Feds probe Blackwater links to arms smuggling

[warrior1]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17149369/

Reports: Weapons linked to employees may have gone to terrorist groups

BAGHDAD - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George Holding, and a spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday. Pentagon and State Department spokesmen declined to comment.

snip

Had enough?

[warrior1]

1. a little bit more

Krongard was accused in a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, of politically motivated malfeasance, including refusing to cooperate with an investigation into alleged weapons smuggling by a large, unidentified State Department contractor.

In response, Krongard said in a written statement that he “made one of my best investigators available to help Assistant U.S. Attorneys in North Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq by a contractor.”

His statement went further than Waxman’s letter because it identified the state in which the investigation was taking place. Blackwater is the biggest of the State Department’s three private security contractors.

[WinkyDink]

2. I'm shocked! SHOCKED! What, the American Foreign Legion, replete with

heretofore jobless psychopaths, might be a CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE?

Heavens to Betsy.

[budibudinski]

3. Had a good discussion about this in Latest threads last night..

link here if interested:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3001440

[bobthedrummer]

4. Crossposted related thread with extensive Blackwater links

"Security Company Death Squads Timeline by Dirk Adriaensens and Sarah Meyer" (started 9-25-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x309935

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST

[flashl]

5. A question posed here

Should we preserve corporate criminal liability?

This is a question to ponder in times like these.