Private Security Companies Prepare to Consume Haiti

Haiti is only two months out of one of the worst earthquakes in the history of the world, but that's not stopping scores of private military and security companies from circling the country like vultures. These companies are so excited at the prospect of making money in Haiti, they're preparing to showcase their work at a conference in Miami next week. Yes, the same folks who brought you sexual hazing, drunkenness, sex with prostitutes at the expense of taxpayers, human trafficking, and shoddy work that resulted in people being electrocuted (to name just a few) might soon be bringing their services to Haiti.

Calling these folks private security or private military contractors is certainly one label. But Naomi Klein has an even better word for them. For Klein, it makes more sense to just call these folks what they really are: "disaster capitalists."

Who are the folks that might be swooping down into Port-au-Prince on the next flight? They're folks like Triple Canopy, a defense contractor active in Iraq and Israel; or EODT Technology, a company active in Afghanistan providing security for the Canadian Embassy, among others; or Overseas Security & Strategic Information, a company founded by a former U.S. CIA official who brags that most of his employees are former South African military and police.

As Bill Quigley writes over at Common Dreams, we all know that in order to promote human rights and distribute humanitarian aid, a certain level of security is needed. But for the past decade, outsourcing security issues to private military contractors has proved disastrous. Now, this same disastrous framework for global security threatens to engulf Haiti. Can it be stopped?

Perhaps. There's movement afoot in the U.S. Congress, led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, to pass what's known as the "Stop Outsourcing Security" Act. This Act would roll back the use of private military contractors in warfare, in large part because these security contractors have no accountability whatsoever and do really stupid, offensive, and illegal things at the expense of the taxpayer. This piece of legislation calls for the U.S. to end its reliance on private security contractors, and it would prohibit the use of private contractors for military, security, law enforcement, intelligence, and armed rescue functions altogether.

It's long past overdue. After all, how many Iraqs, Afghanistans, and (perhaps) Haitis will need to happen before U.S. policymakers wake up to the damage done by many private security companies?

For her part, Naomi Klein calls private military contractors part of an overall pandemic in global security that she labels the "Shock Doctrine." That phrase is meant to encapsulate a right-wing philosophy that natural disasters or chaotic wars provide an opportunity to impose radically conservative economic policies on imploding countries. Her words have inspired a Facebook group, "No Shock Doctrine for Haiti," that has nearly 37,000 members already.

"Some see [Haiti's] tragedy as an excuse to strip their economy of what assets it has left," the group writes. "America's radical right have long seen disasters as a chance to push devastating policies on the distracted poor. They know it is the only way people will accept their economies being plundered."

And that's the concern with private military contractors, who are all now salivating at the chance to rack up some profits in Haiti. With no effective policy to regulate or hold accountable private security contractors, these companies get a free pass in the countries in which they operate. That not only means standing by while they break the law; it also means standing by while they do the bidding of businesses who want to exploit tragic situations for profit.

The Former Defense Minister of Haiti, Patrick Elie, said that private security companies were like vultures circling the wagon.

"These guys are like vultures coming to grab the loot over this disaster, and probably money that might have been injected into the Haitian economy is just going to be grabbed by these companies," said Elie. "I'm sure they are not the only these mercenary companies but also other companies like Haliburton or these other ones that always come on the heels of the troops."

Preventing the Shock Doctrine -- just one more reason why the U.S. Congress should pass the "Outsourcing Our Security" Act. Urge them to do so.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons