These were people who like those serving openly, volunteered for the most dangerous work to keep the young, the old, the frail and all others safe. What did the men and women in uniform get? They got the honor and distinction of knowing they did their duty, our debt and our respect for starters. They put their lives on the line to keep us safe from harm. These were heroes. We took for granted all those we couldn’t see – those whose names we may never know - were doing the same. Much of that was true.

Yet, there were always rumblings of things happening which went beyond the fray. There was Iran Contra, Watergate, the Gary Webb Dark Alliance articles/ book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb) and more. Yet following those incidents we always heard opposing views from credible sources. Whether journalists or whistleblowers, people were either discredited or enough opposition was thrown about to raise confusion and doubt. And so it went.

Those who talked about such things openly were labeled nuts, conspiracy theorists, whacky, loonies, psychos, unpatriotic, commie sympathizers, ignorant or categorized and tucked away in some other fashion. For those who were credible journalists or concerned people from the intelligence community they were relegated to the same dumpster as tin foil hat wearing people pushing shopping carts and muttering to themselves about government laser beams. Things were sufficiently swept under the rug – out of sight out of mind.

Then, unfortunately for the nation, but fortunately for those who had been crying foul, the messy, sloppy, mire ridden muck of the Bush administration led us into Iraq and soon enough the flood gates broke open. There really was no covering that up. Good solid reputable journalists and public servants came out en masse crying foul at the slip shod theater that led us into that conflict we are just now pulling out of.

Even those once that formerly popular one hit wonder, “Nutin’ But WMD’s In Iraq” started to sound like Milli Vanilli after the 1990 Grammy’s. Our eyes were wide open to the fact not all that transpires when we aren’t watching within our nation’s intelligence community protects us. Well, at least Halliburton’s a whole lot richer.

After 9/11 the panic led to more revelations than the lead up to Iraq. Articles and interviews began appearing revealing the dangerous over reliance on private contractors in intelligence work following the attacks in NYC meant originally to quickly fulfill the needs of a deficit in much needed positions. We turned to people working to do private security and intelligence work for corporations. We turned to people doing private security and intelligence work for other nations. The number of private contractors in our intelligence services rose to what is estimated at between 70% and 33% of the people doing the work.

These are people who in many cases once worked in government employment, but went elsewhere in search of bigger paydays. Once people serving in government positions saw how much more they could make going to the moneyed side they took their knowledge and secrets and crossed the line to bigger bucks in the war on terrorism. Serving the nation took a backseat to a sexy fat bank account. Sounds fair right? Free market and all - why not?

Soon it was like someone yelled “GOLD!” at the top of their lungs and a revolving door developed of get in, make connections, learn the secrets, become indispensible and leave. Once that’s accomplished, turn around and say “hey you want me? I want one of those giant sized Publisher’s Clearinghouse checks or stick with goober and goobette fresh out of college.” Suckers!

There are people managing small security teams protecting diplomats shuttling from one place to another in Iraq getting paid almost twice as much as Gen. David Petraeus. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001352.html) Still sounding like the free market cool, or are we getting a little scammy yet? Not sure?

Don’t forget, that guy planning how to get from the Hilton to the embassy and back getting paid almost twice as much as the guy formerly commanding all troops in Iraq and now Afghanistan. Now keep in mind the money shoveled into his pocket is being supplied by hard luck, barely holding on to their jobs, teetering on the brink of a recession, average Joe and Jane taxpayers. Sound fair?

The Washington Post recently reported, “Contractors can offer more money - often twice as much - to experienced federal employees than the government is allowed to pay them. And because competition among firms for people with security clearances is so great, corporations offer such perks as BMWs and $15,000 signing bonuses, as Raytheon did in June for software developers with top-level clearances.

“The idea that the government would save money on a contract workforce ‘is a false economy,"’said Mark M. Lowenthal, a former senior CIA official and now president of his own intelligence training academy.

“As companies raid federal agencies of talent, the government has been left with the youngest intelligence staffs ever while more experienced employees move into the private sector. This is true at the CIA, where employees from 114 firms account for roughly a third of the workforce, or about 10,000 positions. Many of them are temporary hires, often former military or intelligence agency employees who left government service to work less and earn more while drawing a federal pension.” (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/national-security-inc/)

Let’s not forget these people take our deepest, darkest, most sensitive secrets into corporate environments where the almighty dollar rules. The bottom line is king. National interests? Bah, try my interests pal. They left public service based on that principle to chase the money. They left to work in clandestine offices where people work for our government today, a private corporation tomorrow and another country’s government the day after that. Who is to say what gets looked at and by whom? How do we know who works for companies staffed by whomever they choose by their own right to employ?

We don’t know what they do with the money we pay them because under the CIA Act of 1949 we can’t know a thing about what happens with our money here. (http://www.foia.cia.gov/txt/Annual_Report_2007.pdf) Yup a regular taxpayer funded free for all kept for only those invited to a party everybody else has no choice but to fund.

The worst thing that can happen in the world of government secrets is for light to shine in on the dark musty corners where the dirt can be exposed for all to view. But that’s good for the vast majority of Americans as when there is something internally jeopardizing our safety it’s best to know the prognosis so we can figure what to do next. Otherwise we turn a blind eye to the phenomena of our nation being sold like a street walker’s wares to whoever has a wad of cash.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.