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'Fort Huachuca Intelligence Center Draws Private Contractors
By Mike Sunnucks
The Business Journal of Phoenix

An increasing amount of U.S. intelligence work - including training related to aggressive interrogation methods - is being parceled out to defense firms making Arizona's Fort Huachuca a major contracting hub.
The base, which sits near the Mexican border about 190 miles southeast of Phoenix, is home to the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Center.
Large contractors such as General Dynamics, which has an information technology division in Scottsdale; Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, which has operations in Mesa; CACI International; and ManTech International all conduct work at Fort Huachuca and have offices in Sierra Vista adjacent to the base. The companies posted a combined $79 billion in revenue in 2006.
There also are smaller companies - including AllSource Global Management, Integrated Systems Improvement Services, both based in Sierra Vista, and Phoenix-based Castillo Technologies, that do work intelligence work at the base.
Privatized intelligence work is an increasingly big business, said Pratap Chatterjee, program director for CorpWatch, a California-based watchdog group.
Chatterjee estimates that as much as 50 percent to 70 percent of U.S. intelligence work, training and technology is handled by private firms making it a $20 billion to $40 billion sector.
But it also is a controversial business.
Huachuca is one of the primary training centers for interrogation techniques, data collection and covert operations. Intelligence personnel trained at the Arizona base are stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups criticize U.S. policies related to prisoner interrogations and question whether certain techniques and how they are taught at Huachucha amount to or lead to torture.
Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA, said interrogation techniques taught at Huachuca may include water boarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions, phobia exploitation and sexual humiliation of suspects.
Musa said Amnesty also is concerned about the oversight and training of private contractors that do intelligence work at the Arizona base.
The U.S. Army and Bush administration deny the torture claims.
Fort Huachuca spokeswoman Tanja Linton, said contractors perform a wide variety of services at the base, including in the intelligence arena.
Linton said intelligence personnel are taught straight from Army field manuals and abide by applicable U.S. laws including those passed after Abu Gharib. She said training is "transparent" and is made open to the media and elected officials.'

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007G.shtml

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