FASCISM ALERT!!

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
by Jeremy Scahill

Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration’s favorite mercenary company. Lest you think you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The “criminals” in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad’s Nisour Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater’s 7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the actions of mercenaries acting with impunity — and apparent immunity — in their names and those of every American.

The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians. “The courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly and peaceable world,” said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest organizers. “In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed, brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.”

The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail. Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail.

All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of injury to real property. “We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in Iraq,” Baggarly later said. “And as for injuring property, they injure men, women and children every day.” The activists were jailed for five days and eventually released pending trial.

...

But District Court Judge Edgar Barnes would have none of it. So outraged was he at Baggarly, the first of the defendants to appear before him that day, that the judge cleared the court following his conviction. No spectators, no family members, no journalists, no defense witnesses remained. The other six activists were tried in total secrecy — well, secret to everyone except the prosecutors, sheriffs, government witnesses and one Blackwater official.

Judge Barnes swiftly tried the remaining six activists behind closed doors and convicted them all.

It was as though Currituck, N.C., became Gitmo for a day.

...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/29/6694/

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. Sorry, but the article is terribly misleading. If you're going to avoid crying

"wolf", please note this is less than it appears.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

3. Expand please

I'd be interested in your version.

I'll compare that with my Viet Nam vet neighbor who was one of the 50 who protested.

His version is pretty consistent with Jeremy Scahill's so maybe you have other info that they need to hear about.

[Fredda Weinberg]

5. We hashed it out here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2785075&mesg_id=2785213

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. I see

Thanks good citizen.

First they came for...

and you still didn't get it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. No, dear ... you don't get it. Mine are already dead. I've been raised

to recognize the warning signs from someone who survived Hitler.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

12. I get it quite clearly

Wake up and smell it.

And to think the old German lady at the library who warned about this 15 years ago was quite right. If as you say you were raised to see this sort of thing it can only be that you have forgotten your lessons.

Look again.

[Occulus]

15. You're dealing with someone who once said "My generation dealt with Richard Nixon"

Direct quote. I shit you not.

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. And it's true, but totally out of context. Sorry that you're tranferring

your hostility ... guess not all of us can deal with it in a healthy way.

[stillcool]

8. you hashed it out...

enough said.

[Fredda Weinberg]

10. A vacuous response n/t

[XboxWarrior]

2. Put down the Crack Pipe.......

and step away from your computer.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. What part of the article

do you disagree with? Just an ad hominen attack? Or more detailed info that you care to share.

[annabanana]

13. The killers have never faced trial. . the protesters were railroaded..

And this is ok with you?

[Swamp Rat]

14. Some asshole turned on your computer again?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frogmarch]

6. Anyone who thinks you're raising a

false alarm about Blackwater should read Naomi Wolf's book, The End of America.

Edwards has a 5-step plan on his website for holding BW accountable and reining them in. I don't know if Obama or Clinton have addressed this issue. It's a serious one.

[Lint Head]

9. Fuck Blackwater

This is a corporate fascist organization whose tentacles are starting to take over our military. Privatization of everything is the goal. That is complete and total control of every individual in this country. Forget rights of any kind. Your rights will be formed by the corporation. :dem:

[Echo In Light]

17. Sitting in a doctor's waiting room yesterday, read a Newsweek interview w/Erik Prince

Scary

[mdmc]

18. kick

:kick: