

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
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<title>David Isenberg (Author at The Cato Institute)</title>
<atom:link href="http://www.cato.org/rss/author.xml?auth_id=91/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<link>http://www.cato.org/people/david-isenberg</link>
<managingEditor>amast@cato.org (Andrew Mast)</managingEditor>
<description>
The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.
</description>
<language>en-us</language>

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				<title>Contractors Past, Present and Future (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9812</link>
				<description><![CDATA[A recent article in Parameters, the quarterly academic journal of the U.S. Army War College, confirms the military's critical dependence on private contractors. 

What much of the debate over the use of contractors overlooks is that their presence on American battlefields is not the result of the ...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9812</guid>
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				<title>A Brave New World Awaits (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9809</link>
				<description><![CDATA[If nothing else, the latest report of the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC) makes a prophet of Kishore Mahbubani. His book, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East published at the beginning of the year foreshadowed one of the main conclusions of ...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9809</guid>
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				<title>The Unknown and Unrecognized Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9807</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The private military contracting industry is generally thought of in terms of two types of employees. There are logistics workers who drive the trucks, build and staff the bases, maintain the weapons, and do many other non-armed tasks. And then there are security contractors who carry guns and, when...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9807</guid>
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				<title>The Top 10 PSCs in Iraq (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9789</link>
				<description><![CDATA[It is always difficult to write about private security contractors in Iraq because of the paucity of hard data. But we can now say that there are far more of them than we thought and that we are paying more for their services than previously known.

According to a recent government audit, first re...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9789</guid>
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				<title>Has the Privatization of National Security Gone Too Far? (Speeches)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9797</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Before we go any further let me ask you a couple of questions:
How many of you have served in the U.S. military? If so, raise your hands.
And how many of you have children who are in or have served in the U.S. military?
Okay, this gets us to the central underlying fact about the use of private se...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9797</guid>
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				<title>Contractors and Obama (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9780</link>
				<description><![CDATA[In the wake of Barack Obama's election victory many American private military and security contractors are wondering what their future will be under President Obama. It is probably better than they imagine. 

Recall that at the beginning of the year inveterate PSC critic Jeremy Scahill blasted Oba...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9780</guid>
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				<title>US Urged to Overhaul Nuclear Arsenal (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9766</link>
				<description><![CDATA[It may seem plausible that with American troops busily engaged in fighting insurgents on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, that Washington's policies on nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence would take a lower priority. That would be an incorrect assumption.

The handling of US nucle...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9766</guid>
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				<title>Losing Sleep over SOFA (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9761</link>
				<description><![CDATA[If, as now seems possible, Iraq and the United States cannot finalize a Status of Forces Agreement governing U.S. troops there, private military contractors will be sighing in relief.



The agreement, known as SOFA, is basically a document signed by a country and a foreign nation stationing mil...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9761</guid>
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				<title>Yaargh, Here Be Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9748</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The news that Blackwater Worldwide is offering its services to shippers plagued by pirates -- an issue recently in the headlines, due to the continuing attacks on ships off Somalia -- has set the media twittering about the latest domain to be outsourced to private military contractors.

But in rea...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9748</guid>
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				<title>When a Contractor Just Isn't Good Enough (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9727</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The State Department has outsourced henhouse security to a fox, giving a U.S. security contractor the job of investigating possible crimes committed by other security contractors working for the United States in Iraq.

And not just any fox. According to a report by ABC News earlier this month, the...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9727</guid>
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				<title>Busting the Unaccountability Myth (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9710</link>
				<description><![CDATA[For those who like to characterize private security contractors as uncontrolled, unregulated, thinly disguised mercenaries run amok, September was a bad month.

