According to Robert Young Pelton's upcoming book Licensed To Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, there are now over 70,000 armed men working as security contractors in Iraq. As the US begins to draw down troops, private security companies will provide much of the muscle and steel in Iraq. Are these new hired guns an anomaly or the future of warfare? Should the US expand the use of private contractors as proxy forces or reign them in before they trigger more Fallujahs? Shadow Company, by Nick Bicanic and Jason Bourque, is the groundbreaking feature-length documentary that reveals the origins and destinations of these modern-day guns for hire. Critically acclaimed at the highest levels of Washington and Hollywood, Shadow Company presents the players, the facts and the opinions in a way that allows the audience to make up its own mind about a politically charged and complex subject. The film explores the moral and ethical issues "private military" solutions create for Western governments and the United Nations and addresses the risks of allowing profit-motivated corporations into the business of war.
from left: Moderator Anna Soellner, Lawrence Korb, Peter Singer, Mark Lonsdale, Nick Bicanic (not pictured: Rep. Jan Schakowsky)
Featured Panelists:
U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Nick Bicanic, Director/Producer, Shadow Company
Peter Singer, National Security Fellow, Brookings Institute
Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Mark Lonsdale, Director of U.S. Operations, Hart Group Security
Moderated by:
Anna Soellner, Director of Outreach and Special Events, Center for American Progress
Video
Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Doors open at 6:30 PM. Screening starts at 7:00 PM sharp Admission is free
Landmark E Street Cinema
555 11th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
Map & Directions
Biographies
U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky represents the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, and serves in the House as a Chief Deputy Democratic Whip and ranking member on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Rep. Schakowsky previously served on the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, where she dealt with private military contracting issues. This year, Rep. Schakowsky successfully passed an amendment to the FY07 Defense Authorization Act that would significantly increase oversight over private military contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nick Bicanic, a co-founder of Purpose Films comes to the film and television industry with eight years of experience in the world of new media. In the late 1990s, Nick abandoned Ph.D. studies in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge to found and run a multimedia design and strategy company in London. After steering the company successfully through wild changes in the Internet marketplace (and writing numerous newspaper articles and books on the industry in the process) the company was sold and Nick took this opportunity to freely explore ways of fusing his two main interests: storytelling and technology. Shadow Company is his first feature length project.
Peter Warren Singer is the National Security Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World. Dr. Singer is considered the world's leading expert on the private military industry. His book Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Cornell University Press) was the first to explore the industry and was named best book of the year by the American Political Science Association, among the top five international affairs books of the year by the Gelber Prize, and a Top Ten Summer Read by BusinessWeek . Singer continues to serve as a resource on the private military issue to the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Defense-Joint Staff, CIA, European Union and, most recently, played a role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse investigation.
Lawrence Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Adviser to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Over the past decade, Mr. Korb has made over 1,000 appearances as a commentator on such shows as The Today Show, The Early Show, Good Morning America, Face the Nation, This Week with David Brinkley, MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, 60 Minutes, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor, and Crossfire. His more than 100 op-ed pieces have appeared in such major newspapers as the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Christian Science Monitor.
Mark Lonsdale is presently the Director of US Operations for Hart Group Security, a world leader in the private security industry. He is an internationally recognized advisor on tactical training for all forms of special operations. Prior to joining Hart Group, Mark founded the training organization STTU and began developing advanced mission-specific training programs. In addition to having personally trained several hundred police and military operators, Mark has taught instructor-level programs for federal agencies and the U.S. military; run advanced Raid programs for the DEA and NTF; and supplied Sniper and CQB training to U.S. Marines prior to deployment in the Gulf crisis. Recently Mark has been working as a military advisor in the Afghan theatre of operations and is actively involved in pre-deployment training of U.S. military intelligence personnel and coalition Special Operations Forces.
Anna Soellner is the director of outreach and special events for the Center for American Progress. She also directs cultural programs at the Center including the Reel Progress program. She served in the office of Martin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, where she was a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar. In that capacity, Anna was the foreign media liaison and assisted in developing party relations with foreign governments and NGOs to promote democracy and rule of law in Hong Kong. Before leaving for Hong Kong, Anna worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs and Public Liaison at the U.S. Treasury Department and for Senator Feinstein in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.