Outsourcing Intelligence?

In his article The Corporate Takeover of U. S. Intelligence, Tim Shorrok brings out some very pertinent questions regarding our governments use of private corporations to provide intelligence.

www.globalresearch.ca...

Is it good to have private companies know all about US intelligence? Wouldn't that make it easier for foreign countries to gain access to classifies information? Private contracting costs roughly twice as much as previous work done by governemnt agencies. In fact many people are leaving government to become private contractors. Couldn't the government give all their workers raises and still spend less than they do when outsourcing this work? Is this just another way to give a hand to US or Multi-Nationals? There is a large lobbying effort going on by these 'intelligence' companies. Wouldn't that increase chances for graph, corruption, and cronyism? It has also continued and even increased the revolving door between government and industry. Is America well served by this practice? Because of the nature of this work the publics access to information about how tax money is being spent is very sketchy making oversight very difficult. In addition it appears that private corporations are not accountable to the American public, hence debacles like Abu Ghraib will only increase. Is America well served by this policy?

The only good thing about "privatization" is the private sector is able to draw from a more educated, competent, less politically oriented sector. It depends on how big the corporation is, who is actually in control and how well whistleblowers are protected because people in the private sector are more apt to "tell on" higher ups if they have no fear of apprisal.

It is a catch 22.............I look at the Enron's and large corporations who screw over their own, then are taken out by their employees for being the scumbags they are. I think most of our problems stem from greedy politicians who are on the take and are in positions of making policy/laws for everyone so I tend to lean towards privatization simply because it is more efficient and you can cut through a lot of the red tape.

As far as costs.............there is so much WASTE in our government, so I don't see how you can say it is more expensive in the private sector. Factor in all the benefits government employees receive that the private sector doesn't and I would think it would even out.

I was just using the stats from the article. It clear that 'consultants' receive a lot more compensation that gov't workers. I agree it's a toss-up between the pols and the corporate shills. What a tangled web we weave---