Sullo stesso argomento si veda l'articolo, in italiano sul sito
irredentista pan-albanese "I Balcani",

LA PRIVATIZZAZIONE DELLA GUERRA
Gli USA appaltano i loro affari di stato ad aziende al di fuori di ogni
controllo pubblico, come nel caso della "pulizia etnica" in Croazia.
di Ken Silverstein ("The Nation", 28 luglio 1997)

http://www.ecn.org/est/balcani/jugo/jugo12.htm


---


>
> GENERALS FOR HIRE: CONFRONTED WITH ITS TRICKIEST
> TASK IN BOSNIA, THE USA
> HAS MADE PLANS TO PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT.
> Source: TIME magazine - By Mark Thompson,
> Washington, with reporting by
> Massimo Calabresi, Sarajevo and Alexandra
> Stiglmayer, Tuzla, with other
> bureaus - 15 Jan 1996; page 34
>
> THIS IS THE AGE OF PRIVATIZATION. All across
> America, communities are
> hiring for-profit firms to perform the tasks that
> have traditionally
> fallen to government -- educating children, running
> prisons, even building
> and maintaining highways. There is one job, though,
> that seems to be an
> unlikely candidate for outsourcing: executing the
> foreign policy of the
> U.S. If that is not the business of the Federal
> Government, what is? In
> Bosnia, however, the U.S. has a problem: there is
> one particular aspect of
> its mission that is crucial but that it is loath to
> carry out. So the very
> 1990s solution is likely to be hiring a private
> company to do the job
> instead.
>
> For anyone who wants to rent a general, the place to
> go is Military
> Professional Resources Inc., headquartered in a
> squat, red brick office
> building in Alexandria, Virginia. Eight years old
> and with annual revenues
> of about $12 million, MPRI is, according to its
> brochure, "the greatest
> corporate assemblage of military expertise in the
> world." With 160
> full-time employees and some 2,000 retired generals,
> admirals and other
> officers on call, it is making a fair claim. Among
> its most prominent
> executives are retired four-star General Carl Vuono,
> who ran the Army
> during Desert Storm and now heads the company's
> growing overseas business,
> and Crosbie ("Butch") Saint, who was once the chief
> of the Army's
> operations in Europe and who oversees MPRI's work
> there. This is the
> outfit that the U.S. will probably turn to for help
> in Bosnia.
>
> Why would the U.S. need MPRI? The Dayton accord
> calls for disarmament
> negotiations to reduce the Bosnian Serbs' military
> edge over the weaker
> Muslim-Croat Federation. While its European allies
> vigorously disagree,
> the U.S.believes that even if arms control shrinks
> the Bosnian Serb
> arsenal, the federation will require new weaponry to
> ensure a military
> balance in the region. The accord allows arms to
> start flowing into the
> region beginning in mid-March. "We will not be able
> to leave unless the
> Bosnian government is armed and prepared to defend
> itself," says
> Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware. "That's
> the ticket home for
> Americans."
>
> The problem is the Bosnian Serbs. They object to the
> notion that the U.S.,
> by agreement a neutral party, would make any move to
> strengthen the
> Bosnian army. The U.S. fears Serb attacks on its
> troops if it uses them to
> arm and train the Bosnians. In fact, the Clinton
> Administration has
> pledged that U.S. troops will not play an active
> role in rearming the
> Bosnians. So how is Washington to achieve what it
> considers the necessary
> balance of power in the region? After months of
> fretting, the U.S. has
> come up with a plan. Senior officials told TIME that
> some private company,
> most likely MPRI, which has done work for the
> Croats,will train the
> Bosnians, who will be freshly outfitted with
> hundreds of tons of new
> weapons provided by the U.S. and its allies. "MPRI
> has got the know-how
> and the track record in the Balkans," says a senior
> Pentagon official.
>
> Last week James Pardew, the Pentagon's point man in
> negotiating the Dayton
> accord, flew to Sarajevo to urge the Bosnian
> government to hire MPRI or a
> competitor like BDM Inc. or SAIC (Science
> Applications International).
