Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 4. januar 2005 / Time Line January 4, 2005
Version 3.53. Januar 2005, 5. Januar 2005
01/04/2005
Militærnægterforeningen søger
aktivister!
MNF har hårdt brug for aktivister mest til at passe
Københavnskontoret torsdage kl. 18 – 20.
Københavnskontoret ligger i Dronningensgade 14 på
Christianshavn.
Opgaverne består i at gennemgå post og e-mail og tage
imod personlige eller telefoniske henvendelser i kontortiden.
Vi ser selvfølgelig også gerne nye aktivister i
bestyrelsen, da vi på grund af et generationsskifte i
bestyrelsen har haft svært ved at finde nye kræfter til
det organisatoriske arbejde.
MNF har siden 1967 været med helt fremme i det
antimilitaristiske arbejde, og der er stadigvæk brug for MNF.
Vi har en solid økonomi, en trofast medlemsskare, en vigtig
rådgivningsvirksomhed, et antimilitaristisk kvartalsblad
”NB” og kontorer i København og Århus.
Hvis du har lyst til at vide mere om MNF kan du læse videre
på www.fred.dk/mnf/
Du kan sende os en mail på mnf@fred.dk eller du kan ringe til
Fredsbutikken i Århus på telefon 86 19 54 23 / 20 47 96
99 kl. 12-15 (også døgnvagt).
Torsdage i lige uger kl. 18-20 kan vi kontaktes på vores
kontor i Dronningensgade 14 på Christianshavn på
telefon 32 57 67 25.
Du er også velkommen til vores næste
bestyrelsesmøde i Dronningensgade lørdag d. 15.1.05
kl. 13 eller til vores generalforsamling i Dronningensgade
lørdag d. 19.2.05 kl. 13, men vi vil gerne høre fra
dig hurtigst muligt, hvis du er interesseret!
Med fredelig hilsen
Militærnægterforeningen.
01/04/2005
Congress expects $100 billion war request
By Peronet Despeignes, USA TODAY
Congress expects the White House to request as much as $100 billion
this year for war and related costs in Iraq and Afghanistan,
congressional officials say.
It would be the third and largest Iraq-related budget request from
the White House yet, and it could push the war's costs over $200
billion — far above initial White House estimates of $50
billion-$60 billion. So far, the Iraq war has cost about $130
billion, according to the White House's Office of Management and
Budget.
War costs complicate President Bush's plans for initiatives such as
overhauling Social Security. They also threaten his pledge to halve
the record $413 billion federal budget deficit.
01/04/2005
Whistleblowers Expose How Private Contractors Loot US
Taxpayers
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4952
By David Phinney
Former managers working with Custer Battles, a high-profile private
security company in Iraq, are accusing the firm of using affiliated
"shell" companies in the Cayman Islands and other "tax haven"
countries to fraudulently overcharge on government contracts by
tens of millions of dollars. The accusations are spelled out in a
lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act and made public October
8.
Custer Battles, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, first grabbed
headlines after winning a $16.5 million contract in June 2003 to
provide security for the Baghdad International Airport by hiring
Nepalese Gurkhas. It was the first major assignment for the
fledgling firm after being launched in October 2001.
Founded by two Army veterans, Scott Custer and Michael Battles -- a
former Republican candidate for Congress in Rhode Island -- the
firm had little experience in private security and employed only a
handful of people at the time. The two entrepreneurs, both in their
mid-30s, made their first payroll with credit cards and personal
loans. Since then, Custer Battles has landed security contracts
totaling an estimated $100 million that include protecting Iraqs
new currency and training the Iraqi army.
But during those early months in Iraq, the company resorted to
using crooked accounting and "sham" companies in far-flung
countries including the Cayman Islands, Cyprus and Lebanon, to
dramatically pump up charges on contracts by as much as 162 percent
on equipment, construction supplies and services, claim plaintiffs
Robert Isakson and W.D."Pete" Baldwin, both of who worked for
Custer Battles.
"When I see crooks come into a war zone where people are fighting
and dying, I just turn them in," Isakson says. "In my opinion they
were cheating the government and taxpayers and just being rewarded
with more contracts."
Since the 1991 Gulf War, Isakson says his disaster relief and
construction company, DRC of Mobile, Ala., has worked in support of
the military and others as a subcontractor in Kuwait, Somalia and
Kosovo. The former FBI investigator says he has blown the whistle
on other frauds in the past, but Custer Battles trumps everything
he has seen.
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