PRESS ROOM

“The military threat from China has been much exaggerated,” William Hartung, senior adviser at the Center for International Policy said. “The United States spends about three times on our military than China does, our nuclear stockpile is 13 times as large and we have a more capable Navy.”

“Using a subsidiary to export to the UAE is a way to undermine the spirit of the Danish government decision to stop arming the UAE”, William Hartung said.

Arnie Arnesen talks with Will Hartung, of Brown University, about the costs of war.

“Some of these corporations earned profits that are widely considered legitimate. Other profits were the consequence of questionable or corrupt business practices that amount to waste, fraud, abuse, price-gouging or profiteering,” William Hartung, senior adviser at CIP and author of the study wrote."

“Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion, one-third to one-half of which went to defense contractors,” the report said. “Some of these corporations earned profits that are widely considered legitimate. Other profits were the consequence of questionable or corrupt business practices that amount to waste, fraud, abuse, price-gouging or profiteering.”

Released Monday, [William Hartung’s] study laid out Pentagon dependence on private companies. Authors persuasively argued such moves helped undermine the nation’s war effort. The Defense Department used private contractors to run fuel convoys and feed the troops, but also to train and equip Afghan security forces, according to an Associated Press article on the study.

“'If it were only the money, that would be outrageous enough,' William Hartung, the director of the arms and security program at the Center for International Policy, told the Associated Press. 'But the fact it undermined the mission and put troops at risk is even more outrageous.'”

“'The Pentagon’s increasing reliance on private contractors in the post-9/11 period raises multiple questions of accountability, transparency, and effectiveness,' reads a portion of the Brown University study, authored by William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy."

“With so many think tanks getting a slice of the Pentagon budget, it’s not surprising that the Washington think tank choir sings the Pentagon’s praises,” said Ben Freeman

1:08 – [KFPA] takes stock of 9/11 wars and the trillions paid out by the US to private contractors with William Hartung (@WilliamHartung), Director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.

As the defense budget rose in the years following 9/11, the five largest defense companies—​​Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman—have been the prime beneficiaries, according to researchers at Brown University and the Center for International Policy.

"America’s post-9/11 wars have cost more than $8 trillion. Up to one-half of the Pentagon’s annual budget goes to contractors, so it stands to reason that arms companies would be major beneficiaries of this enormous sum of war spending. But the revenues reaped by arms companies over the past two decades go well beyond spending on the wars themselves, as noted in a new report from the Center for International Policy and the Costs of War Project at Brown University."