitutionb.htm

Colloredo-Mansfeld's certificate on citizenship is invalid-press.
Publication: Europe Intelligence Wire
Publication Date: 12/23/2003
COPYRIGHT 2003 Financial Times Ltd.
(From Czech News Agency)

PRAGUE, Dec 23 (CTK) - The certificate on Czech citizenship of nobleman Josef Colloredo-Mansfeld, issued by the Interior Ministry in 1992, is invalid, the daily Pravo reports today referring to a current ministry report.

However, it is not sure how this fact can influence Colloredo-Mansfeld's restitution dispute about the Opocno chateau, the paper adds.

The court returned the Opocno chateau, east Bohemia, to a daughter of the last chateau owner, Kristina Colloredo-Mansfeld, this May.

According to the verdict of the Regional Court in Hradec Kralove, east Bohemia, no evidence has been submitted proving that Josef Colloredo-Mansfeld lost Czechoslovak citizenship and collaborated with Nazis during World War Two.

In December, the Interior Ministry issued a document on Colloredo-Mansfeld's citizenship, which declares the certificate on his state citizenship from 1992 an invalid decision as it was issued by an unauthorised body, Pravo says.

Czech agents abroad aided police against nobility claiming property
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Monday March 19, 2007
Prague- Czech intelligence agents were involved in
controversial legal battles by several aristocrats against the Czech
Republic over property seized from their ancestors by the former
Czechoslovakia, the Lidove Noviny newspaper reported on Monday.
Citing documents, the report said that a specialized police unit
focusing on aristocratic restitution investigations had asked the
intelligence service in 2004 to collect evidence in Austrian and
German archives against such plaintiffs as Franz Ulrich Kinsky and
Kristina Colloredo Mansfeld.
http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/Czech_agents_abroad_aided_police_ag_03192007.html