US outsources African spy missions to private contractors

Published: 16 June, 2012, 01:19

The US troops handling top-secret missions in Africa aren’t the only ones working for Uncle Sam. Despite the Pentagon pushing for more soldiers overseas, the government is outsourcing some of their own intel-gathering programs to private contractors.

We already know that Americans are apt to go abroad when it comes to items that are more affordable overseas. Is even managing the country’s intelligence too demanding to be divvied up within the ranks of the FBI, CIA or another US entity though? A report published this week by the Washington Post confirms just that. Joining the hundreds of US troops stationed across the continent of Africa — where the Defense Department is preparing to send an additional 3,000 servicemen in 2013 — are an underground intelligence operation staffed by private sector employees being paid by the Pentagon.

Along with at least 100 soldiers dispatched to central Africa last year to hunt disputed warlord Joseph Kony, the US manages a multi-pronged platoon of all types of servicemen to engage in largely secretive military missions. Instead of staking out foreign adversaries on their own, the US government is grabbing private contractors to fulfill the country’s own surveillance and spy missions.

FULL STORY: http://rt.com/usa/news/africa-private-contractors-government-957/