Gonzaga Debate Institute 2010

Executive Power Bad Adv. – I/L – Accountability

Contractors undermine security through misbehavior – the supervisors are aware of and participate in misconduct.

Schulman 9 (Daniel, assistant editor at Columbia Journalism Review, Sep 1-9, Mother jones) ET

Guards have come to POGO with allegations and photographic evidence that some supervisors and guards are engaging in near-weekly deviant hazing and humiliation of subordinates. Witnesses report that the highest levels of AGNA management in Kabul are aware of and have personally observed—or even engaged in—these activities, but have done nothing to stop them. Indeed, management has condoned this misconduct, declining to take disciplinary action against those responsible and allowing two of the worst offending supervisors to resign and allegedly move on to work on other U.S. contracts. The lewd and deviant behavior of approximately 30 supervisors and guards has resulted in complete distrust of leadership and a breakdown of the chain of command, compromising security. Numerous emails, photographs, and videos portray a Lord of the Flies environment. One email from a current guard describes scenes in which guards and supervisors are "peeing on people, eating potato chips out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks (there is video of that one), broken doors after drnken [sic] brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity…." Photograph after photograph shows guards—including supervisors—at parties in various stages of nudity, sometimes fondling each other. These parties take place just a few yards from the housing of other supervisors.

Executive Power Bad Adv. – I/L – Accountability

And, PMC’s are unaccountable- congress can’t do anything about it

Scahill 7 (Jeremy, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater, The Independent, Aug 10, http://www.uruknet.info/?p=35239 ) ET

"These private contractors are really an arm of the administration and its policies," argues Kucinich, who has called for a withdrawal of all U.S. contractors from Iraq. "They charge whatever they want with impunity. There’s no accountability as to how many people they have, as to what their activities are." That raises the crucial question: what exactly are they doing in Iraq in the name of the U.S. and U.K. governments? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which is responsible for reviewing sensitive national security issues, explained the difficulty of monitoring private military companies on the U.S. payroll: "If I want to see a contract, I have to go up to a secret room and look at it, can’t take any notes, can’t take any notes out with me, you know — essentially, I don’t have access to those contracts and even if I did, I couldn’t tell anybody about it."
And, Contractors are unaccountable-they are above the law

Scahill 7 (Jeremy, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater, The Independent, Aug 10, http://www.uruknet.info/?p=35239 ) ET

On the Internet, numerous videos have spread virally, showing what appear to be foreign mercenaries using Iraqis as target practice, much to the embarrassment of the firms involved. Despite these incidents and the tens of thousands of contractors passing through Iraq, only two individuals have been ever indicted for crimes there. One was charged with stabbing a fellow contractor, while the other pled guilty to possessing child-pornography images on his computer at Abu Ghraib prison. Dozens of American soldiers have been court-martialed — 64 on murder-related charges alone — but not a single armed contractor has been prosecuted for a crime against an Iraqi. In some cases, where contractors were alleged to have been involved in crimes or deadly incidents, their companies whisked them out of Iraq to safety.
And, PMCs are accountable to no one

Scahill 7 (Jeremy, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater, The Independent, Aug 10, http://www.uruknet.info/?p=35239 ) ET

This unprecedented funding of such enterprises, primarily by the U.S. and U.K. governments, means that powers once the exclusive realm of nations are now in the hands of private companies with loyalty only to profits, CEOs and, in the case of public companies, shareholders. And, of course, their client, whoever that may be. CIA-type services, special operations, covert actions and small-scale military and paramilitary forces are now on the world market in a way not seen in modern history. This could allow corporations or nations with cash to spend but no real military power to hire squadrons of heavily armed and well-trained commandos.

Executive Power Bad Adv. – I/L – Destroys Democratic Checks

PMC’s allow for the executive to circumvent the military and Congress to take full control of foreign policy without public or democratic accountability.
Anechiarico and Dehn 8 (“Ultimately Unaccountable: Governance of Private Military Companies Nationally, Supranationally and Internationally” Frank Anechiarico, Ph.D. Professor of Government and Law Hamilton College, and John Dehn, Professor of Law United States Military Academy, June, http://www.4tad.org/ws/paper_wks4_Anechiarico.pdf)KM

Will grand strategy remain in the hands of elected officials, or only those at the highest levels of the executive branch? Many years of decisions about the weapons systems, fleet size, command and control systems, and even military justice have become significant influences and in many cases constraints on the implementation foreign policy through the use of military force. The growing importance and wider role for PMC’s in the military-industrial complex has altered the “balance” of control over the military in complex ways. What might be emerging is an entirely different effect on civil-military relations. Rather than the military, Congress and the defense industrial complex are influencing national policy choices through their actions. Thus, PMC’s might create democratic accountability deficits so significant that they and the executive branch can bypass both Congress and the military to seize complete control of significant aspects of foreign policy. That this might be the case is reflected in calls to send PMC’s to Darfur. (Boot,2006:cfr.org) When the U.S. or UN is unable to convince democracies to send their militaries due to internal public resistance, mercenaries allow the flexibility of enabling governments to “throw money at the problem” rather than risk the political accountability that comes with risking the sons and daughters of their constituents. In such cases, is the democracy unwilling or unable to send its soldiers likely to demand accountability for those sent in their place? The obvious answer is that it is highly unlikely.
And, contractors destroys any semblance of democratic control or responsibility

Scahill 7 (Jeremy, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater, The Independent, Aug 10, http://www.uruknet.info/?p=35239 ) ET

"Maybe the precedent was the British and the Hessians in the American Revolution. Maybe that’s the last time and needless to say, they lost. But I’m thinking that there’s no democratic control and there’s no intention to have democratic control here." The implications are devastating. Joseph Wilson says, "In the absence of international consensus, the current Bush administration relied on a coalition of what I call the co-opted, the corrupted and the coerced: those who benefited financially from their involvement, those who benefited politically from their involvement and those few who determined that their relationship with the United States was more important than their relationship with anybody else. And that’s a real problem because there is no underlying international legitimacy that sustains us throughout this action that we’ve taken."