President Eisenhower Has Already Read Monday's Washington Post

Rumors abound that The Washington Post will publish a devastating investigative piece by Dana Priest detailing the shady world of intelligence and defense contracting on Monday, July 19.  Security agencies and their contractors are understandably nervous. Nearly fifty years ago, Republican President (and General) Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us in his Farewell Address that this reckoning would come:

Of course we didn't listen, and now we have the voracious military industrial complex that we deserve.  Veteran national security reporter Timothy Shorrock notes that "70 percent of our intelligence budget goes to these (private) companies." Since little or no oversight of these corporations is practical, corruption and abuse undoubtedly runs rampant. In truth, to paraphrase Senator Durbin, when it comes to intelligence and defense issues, they practically own Washington and ensure that the United States is in a cycle of perpetual war. Hopefully the report will pull no punches, but, given the amount of power already ceded to groups like Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen, and Blackwater (now: Xe), it's hard to imagine much changing in the near future.

UPDATE: Here is the article. And it's a doozy...

timothy dee