BlackWater mercenaries slaughtering unarmed civilians...wow!
Bush has been portraying himself as "The Decider " "A war-time president "
& the Commander in Chief who knows everything . So he didn't know there were mercenaries in Iraq and he did not know their legal status even though they had been given the right to use deadly force in a war Zone.
Bush asked To Whom Does Blackwater Answer to
He has no idea and laughs it off
And for some background on Blackwater here's Jeremy Scahill being interviewd by Bill Maher
CEO Of Blackwater Erik Prince Christian Supremacist
Bill Maher with Jeremy Scahill
An uniquely more balanced view of Blackwater On CNN
Blackwater undermining the overall mission in Iraq. Blackwater personnel trained to view all Iraqis as the enemy.
Janessa a US Official based in Iraq shares her experiences with Blackwater security forces while working in Iraq
BLACKWATER : THE CRUSADE
If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Bush's Praetorian Guard could presage the final stage in the collapse of American democracy.
Anyway in various interviews on CNN , 60 minutes, Charlie Rose , Wolf Blitzer etc.and the other networks treat Erik Prince as a great hero or is it because Prince is rich . A rich kid who became even richer -the American Dream
Erik Prince asked difficult, serious & honest Questions By Henry Waxman
Waxman suggest that there should be corporate responsibility and they should be answerable to the American State Department etc. and the American people that is if the American people cared.
Prince claims they are just American Patriots - if they are so " patriotic " why should they be paid so much more than American soldiers.
This is followed by several members of the committee ignoring their responsibility go on to allow Prince to showcase how efficient & wonderful Prince and Blackwater are - Patrick Henry acts as a defender & propagandist for Blackwater- One wonders if he has invested in Blackwater or some other Private Contractor -
Patrick Henry goes on about the fact that none of the people being guarded by Blackwater have been killed and he further keeps adding in the fact that the members of Blackwater are mainly US Veterans. Therefore his argument is that the death of Iraqi civilians is of no interest to the US government Congress or the Senate.
They are arresting the sodiers but what about their commanders including Erik Prince
U.S. Prosecutor Goes to Iraq to Work on Blackwater Case New York Times Dec. 7 Katherine Zoepf & Atheer Kakan
BAGHDAD — An American prosecutor working on the case against five Blackwater security guards indicted in connection with a 2007 shooting in Baghdad has arrived in Iraq and will be meeting with victims’ families this week, Iraqi officials said.
A team from the F.B.I. is in Iraq, the official said, and has been interviewing Iraqi witnesses to the shootings. Four Iraqi witnesses have been extensively interviewed and the American government is planning to fly them to the United States in order to testify at the trial, he added.
An F.B.I. spokeswoman, reached in Washington, said she had “no comment on Blackwater.”
Blackwater maintains that its employees, hired to guard American diplomats in Iraq, were firing in response to an attack. But Iraqi investigators, supported by witness accounts, have failed to turn up evidence of any attack on Blackwater guards that might have provoked the shooting.
and see: from Huffington Post Dec. 8 "Blackwater Guards Surrender In Baghad Massacre" by Lara Jakes Jordan & Matt Apuzzo
WASHINGTON — Wild, unprovoked gunfire and grenades killed 14 innocent Iraqis and hurt dozens more in a 2007 Baghdad attack, prosecutors said Monday in announcing charges with mandatory 30-year prison terms against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards. The Justice Department called the shooting a shocking and devastating violation of human rights. The harsh words echoed the outrage of Iraqis, who have waited more than a year to see how the U.S. would respond to the shooting on a busy street in the Iraqi capital.--------
The shooting by the largest U.S. security contractor in Iraq sparked international condemnation, launched congressional hearings and inspired anti-American insurgent propaganda.
The five security guards _ all decorated military veterans _ surrendered in federal court in Utah, where one of them lives. The five guards walked wordlessly through a phalanx of reporters. A judge ordered the guards to report to a Washington courthouse Jan. 6, where they were expected to plead not guilty.
