Today, 2 more Blackwater guards were arrested. Erik Prince's Blackwater/Xe is still operating under expanded contracts in several Islamic countries at our behest. Why?
I do not support the conduct in the war on terror or the escalation in Afghanistan, but reasonable people can differ on that. It is not hard to see the various viewpoints on those topics-whether you agree with them or not.
I just can't figure out a rational justification in this year for outsourcing combat duties to privately armed & paid for mercenaries from among the ranks of our own citizenry. Not mercenaries from foreign countries as is the historical norm, but from our own country. Not only that, but as in the case of Blackwater/Xe, private armies led by a homophobic & morally corrupt religious bigot who is intent upon the eradication of Islam. He's a Bush-era creature that would make President Obama's or any other decent person's skin crawl to meet. Yet we still employ him.
Why do we need Blackwater's burgeoning role in Afghanistan and Pakistan-in lieu of our own soldiers or even those of other "private contractors." What is it about Blackwater/Xe that makes them indispensable?
Today in Afghanistan, 2 more Blackwater guards were arrested for "peacefully" resolving another traffic accident in that uniquely Blackwater way.
The accused told the AP news agency in a recent interview that they had been justified in opening fire when a car caused an accident ahead of them, turned and sped towards them.
The charges came on the same day that Xe reached a settlement in a number of separate civil lawsuits over the killings of Iraqi civilians.The Justice Department said Mr Cannon and Mr Drotleff faced murder charges and could face the death penalty if found guilty.
It may be the case that a few people here are not familar with Blackwater/Xe.
Blackwater/Xe was founded by one Erik Prince,
| an unabashedhomophobic,
"I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with— homosexual groups being invited in...."
right-wing christian zealot
It is true that the Blackwater Web site has a "Chaplain Corner" with a distinctly evangelical message. In the past 15 years, Prince says, he has attended "one or two" meetings of the Council for National Policy, a Christian right organization founded by the Rev. Tim LaHaye, author of the "Left Behind" series.
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(In-depth detail on Prince's familial connections to right-wing foundations can be found in this '07 diary by Kossack Dana Houle)
who is morally corrupt
child prostitution...to provide oral sex to contractors for $1.
and intent upon the eradication of Islam
The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
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In case your memory still has blocked out Blackwater,
Here is a partial overview of Blackwater/Xe-history (links & discussion below).
1990-Prince's 6-month internship in G.H.W. Bush's White House. Alienated by "homosexual groups."
1992-1996-Navy SEAL. Prince saw no actual combat.
Father's company sold for 1+ billion dollars.
6,000 Acres bought in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina. Facilities rented out to federal and local government agencies training soldiers & SWAT teams.
2001-Two Weeks after 9/11, "Phone is ringing off the hook," Prince told Bill O'Reilly. Failed polygraph test in botched attempt to join the CIA.
Hired Cofer Black (ex-counterterror chief at CIA & Joseph Schmitz (ex-Pentagon inspector general).
2002-Blackwater in Afghanistan.
2003-2006, $670,000 to the Family Research Council & $531,000 to Focus on the Family.
2004-Mar 31, 4 Blackwater contractors murdered in Falluja, 2 hung from a bridge. That incident escalated the insurgency.
2007-Sept 16, murder of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square.
2007-Sept 22, federal investigation re: arms smuggling.
2007-Oct 2, congressional hearing. Declined to provide financial info.
2007-Dec, $1 million in bribes to Iraqi officials re: murder of 17 Iraqi civilians.
2008-Security contractors lose immunity from Iraqi laws.
2008-Oct, Prince claims role in Syria ops.
2009-Feb/Mar, Blackwater re-branding as Xe.
2009-May, Iraqi security contract cancelled-but Xe remains in Iraq.
2009-June, Panetta names Blackwater as key participant in CIA assassignation program-that was hidden from lawmakers.
2009-June/July, amended lawsuit re: murder, kidnapping & child prostitution (oral sex for $1).
2009- Aug 3, sworn statments filed in federal court re: murdering of government witnesses, destruction of evidence, & weapons smuggling.
2009-Aug 4, Olberman/Scahill re: murder of government witnesses, arms smuggling & neo-crusader agenda.
2009-Aug, NYT reveals hidden bases in Afghanistan & Pakistan for Xe Drone & Predator attacks. Prince as both contractor & CIA asset.
