Gonzaga Debate Institute 2010

Executive Power Bad Adv. – I/L – PMC’s = Exec

PMC’s expand executive power and remove democratic accountability
Singer 2 (P.W. Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry and Its Ramifications for International Security International Security 26.3 186-220 TBC 6/26/10)

Another rationale for outsourcing is political expediency. In the United States, for example, the executive branch has used private military means to circumvent limits placed on it by the legislature or by public opinion. This proposition applies to all three firm types, but with vastly different ramifications. Much of the push behind the use of type 3 firms by the U.S. military in recent contingency operations resulted from two factors: congressional limits on troop numbers and the reluctance of the Clinton administration to deal with the potential political costs of calling up the National Guard and Reserves, who otherwise would have been required. 73 Although using private military support to circumvent legislative limits was technically against Congress's mandate, no members objected because it was in keeping with their original intent to minimize the number of U.S. troops put at risk (e.g., 9,000 fewer U.S. troops deployed in Bosnia because of military support outsourcing). Recourse to type 1 and type 2 PMFs can have more negative implications for the democratic principle of checks and balances, however. It may allow the executive branch to gain too much autonomy and power, which could lead to the authorization of public-private activities against the intent of Congress. [End Page 217] The rationale for using PMFs instead of official covert action is that they give the cover of plausible deniability that public forces lack. If an operation goes awry, the activities of a firm are easier for a government to deny and the blame simpler to shift. The current involvement of U.S.-based PMFs in the civil war in Colombia illustrates this point. Dyncorp is officially engaged there in "antidrug" operations. However, the firm utilizes armed reconnaissance planes and helicopter gunships, designed for counterguerrilla warfare, and has been involved in several firefights with local rebels. Dyncorp has lost several planes and employees to rebel fire, but there has been no public outcry in response to these losses. 74 Another possible advantage of using PMFs is that it may allow the executive branch to avoid public debate or legislative controls, and therefore undertake what it sees as a much more "rational" foreign policy. 75 As Arthur S. Miller avers, however, this is not always for the best: "Democratic government is responsible government--which means accountable government--and the essential problem in contracting out is that responsibility and accountability are greatly diminished." He goes on the say that the use of private firms places "the influence over, and sometimes even control of, important decisions one step further away from the public and their elected representatives." 76

Executive Power Bad Adv. – I/L – Accountability

PMC’s consider themselves above the law

Scahill 7 (Jeremy, http://www.privateforces.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1656&Itemid=99999999, date accessed: 6/24/2010) AJK
As with Halliburton, the Pentagon’s largest contractor, Blackwater is set apart from simple war profiteers by the defining characteristic of its executives’ very long view. They have not just seized a profitable moment along with many of their competitors but have set out to carve a permanent niche for themselves for decades to come. Blackwater’s aspirations are not limited to international wars, however. Its forces beat most federal agencies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, as hundreds of heavily armed Blackwater mercenaries — some fresh from deployment in Iraq — fanned out into the disaster zone. Within a week, they were officially hired by the Department of Homeland Security to operate in the US Gulf, billing the federal government $950 a day per Blackwater soldier. In less than a year, the company had raked in more than $70 million in federal hurricane-related contracts — about $243,000 a day. The company saw Katrina as another moment of great opportunity and soon began applying for permits to contract its forces out to local governments in all fifty states. Blackwater executives have met with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about deploying there in the aftermath of an earthquake or another disaster. “Look, none of us loves the idea that devastation became a business opportunity,” said the Blackwater official heading up its new domestic operations division formed after Katrina. “It’s a distasteful fact, but it is what it is. Doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, even newspapers — they all make a living off of bad things happening. So do we, because somebody’s got to handle it.” But critics see the deployment of Blackwater’s forces domestically as a dangerous precedent that could undermine US democracy. “Their actions may not be subject to constitutional limitations that apply to both federal and state officials and employees — including First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Unlike police officers, they are not trained in protecting constitutional rights,” says CCR’s Michael Ratner. “These kind of paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts, functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that can and does operate outside the law. The use of these paramilitary groups is an extremely dangerous threat to our rights.”
PMC’s are never held accountable, even for their worst crimes

Lendmen 10 (Stephen, http://www.rense.com/general89/outs.htm, date accessed: 6/24/2010) AJK
True enough. Those performing security functions are paramilitaries, hired guns, unprincipled, in it for the money, and might easily switch sides if offered more. Though technically accountable under international and domestic laws where they're assigned, they, in fact, are unregulated, unchecked, free from criminal or civil accountability, and are licensed to kill and get away with it. Political and institutional expediency affords them immunity and impunity to pretty much do as they please and be handsomely paid for it.