13-04-27 Privatized secret police state - the epitome of capitalism?

From the start, there were "conspiracy theories" about the private security mercenaries at the Boston Marathon, which were seen in photographs of the finish line.

But the article below shows the deplorable level of a privatized secret police state we have reached.  Even the Soviet Union never got that far - privatizing the secret police... This is a unique capitalistic achievement, I guess. jz

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Hired guns at the Marathon: Why Such Secrecy about Private Military Contractor's Men Working the Event? By Dave Lindorff (about the author)     Permalink       (Page 1 of 1 pages) General News 4/25/2013 at 15:05:07

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(Article changed on April 25, 2013 at 16:04)

(Article changed on April 25, 2013 at 15:47)

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(Article changed on April 25, 2013 at 15:42)

By Dave Lindorff

Seven Craft Intl. mercenaries near a communications van post-bombing by ThisCantBeHappening)

Speaking as an investigative reporter with almost 40 years's experience, I can say that when government officials won't talk, they're generally hiding something embarrassing or worse.

And nobody will talk about those Craft International Services private security personnel who were widely observed and photographed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, wearing security ear-pieces, hats and T-shirts bearing the company's skull logo, and all wearing the same dark coats, khaki pants and combat boots, some carrying what appear to have been radiation detectors.

I first contacted a man identifying himself as Jack Fleming, a public affairs person with the Boston Athletic Assn., sponsor of the marathon. Fleming advised me that "If you want to ask about that you should contact the Commonwealth (of Massachusetts) Executive Office of Public Safety."

I called that agency and spoke with the public information office there, a man named Terrell Fleming. He first said, "Did you call the Marathon organizers?" When I replied that I had, and that they had said to call his office, he replied, "They did?" Then he said, "You should call the City of Boston Police Department. They released a security plan to some media organizations."  

Indeed they had released that plan to the  Boston Globe . Based upon the information it got from the police  the article the Globe ran , did report that the Police had deployed "air patrols, K9 units, and more than 1,000 uniformed officers and soldiers along the 26-mile course and the finish line," but it made no mention of the private contracting of soldiers-for-hire, which is what Craft International does (see the  Craft website ).  News agency Reuters  reported, meanwhile, that a top official for the Massachusetts state Homeland Security Department, Undersecretary Kurt Schwartz, told a group at Harvard U. that his agency had "planned" for a possible bombing attack on the marathon, even running a "table-top" exercise about such an event a week before the race. 

I called the Boston Police to ask if they had hired the Craft International personnel observed at the scene just before and after the bombing, and was told by the public affairs office there  that "Anything having to do with the investigation of the bombing would have to be referred to the FBI Boston Division office."  When I pointed out that I wasn't asking anything about the investigation, but was simply asking who had hired the security personnel from Craft International, the answer was simply repeated: "You'll have to ask the FBI."

So I called the FBI, and got a public affairs person there named Amanda Cox. Her initial response to my question was, "I do not have any information on that." 

I then said I had been referred to her by the Boston Police Department, and said that photos of the scene after the bombing had shown Craft International personnel conversing with FBI agents. She then put down the phone, and I could hear her turn to a supervisor and ask, her voice muffled, "This guy's asking about the Craft Security Consultants -- who hired them and what they were doing."

I next overheard the muffled voice of another woman to whom she had been speaking reply, "I think you could safely say, "I do know we worked with a lot of people who worked on security at the marathon...'"  After that I couldn't make out what was being said. ..

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent three-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1718

Dave Lindorff is a founding member of the collectively-owned, journalist-run online newspaper www.thiscantbehappening.net. He is a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This (more...)