http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...ate/index.html

extract


"This industry really didn't exist 10 years ago," says Peter Singer, a
national security fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of
"Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry." A decade
ago, mercenary soldiering was less the stuff of corporate America than the
inspiration for Soldier of Fortune fantasies. Now, as Singer reported in
Salon, the industry generates over $100 billion annually worldwide.

As little known as these companies are to the general public, they are only
too familiar in Washington, where they have deployed a different kind of
mercenary force -- phalanxes of lobbyists -- along with the ammunition of
modern political warfare, campaign contributions. And they have found eager
friends, particularly among Republican leaders in and out of Congress.