"Gap-filler": that's how Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince characterized the function of this notorious private military organization during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on "Late Edition" this afternoon.
Prince is doing a major media blitz with upcoming appearances on tonight's "60 Minutes" and tomorrow's "Charlie Rose."
What is the purpose of this media blitz? To try and save and defend the Blackwater brand, I suppose, especially as Blackwaters's slaughter of Iraqi civilians on September 16 is being multiply investigated and the Iraqi government is insisting that Blackwater be driven from Iraq.
AP is reporting that the U.S. Embassy may cut Blackwater ties within six months and that there are ongoing negotiations between the Iraq government and the U.S. government to deal with these criminal "gap-fillers":
U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad's demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out. (my emphasis, of course).
Keep your eye on that "security gap," because we'll be returning to that gap later. Interestingly enough, the article suggests that the effacement of Blackwater from Iraq may actually take place:
In talks between American diplomats and the al-Maliki government, al-Askari said, the U.S. side was not "insisting on Blackwater staying."
(snip)
"With the investigations and reviews ongoing, it would be clearly premature to say that any definitive determinations have been made about the future of the Blackwater contract," a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said.
Indeed, it seems that Prince is already aware of the possibility that Blackwater will have to leave Iraq; in the same article he states that they are preparing for a "smooth transition."
Prince was very much playing up this deferential position with Blitzer today. (NB: The transcript is not yet up. Prince's quotes from the Blitzer interview are my own transciptions.] Saying that he welcomed the FBI investigation and for that reason was withholding judgment on the September 16th incident, he also, precisely counter to that claimed reserve, repeatedly said that he was sure that there was incoming enemy fire, and Blackwater's damaged vehicles proved it, and that certainly there wasn't friendly cross-fire that could have caused that damage.
One of the most chilling parts of the interview for me was the strategy of minimization, the way that Prince described Blackwater's task as merely "gap-filler." That is, they're just doing certain military tasks "cheaper, better, faster" than the U.S. military can. It is this language of market efficiency that truly chilled, especially when Prince enthusiastically noted a the most significant efficiency--that Blackwater does all of its work without the "legacy costs going forward" of the U.S Military, y'know "pensions and benefits for a life-time."
To truly cap off his icy account of the success and importance of this privatization of military tasks, Prince proudly explained that Blackwater USA is to the U.S. Military what FEDEX was to the U.S. Post Office. They provide competition and let the people know that there are "cheaper, better, faster" ways to do things, especially as the military's mission transitions from "conventional force to global counterinsurgency." Yikes! That was scary--I could practically hear the commercial: "Blackwater USA: filling the gaps in your ongoing global counterinsurgency cheaper, better, and faster!"
OK. So who's going to fill the gaps if the U.S.'s prime gap-filler is scraped out?
While the Blackwater name may be removed from security operations surrounding U.S. diplomats in Iraq, American officials and members of the security community in Baghdad said the company's men and other assets in Iraq would likely be taken over by one of the many security companies currently working in Iraq.
They said DynCorp, which already has security contracts with the State Deparment to guard officials working outside Baghdad, appeared poised to take over the Blackwater role.
Just erase the name, and transfer the personnel and assets! Great! And to DynCorp, the military contractor that Human Rights Watch expressly voiced concern about when writing to General Garner immediately after the occupation of Iraq:
In this context, Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned about the contract already awarded to DynCorp to hire 1,000 civilian advisors to help the government of Iraq organize effective civilian law enforcement. In a November 2002 report on trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Human Rights Watch found that DynCorp's personnel had participated in human rights violations and the company has not done enough to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent such activities. DynCorp was found liable by a British employment tribunal for firing an employee who blew the whistle on involvement by U.N. police and peacekeepers in the trafficking of women and girls into forced sex work. Another former employee testified during a legal proceeding that eight DynCorp staff members in Bosnia had allegedly admitted to him that they had purchased women and girls in 1999 and 2000.
So the upshot of all these investigations and negotiations will likely just be the shuffling around of mercenaries without addressing the underlying problem articulated by General Grange on Blitzer's show after Prince's interview: that the U.S. Military has been stretched to the breaking point and cannot fulfill all of its responsibilities.
Imho, the increasing "need" for these mercenaries produced by the destruction of the military under BushCo traces a negative feedback loop. More mercs, because the military is overstretched, more resources diverted away from the military and to private enterprise, military unable to fulfill all of its repsonsibilities, more mercs needed, and so on and so on and so on. Of course, this may be the very "vision" of BushCo and it seems to be very "successful" from the $$$$$$ and power POV.
Emily Dickinson, strangely enough, powerfully traced the form of this negative feed-back loop in one striking verse:
To fill a Gap
Insert the Thing that caused it—
Block it up
With Other—and 'twill yawn the more—
Blackwater and BushCo: supporting the troops to the point of total collapse, while creating and increasing the necessity for more and more private armies.
How can we hold these mercs accountable? One legislative effort is the
MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007 - Provides that persons who, while employed under a federal agency contract in a region outside the United States in which the Armed Forces are conducting a contingency operation, engage in conduct that would constitute an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year if engaged in within U.S. jurisdiction shall be punished as provided for that offense.
Requires the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to report to Congress on the status of the Department's investigations of abuses alleged to have been committed by contract personnel and findings and recommendations about the Department's capacity and effectiveness in prosecuting misconduct by contract personnel.
Requires the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to establish a Theater Investigative Unit for each theater of operations established in connection with a contingency operation in which contract personnel are carrying out work under a covered contract, to be responsible for investigating allegations of criminal misconduct by such personnel.
Although H.R. 2740: MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007 likely does not go far enough to hold the mercs accountable, we need to make sure that the Senate passes it with a vetoproof majority. At least it will send some kind of message that these private armies do not operate outside of the law and oversight.
Get all the info you need on MEJA here and then contact your Senators.