> Pardew plans to tell the Bosnians that weapons will
> not begin to flow into
> Bosnia for months, but training (assuming the
> Bosnians act swiftly to
> organize the effort) is expected to begin within a
> few weeks, perhaps in
> Croatia, U.S. officials say. Assistant Secretary of
> State Richard
> Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton pact, recently
> spoke favorably of MPRI
> in testimony to Congress and says training "can
> begin as soon as the
> contracts are worked out."
>
> MPRI is ready. "The Bosnians need training at the
> company level, putting
> battalion staff together, that sort of thing," says
> retired Army Lieut.
> General Harry Soyster. "It can be done pretty
> quickly." Formerly the head
> of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Soyster, MPRI's
> operations chief, is
> the only official who speaks publicly for the
> company. For the past year,
> MPRI has had 15 men in Croatia, a group headed by
> retired two-star General
> Richard Griffitts. They have been teaching the
> Croats to run a military
> force in a democracy, and recently signed a second
> contract to reorganize
> Croatia's Defense Ministry. Also during the past
> year, MPRI, under a State
> Department contract, has been monitoring cargo
> flowing from Serbia to the
> Bosnian Serbs as part of an internationaleffort.
>
> Croatia gave a dramatic demonstration of military
> power last August, when
> it drove rebel Serbs from the Krajina region. That
> offensive took place
> seven months after MPRI began its work in the
> country. Serb and European
> military analysts suggested that the Croats had
> outside help, and MPRI
> quickly found itself on the defensive. But Soyster
> insists MPRI's role in
> Croatia is limited to classroom instruction on
> military-civil relations
> and doesn't involve training in tactics or weapons.
> Other U.S. military
> men say whatever MPRI did for the Croats--and many
> suspect more than
> classroom instruction was involved -- it was worth
> every penny. "Carl
> Vuono and Butch Saint are hired guns and in it for
> the money," says
> Charles Boyd, a recently retired four-star Air Force
> general who was the
> Pentagon's No. 2 man in Europe until July. "They did
> a very good job for
> the Croats, and I have no doubt they'll do a good
> job in Bosnia. "
>
> In a secret, just finished report that cost $400,000
> to prepare, the
> Pentagon has determined the Bosnians' military
> needs. The study concludes
> that the Bosnian Serbs' advantage could be erased by
> giving the
> Muslim-Croat Federation about 50 tanks plus similar
> numbers of artillery
> and armored vehicles, say Pentagon officials
> familiar with the findings.
> The Muslims also need antitank and antimortar
> weapons, light arms and
> basics like boots and bullets. In an indication of
> how important MPRI's
> role would be, the report contends that the forces
> need more training than
> arming, especially in tactics for midsize units
> involving hundreds of
> troops.
>
> Biden, who backs the Bosnians, has quietly won $100
> million in Pentagon
> weaponry and supplies for Sarajevo in a 1996
> spending bill. Some U.S.
> officials say it will take several times that amount
> to right the military
> balance. Nations likely to be asked for weapons and
> cash include Turkey,
> Egypt and Pakistan. Those countries, expecting
> nearly $3 billion in U.S.
> aid this year, may have a hard time saying no.
>
> As for the Bosnians, this aid effort will come with
> strings attached. A
> key condition, senior U.S. officials told TIME,
> requires Bosnia to sever
> all its military and intelligence links with Iran.
> Ejup Ganic, the
> federation Vice President, gave TIME official
> confirmation that Bosnia had
> received arms from Iran, bringing them through gaps
> in the NATO no-fly
> zone. "What we received from Iran," he says, "it's
> kind of a
> science-fiction solution. You cannot load a ship
> with ammunition and bring
> it in a normal way." But Ganic won't quibble about
> cutting Iranian ties
> now. "You bring us stuff," he says, and "we won't
> look anywhere else."
>
> The Serbs remain disturbed by the entire business.
> Last month several U.S.
> lawmakers got a similar reaction from Serbian
> President Slobodan Milosevic
> in Belgrade. Over espresso and pastries, Milosevic
> told them that
> Americans "are looking for trouble," says Republican
> Representative Jim
> Ramstad of Minnesota. Milosevic, widely blamed for
> igniting the Balkan
> wars, has some unexpected allies. Retired top U.S.
