Blackwater; The rise of the most powerful merc army

[kitty1]

There was an interesting program on CBC's program called The Hour.
It was an interesting show on the Blackwater Corporation.
The home of the large private contractors located in Washington and who's CEO's are tight with the Bush Administration.
These guys basically run the military and their soldiers (mercs) get paid over $900.00 a day for missions. Basically these guys make in a month what regular soldiers make in a year.
They're used for a lot of security detail, but also other controversial missions. And because they are considered as part of the "forces" they can't be sued for wrongful death or otherwise.
They were very involved in the large Fallujah battle in 2004.
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Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill joins us to talk about his new book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army." Scahill writes, "Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the 'global war on terror,' with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 private contractors at the ready. Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments." From Iraq to New Orleans, Blackwater has continued to pull in multi-million-dollar government contracts, mostly without accountability and in near-
secrecy.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226

[loudsue]

1. There needs to be a LOT more publicity about this.

Taxpayers need to know how come we have a 3/4 TRILLION dollar military budget every year. Blackwater is one of the main black holes that our tax dollars disappear into. (Love that grammar!! I'm series!! )

:kick:

On edit: It's part of the republican revolving money door, where all of our taxpayer dollars end up back in the campaign coffers of the republicans.

[tridim]

2. So what's everyone's plan when the BW gangs start kicking in doors of Liberals?

I posed the question the other day after reading the article about BW expanding to San Diego. Why would they need to expand when Bush is on his way out? The Dems aren't going to have any use for them, so I have to assume somebody else already has plans for this private military. Scary stuff.

[StClone]

3. Blackwater must be shut down

Erik Prince and Blackwater should be shutdown as quickly as possible. Image this religio-wacko turning on the government and he had most of the military at his command. It is so illogical for armies to be Capitalist ventures, if that isn't clear it will be as soon as it goes terrible awry which WILL happen.

[HereSince1628]

5. I recently wrote to Reid, Feingold and Kohl about the need to cut funding

on this private partisan army. They are as big a threat to the US as the SA was to Germany.

Reid and Kohl never responded.

Feingold's form letter back was about scrutinizing war profiteering. I felt like he didn't "get it."

[EnviroBat]

8. That sucks...

I've been calling my reps and the governors offices almost daily. I suggest we all do the same so the message will be delivered to congress in a loud manner.

[PATRICK]

4. A conscious plan

Hurt and demoralize the army. Put them in direct underpaid juxtaposition to their only way out of the army, the new imperial "East India Company". Utterly brutalize and attract the most mercenary violent types. Give them utter freedom from laws and the ability to move "stateside" and even be protected by the public chumps in the Armed Forces. Train them for corporate wetwork.

At the same time attack the Armed Forces with privatization so that mercenaries and "contractors" meld into the weakening public army. The revolving industrial complex doors become more like spinning scythes destroying public troops, increasing technical boondoggles for profit and putting the push button of ultimate blackmail in the hands of private interests.

Have a force to protect corporations as a nation within a nation like a huge militia and even have the groundwork for a future armed coup d'etat "when all else fails".

This is not wild or accidental or an exaggerated abuse. This is a logical policy.

[ClintonTyree]

6. True christian soldiers....

"Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments."

Are these the very people the fascists will use when the dictatorship becomes official? Are these the very people who will be responsible for the political and religious cleansing of America? It may not be as far away as some people think......

And what the hell is a self-proclaimed christian doing starting his own damned army? I wonder how he justifies that with his god? Fucking hypocrites! :grr:

[MountainLaurel]

11. You summed my concerns well

This guy's father helped bankroll the Reagan Revolution and Ralph Reed. Apparently, he's continuing the family's legacy in destroying this country.

[donkeyotay]

7. Things are going great, if you're Blackwater

Great website called fedspending.org. For 2006 they show 7 Blackwater entities with contracts totaling $578,521,545 of your payroll tax dollars at work. The biggest is Blackwater Lodge and Training with $426M. Blackwater Security Consulting has $146.6M. The newest entity is Chenenga Blackwater Solutions doing missile defense for a measly $5.3M Of the total amount, only about a million of it was awarded on open contract. The rest was "follow-on" or "unknown." Hmmm. Must be some of Rummy's known unknowns - we know we're getting screwn, but we don't know why or by whom.

http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/fpds.php?company_name=blackwater&sortby=r&detail=0&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&fiscal_year=2006&submit=GO

[onethatcares]

10. a publicly funded private army???

with our tax money??? I thought SAIC was the tip of the iceberg. apparently I was so wrong.

[donkeyotay]

12. Exactly. A publicly funded private army. That's the beauty of privatization

we pay for it. We can't afford to maintain a public army, but we can afford to pay mercenaries $900 a day, and have contractors stacked on contractors, all with cost-plus contracts, for payouts. The whole rationale for privatization was that it would be more efficient and save money. All it's done is make the system more corrupt and less accountable.
Add to that the buying of contracts - ala Cunningham - and the general "lobbying" system in Washington, and I'd say we are screwed.

[C_U_L8R]

9. Sooner or later

Blackwater's gonna have to be put down... and it ain't gonna be pretty.

Buncha thickneck guntottin' profiteering numskulled warmonger rambo mutherf*ckers

[kitty1]

13. Raw Story happened to have a recent article on blackwater...

on it's Friday post.
Army warns of 'jurisdiction gap' for criminal contractors Michael Roston
Published: Friday April 6, 2007

snip

"Contractors accompanying U.S. military forces in Iraq or elsewhere who commit crimes may be beyond the reach of law enforcement...because the Defense Department has not yet updated its regulations to conform to a Congressional mandate, resulting in a 'gap' in legal jurisdiction," wrote Steven Aftergood, the project's director.

The presentation of the Combined Arms Support Command's Training Division noted that liability and accountability for contractors is often set in advance. But in some cases, Army law may not apply
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Army_warns_it_cant_try_criminal_0406.html

Basically, these guys could get away with murder and not be fully prosecuted. Below is another story not disclosed to the general public which demonstrates this "Wild West" attitude to doing business over there. Below is an excerpt from Iraqislogger to to with this kind of scenario.

snip

There have been rumors buzzing around the contractor community about murder. It started when a Blackwater employee drunk and fresh from a Christmas party in the Green Zone got into an argument with an Iraqi security contractor. The Iraqi worked for the Vice President as a security guard. It is not cleared what transpired but the Blackwater employee emptied the entire magazine of his pistol into the Iraqi.

Under normal circumstances the contractor would have been arrested (the Green Zone is in effect a U.S. base) under the Patriot Act, MEJA, the military code or Iraqi law but he wasn't.
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1269/Blackwater_Contractor_Kills_Vice_Presidents_Guard

What a convenient arrangement this is for Bushco and company. A lot of these guys are ex Seals, and are top notch soldiers.
There seems to be no boundary line here when it comes to the law and contractors (Mercs actually.)
These guys could take out all kinds of high ranking officials in the enemy ranks and claim some B.S. excuse for doing it.