Blackwater in Pakistan Essay

According to the article â€Å"Blackwater (Xe): The Secret US War in Pakistan†, written by: Andrew Hobbs, Kelsea Arnold, Brittney Gates, Elaine Wellin and Peter Phillips, within a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), members of the elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they target suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives inside and outside of Pakistan. They write about how the CIA doesn’t have the resources to have a secret operative plan so they enlisted Blackwater to do their dirty work. Blackwater said that they did not have any operations in Pakistan, other than the one employee that is performing construction oversight for the US government. But Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince, told Vanity Fair that Blackwater works with US Special Forces in identifying targets and planning missions. A former senior executive of Blackwater even confirmed that Blackwater is in fact working with the CIA and JSOC. In 2009, there were reports that the CIA agency director, Leon Panetta, had cancelled any affiliation with Blackwater. He stated that they were two separate â€Å"beasts†, the CIA and Blackwater, and that Blackwater was a parallel operation to the CIA. But having stated all of that, Blackwater is real and there have been reports and footage of Blackwater operations in Pakistan to this very day. The Blackwater operations have first been noted in 2007 and there hasn’t been any physical evidence that their operations in Pakistan have been shut down. In the heart of a base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command, there lies an operation run by Blackwater. Blackwater runs a covert ops-type operation to plan assassinations on suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in and out of Pakistan. They, Blackwater, state that they do not have any operations inside of Pakistan while there is plenty of evidence that they are in fact in Pakistan and operation with the CIA. Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, even told Vanity Fair that Blackwater was working with the US Special Forces. He stated that Blackwater was helping the US Special Forces by identifying targets and planning missions. Vanity Fair even published a photo of a Blackwater base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This also contradicts the statement that Captain John Kirby, the spokesperson for Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a newspaper called the Nation, that they don’t have any contracts to do that work for them. They don’t contract that kind of work out. They rather do it themselves. Blackwater was trying to cover up what they were doing in Pakistan. Blackwater previously stated that they do not have any other operatives working in Pakistan other than the one overseeing construction for the US Government. What Erik Prince said to Vanity Fair contradicts the whole statement. He stated that Blackwater has some affiliation with the US Special Forces. The JSOC, which has a base in Pakistan, is part of the US Special Forces. One would reason that if Blackwater has some ties with the US Special Forces, they would be working with the JSOC as well. A former senior executive confirmed that Blackwater is in fact working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel stationed elsewhere within the borders of Pakistan. Leon Panetta, the CIA agency director, said that the CIA has cancelled any affiliation with Blackwater. This means they had some affiliation to begin with. Something was going on in Pakistan, and Blackwater was somewhere in the mix. By stating that the CIA had canceled their affiliation with Blackwater, he basically said that the CIA had worked with Blackwater. But even if he said that they had canceled working together, there is no physical proof that they stopped operation together. There have been mountains of proof showing that Blackwater is in Pakistan while there are none about Blackwater leaving Pakistan. Vanity Fair published a statement by Blackwater’s founder and a photo of Blackwater in Pakistan. Proof that Blackwater left? None. There is no benefit of doubt when it comes to war, so same goes to this. Blackwater’s first contact with the CIA dates back to 2002. The covert program in Pakistan dates back to 2007. While Blackwater’s presence is not really visible, it’s basically Blackwater through JSOC. Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan are not done through the State Department contracts or publicly identified defense contracts so they stay on the down-low. Two separate beasts. † That’s what CIA agency director Leon Panetta says about Blackwater and the CIA. The evidence is against him, however. Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan is showing, even if the CIA and Blackwater are trying to hide it. There are cracks in their defense. Blackwater’s founder even contradicted himself by stating that Blackwater was working with the US Special Forces. There is a photo in Vanity Fair of a Blackwater base stationed in Pakistan. A former senior executive of Blackwater confirmed all of this and more. He said that Blackwater was working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC. He also said that they had a faculty in Karachi and personnel stationed elsewhere in Pakistan. The covert program in Pakistan dates back to 2007, so there is documentation of Blackwater being in Pakistan. There is so much proof against just some â€Å"he said, she said† statements. Blackwater is alive and kicking in Pakistan. Blackwater is just trying to hide itself from the public eye. There is no use for them to hide, the world knows they’re there.