> military officers who
> until recently were responsible for the Balkans say
> the plan may embolden
> the Bosnians to seize land now held bythe Bosnian
> Serbs. Boyd suggests it
> would be better to leave well enough alone, saying
> both sides are war
> weary and that a rough military stability already
> exists. Retired General
> David Maddox, the chief U.S. Army officer in Europe
> until last year, also
> criticizes the policy. "The more we do to make sure
> they can fight well,"
> he says, "the less motivation there is for peace."
>
> Given the risks posed by training the Bosnians and
> the importance the U.S.
> has given the mission, it seems especially proper to
> ask if a private
> company ought to be undertaking it. The desire to
> protect American troops
> is understandable, but will the Serbs really
> distinguish between them and
> MPRI trainers? By hiring consultant mercenaries to
> do a messy job, it is
> easier for Washington to ignore the consequences and
> fudge the
> responsibility. Once again, for better or worse,
> that seems to be an
> overshadowing aim of America's policy in Bosnia.
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> PRIVATE MILITARY TO MONITOR PULLOUT OF SERBS FROM
> KOSOVO
> Source: The Sydney Morning Herald - By Jonathan
> Steele, 02 Nov 1998
>
> The United States has asked a private mercenary firm
> to provide the US
> military contingent to verify the withdrawal of Serb
> forces from Kosovo.
> The move will allow President Bill Clinton to avoid
> the political risk of
> having Americans die in active service in the
> Balkans.
>
> European governments, including Britain, have
> seconded military officers
> to the high-risk mission. However, because
> Yugoslavia's President Slobodan
> Milosevic has refused to allow the monitors to be
> armed, US officials
> believe it is safer to give the task to private
> contractors.
>
> The winner of the State Department contract for
> about 150 men to join the
> international monitoring group of 2,000 is DynCorp,
> a Virginia-based
> company. On its Web site, it says of itself:
> "Imagine technology with a
> touch of humanity. Meet a team of experts who treat
> hi-tech like an art
> form."
>
> Mr Spence Wickham, a retired US Air Force officer
> and director of
> international operations in the DynCorp division
> that is handling the
> Kosovo mission, said his team were arriving in the
> region over the
> weekend. "We have extensive experience of doing
> business for the
> military," he said. The team included weapons
> inspectors, verification
> experts and drivers and technicians to operate the
> standard US infantry
> vehicle, the Humvee.
>
> Mr Clinton's decision to dump the Kosovo mission on
> the private sector has
> raised eyebrows in Europe. A British defence expert,
> Ms Mary Kaldor, said:
> "It is extraordinary that a country with a highly
> paid volunteer army
> should turn to a private company of mercenaries.
> This is not the sort of
> task which should be done for profit. It indicates
> the Clinton
> Administration's determination to keep at arm's
> length [from the Kosovo
> conflict]."
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> v) U.S. SEEKS OFFICERS FOR KOSOVO.
> Source: Washington Post - 10 June 1999
>
> Washington - Job alert! Great pay and benefits,
> foreign travel,
> interesting work. DynCorp Technical Services says
> the State Department "is
> seeking active and recently retired police officers
> of any rank who are
> eager to accept a challenging and rigorous
> assignment." And where might
> this be? In beautiful downtown Prizren, Pristina,
> and other hot spots in
> Kosovo. The State Department is looking for up to
> 750 folks - the numbers
> haven't been worked out - to serve with the
> International Police Task
> Force in Kosovo as police monitors.
>
> The pay for a one-year gig is $101,000, which
> includes per diem, a
> completion bonus and hazard pay, the notice says.
> They're looking for
> officers with a minimum of eight years' experience,
> including some patrol
> and training expertise, to help build up a Kosovar
> police force. But the
> State Department is not going to take just anyone.
> You must be a citizen,
> have a "valid U.S. driver's license and ability to
> drive a 4x4 vehicle
> with a manual transmission," have an "unblemished
> background" and a U.S.
> passport, and be in "excellent health without
> temporary or permanent
> disabilities."
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE PRIVATIZATION OF WAR:
> Citizens' Alliance of Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara
> Alliance for Democracy
> <rogor@...>
>
>
>
>
>
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