Scahill on Blackwater/DOJ: "If this is all that came of this case, wow. Just wow."

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Sat Feb 23, 2013, 03:54 AM - Edit history (1)

@jeremyscahill: DoJ just announced ex-Blackwater execs sentenced to "3 years probation, 4 months house arrest with stipulations, fined $5,000" #slaponwrist

@jeremyscahill: The former execs are Blackwater president Gary Jackson and former vice president William Matthews

@jeremyscahill: These dudes were indicted on major stuff: conspiracy, weapons, obstruction of justice. If this is all that came of this case, wow. Just wow.

@jeremyscahill: Background on this case: http://t.co/KqqzQoWQkM

U.S. Indicts 5 Blackwater Ex-Officials

By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: April 16, 2010

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors charged the former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former senior company officials on Friday with weapons violations and making false statements in the first criminal inquiry to reach into the top management ranks of the private security company.

- snip -

The charges stem in part from a 2008 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of Blackwater’s Moyock, N.C., headquarters complex, where agents seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s.

The former officials are charged with trying to hide the company’s purchases of the weapons by making it seem as if they had been bought by a North Carolina sheriff’s office. Blackwater sought to have the sheriff pose as the owner of the weapons because federal firearms law made it illegal for Blackwater to have so many of them, according to the indictment.

Other charges relate to the company’s large inventory of short-barrel rifles, deadly and especially useful in tight spots, which by law must be registered. Federal prosecutors charge that Blackwater shipped the weapons overseas with the barrels detached in an effort to avoid export regulations.

The executives are also charged with trying to hide gifts of expensive weapons to Jordanian officials who were visiting Blackwater at a time when the company was trying to win contracts from Jordan’s government.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Well, at least we know why our red counties have become Graft Centrals.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

3. This is what comes from decades of underfunding government.

Federal Prosecutors cannot even begin to handle the high powered attorneys the defendants hire. *sigh*

[Sekhmets Daughter]

8. Fresh West,

I have always had respect for you and your posts...but I become very frustrated with the notion that nothing happened before Bush II became president or that the Tea Party is responsible for privatization.

Our politicians have been starving the beast for decades...both parties have been complicit. Granted the Dems mostly as sins of omission, they never put up enough of a stink, but complicit nonetheless. Privatization began long before 2010 ... Chicago sold 99 years of parking meter revenue to an outfit in Dubai, that deal began in 2006. Ed Rendell, D-Gov of PA had a half baked plan to sell the Northeast extension of the PA Turnpike to some private outfit...fortunately his efforts were blocked. We've been leasing or selling public lands for a song for a generation at least.

Frankly, we are now living with the Obama Tax cuts, there will not be enough revenue raised from taxing just those incomes over $400K to make much of a difference.

My beef with Blackwater is that they were paying their guys $100K+ no wonder the damned wars have all but bankrupted the nation.

I. Hate. War

[Wellstone ruled]

4. How much did Blackwater give to the Judges Campaign?????

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. My first guess would be...

...enough.

[msanthrope]

9. Oh lordy...civics is your friend. nt

[KharmaTrain]

13. Ya Know Federal Judges Aren't Elected...

...they're appointed. Wouldn't be surprised if this is a dubya appointee...same difference, they serve their masters...

[Overseas]

7. K&R. Revolting injustice if that's all they get for such serious crimes.

[truebluegreen]

10. DoJ is effing PATHETIC.

[Demo_Chris]

11. They literally know where the bodies are buried n/t

[leveymg]

12. Deals within deals. Blackwater was a gilded cage and dumping grounds for CIA officers who were

running the al-Qaeda program when the shit hit the fan in 2001. Hundreds of millions in Federal contracts were awarded to Blackwater/Xe and everyone has basically kept their mouths shut ever since. The company was so tight with the Bush Administration that basically they were untouchable for years, and even the lower-level goons were allowed to get away literally with murder for hire. The charges brought were minimalist to the extreme, and only targeted State Department contractors, not the privatized CIA operators.

Erik Prince is the company's founder, and he was allowed to flee the U.S. to Dubai when some attention started to be turned on Blackwater a few years ago. Not much is known about his CIA-related activities between his early days as a Special Forces guy in Bosnia in 1995 and the CIA contracts he got from CIA Deputy Director "Buzzy" Krongard to assassinate al-Qaeda operatives in 2002.

There's a lot of important details that need some filling-in, particularly since Cofer Black and the other CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC) Bin Laden unit managers went over to Blackwater right after their mass resignations from the Agency in early and mid 2002, following the Jawbreaker failures. That Blackwater became an Agency subsidiary (or dumping ground) tells me that Erik and his Military Intelligence people may have also been in the loop before 9/11, during the period Bush and Tenet let CTC manage monitoring of the 9/11 hijackers as they wandered around the U.S. in the months leading up to the attack.

For more details, see, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/04/810764/-Erik-Prince-American-Bin-Laden-CIA-Asset-Money-Gunmen

[WillyT]

14. K & R !!!