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Notably, four large companies accounted for 40% of total contract dollars. Another 22 companies got deals of at least $1 billion, accounting for 52% of amounts awarded.
The concentration produced a "too big to fail" syndrome, affording vitally needed companies virtual immunity from accountability. It opened up a chasm for them to exploit in "the form of lower-quality materials, reduced training, and lower performance standards," as well as numerous other ways to commit grand theft.
In fact, given license to steal, how many opportunists can resist, especially that when caught, penalties exacted pale compared to enormous profits and personal gain.
The report also admits that relying heavily on contractors contributed greatly to sustaining insurgents fighting against US/NATO occupation, saying:
"The largest source of funding for the insurgency is commonly recognized to be money from the drug trade. During a March 2011 trip to Afghanistan, experts told the Commission that extortion of funds from US construction projects and transportation contracts is the insurgents' second-largest funding source."
Drugs trafficking, in fact, proliferates because the CIA and Western financial interests benefit greatly from it. For Wall Street banks, it constitutes a major profit center.
Years ago, Max Keiser worked on Wall Street. On his Russia Today program, he once remarked that every Friday afternoon, limousines drove up to major banks to deposit suitcases of drug money to be laundered.
It's one of many open Wall Street secrets, showing the corrupting power of money on a grand scale in amounts beyond comprehension.
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