Compare and Contrast Michael Dell and Andy Grove Essay

Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer Corporation had his humble beginnings in the computer industry when he began selling personal computers directly out of his dorm room. This impressed upon him that this was the path to take in his professional life, he started his company in 1984, registered as Dell Computer Corporation. Krames, (2003) Unlike other computer companies at the time, Dell was heavily focused on the end user, the consumers who would actually be purchasing the computers. By placing the emphasis on the consumers instead of big box stores to sell his product he brought a new way of selling computers to the industry, which was an uncommon way of doing business at that time. This is a notable contribution to the computer field, as it made other computer companies rethink how they would sell their products, to try to combat Dells’ growing market share. As Krames (2003) â€Å"Dells direct model of â€Å" mass customization† was not born of any desire to revolutionize an industry. Instead, it was foraged through a â€Å"bottom-up† strategy based on customers’ needs and preferences.† (p.59) This proved to be a successful strategy, in 1988, 4 years after opening, Dell went public bringing in an impressive $30 million at its IPO. Krames, (2003) Seeing soaring success in personal computer sales, Dell decided to try a new direction, Olympic was introduced. â€Å"Olympic was a line of desktop and workstation computers that were able to perform a wide array of tasks.† (Krames, 2003, p. 67) In releasing this new program Dell neglected the principle part of his successful strategy-what do the costumers want? Resistance from consumers was noted, the consumers did not feel that they needed what the new line offered. Olympic proved to be Dells biggest tanking product. Andy Grove, born Andras Grof of Hungary, cofounded Intel corporation in 1968. Krames, (2003) Grove’s contributions to the computer industry is highly notable. Grove, along with his partners revolutionized how the computer industry looked at and transistors on computer chips. His contribution to the field was so noticeable, that Time magazine bestowed on him title of Person of the Year â€Å"for his role in fueling the computer revolution† (Krames, 2003, p. 135) Grove met with considerably more resistance and opposition that Dell. Intels’ first large confrontation and change was in 1980. The Japanese began producing chips that were not only lower cost wise but also considered better in quality. Krames, (2003) Groves was able to associate several factors that were partially responsible for this crisis. Intel had of recent, been constantly late with the release of new products. To compound this, the company had also neglected to invest in new manufacturing plants in a timely manner. As Krames (2003) states â€Å"†¦ the cause of the problem came down to the wrong strategy and poor execution† (p. 137) Grove and the then current CEO made the hard decision to get out of memories. Even though this is what the company was based on, and started from, they realized that if they remained in this market segment it could be the end of Intel. They made the hard decision to move into microprocessors, â€Å"the thinking part of the computer.† (p. 139) The next big issue Intel faced was 14 years later, in 1994. Intel was releasing its newest microprocessor, The Pentium. A small design flaw was detected, which prompted IBM to halt shipment of all Pentium-based computers. â€Å"Intel’s credibility- and, by extension- the entire company- was threatened as anxiety about the â€Å"bug† spun out of control in the business community.† (Krames, 2003, p. 140) Grove made the decision to replace all processors at the cost of a half billion dollars. This strategy, while costing a massive amount to the company, restored customers’ faith. Dell and Grove have a few similarities that can be noted. Each created a hugely successful business out a need or want that they saw that was not currently being fulfilled. Dell with his customer oriented selling approach, Grove with a computer chip that enabled a computer to run better and faster. Each man faced a point in their career of what Grove called a â€Å"strategic inflection point†Kramer (2003) While the magnitude of these was vastly different for each, it caused each man to reexamine how the company was running. The biggest difference that can be seen between these two is, while Dell simply restructured an already successful method of operation by segmenting it further. Grove completely changed how his company did business by changing the product, which could have ended in massive failure, but thankfully did not. Dell chose to focus more microscopically on the end user, on a person-to-person basis. Grove chose to focus more on the big picture with a mass production outcome. I think Dells’ beginnings of selling computers out of his dorm room gave him a taste for the personal aspect which his business is so well known for. Dell saw that this more approachable method worked for people, and obviously worked for him, thus creating one of the largest PC sales companies in the world. Grove’s very obvious personal factor that affected his business, is his background from before he entered the US. It even gave him â€Å"His personal manta, â€Å"only the paranoid survive†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Krames, 2003, p. 135) With this in mind he was able to overcome Intels’ crisis involving the Japanese, coming out on top, more successful than before. Each man is hugely successful, simple choices made throughout their careers differentiate them from one another.