A sixth Blackwater guard struck a deal with prosecutors, turned on his former colleagues, and pleaded guilty to killing one Iraqi and wounding another.
"None of the victims of this shooting was armed. None of them was an insurgent," U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said at a Justice Department news conference in Washington to announce the charges.
Prosecutors said the slain included young children, women, people fleeing in cars and a man whose arms were raised in surrender as he was shot in the chest.
Twenty others were wounded in crowded Nisoor Square, including one injured by a grenade launched into a nearby girls' school. Another 18 Iraqis were assaulted but not wounded, prosecutors said.
Blackwater, which was not charged in the case, maintains its guards were protecting themselves from what they believed was an imminent car bomb attack.
Now will President Bush step in and pardon these Blackwater personnel or give a blanket pardon to Blackwater and all other Private Contractors once known as mercenaries. Probably not since as in the case of torture Bush claims Blackwater can not be judged under Iraqi Law or American Law. All corporations and their CEOs are according to Bush 's Conservative view outside of the laws of mere mortals. But Bush and many members of the US Government including the sycophants , toadies and quizzlings in Congress and the Senate and the Main Stream Media in America have treated Erik Prince and Blackwater as true patriots who have been doing their duty to protect American interests never mind that they are paid five times or more the salary of the average American soldier or that Prince has made a couple of hundred million on these contracts.
But this is another issue which may come to haunt President Elect Obama over the next couple of years. The question is does Obama have the desire to get rid of these mercenaries or are they to become a new American tradition. If Obama has the desire does he have the support of the Congress or Senate and the American people to rid themselves of these thugs for hire who are creating a parallel military which could be seen as a threat to the country. For instance if Erik Prince or some other CEO of a private army contracted out to the US Government were to believe that Obama's administration or some furure administration was nat to their liking could it be possible for them to overthrow the elected government.
Anyway this reminds one of the other beneificiaries of the Bush Regime that is the Wall Street crooks who have been fleecing Americans more than ever during Bush's time in office and now will walk away with another trillion or two or three to line their pockets because they did nothing wrong . As I have said before they are in favor of the Free Market Place and Non-interference by the government until they are the ones losing money then they demand that the government should bail them out and get all out of gear if the government dares to bail out the average American home owner who is in dire straits At that point they start talking about the evils of the "Welfare State " & "Creeping Socialism ". Meanwhile corporations such as Halliburton and KBR made a killing on the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One can't really blame these CEOs and corporations since they were merely playing the game that Americans in general believe in that is if you can make a buck or two and increase your profits than why not do whatever you can to make as much money as possible even if it means shoddy workmanship or overcharging and cooking the books.( isn't this why these people hire MBA's , Corporate Lawyers and accountants and Lobbyists to put in the fix ) In this culture of Greed isn't that all that really matters.
If Wars are profitable then the more wars the better. Besides Americans under the Bush Regime believe in " Caveat Emptor " -" let the buyer beware" so if you purchase a car or a toy or canned food that damages your health or kills you then you can't complain. This is why it is irksome and even laughable when those who believe in Laissez Faire capitalism get upset that the brakes on their new car failed and they were injured or that their child suffers from lead or mercury poisoning from a defective toy or baby bottle. Either practice what you preach or think for a minute or two and reconsider the ideology you have bought into.
also see:
New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food
Ex-employees Tell ABC News the Firm Used Dog Food Sacks to Smuggle Unauthorized Weapons to Iraq By BRIAN ROSS and JASON RYAN November 14, 2008
And we should keep in mind Blackwater is just part of the on going scandals in Iraq concerning contractors
"Blackwater and Iraq's contracting outlaws" Insitute for Southern Studies
and:
The Real Blackwater Scandal: Build a Frontier, You Get Cowboys by john Cusack Dec. 9, 2007
and from the New York Times before falling in love with Prince :"Blackwater Tops Firms in Iraq in Shooting Rate" New York Times , Sept. 27, 2007
and so it goes,
GORD.
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