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(Source: Jeremy Scahill, "Our Mercenaries in Iraq", Democracy Now!, January 26, 2007, http://www.democracynow. org/article.pl?sid=07/01/26/1559232) 6. Operation FALCON Raids Under the codename Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally), a series of three federally coordinated mass arrests occurred between April 2005 and October 2006. The operation directly involved over 960 agencies (state, local and federal) and was the brainchild of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and US Marshals Director Ben Reyna. In what was the largest dragnet in US history, 30,150 "fugitives" were arrested. The Department of Justice supplied television networks with government-shot action videotape of marshals and local cops raiding homes and breaking down doors, "targeting the worst of the worst criminals on the run", emphasising suspected sex offenders—yet less than 10 per cent of the total were suspected sex offenders and less than two per cent owned firearms. The press has not asked, "Who were the others?" And to date, the US Marshals Service has issued no public statement as to whether the people arrested have been processed or released. FALCON does make sense as a means of effectively setting up a chain-of-command structure that radiates from the Justice Department and relocates the levers of control to Washington, where they can be manned by members of the administration. Author Mike Whitney warns that the plan behind FALCON appears to have been devised to enhance the powers of the "unitary" executive by putting state and local law enforcement under federal supervision, ready for the institution of martial law (see story 2). (Sources: Brenda J. Elliot, "Operation Falcon", SourceWatch, November 18, 2006, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php? title=Operation_FALCON; Mike Whitney, "Operation Falcon and the Looming Police State", Ukernet, Feb 26, 2007, http://uruknet.info/?p=m 30971& s1=h1) 8. KIA: the US Neoliberal Invasion of India Farmers’ cooperatives in India are defending the nation's food security and the future of Indian farmers against the neoliberal invasion of genetically modified (GM) seed. As many as 28,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide over the last decade as a result of debt incurred from failed GM crops and competition with subsidised US crops, yet, when India’s Prime Minister Singh met with US President Bush in March 2006 to finalise nuclear agreements, they also signed the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA), backed by Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Wal-Mart. The KIA allows for the grab of India's seed sector by Monsanto, of its trade sector by giant agribusinesses ADM and Cargill, and of its retail sector by Wal-Mart. In one of very few public statements by a US government official regarding the KIA, Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said: "While the civilian nuclear initiative has garnered the most attention, our first priority is to continue giving governmental support to the huge growth in business between the Indian and American private sectors. Singh has also challenged the United States to help launch a second green revolution in India's vast agricultural heartland by enlisting the help of America's great land-grant institutions." Vandana Shiva translates: "These are twin programs about a market grab and a security alignment." Through the KIA, Monsanto and the United States have asked for unhindered access to India's gene banks, along with a change in India's intellectual property laws to allow patents on seeds and genes and to dilute provisions that protect farmers’ rights. This would be a severe blow to India's food security and self- sufficiency. At the same time, the KIA has paved the way for Wal-Mart's plans to open 500 stores in India, starting in August 2007, which will compound the outsourcing of India's food supply and threaten 14 million small family vendors with loss of livelihood. Farmers, however, are organising to protect themselves against 7. Behind Blackwater Inc. The company that most embodies the privatisation of the military-industrial complex—a primary part of the Project for a New American Century and the neo-conservative revolution—is the private security firm Blackwater. Blackwater is the most powerful mercenary firm in the world, with 20,000 soldiers, the world's largest private military base, a fleet of 20 aircraft including helicopter gunships, and a private intelligence division. Blackwater is headed by a very right-wing Christian supremacist and ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince, whose family has had deep neo-conservative connections. Bush's latest call for voluntary civilian military corps to accommodate the "surge" will add to over half a billion dollars in federal contracts with Blackwater, allowing Prince to create a private army to defend Christendom around the world against Muslims and others. As Jeremy Scahill points out, private contractors currently constitute the second-largest "force" in Iraq. At last count there were about 100,000 contractors in Iraq, 48,000 of whom work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll. With Prince calling for the creation of a "contractor brigade" before military audiences, the Bush administration has found a back door for engaging in an undeclared expansion of occupation. “THIS IS ONE OF THE most CENSORED PEWSPAPERS 7 ve EVER READ. ey Tat £5 merville NEXUS 13 DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008 www.nexusmagazine.com