[WikiLeaks]: DynCorp mercenaries and child prostitution

[Molyneux]

Not sure if this should be here or in its own, new thread.

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops

Another international conflict, another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp, the private security contractor tasked with training the Afghan police.

While the company is officially based in the DC area, most of its business is managed on a satellite campus at Alliance Airport north of Fort Worth. And if one of the diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks archive is to be believed, boy howdy, are their doings in Afghanistan shady.

The Afghanistan cable (dated June 24, 2009) discusses a meeting between Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and US assistant ambassador Joseph Mussomeli. Prime among Atmar's concerns was a party partially thrown by DynCorp for Afghan police recruits in Kunduz Province.

Many of DynCorp's employees are ex-Green Berets and veterans of other elite units, and the company was commissioned by the US government to provide training for the Afghani police. According to most reports, over 95 percent of its $2 billion annual revenue comes from US taxpayers.

And in Kunduz province, according to the leaked cable, that money was flowing to drug dealers and pimps. Pimps of children, to be more precise. (The exact type of drug was never specified.)

Since this is Afghanistan, you probably already knew this wasn't a kegger. Instead, this DynCorp soiree was a bacha bazi ("boy-play") party, much like the ones uncovered earlier this year by Frontline.

Remainder of story is at link. Posted without comment, as I am currently seething with rage and doubt my ability to avoid tough-guying.

[Phantasee]

Should probably go in the actual US diplomatic cables thread.

That's some pretty disgusting shit, and I'm going to throw this in the face of anyone who says that this wasn't worth revealing.

[Thanas]

Got its own thread.

And as the article showed, the US diplomats covered it up.

[K. A. Pital]

I concur, merits its own thread and also extremely disgusting.

[wautd]

And as the article showed, the US diplomats covered it up.

But but... the Messenger (WikiLeaks) are the real terrorists here. They should be punished, not DynCorp or the ones who covered it up[/neocon]

[hongi]

For all the many crimes of the Taliban, they at least banned poppy production and this repulsive cultural practice.

[K. A. Pital]

For all the many crimes of the Taliban, they at least banned poppy production and this repulsive cultural practice.

It seems that whenever the subject of Afghanistan becoming a narco-state with the willing neglience or even - in this case, aid! - of American structures, both governmental and private, people just brush it off. They shouldn't - a hundred thousand people dies in Eastern Europe every year from Afghanistan's drugs.

[Keevan_Colton]

This does lead to the question of when do government contractors spending government money acting on behalf of the government, become distinct from the government?

[ShadowDragon8685]

This does lead to the question of when do government contractors spending government money acting on behalf of the government, become distinct from the government?

Cynically, the answer is "whenever they're called upon to do something a government can't get away with doing but a corporation can."


Legally, I'm not sure, but it seems to me that if you hire someone to do a job for you - an important job, mind, a job involving agency, not like hiring some guy to fix your plumbing - you're responsible for what that person does. After all, he's acting on your behalf, with your agency.

Of course, since when has the legality of the situation met with what things seem?

[Thanas]

Idiocy about the vast US-led international heroin conspiracy split to the HoS.

[Thanas]

As for the topic of hand: I feel it once more underscores the danger of the USA outsourcing occupational duties to third parties, as these have been shown to be unreliable time after time.

[Broomstick]

So, tell me, why does the outrage not happen until NOW... when this has been documented and reported on previously. Frontline broadcast a documentary on this back in April of this year. There was another one broadcast in the UK. Wikipedia had an article on this back in June, easily accessible to every internet moron as well as intelligent people. Obviously the Afghan authorities were complicit in this, and is anyone surprised US money - which has been pouring into Afghanistan for years now - is somehow involved?

Bacha bazi isn't new, and this isn't the first time it's hit the media - so why weren't people up in arms before?

Mind you - it's not the outrage I'm objecting to. It would please me no end for international outrage to curtail this loathesome form of human slavery. I just want to know why it took WikiLeaks for people to be aware of this despite prior reporting?

[ShadowDragon8685]

Is it any surprise? Mercenaries have always been unreliable throughout history.

Nowadays they just have a thin veneer of corporate respect over the bloody truth that they're all thugs paid (too well) by a government to get things the government cannot or will not accomplish with its own troops done, with very little if any of the oversight that would actually be placed on the government troops.

Maybe they simply coldly decided that the best way to achieve their mandate was to get new Afghan police recruits was throwing a party where they get to get stoned off their gourds and fuck helpless children. Who knows, maybe they were right (which should say something about the quality of the Afghan police if they're the sort of person who can be enticed by blow and little boys on demand), but not even the CIA would get away with that, but these assholes apparently did.

Hopefully, that should have the caveat, "until now." But you know that the media is going to be screaming about Assange's alleged and quite possibly fabricated rapes instead of these actual rapes.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Bacha bazi isn't new, and this isn't the first time it's hit the media - so why weren't people up in arms before?

Mind you - it's not the outrage I'm objecting to. It would please me no end for international outrage to curtail this loathesome form of human slavery. I just want to know why it took WikiLeaks for people to be aware of this despite prior reporting?

