Hightower Lowdown

It's been said that you don't know what hell is until you've had an insurance salesman in your living room, prattling on interminably about term life annuities.

But I've recently learned about a deeper level of hell reserved for insurance company hucksters who— get this—are ripping off America's young soldiers headed for the Iraqi war. Companies such as American Amicable Life Insurance have weaseled their way to our basic-training bases where they pose as semi-official military agents. They gather bootcamp grunts into so-called classes for compulsory "briefing" on personal finances. With superior officers in the room, the agents talk of "investments" and urge them to sign blind authorizations to deduct money from their meager monthly paychecks.

The briefings don't mention that the 19- and 20- year-old soldiers are not really buying investments, but life insurance. Nor is it pointed out that term policies pay nothing unless you die, yet nearly every soldier is covered by a low-cost military policy that pays 10- times what these private scams do.

The Pentagon turns a blind eye to this sleazy scam, and so does Congress —the American Council of Life Insurers, which hands out fat campaign donations, has gotten lawmakers to block any effort to stop the corporate thievery.

These guys are practicing crass war profiteering, for which they deserve a special place in hell.