Xe Services LLC

Did President John F. Kennedy actually offer the mob money to destroy Fidel Castro’s beard in the early sixties to destabilize his image in Cuba? Did he authorize a mob “hit” on the Cuban leader? World War II had its share of nefarious deals between the government and “shadowy” figures and organizations. Wikipedia: “[Imprisoned mob Boss Lucky Luciano’s] help was sought in providing Mafia assistance to counter possible Axis infiltration on U.S. waterfronts, during Operation Avalanche, and his connections in Italy and Sicily were tapped to furnish intelligence and ensure an easy passage for U.S. forces involved in the Italian Campaign. Albert Anastasia, who controlled the docks, promised that no dockworker strikes would arise. Luciano supposedly dropped a yellow handkerchief from a plane flying over Sicily with his crest to signal friendly faces were approaching; this allowed for the Sicilian Mafia to arise from underground and participate in the liberation of Sicily.”

The government stopped sabotage at the New York docks with this alliance, the story goes, and Luciano was purportedly allowed to continue running his criminal enterprises from jail in exchange for his efforts; he was eventually deported to Italy after the war. Many believe that it was this unholy alliance between the Mafia (which had been ruthlessly rooted out by Italian Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini) and the U.S. government that replanted the Mafia back into southern Italy.

And then we have “Contra-gate,” a/k/a the “The Iran-Contra affair … [which according to Wikipedia] was a political scandal in the United States which came to light in November 1986, during the Reagan administration, in which senior US figures agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo, to secure the release of hostages and to fund Nicaraguan contras…. [See below] In the end, fourteen administration officials were charged with crimes, and eleven convicted, including then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. They were all pardoned in the final days of the George H. W. Bush presidency, who had been vice-president at the time of the affair.”

In the 1980s, as part of the above scandal, charges surfaced that the C.I.A. assisted the Nicaragua drug trade (using the Colombian drug cartels to secure drugs) – resulting in a major influx of cocaine to the U.S. through African-American gangs based in Los Angeles – to enlist and finance a Nicaraguan “Contra” army (Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense), rebels who were trying, unsuccessfully, to topple the incumbent communist Sandinista government. The circle of arms-trading with the then “new” Shiite Iranian government, along with the funding to Contra rebels in Nicaragua, could be hidden by funding all this activity off-the-books of the C.I.A. – money from the drug trade could be used instead!

Yes, the U.S. has a pretty long history of dealing with “the dark side.” The Iraq War even created an entirely new mainstream defense contractor industry in which actual fighting (often under the guise of “guarding” people or facilities) and even prisoner interrogation was “outsourced” to companies like Kellogg Root Brown (a former Halliburton subsidiary, which changed its name to KBR, Inc.) and the infamous BlackwaterUSA (which recently changed its name to Xe Services LLC, most probably because the name “Blackwater” had become so tainted with negativity). These “contractors” fell into a legal loophole where they were neither covered by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (and some took the position that as private contractors, they also were exempt from the Geneva Conventions) nor local Iraqi law. Accusations of arrogance and murder abounded against Blackwater, until the current Iraqi government banned them from working in Iraq.

These “contractors” carried and used mainstream military weapons, operated armored vehicles and helicopters, and their image – flak jackets and dark glasses with BIG guns – is seared into the memory of so many Iraqis. Their casualties were always counted as “civilians,” and controlling their activities under color of law was always difficult. In effect, these “soldiers” were mercenaries hired by the U.S. military (today their big employer is the U.S. Department of State… where they allegedly guard U.S. diplomatic personnel). They still work and fight for the U.S. government all over the earth.

So why are we remotely disturbed by this report in the August 19^th New York Times: “The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials… Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects… The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the new C.I.A. director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.”

Look, our C.I.S. is bad enough; the August 22^nd Los Angeles Times: “The CIA staged a mock execution and brandished weapons, including a gun and a power drill, during interrogation sessions with detainees the agency was desperate to persuade to talk, according to a long-secret internal CIA report expected to be released [August 24^th].” But outsourcing to a contractor moves control and supervision even farther away from viable scrutiny.

Letting private contractors slime their way into questionable or even illegal activities – killing people, violently interrogating “detainees” in the field, engaging in what has to be full-scale military combat without clear color of law or authority… one step removed from the scrutiny by and responsibility of the properly appointed government regulators and our elected representatives… is now the American way? We know that the Obama administration has curtailed the use of “contractors” in these nefarious ways, but they still work for our government, and it is still a HUGE business. There’s just something that still feels really, really, wrong.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.