Just when you thought Blackwater would have its purse strings clipped: “A Defense Department contract involving antidrug training missions may test the durability of the political controversy over Blackwater Worldwide’s security work in Iraq,” reports August Cole for the Wall Street Journal.

The Moyock, N.C., company, which was involved in a September shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead, is one of five military contractors competing for as much as $15 billion over five years to help fight a narcotics trade that the government says finances terrorist groups.

Also competing for contracts from the Pentagon’s Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office are military-industry giants Raytheon Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., as well as Arinc Inc., a smaller aerospace and technology contractor.

The contracts are expected to be awarded as the need arises, so the Pentagon’s level of concern about employing Blackwater will likely be measured over time and by whether the company wins leading roles or is shut out.

In other words, the military-mercenary complex is expanding operations. Obviously, the terrorism market has its limits, so the government is creating new markets. It’s a match made in heaven—the CIA and bankers import the drugs and the military-mercenary complex is contracted to impose “zero tolerance,” for the sake of the children, don’t you know.

Companies competing for the work might be called on to develop detection or surveillance technology; train U.S. and foreign forces; or provide logistics, communications and information-technology systems, among other areas.

Of course, it is not enough Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, et al, are busy manufacturing and selling technology designed to kill Iraqi (and soon enough, Iranian) grade schoolers and grandmothers, now they are getting into the “detection or surveillance” business, in other words big bucks are to be made building the snoop state. If you think this technology will be used strictly to monitor the activity of the Tony Montanas out there, I have a bridge for sale.

According to the DoD Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office webpage:

The Department of Defense (DoD) is an integral part of the national commitment to reduce trafficking in illegal narcotics and material that supports global terrorist activities. Consistent with National Drug Control Policy and Public Law, the DoD Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office (CNTPO) has the lead for developing technology for interagency and multinational operations to disrupt, deter and deny narcoterrorist activities.

Again, the Hegelian Dialectic—thesis, antithesis, synthesis—of this must be underscored: the government creates both terrorism and “nacroterrorism,” proposes draconian measures to deal with this “threat,” and imposes a “solution,” usually worse than the initial problem it created. In the process, a few people get rich, never mind the rest of us eventually lose our rights, as “detection or surveillance” pervades all social aspects.