2009-Nov 10, story on the Dec '07 bribes widely circulated.
2010-Year & decade end, federal judge drops all charges in Iraq Massacre.
After 9/11, Blackwater had no greater friends than the Bush administration.
From 2001-2007, the firm has increased its annual federal contracts from less than $1 million to more than $500 million
from Newsweek
Since 9/11, Blackwater has reportedly scored $1 billion in government contracts.
How about 1 Billion just from Iraq?
Blackwater worked throughout the spring and early summer and on July 29th its contract was extended by the Obama administration with an agreement to pay it an additional $20 million, bringing the total amount it received for "*aviation services" to $187 million and its total for Iraq work to more than $1 billion. The July extension was to end on September 3 when its role was to be assumed by other defense contractors. On September 1 it was learned that its contract would be extended indefinitely to enable the handover of its work to the successor company to proceed more smoothly.
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(*Blackwater’s aviation arm is worringly named Presidential Airways.)
Better days ahead?
The company was recently (2007) one of five awarded a Department of Defense counter-narcoterrorism contract that could reportedly be worth as much as $15 billion.
BRIBERY AND KILLING GOVERNMENT WITNESSES
There may be no problem that Blackwater can't shoot or bribe its way out of.
From the November 10, 2009
New York Times account of Blackwater bribing its way out of legal problems.
WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.
The cartoon below would be more accurate if it also included an Iraqi official with crisp dollar bills hanging out of his back pockets.
Itsbenj's diary back in August, Blackwater Implicated in Killing of Cooperative Govt Witnesses has an excellent discussion on how Blackwater solves legal problems when bribery won't do, and includes this quote from The Nation.
The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to avoid the extra cost of bribery and killing of government witnesses to just have U.S. armed forces do Blackwater's work?
Our tax dollars well-spent to pay Blackwater's soldiers of fortune?
According to data provided to the House panel, the average per-day pay to personnel Blackwater hired was $600.
----snip---
An unmarried sergeant given Iraq pay and relief from U.S. taxes makes about $83 to $85 a day, given time in service. A married sergeant with children makes about double that, $170 a day.
Why pay a well-trained, decent and honest U.S. soldier $85 a day when you can pay one of Prince's proteges $600 a day? Recently, there were more "private contractors" in Afghanistan than U.S. armed forces-wouldn't it make sense to cut out the Blackwater types & increase the combat pay of U.S. soldiers? Strange the Repubs don't complain about that government waste....
Remember when Bush sent Blackwater to liberate New Orleans after Katrina (& from which they got $73 million
)?
You never know where Blackwater will show up, what their assigned role will be or what they'll actually do in the end-until you read months or years later of the mayhem (civilians killed, minors corrupted, populations alienated & laws broken) they've left in their wake.
INCREASE IN "KNOWN" BLACKWATER/XE ACTIVITY
Whereas once it was possible (whether true or not) to claim that Blackwater was only engaged in guarding embassy and diplomatic personnel, that explanation is no longer reasonable.
New York Times
Since 2001, Blackwater has undergone explosive growth, not only from security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also from classified work for the Central Intelligence Agency that included taking part in a now defunct program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to load missiles on Predator drones.
OTHER CASES/CHARGES AGAINST BLACKWATER/XE
Blackwater/Xe's crimes are not limited merely to murder & bribery, but also inluded kidnapping and child prostitution.
The Virginian-Pilot 7/02/09
A just-amended lawsuit alleges six additional instances of unprovoked attacks on Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors.
Three people, including a 9-year-old boy, are said to have died.
Also added to the suit is a racketeering count accusing Blackwater founder Erik Prince of running an ongoing criminal enterprise involved in, among other things, kidnapping and child prostitution.
The latest charges, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, bring to more than 60 the number of Iraqis allegedly killed or wounded since 2005 by armed Blackwater contractors guarding U.S. diplomatic personnel in Iraq
July 1, 2007 Baghdad incident.
The Blackwater guards also shot the boy's mother in the back as she bent over trying to shield her 3-month-old daughter, who nevertheless was shot in the face, according to the lawsuit. The boy's father, uncle and cousin also were wounded.
