Meet the NEW BOSS…Same as the OLD BOSS
Knee’s Move to Private Sector/DynCorp Not Surprising
By Debbie Russell
You can change the color and gender of the Chief, but that won’t improve the structural problems within the Austin Police Department. Interim Chief Cathy Ellison will continue the “police are above the law” policies of the APD and is expected by community leaders to be as non-responsive to citizen criticism just as Stan Knee was. Meanwhile, the search will begin for a permanent Chief, and the pool of applicants will doubtfully include any reformists, eager to rebuild any vestiges of APD-community trust.
Knee, who serves his last day today as Chief of Police, has moved onto a significantly higher paying job in the private sector where there is a proven lack of accountability to the people who foot the bill – the US taxpayers – yes, even less accountability than that of the city’s police force (surely an attractive feature for Knee). Knee has signed on with DynCorp – a private firm headquartered in Reston, Virginia (with state offices in Ft. Worth; and as DynCorp happens to manage the stations at the US-Mexico border, the Texas ties are thick). Begun after World War II by ex-militia to provide support, technological and security services to the military industrial complex, 95% of DynCorp’s services/sales is to the US government so it survives solely on our taxes.
The company also happens to be known as one of the worst in terms of egregious fraud and human rights violations. It is known as the most notorious of private mercenary contractors, having generated much controversy with whistleblower accusations of rape and sex trafficking of underage girls in Bosnia, the beating of two journalists in Haiti and is responsible for the deaths of thousands through its many global “services.”
“DynCorp itself is a mercenary, making a killing for its services.” – Jeremy Scahill, Common Dreams1
The State Department, a DynCorp client, even spoke out against the “aggressive behavior” of personnel in interactions with European diplomats, NATO forces and journalists. 2
More DynCorp crimes that have not seen justice:
Deadly helicopter crashes in Afghanistan
Plan Colombia – an illicit coca plant eradication program with reports of personnel being directly involved in counterinsurgency efforts and, commonly, a lawsuit by Ecuadorians for damages suffered by toxic spraying of crops
Worker deaths in Angola
Supplying bodyguards to US-installed presidents in Afghanistan and Haiti
Violence and abuse in New Orleans reconstruction “security”
A corrupt Enron power plant deal in India
Shooting down a missionary plane in Peru
Charges of unnecessary repairs billed to the government and padding the payroll
“DynCorp’s employees have a history of behaving like cowboys…. Is the US military privatizing its missions to avoid public controversy or to avoid embarrassment – to hide body bags from the media and shield the military from public opinion?” – US Rep. Janice Schakowsky, IL 3
How did Knee come by the job? Well, perhaps he developed relationships when, from March, 2003 to January, 2005, Computer Science Corporation merged with DynCorp, establishing an intrinsic City of Austin relationship to this global war profiteer. We have CSC to “thank” for our new city hall as it sits ensconced in a $26 million dollar subsidy package that now has direct ties to the bloodiest clamps of the war machine (CSC also has its own Dept. of Defense contracts for technological services). Despite our “City for Peace” resolution passed in February, 2003 — the people of Austin have financially “gained” from the illegal war and the many crimes of this ruthless corporation. Last year, CSC unloaded DynCorp, but its tarnished reputation will not be easily polished by omission.
The road to profit is “paved with political connections”1 as we trace DynCorp’s political ties. It also serves the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense (manages many of the Pentagon’s weapons-testing ranges), the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (US-Mexico border stations), and the Treasury Department. It handles ALL of the State Department’s telecommunications, has board connections to major CIA operatives and supplies fuel and support to the Air Force One team – the Executive Branch’s most secure “back room” of global wheeling and dealing.
As National Guardsmen move to the US-Mexico border, ostensibly to keep “peace” until private contractors (DynCorp certainly will take the lead) can take over in aiming guns at the most oppressed of our society, as Halliburton builds detention centers for immigrants (and lined up next for unlawful imprisonment will surely be citizen-dissenters), as empire is being built in the Middle East by unaccountable private entities, on our dime, and as our local police forces are trained and equipped exactly in the same fashion as our military–which is being used merely as an occupying, not a peace-keeping, force—we will see more and more moves across the private/public “law enforcement” domain such as Stan Knee’s.
Stan Knee likely views his new gig as a giant leap upward professionally…and he will most likely gain in this track, assuming he can continue to ignore his conscience poking at his deeply-buried morality. Good luck in your ventures; and welcome, Interim Chief Ellison…what a legacy!
“These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There’s no authority over them, so you can’t come down on them hard when they escalate force…. They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place.” – Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, deputy commander of the Third Infantry Division in charge of security in Baghdad, speaking of DynCorp and other security firms in Iraq1
References and resources:
1 http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1101-25.htm
2 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11574
3 http://www.ruckus.org/warprofiteers/cards/clubs/two.html
DynCorp overview:
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Dyncorp.shtml
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DynCorp
DynCorp/follow the money:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=003242013
http://www.rense.com/general25/whoresofwar.htm
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=18
Austin and “Homeland Security, Inc.” Corporate Welfare for a Notorious Defense Contractor—from an Anti-war City http://www.iconmedia.org/articles/article006.php
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