For Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, a Terror Topping

For Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, a Terror Topping

Saturday 24 July 2010

by: Ray McGovern, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Photo: incendiarymind; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

http://www.truth-out.org/for-self-licking-ice-cream-cone-a-terror-topping61659

A recent exposé in The Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative "self-licking ice cream cone" - a process that offers few if any benefits, while perpetuating its own existence - then the "war on terror" is definitely for you!

The conclusion that the Long War against Islamic militants abroad can be enriching for a host of "counterterror" contractors at home leaps out of the Post's "Top Secret America," a comprehensive three-part series by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin on July 19, 20 and 21.

The series presents a graphic account of how lawmakers afraid to be seen as laggards in the war on terror threw billions of dollars willy-nilly at a profusion of intelligence and security contractors after 9/11.

The US intelligence budget grew like Topsey to a publicly announced $75 billion last year - two and a half times its $30 billion figure on September 10, 2001. Even so, the $75 billion figure doesn't include the cost of many military and domestic counterterrorism programs.

You don't have to be an economist to marvel at - and bemoan - the "opportunity costs" of such an investment, at a time when so many Americans are losing jobs, homes and dreams for retirement.

The Post shows clearly that the post-9/11 environment has been a boon for defense and intelligence contractors, who fattened up at the government feeding trough before trying to show their worth in the mission of "defeating transnational violent extremists," like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and others too many to mention...

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http://www.truth-out.org/for-self-licking-ice-cream-cone-a-terror-topping61659

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