America For Sale, Rent Or Contract: Are We Really Working Toward National Security?

AllWorld Language Consultants Inc., a Rockville firm, is seeking experienced military interrogators to work in Iraq for $153,500 a year plus bonuses, with proficiency in Arabic "preferred but not required," according to Yahoo's Hot Jobs listings.

The U.S. Army element of the Multi-National Force-Iraq is looking for a private contractor to provide airborne surveillance over that country that will "provide situational awareness of the entire area of operations," according to another Web announcement.

It would appear that the new growth industry for this millenium is intelligence contracting, including public relations spin, buying media stories and interrogating prisoners and detainees being held by US forces.

DOES ANYONE SEE ANYTHING INHERENTLY WRONG WITH PUTTING CORPORATE ENTITIES IN CHARGE OF INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS?

There is no real accountability and we are making private companies--companies not subject to constitutional restrictions and limitations against misconduct--agents of law enforcement, our intelligence agencies and our military forces.

Lockheed Martin Corp. is seeking a counterintelligence analyst to work for the Pentagon's newest intelligence agency, the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), in its Colorado Springs facility to "create and deliver briefings, write reports, and represent Counterintelligence Field Activity," according to a Web classified ad.

Wasn't Lockheed a defense contractor for BUILDING military devices, electronics and avionics? When did they become experts on counterintelligence and public relations?

These positions and thousands like them are part of a growing trend at the Pentagon to contract out intelligence jobs that were formerly done primarily by service personnel and civil service employees.

I apologize for not being politically correct, but this approach is asinine in the extreme.

But, by using contract employees, government agencies lose control over those doing this sensitive work and an element of profit is inserted into what is being done. Also, as investigations have revealed, politics and corruption may be introduced into the process.

Don't we mean MORE politics and corruption?

The office of Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte has quietly begun to study the contracting issue because "it already is a problem," a senior intelligence official said in a recent interview.

Nothing like closing the door after the horse has left the barn.

A related concern for intelligence agencies inside and outside the Pentagon is that the government is training people and getting them security clearances, but they then leave for better pay offered by contractors, sometimes to do the same work.

"Once cleared, they can get a higher salary outside and they are gone," the official said. "We're leasing back our former employees."

And it is policies like using contractors that are creating the opportunities for government-trained experts to jump ship and make a profit on the training that our tax dollars paid for in the process. At least military experts have to give a certain number of years of service after receiving training at government expense.

The phenomenon is partly the result of Congress's approving large funding increases for intelligence activities but not increasing the limit on the number of full-time persons that agencies can hire. "We don't have the billets," the official said, so the surge is taken care of by contracting out the jobs.

Another job well screwed by congress. Let's vote them ALL out of office and start with all new freshmen.