Excellent. Politically sharp, great storyteller, funny and alive to the complexities, tragedies, hopes and drama. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/15/DDGPB49B271.DTL or http://tinyurl.com/3gzbo My Dad worked for Computer Sciences Corp., mentioned below, for a couple yrs. in the early 70's. My Dad's nickname was, "Pug." The CEO of DynCorp, is Herbert S. "Pug" Winokur. Ironic. Here is DynCorp http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/10-27-02/discussion.cgi.25.shtml , "Pug, " w/ Ken Lay of Enron. Served on the Board of Directors. With Wendy Gramm, wife of former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. A typical tableau of 16 old white men, get a privileged Asian-American woman to serve on the board, score two diversity points in one shot!
Sean Penn>...When the deafening crack of an assault rifle blasts through the adjacent alley, I scan the faces of this war-experienced crew. There is not a single reaction to the gunshot among them. Evidently, we represent a greater threat than one more lump of lead screaming through the shadowy Baghdad streets at 3, 000 meters per second. My driver and I make haste.
As the rifle concussion vibrates through my head, so does the name DynCorp. I've since done a little research, and here's what I found: DynCorp is a ubiquitous presence in Baghdad. A PMC, or private military corporation, DynCorp was started in the late '40s and given a big recruiting boost by the post-Church Commission firings of thousands of CIA operatives by President Carter in the late '70s.
PMCs, and there are many of them, tend to be staffed and directed by retired generals, CIA officers, counterterrorism professionals, retired Special Air Service men, Special Forces guys and so on. DynCorp is a subsidiary of the benignly named Computer Sciences Corp. DynCorp forces are mercenaries. Their contracts have included covert actions for the CIA in Colombia, Peru, Kosovo, Albania and Afghanistan.
In 1999, the company claimed 25,000 employees. As an aside, DynCorp personnel, contracted to the U.N. police who served in Bosnia, were accused of buying and selling prostitutes, including girls as young as 12 years old. When several DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the rape of one of the women, employee Kathy Bolkovac blew the whistle on the alleged sex ring and was immediately dismissed from the company. DynCorp is a "top 25" government contractor, which posted $2.3 billion in revenues in 2002, according to Business Week. It is DynCorp employees who are the security force for the new Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. Former CIA Director James Woolsey is a primary stockholder. -- Michael Pugliese
From "Marx at the Millenium, " by Cyril Smith, Pluto Press. Footnote 5, pg. 178, "...The Three Priciples of Democratic Centralism...by Don Cuckson: 1 Father Knows Best 2 Not in front of the children 3 Keep it in the family.