Week 62

01.06.03

http://www.acronym.org.uk/difference-dictionary/dd67/
67op1.htm

Oh, those'll be cute. Teensy, nanotech, nuclear weapons.

01.07.03

http://www.blackhawkindustries.com/
index.asp

The thing I like best about these Blackhawk guys is that they are burstingly violent, paramilitary and macho, yet none of the stuff they sell is dangerous. It's all, like, nice sturdy gloves and bags.

01.08.03

http://www.mpri.com

Why involve a national army when you can just hire a discreet military-solutions corporation?

http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/
2000/07/05/p3s1.htm

"No one has ever carried a gun while at MPRI," says Harry Soyster, a company spokesman who is a retired lieutenant general and a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "Sure, it gets in the way of business every now and then, but that's all right."

http://www.mpri.com/channels/
our_team.html

They're even into submarine ops? Yipes!

Mercenaries, the new wave

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/
peacekpg/reform/pmc1.htm

01.09.03

Airscan

http://www.airscan.com/who_we_are.htm

South American guys who are petrified by Airscan:

http://www.unii.net/

http://www.unii.net/dirtylittlewar.html

01.10.03

Check out these weird beltway bandit astroturf outfits. Quickly defunct, but they weren't wasting any time.

"Alliance for Homeland Security"

http://www.allianceforhomelandsecurity.org

http://www.allianceforhomelandsecurity.org/
ahs_memberlinks.htm

There is no there, there.

http://www.safefoundation.org/index.asp

Thank goodness these hustlers are no longer at home; they probably got their Star Wars cash and ran off in a blaze of paranoia.

http://www.safefoundation.org/cyber/
threatboard.html

This flash part is the best. Musta cost 'em a small fortune, but when you're fleecing the taxpayer, the sky's the limit.

Bruce Sterling writes books like Darwin watched animals. Find out more about him, and read tattered electronic copies of Cheap Truth, at the Bruce Sterling Online Index. He lives with his wife Nancy and their two daughters in Austin, Texas.