Corporate Faliure Maxwell Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Corporate Faliure Maxwell Communications - Essay Example In Britain rates of insolvency have risen to historic highs, punctuated quite dramatically by company failures from Rolls Royce through the Olympia and York failure (the developers of London's Docklands), and the collapse of the Maxwell communications empire. Because struggling debtor corporations frequently raid their pension funds for cash, which consequently are under-funded when companies declare bankruptcy, significant private costs have been off-loaded onto the government. Furthermore, failing firms do not pay their taxes, and so the tax authorities frequently join the list of unpaid creditors (Altman2003). Yet bankruptcy is not without its beneficiaries. Just as a deadly epidemic is lucrative for undertakers and morticians, the vast sums of money involved in the largest corporate bankruptcies have exerted a magnetic effect on the most sophisticated--and expensive--corporate lawyers and accountants. ... accounting, in both the United States and Britain, have become prestigious revenue-centers for law and accounting firms, so much so that in the United States there is increasing pressure to pare down the size of professional fees. During the 1980s, several of the largest accounting firms in Britain merged with small boutique insolvency firms, such as Cork Gully's assimilation by Coopers and Lybrand, just as numbers of large United States law firms absorbed smaller bankruptcy specialist firms simply in order to acquire their expertise in a quickly growing area (Altman2003). the case of Maxwell shows that despite the far-reaching practical implications of such legal change, bankruptcy law opens up an almost virgin field of inquiry for sociolegal scholars and sociologists. Given the enormous impact bankruptcy reforms are alleged to have, little research has appraised what or who shaped the bankruptcy laws in either country. Empirical studies document the aftermath and apparent consequentiality of the reforms. Bankruptcy law provides an especially valuable site to account for the distribution of power among corporations for two reasons. On the one hand, at the moment of bankruptcy, every credit relationship, which is to say every financial relationship with other companies, banks, the state, consumers, suppliers, workers, and even communities, is simultaneously thrown into doubt. In principle, every player in the organizational network is at the bankruptcy table. All their interests are manifest, as each vies for a piece of a pie that will be too small to satisfy them all. On the other hand, who wins is directly contingent upon statutory priority or on the strength of their security--the legal instruments creditors have used to protect their interests. This conjunction

Marketing Management Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Marketing Management - Research Proposal Example This paper provides an overview of the crisis encountered by Sainsbury's and aims to assess the company's recovery plan. Furthermore, this paper analyses the firm's internal and external environment through the use of analytical tools such as the PEST and SWOT methods of analysis. In view of the results of the industry analysis, this paper also recommends some strategic options that the company may undertake in order to facilitate its full recovery. Sainsbury's chain of supermarket was once the market leader in the UK supermarket sector. However, it currently occupies the third place, behind its major competitors Tesco and ASDA. The firm has been struggling to keep hold of its market share since the mid-1990s. With this, the company posted dramatically declining profit margins (Wikipedia 2005). Indicative of Sainsbury's lackluster performance, the firm's pretax profit as at end-March 2005 plunged by almost 98% year-on-year, from 610 million in 2004 to only 15 million (Profits collapse at Sainsbury's 2005). To note, it would have generated a negative bottom-line if not for the extraordinary gain on the disposal of its subsidiary in the United States (Wikipedia 2005). According to recently appointed Chief Executive Justin King, the bleak financial result is attributed to Sainsbury's diminishing competitive edge. He cited that in the past years, as the company's competitors have substantially improved, Sainsbury's failed to keep up. (Madslien 2005) Recovery Program In view of the much needed improvement in the company's operations and marketing strategy, King spearheaded a 400-million recovery program. The proposed program covers a three-year period and aims to enhance Sainsbury's marketing strategy (Profits collapse at Sainsbury's 2005). To start off, King launched a direct mail campaign to about a million customers as part of its business review. This is undertaken in order for the company to be aware of customers' expectations as well as identify the critical areas for improvement. The result of this campaign was consistent with the contention of retail analysts that Sainsbury's has severe problem ensuring stock availability. (Wikipedia 2005) This perceived weakness as revealed by the business review is immediately communicated to all store managers. Aside from this, the outcome was also announced publicly and was generally well received by the market and the media. With this, King pushed through with the recovery scheme by laying off about 750 headquarter staff and recruiting around 3,000 shop floor staff to ensure quality customer service and efficient replenishment of stocks. Since the firm's main problem is keeping shelves fully stocked, Sainsbury's management activated two distribution centres to enhance logistics and address issues on stock availability (Wikipedia 2005). It was also reported that Sainsbury's opted to end its ten-year contract with Accenture. After the system in place was deemed ineffective, the firm decided to bring its IT infrastructure back in house over the upcoming months (Ranger 2005). Apart from this, Sainsbury's also announced the halving of the fund allocated for dividends. This is because the firm's earnings would be plowed back to finance the recovery program. (Wikipedia 2005) In addition, to keep up with the competition, King appointed industry experts to join the

