military contractors at Brave New Films

John McCain: Meet and Greet 11/31/07

2008-10-27T03:30:50Z

John McCain
Meet and Greet
North Myrtle Beach, SC 11/31/07

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I think it's unfortunate that we have to use these contractors and it's directly related to Rumsfeld's failure in not expanding the Marine Corps and the Army into a much larger organization so they could handle these requirements and responsibilities. And it's not a good thing but we didn't have enough members of the Army and Marine Corps and one of the many mistakes that Secretary Rumsfeld made was not expanding the Army and the Marine Corps to a point where they could take over those responsibilities. I remind you, the Army and the Marine Corps are 1/3 smaller than they were at the time of the first gulf war . . . we're going to have to recruit and enlist a lot more . . ."

LABEL: JM SC 11-31 (JR#8) A-ClipH

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John McCain: Town Hall Meeting 01/04/08

2008-10-26T21:31:13Z

John McCain
Speech
Peterborough, NH 01/04/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I've been hard not just on the air force, but the army, the navy the marine corps and the coast guard. And bad things are going on. We recently not that long ago tried to build a ship called 'a literal combat ship.' It was not Boeing, it was Lockheed.

"It was supposed to cost $160M. It ended up costing $400M and they scrapped it. Should someone be held responsible for that? Should a corporation such as BAE not be rewarded for their efficiencies and their saving the tax-payers dollars?

"I just looked at a system that's incredibly efficient that's $9K each. Now...uh...so all that I can tell you, sir is that I know how to fix the system. And I'll tell you where we'd start is no more cost-plus contracts. Under President Reagan we built the entire military establishment both materially and morale-wise...uh...we had fixed cost contracts. So I'm not hard on the air force. I'm not hard on the navy and I'm not hard on the marine corps. But I'll tell you what I am hard on. I'm hard on people who waste the taxpayer's hard-earned dollars. And I know how the system works and I know how to fix it. And I know how to get people in who are more interested in saving the tax-payers' dollars.

"My friends, Dwight David Eisenhower, at his farewell speech as president of the United States, warned the American people about the excesses of the Military Industrial Complex. And I'll tell you what it does when something like that happens with that tanker and I'll tell you what it does with that literal combat ship that cost $400M instead of 160. It gives corporations like [BAE] a bad name. Who have done an incredibly efficient, great job at enormous savings to the taxpayers."

LABEL: JM NH 1-4 (JR#19) CHJ-ClipB

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John McCain: Town Hall Meeting 05/02/08

2008-10-26T21:30:20Z

John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Denver, CO 05/02/08

TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: " . . . there are things that I hear from some of my friends that are discouraging about training standards. A lot of the guys going to the base to train our boys have gotten lower performance ratings . . . moreover we have an issue with a lot of our defense contracts are provided by companies that are owned . . . by foreign powers could you talk a little bit about that and maintaining training standards in our military?"

JOHN MCCAIN: "Yeah. On the issue of us buying defense equipment from corporations that are based overseas: Our export of and sale of military equipment is . . . four times or five times that of the amount we import and that we pay for from overseas. So there's a huge differential there. So I worry that, if we shut off any purchases from overseas corporations then they would retaliate by not purchasing ours and it has been helping, our military sales overseas have helped in reducing the obscene trade deficit. We haven't even talked about oil today but half that, half of our trade deficit today is because of imported oil, my friends. We'll be talking a lot about energy in the future. I worry about our military and I know you expressed many of the concerns we have. My friends, our military is over-stressed. Our military has been carrying out missions in a way that's almost unprecedented and the Colorado guard and reserve has been magnificent but also has worked. [applause] There are many mistakes that we made at the end of the Clinton Administration and in this administration because we did not expand the size of the military. The Army and Marine Corps are 1/3 smaller than they were at the time of the first Gulf War! One-third smaller! And we're in two wars. We all know that. We're in two wars. All of us know it all too well. So we need to increase the size of our military. Personnel costs are the most expensive part of a military establishment when you are in an all-volunteer force but we have to provide the benefits and the incentives for young Americans to serve. And that, of course, one of those is educational benefits. Senator Webb has a proposal. Some of us have a proposal. We're in agreement on principle. I hope we will work it out between us and I think we can to increase the educational benefits for young Americans who are willing to serve their country. They serve out of patriotism, they could serve they serve for a variety of reasons. We're a country of 300 million people and we should be able to attract the highest quality young Americans to serve and that's gotta be our mission and we have to increase the size of the military with the first priority going to the Marines and the Army . . . We've got to appeal to young Americans' patriotism to serve and to remain in the military but we also have to give them the kind of rewards and benefits they should be able to look forward to for that service. So I worry about the strain on the military and also, of course, all of us are appalled, appalled and angered at that picture of the barracks at Fort Bragg in North Carolina where you know. The Fort Bragg thing is just-- So we've asked the secretary of defense to examine and inspect every barracks in America—no matter what branch of the service and tell us and give us a report as to what barracks are needed to be fixed or where conditions of substandard remain. Some of the barracks that our military is residing in today go back to the Korean war. That was the pictures that you saw. That's not acceptable in America."

LABEL: JM CO 5-2 (GR#83) DAGIS - Clip F

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"I would pull out all of the contractors."

2009-01-08T00:40:48Z

Gov. Bill Richardson on contractors in Iraq and his commitment to American veterans at the CNN Debate in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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TPMtv: Military Contractors D.C. Powwow

2008-10-22T15:31:02Z

Blackwater, which recently terminated its membership in the face of an IPOA ethics investigation, wasn't there. But Spencer Ackerman was there to ask them a few questions and see what was up.

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TPMtv: Military Contractors D.C. Powwow

2008-10-22T15:30:56Z

Not long ago we told you about the IPOA, that's the lobbying organization and trade group for military contractors in Washington, DC. A week ago Monday IPOA (aka the International Peace Operations Association) had their annual summit in Washington. Blackwater, which recently terminated its membership in the outfit in the face of an IPOA ethics investigation (one of the first, apparently), wasn't there. But pretty much everyone else from the private military contractor world was, and TPM's Spencer Ackerman was there to ask them a few questions and see what was up.

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SCOD Blackwater Mercenary Response (part1)

2008-10-18T09:31:21Z

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This is not an action movie

2009-01-02T19:30:57Z

Teddy Garcia from Davao City posted this incredible video on YouTube.

NOTE: A little crude language, not safe for work... and the whole thing might not be suitable for children.

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Blackwater Runs Red

2009-01-02T12:11:04Z

In 1997, Erik Prince founded Blackwater USA, expanding the family's Christian conservative empire into private security and war for hire. Erik is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and son of the late billionaire automotive parts supplier, Edgar. (In a Q&A published by the Virginian-Pilot on July 24, Erik noted some of his father's less successful ideas, including a sock drawer light and an automated ham de-boning device.)