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Sunday, May 11, 2003

James Woolsey, former CIA boss, busy 

Whew, I was really worried about another of Bush's cronies making a living in this post-euphoric economic market, but I need worry no longer, because James Woolsey, in the words of the Guardian Unlimited, former CIA boss and influential adviser to President George Bush, is a director of a US firm aiming to make millions of dollars from the 'war on terror', The Observer can reveal.

I have to hand to 'em, these hawkes are good at hawking their need for security philosophy for lots 'a bucks.

"Woolsey, one of the most high-profile hawks in the war against Iraq and a key member of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is a director of the Washington-based private equity firm Paladin Capital. The company was set up three months after the terrorist attacks on New York and sees the events and aftermath of September 11 as a business opportunity which 'offer[s] substantial promise for homeland security investment'."

And I mean, big bucks:

Paladin, which is expected to have raised $300 million from investors by the end of this year, calculates that in the next few years the US government will spend $60 billion on anti-terrorism that woul not have been spent before September 11, and that corporations will spend twice that amount to ensure their security and continuity in case of attack.

Dare we say, "conflict of interest", in Woolsey's attempt to pin the anthrax attacks on Saddam Hussein:

"In 2001 US Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz sent Woolsey to Europe, where he argued the case for links existing between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. He was one of the main proponents of the theory that the anthrax letter attacks in America were supported by Iraq's former dictator."

There was Woolsey, with official sanction from this administration, hawking their beliefs on the need for war with Iraq, making money from this professed need from increased security. Now I'm not arguing that we don't need heightened security after 9/11, but I don't want those private entities who are providing security to also be dictating our foreign or domestic policies. Seems reasonable to ask for the seperation of corporations and state. Oh, I forgot, Alice is is Wonderland.

# posted by scorpiorising : 9:38 AM |

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