I went to visit a friend at the hospital yesterday, and while I was in the waiting room, I found a copy of Mother Jones magazine from May/June, 2003. The issue included an article about civilian military contractors, something I had talked with Burke and Michele about not too long ago. Just in case you were curious about what a "civilian security consultant" looks like, this isn't a bad place to start.

Because they operate with little oversight, using contractors also enables the military to skirt troop limits imposed by Congress and to carry out clandestine operations without committing U.S. troops or attracting public attention. "Private military corporations become a way to distance themselves and create what we used to call 'plausible deniability,'" says Daniel Nelson, a former professor of civil-military relations at the Defense Department's Marshall European Center for Security Studies. "It's disastrous for democracy."

Current Mood: Plausibly deniable