Final Strategic Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final Strategic Plan - Research Paper Example Selection of Locations – a Great Strategic Importance The company has already taken a strategic decision to begin these outlets in the high-income Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County) region. The company will open at least two shops in San Jose, the epicenter of Silicon Valley that currently leads other towns in the US with the median household income in excess of $83,000. Moreover, the area has a strong population of over 1.5 million highly educated rich class Asians mainly from India, Pakistan, China, Korea, Malaysia who are most likely to patronage the products of the company without much inhibitions for they do not need any elaborate introduction to these tropical fruits as they have already consumed them in their life sometime in the past. Brand Strengthening – An Important Marketing Strategy The company has already planned to establish the brand mangoamla firmly across the region. High-profile publicity campaign will be organized through local newspaper advertiseme nts, distributing small booklets describing health benefits of these fruits – especially antioxidant richness, their applications and uses in ancient health system (Aurved) explaining how they tone up the body’s immune system. ... The company has decided to advertise on FM radio in San Jose targeting Asian population to make the brand a household name. Promotional Strategy through Discounts/Incentives Vending machines will provide a unique code on each bill generated by it. On citing this code, the customer can avail 15 percent discount on the next buy. This will also help record the repeat customers who visit the shops. Customer Satisfaction Enhancement Strategy Before launching the products officially, the company has decided to involve professional tasters. They will not only do taste-fixing but fine tune the flavors of the products so that they get prompt acceptance. It is very essential to satisfy the customers on taste. After deciding on the flavors, the products will be offered to the select class of people for their final feedbacks. The exercise is necessary and extremely important for immediate acceptance of the products after the launch to ensure that the market does not develop any bad reflection on the company’s products in the beginning itself. Customer Servicing with Minimal Wait Time Currently, time taken to service the customer is an important and critical criterion where satisfaction of the customer can be either won or lost. Products will be dispensed through vending machines in 300 and 400 ml measurements with automatic billing system and recording. The servicing time including billing and recording will not take more than 90 seconds. It is also in the interest of the company to serve as many customers as possible to enhance the revenue of the company and that is how selection of the vending machines has been done to ensure that products are dispensed in the minimal possible time. Environmental Protection – a

Lab 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lab 5 - Assignment Example For the debt collectors, it is revealed that they earn commissions based on the amounts they collect. Consequently, the debt collectors has been employing underhand tactics, harassment and even breaking the law, to accomplish desired targets. Some of the debt collectors have even resulted to using coercion and force in the pursuit of collecting amounts due. Some agencies have even resulted to breaking and entering personal property to recover debts due. The subsequent episodes show how a portion of the population is taking advantage of people in credit card debt through fraudulent means. Additionally, it is later revealed that credit companies, may actually be lying regarding credit card debt, repayment plans and interest rates. The credit card firms have also began selling accounts of customers in debt to collection agencies, which is illegal. That last two episodes are more advisory and reflective. They place emphasis on the fact that, in yester years, American citizens did not accrue so much date. In the last episode, viewers are advised against falling into the trap of credit card debt and for those already in debt, they should be vigilant. Indeed, credit card debt is termed as the next big crisis in America. 2) Caveat emptor is a legal principle that confers to the buyer, the responsibility of ensuring that the good/service bought, is operational and in good condition. In the legal and business sense, the credit card companies were not liable since, the parties were competent. Moreover, the credit card companies acted in good faith, since the economy was booming and they could not foretell the financial crisis (Andrews 2011). 6) As a judge, I would rule against the 30 year old because his history suggest he is mentally competent. Furthermore, the primary reason for his inability to repay the debt is financial irresponsibility and the credit crunch. 8) (A) I think

Project Proposal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Project Proposal - Research Paper Example In the view that campaigning increases the chances of success, it follows that the larger the campaign budget, the more chances of winning. For example, president Obama used more than twice the amount used in the McCain campaign (Gardiner, 2010). There are other examples that demonstrate the relationship between campaign budgets and chances of success. Ideally, campaigning follows the same principles as advertisement. The more popular brands enjoy more exposure. In the private sector, advertisements have such a significant influence on consumers that it sometimes results in monopolies (Gardiner, 2010). People choose the popular brand, despite the availability of better brands, in terms of performance, at a cheaper price. In the same way, a case can be made for extensive campaigns influencing the decision of American citizens. Therefore, it follows that the more access to cash, coming from corporate, the better and the chances of winning. To reduce the impact of funding on candidates, the Supreme Court directed that all donations by corporate be made to political parties. The principle behind this provision was that the limited power of the donations on the presidential candidates would limit the power of the donators on him or her(Torole, 2010). However, Tarole proposes that this not be possible. A candidate is bound to know the supporters of their campaign and thus feel an element of debt towards them (Bebchuk & Jackson, 2010). c. Corporate are the biggest financial entities and they have access to virtually unlimited funds. This implies that if the relationship between campaign and success is linear, then corporate have the ability to instill presidents in