Janine Wedel: All Publications, Events and Press

WBAI-FM NYC Radio Interviews Janine Wedel on Blackwater Quagmire

Communications — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:54:00 -0400

New America in the News:

New America Fellow Janine Wedel was quoted by WBAI-FM New York City Radio on the Blackwater quagmire in Iraq. Ms. Wedel's WBAI interview follows her op-ed titled “The Shadow Army,” appearing in Boston Globe on September 30, 2007, where she argues against the privatization of military and intelligence forces.

"One of the major problems is that, while military contracting is increasing, the number of Defense department people that are available to oversee contractors has declined."

For more on this story, please visit the WBAI-FM website.

The Shadow Army

Articles — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:15:00 -0400

If there is a quagmire in Iraq, it was created more than a decade ago when the United States instituted a flawed system governing the use of contractors to perform governmental functions. Now, despite Iraqi fury at Blackwater USA, some of whose employees are accused of fatally shooting Iraqis, Washington is so reliant on the firm that it dare not order it from the field.

The heavy dependence on private contractors in the military is relatively recent. In the Gulf War only 9,200 contractors supported 540,000 military personnel. The estimated 180,000 US-funded contractors now in Iraq (of which about 21,000 are… more

Financial Times Quotes Janine Weden on Wolfowitz Retirement

Communications — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:28:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The controversial nature of Paul Wolfowitz‘s tenure at the World Bank can be traced to a culture of impunity and US exceptionalism that has characterised the Bush administration and dominated the direction of its foreign policy, according to academics and former officials.

Critics agreed with the verdict of the World Bank special panel - set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the pay rise and secondment to the State Department of Mr Wolfowitz’s girlfriend at the bank - that he had “from the outset cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution”.

While a minor affair in itself, they said the violations of ethics rules at the bank reflected the willingness of leading Bush administration figures to set aside established rules and procedures – ranging from the Geneva conventions in dealing with prisoners, to carrying out extraordinary renditions and tolerating torture, to electronic eavesdropping...

Janine Wedel, a professor at George Mason University’s school of public policy, says the Bush administration fast earned the reputation of trampling over the rules.

“Wolfowitz, with the neoconservative ethos that American power can reshape the world, is part of this culture. The idea is that our values and our needs and our demands trump everyone else’s, that we can do what we want because we are Americans,” she said.

“Wolfowitz is part of the neoconservative core, with a long record of trying to privatise US foreign policy to carry through its agenda,” commented Ms Wedel, who is writing a book on the “shadow elite” of the networked neoconservatives. “This group often runs rough-shod over established standards and practices...”

For the complete article, please visit The Financial Times website.