Stand Down!

The Blackwater Factsheet. The U.S. government has increasingly been outsourcing functions previously carried out by government employees or members of the military to for-profit corporations. During the Bush Administration, the use of private military contractors rose dramatically: while during the first Gulf War one in sixty people deployed were employees of corporations contracted by the U.S. government, the ratio swelled to one in three during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today, there are more private contractors than US soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The cases against Titan/L-3 and CACI. In April 2004, 60 Minutes II and The New Yorker exposed a system of torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners detained by the U.S. at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The release of pictures and video documenting the horrific abuses led to the court-martial of a small-number of low-level U.S. soldiers. Relatively unexamined, however, is the role played at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities by contractors from two U.S.-based corporations: L-3 Services, Inc. (formerly Titan Corporation) and CACI International, Inc. Although Titan/L-3 and CACI employees were directly involved in the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, no employee of either company has been convicted of any offense.
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On Tuesday, October 27 CCR hosted a panel discussion on the private military industry in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa that was streamed through a live webcast.

Panelists Vince Warren, CCR Executive Director; Jeremy Scahill, Journalist and Author of Blackwater: Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army; Representative Jan Schakowsky, Congressional Representative from the 9th District of Illinois and Emira Woods, Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus discussed the impact of privatized conflict on human rights, current efforts to secure corporate accountability and redress for the victims of human rights abuses and ways that you can get involved. The panel was moderated by Annette Dickerson, CCR Director of Education and Outreach.

Above is a multimedia presentation prepared by Photographer Chris Bartlett, whose photo exhibit was on display at the True Reformer Building during the October 27, 2009 event. The Detainee Project was created by Chris Bartlett and Daniel Heyman, two artists whose work features CCR clients, Iraqi torture survivors, who bring allegations against contractors for participating in a conspiracy to torture Iraqi detainees. To learn more about Chris Bartlett's work, visit the Detainee Project’s website.