 

For it was on Sept. 17 that the "Montreux Document" was released. That document, the "Montreux Document on Pertinent International L...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9710</guid>
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				<title>The US Military's Fallout Shelter (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9702</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Some people may think one consequence of the ongoing United States financial crisis would be increased pressure for cuts in military spending. But that is unlikely to happen. While the crisis will increase fiscal pressure to reduce military spending, as it is the largest pot of discretionary funding...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9702</guid>
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				<title>Will the Last Contractor to Leave Iraq Remember to please Turn Out the Lights? (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9700</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Just as private contractors were part of the buildup of forces in Iraq, from the very beginning of the war to today, they are also figuring to be a prominent part of the eventual withdrawal.

 

A recent report finds that the success of the eventual withdrawal from Iraq -- or "reposturing effort...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9700</guid>
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				<title>Mercenary Hero William Walker (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9680</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Mercenaries haven't always been unpopular. In fact, as a new book details, there was a time when one, William Walker, was a national hero. 

Walker is hardly an unknown figure. When the United States was supporting the Nicaraguan Contras, Walker was frequently pointed to as a past example of Ameri...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9680</guid>
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				<title>New Realities in the Strait of Hormuz (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9652</link>
				<description><![CDATA[For decades, one of the reliable nightmare scenarios for the world has been the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In the Cold War era those charged with coming up with worst-case scenarios would conjure up a southward push by the Soviet Union to seize control of Persian Gulf oil fields and restrict t...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9652</guid>
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				<title>The Well-Ordered Worldliness of WPPS (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9653</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The Worldwide Personal Protective Services contract, or WPPS, is the way the State Department hires private security firms to protect its personnel. 

 

The State Department's use of such firms goes back 20 years, to the aftermath of the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. The Diplomatic Sec...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9653</guid>
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				<title>From Mercenary to Security Contractor and Back Again (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9641</link>
				<description><![CDATA[By legal definition, security contractors are not mercenaries, but the dividing line is porous: There is nothing to say today's contractor was not a mercenary in the past. And even if he was not, he could be in the future.

 

After all, both use somewhat similar skill sets, at least in terms of...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9641</guid>
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				<title>Micromanaging Security Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9627</link>
				<description><![CDATA[One of the most common criticisms about private security contractors is that there are insufficient rules governing their actions.

But the truth is, there is and always has been a way to ensure that contractors act the way the client, as in the U.S. government or other private sector firms, wants...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9627</guid>
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				<title>Contractor Oversight Is Improving (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9618</link>
				<description><![CDATA[It was not that long ago that seemingly just about everyone was suspicious of private security contractors working in Iraq, and not just liberals or opponents of the war. For example, a report published in December 2006 by two students at the Naval Postgraduate School found: "In general, many securi...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9618</guid>
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				<title>Blackwater as Wal-Mart (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9603</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Say whatever you want about Blackwater Worldwide &#8212; and hardly a day goes by when something isn't being said about it &#8212; it does not put all its eggs in one basket. Long before the company's recent announcement that it would seek to de-emphasize its personal security work in the future, it...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9603</guid>
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				<title>More Contractors in Iraq (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9605</link>
				<description><![CDATA[U.S. reliance on private contractors in Iraq is even greater than previously thought, according to a study released last week by the Congressional Budget Office.

The findings of the report, titled "Contractors Support of U.S. Operations in Iraq," which covers 2003-2007, include:



The CBO es...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9605</guid>
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				<title>Contractors vs. Genocide? (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9586</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece on July 29 calling for the use of private security contractors to help transform the 9,000 or so African Union soldiers in Darfur into a more effective U.N. peacekeeping force.

The op-ed, titled "Mercenaries for Darfur," suggested using personnel from ...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9586</guid>
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				<title>Are PMCs POWs? (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9580</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The recent rescue of three U.S. private military contractors, held for more than five years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, highlights one of the perils of the industry -- they don't get the same legal protections as regular military combatants.

Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and T...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9580</guid>
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				<title>Life Without Blackwater? (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9565</link>
				<description><![CDATA[For a moment there it looked like we might not have Blackwater to kick around anymore. 
The company's contract with the U.S. State Department has been at the center of a lot of unflattering media attention since a Baghdad shooting incident last year in which local authorities say innocent civilians...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9565</guid>
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				<title>US Keeps Taiwan at Arm's Length (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9556</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The past month has seen some convoluted twists and turns in what seems to be the never-ending saga of Taiwanese arms procurement. 

