The shadowy world of government-outsourced companies is again highlighted in Australia with the suicide, yesterday, of a detainee in a Detention Centre operated by a private company Serco. Accountability by governments - or corporations for that mater - for these outsourced companies is rare. To make matters worse whilst little is known about the companies to whom a variety of work, including quasi-military, is outsourced, their activities are wide-spread.
It's a subject taken up by Jeremy Scahill in a piece in The Nation, when looking at the infamous and ubiquitous private security company, Blackwater:
"Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm."
Interestingly, the British have a not dissimilar issue - as raised here in a piece in an opinion piece The Guardian.
It's a subject taken up by Jeremy Scahill in a piece in The Nation, when looking at the infamous and ubiquitous private security company, Blackwater:
"Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm."
Interestingly, the British have a not dissimilar issue - as raised here in a piece in an opinion piece The Guardian.
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