Honestly, I'd never heard of it before outside of the context of a crude joke about Middle Eastern society that women were for procreating, boys were for loving.

Maybe it just didn't get any traction in the news, sort of a feeling of "we can't stop what those freaks over there do, and it's not our responsibility anyway." But throw in the hay of the child prostitution being paid for with American tax-dollars and organized by an American company and you might get some outrage going.

[Thanas]

Is it any surprise? Mercenaries have always been unreliable throughout history.

It is not, which is why I said "once more".

So, tell me, why does the outrage not happen until NOW... when this has been documented and reported on previously. Frontline broadcast a documentary on this back in April of this year. There was another one broadcast in the UK. Wikipedia had an article on this back in June, easily accessible to every internet moron as well as intelligent people. Obviously the Afghan authorities were complicit in this, and is anyone surprised US money - which has been pouring into Afghanistan for years now - is somehow involved?

What prior reporting? Not everyone reads PBS or anything else and I sure as heck do not remember reading anything like "US contractors and their sex slaves" previously.

[SirNitram]

Rape gangs, slavers, and so forth. I wish I was surprised, but the mercs the US has been hiring keep turning out to do this kind of repulsive behavior.

[Tanasinn]

This is what happens when you utilize mercenary scum in real life. Murderers-for-hire aren't your video game or movie professionals with strict honor codes and strong morals. That's half the use of mercenaries, though - you can use them to do things that real people in the regular military might not do, or that would more directly tarnish the nation. Nothing will change, either - countries that matter can't affect change on U.S. policy or don't actually care, the U.S. government certainly doesn't care, and the public at large never seems to get beyond lukewarm outrage. The U.S. government will condemn the actions of an irresponsible corporation and pantomime real action until the public turns its attention back to the British royalty's impending marriage or the latest cokehead celeb going to jail for 24 hours.

They shouldn't - a hundred thousand people dies in Eastern Europe every year from Afghanistan's drugs.

Thing is, many Americans don't care about drug addicts - it's the whole "you made your bed, now lie in it" thing. There's also, of course, general disinterest in international impact in a public whose news apparatus and culture are turned inward.

Mind you - it's not the outrage I'm objecting to. It would please me no end for international outrage to curtail this loathesome form of human slavery. I just want to know why it took WikiLeaks for people to be aware of this despite prior reporting?

Wikileaks seems to get better (or at least more) press. For what it's worth, hatred of our merc scum seems to not be a new phenomenon, even if outrage over merc behavior in Afghanistan re: child prostitution is and upset in general never goes being passing interest.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

This is exactly the sort of thing WikiLeaks should be releasing, not completely noncontroversial lists of strategic targets the US considers vital. Nobody needs to know that.

So, tell me, why does the outrage not happen until NOW... when this has been documented and reported on previously. Frontline broadcast a documentary on this back in April of this year. There was another one broadcast in the UK. Wikipedia had an article on this back in June, easily accessible to every internet moron as well as intelligent people. Obviously the Afghan authorities were complicit in this, and is anyone surprised US money - which has been pouring into Afghanistan for years now - is somehow involved?

At a guess, I'd say it's because before, nobody wanted to rock the boat, in the same way that US soldiers being forced to bathe in untreated sewage basically got no airtime. Now, there's a lot of attention on WikiLeaks, so anything they release is going to get a lot of attention. I don't actually think that's a deliberate ploy, but if it was, releasing a bunch of rubbish to make waves and draw attention to you in preparation for actual 'proper' information would be brilliant.

[Pelranius]

Dyncorp, weren't they involved in another prostitution scandal in the Balkans ten to fifteen years ago?

Good thing I didn't fill out their job app.

[Thanas]

Dyncorp, weren't they involved in another prostitution scandal in the Balkans ten to fifteen years ago?

Yes, in the balkans. Nothing happened - they paid off the witnesses and got away scot free.

[Stark]

If someone doesn't understand the difference between '...is anyone surprised...' and uncontested evidence is an idiot.

[Phantasee]

This is exactly the sort of thing WikiLeaks should be releasing, not completely noncontroversial lists of strategic targets the US considers vital. Nobody needs to know that.

You realize that there are a quarter million cables to be released, right? Not all of them are going to be nearly as riveting as this one.

[wautd]

So any chance that DynCorp will get any punishment for this? You know, to send a message to both the local population and your own contractors that this behavior isn't tolerated?

Or when they said "winning the heart and minds", was that only aimed at peadofiles?

[Stofsk]

Who has jurisdiction? The Federal A-G or DC's DA?

[Thanas]

So any chance that DynCorp will get any punishment for this? You know, to send a message to both the local population and your own contractors that this behavior isn't tolerated?

Or when they said "winning the heart and minds", was that only aimed at peadofiles?

It was presented as a small oversight as the USA apparently managed to squash the larger story. DynCorp is apparently still in charge of training, nothing happened besides allegedly 4 managers being sacked (but this is unconfirmed), no charges were brought nor people dismissed.