Aristide's U.S. bodyguards have a different story

The private U.S. company that was being paid to guard Aristide has a different story to tell than Aristide and Powell, both.

Kurtz declined to discuss specific dollar figures for his company's services or details of key activities. But he was eager to respond to reports that Steele's operatives in Haiti told Aristide they wouldn't be able to guarantee his safety as rebel forces approached the capital on Feb. 29, compelling Aristide to flee to a waiting plane. "That was completely contrary to what actually happened," Kurtz insisted. In fact, he continued, Steele was preparing to defend the presidential palace from attack should Aristide decide to stay, as he was telling his bodyguards he was inclined to do. "We had a quick-reaction security force en route to Haiti," Kurtz said. "We had people in the air and others staged, ready to go in." Aristide, he said, decided "at the last minute" to head to the airport, likely because he wanted to avoid bloodshed as the rebels advanced.

  SF Gate article

Kurtz refused to discuss Steele's role in Haiti now that Aristide is, physically at least, out of the picture. But he acknowledged that the company's contract calls for it to protect Haiti's head of state (whoever that may be), as well as former President Rene Preval (who is apparently still in the country) and their families. "The contract hasn't changed," Kurtz said. Aside from Haiti, Steele is active in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places where few tourists would dream of venturing. And the firm isn't alone in deliberately placing itself in harm's way. Southern California's DynCorp, for example, has a contract to protect Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, while private military contractors now comprise the second-biggest U.S. coalition partner in Iraq. There are least 10, 000 private military contractors on the ground, compared with about 9,900 British troops.

So, it really doesn't matter to Steele what happened to Aristide, does it? I mean, they just guard the position, not the man.

In a world economy based on perpetual war, it is expected, I suppose, that the business of war should become privatized. (And the Bush family is heavily invested in the companies that provide the services.)

It's a brave new world.

One problem with the outsourcing of military duties is that it's sometimes hard to tell who's calling the shots (literally, as firefights erupt almost daily in Baghdad, Port-au-Prince and elsewhere) at any given moment. It's also hard to say who exactly a private military contractor is accountable to when blood is spilled. "Ultimately, we're accountable to whoever hired us," Kurtz said. ...This much at least is clear: Conflict is a profit center for companies like Steele that specialize in this niche. And Kurtz, for one, sees nothing wrong with that, especially in a hot spot like Iraq. "This work is being outsourced to a multinational group of companies whose interest truly is the rebuilding of the country," he observed. "Remember," Kurtz added, "rebuilding means spending. This is a business."

How could we forget?