Blackwater is back in the news. I
blogged on them awhile back. The quielty growing menace posed by the alliance of a lawless executive and the ever more lucative and cooperative collection of rich corporations collectively called Private Military Contractors as I said then will not go away.
I have discovered three new items since I blogged initially, two in this morning's news:
First, this from today. Blackwater wants to expand its base of operation outside the US. Maybe avoid any possible effective oversight since the bad PR on Fullah [see here for full details.]
ARTICLE: Blackwater USA challenged on Philippines plans(The Virginian-Pilot - HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com)
"Blackwater USA's plans for expanding into the Philippines are generating controversy there.
A member of the Philippines Senate says he wants to investigate the private military company's actions to determine whether they violate the Asian nation's constitution or laws. The Moyock, N.C.-based company says its operations are legal and proper."
Then there was this tidbit from a few months ago:
LINK About 6,000 non-Iraqi security contractors are operating in Iraq. During nine months in 2004-05, contractors reported firing into 61 civilian vehicles; no one was ever prosecuted. Security analysts say it is likely that such incidents are vastly underreported.
Security contractors supporting the U.S. effort in Iraq regularly shoot into civilian cars with little accountability, according to a News & Observer analysis of more than 400 reports contractors filed with the government.
In the documents, which cover nine months of the three-year-old war, contractors reported shooting into 61 vehicles they believed were threatening them. In just seven cases were Iraqis clearly attacking -- showing guns, shooting at contractors or detonating explosives.
There was no way to tell how many civilians were hurt, or how many were innocent: In most cases, the contractors drove away. No contractors have been prosecuted for a mistaken shooting in Iraq.
"What you've done is privatize the fog of war," said Peter W. Singer, an expert on military contracting with the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Finally, again from yesterday, this odd bit of news.
Addiction blamed for extortion try
A former Blackwater USA employee said Friday an addiction to prescription painkillers led her to try to extort $1 million from the security company by threatening to leak information about the killings of four contractors in Fallujah, Iraq. Laura Holdren-Nowacki, 35, made the admission in a statement released after she pleaded not guilty to extortion. The district attorney said that, at Blackwater's request, he will ask for the charge to be dropped. In the March 2004 incident, the contractors' charred remains were strung up on a bridge. Their families sued Blackwater, alleging that the contractors weren't properly equipped or trained.
Let's talk about this last one a bit more, since it reveals what we are up against. Unbelievably convenient, isn't it ? Whether she was or was not hooked on happy pills, and what the "extortion" was all about will now never be aired in court. She is discredited as a source of information. Best of all, the dirt that she was , apparently, trying to peddle, will not be aired. How credible is it for a company that is built upon the buying and selling of mercenaries, who are in the death business, to ,all of a sudden,find compassion for an employee who admittedly tried to stick it to them?
I mean a company that would inspire this comment from the widow of one of its mercenaries, just is not credible as the "compassionate employer" type.
Blood is Thicker than Blackwater
"Blackwater spokesperson Chris Bertelli said, "Blackwater hopes that the honor and dignity of our fallen comrades are not diminished by the use of the legal process." Katy Helvenston calls that "total BS in my opinion," and says that the families decided to sue only after being stonewalled, misled and lied to by the company. "Blackwater seems to understand money. That's the only thing they understand," she says. "They have no values, they have no morals. They're whores. They're the whores of war.""
This outbrust was the result of this :
The families were gathered in a conference room, where they thought they would be told how the men had died. The Zovko family asked Blackwater to see the "After Action Report" detailing the incident. "We were actually told," recalls Zovko's mother, Danica, "that if we wanted to see the paperwork of how my son and his co-workers were killed that we'd have to sue them."
The best article on all this is by Jeremy Scahill of The Nation magazine. But he cannot answer the question raised by Katy Helvenston above. Why would Blackwater not share the details about the death of their "fallen comrades" withhout a suit? More to the present point, why would they now let an alleged extortioner go free? Maybe this is the reason:
ABS-CBN Interactive
"By the time Scahill's article saw print, over 428 US mercenaries have been killed in Iraq, and US taxpayers are footing almost the entire compensation bill to their families "This is a precedent-setting case," Marc Miles, an attorney for the families, was quoted saying. "Just like with tobacco litigation or gun litigation, once they lose that first case, they'd be fearful there would be other lawsuits to follow..""
So, it is about accountability and money. In an ironic parallel to their allies in the Bush administration, Blackwater does not want any of its dirty laundry exposed in the clear light of a court of law. I would argue that the dropping of this extortion case bodes badly for Blackwater's civil suit still pending in a North Carolina Federal Court. There is apparently something to be held accountable for.
On the other hand, a company which would stoop to this to protect itself, would probably stoop to anything:
LINK Attorney Marc Miles says that shortly after the suit was filed, he asked the court in North Carolina for an "expedited order" to depose John Potter. The deposition was set for January 28, 2005, and Miles was to fly to Alaska, where the Potters were living. But three days before the deposition, Miles says, "Blackwater hired Potter up, flew him to Washington where it's my understanding he met with Blackwater representatives and their lawyers. [Blackwater] then flew him to Jordan for ultimate deployment in the Middle East," Miles says. "Obviously they concealed a material witness by hiring him and sending him out of the country." Callahan says Blackwater took advantage of the Potters' financial straits to hinder the case against the company. "Potter didn't have any other gainful employment, because many of these men who are ex-military, their skills don't transfer easily into the civilian sector," he says, adding that after Potter was removed for blowing the whistle on the armor issue, the company abandoned him "until they needed him to avoid this subpoena and this deposition and they said, 'We need you and we need you now.' And zoom, off he goes." Blackwater subsequently attempted to have Potter's deposition order dissolved, but a federal court said no.
Why should anyone ,besides the families directly involved, care? Well , for starters, PMC's are appearing in more and more places as surrogates for overextended American forces, including New Orleans and overseas. In particular , they are all over Iraq, and :
Blackwater USA - SourceWatch
""They made enemies everywhere," Colonel Thomas X. Hammes, an expert on guerrilla warfare and a senior fellow at the National Defense University told [the conference]."
In other words, the world sees them as representing us. As they grow more powerful, they are also grow less accountable and more tempting as tools of policy for an out of control executive.
For a more complete account of all this
see the earlier blog.