In the second half of June it was reported in the Taiwanese media that the Taiwanese government had requested that the US government halt some US$12 billion in arms s...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9556</guid>
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				<title>A Reality Check on Iran (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9550</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The world has over the past months witnessed one of the periodic upsurges of speculation in the ongoing drama over whether the United States will attack Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Tehran test-fired some of its long-range ballistic missiles last week to signal that it is taking...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9550</guid>
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				<title>The Con Side of Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9551</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Much of the discussion about the rights and wrongs of private military and security contractors in Iraq is framed either as a capabilities question &#8212; can U.S. forces operate without them? &#8212; or a values question &#8212; should private contractors have such a big role?

But another way o...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9551</guid>
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				<title>Immunity Hype (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9536</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Last week the media reported security contractors working in Iraq no longer will receive immunity from prosecution in that nation under a deal being brokered by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

As the lifting of immunity for foreign private security contractors has long been a demand from Iraqi lawmaker...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9536</guid>
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				<title>The Founding Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9529</link>
				<description><![CDATA[While many commentators acknowledge that private military and security contractors are not mercenaries, some of them still contend that their use, both qualitatively and quantitatively, is a new phenomenon, something that emerged full blown from free market apostles like Ronald Reagan, George Bush (...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9529</guid>
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				<title>Over-the-counter Cloak and Dagger (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9524</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Book Review of Spies For Hire by Tim Shorrock

Among the many issues that have become the subject of public debate in the years since the September 11, 2001, attacks are the functions of the United States intelligence community and outsourcing of role and activities to the private sector. The nume...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9524</guid>
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				<title>A Small Step for Contractors (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9513</link>
				<description><![CDATA[For a long time now, much of the discussion of the use of private contractors on the battlefield and war zones has been sensationalistic and not particularly helpful. Either contractors are just patriots helping out their former comrades, as most of them are former military themselves, or they are j...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9513</guid>
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				<title>Firing Blanks in Afghanistan (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9506</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The saga of United States military contractor AEY and its supply of substandard ammunition to Afghanistan keeps getting curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland phrased it, after descending the rabbit hole. Or put another way, it is the news story that keeps on giving.

Since the New York T...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9506</guid>
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				<title>Some Publicity Is Bad (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9480</link>
				<description><![CDATA[The case of CACI, the private military contractor that became notorious after its employees were investigated over allegations of torture at the U.S. military detention center at Abu Ghraib, seems to challenge the proposition that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
After the Iron Curtain came...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9480</guid>
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				<title>Attacking Iran: The Last Resort (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9471</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Conventional wisdom about the drawbacks of striking Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons is wrong, or at least greatly exaggerated, according to a new report. 

The report says the wrong questions are being asked in the debate over whether to undertake "preventive" military action aga...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9471</guid>
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				<title>Two Little Words (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9463</link>
				<description><![CDATA[How much argument can there be over the definition of two words? 

A lot, it turns out, if those two words are "inherently governmental" and if they appear in federal documents defining what functions U.S. agencies cannot contract out to the private sector. 

What are inherently governmental fun...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9463</guid>
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				<title>The Holy Grail, Part Four (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9451</link>
				<description><![CDATA[LOGCAP is the Holy Grail of the private military contracting industry.

LOGCAP -- the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program -- is an initiative established by the U.S. Army in 1985 to use civilian contractors in wartime and other contingencies. The contract covers everything from fixing trucks to w...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9451</guid>
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				<title>Back to Africa (Commentary)</title>
				<link>http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9436</link>
				<description><![CDATA[Where does the future lie for the private military industry? Those who watch the industry closely have noted it tends to migrate periodically. In the beginning, mirroring human evolution, the industry emerged in Africa. 

The progenitor for many of today's private security firms was the South Afri...]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
				<guid>http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=9436</guid>
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