The child prostitution charge involves young Iraqi girls allegedly being brought to the Blackwater compound in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, identified in the lawsuit as the "Blackwater Man Camp," to provide oral sex to contractors for $1
Murder, bribery, kidnapping & child prostitution. Well, I guess there's nothing to add to that. It's not like after all that they'd turn around & murder people who were planning to testify against them. Wait just a moment...
Keith Olbermann reported August 04, 2009
The details come straight from two sworn affidavits filed late last night by persons who identities have been sealed to protect their identity, men who have previously cooperated with federal prosecutors in the criminal inquiry into Blackwater. From John Doe number two, a former member of Blackwater’s management team, quoting the affidavit, "it appears that Mr. Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, and his employees murdered or had murdered one or more persons who had provided information or were planning on providing information to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct. On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince’s employ, Mr. Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence."
An armed wing of the Bush administration.
SCAHILL: Missed it? I think it was considered a plus in the Bush White House. Remember, Keith, what we had here was the Bush administration essentially create a force that acted as an armed wing of the administration, not subject to the military command, not subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, that reported directly to George Bush’s secretary of state and then to the president.
These were his men, his private force in Baghdad. And the allegations that they were running around shooting Iraqis as part of a war to eliminate Islam globally, as is actually what one of these individuals said, is extremely disturbing to anyone who believes in any semblance of Constitution, law or human rights.
With all the bad press they were getting by doing Bush/Cheney's bidding, it is no surprise they'd want to undertake a completely honest restructuring of their corporate culture to better reflect American values-either that or just make a dishonest & lame attempt to camoflauge themselves with meaningless name changes.
Re-Branding
2009. Feb/March 2009, Blackwater re-branded itself as Xe. Prince appointed a new president and CEO, but remained as chairman of the board. Tres chic!
It is true, that during the Obama administration the decision was made not to renew Blackwater's contract in Iraq regarding providing security for diplomats when it expired last May. However, all remaining government contracts are terminable at the government's convenience or for default.
Still operating in Iraq, but no longer providing diplomatic security. However, in Afghanistan
It provides diplomatic security for State Department people under the name "US Training Center" and does Defense Department work under the name "Paravant LLC." Paravant has continued the proud tradition established by Blackwater in Iraq of killing civilians.
Blackwater in Pakistan as revealed by Jeremy Scahill-
an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.
Do we really want Blackwater/Xe in Pakistan?
(Warning: I've included the link & quote below to only document how Blackwater is viewed in the Islamic world [Beg also gave the same info to the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan]-& I do not endorse the views in the article or elsewhere in the paper.)
Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg (ret.), has said the U.S. private security company Blackwater was directly involved in the assassinations of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
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General Beg, who was chief of army staff during Benazir Bhutto’s first administration, said U.S. officials always kept the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan secret because they were afraid of possible attacks on the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan.
...And in Syria according to Prince himself.
Blackwater works with US Special Forces in identifying targets and planning missions, citing an operation in Syria.
Are we stuck with Blackwater/Xe forever because of ironclad contracts leftover from the Bush era? Does the federal government no longer have the right to cancel based on convenience or default?
Q. What is a termination for convenience?
A. A termination for convenience allows the government to terminate all or part of a contract for its convenience and not for the fault of the contractor performing on the contract. Often, the government will terminate for convenience if the products or services covered by the contract are no longer needed or become obsolete.
Edgar online, inc (Solutions for Corporations).
In Software Technology's Government Division, all of our customers are defense related...All Government contracts can be terminated for "no cause" by our defense customers.
findlaw.com
A contract is terminated for convenience by Government issuance of a written notice of termination. FAR 52.249-2(a). This notice must contain: (1) a statement that the contract is being terminated for the convenience of the Government; (2) the effective date of termination; (3) the extent of termination; (4) any special instructions; and (5) the steps the contractor is to take to minimize the impact on personnel. FAR 49.102(a).
Association of Corporate Counsel
The Unique Rights of the Federal Government to Terminate Contracts for Convenience.
Termination for convenience ("T for C") clauses provide government contracting officers with the right to unilaterally terminate contracts when it is in the government’s best interest. Federal procurement agencies in the United States initially began using the concept of T for C during the Civil War....
Onvia.com
Government Contract Termination for Convenience
Contract termination for convenience happens when the government changes its mind on a contract. Contracting officials can unilaterally terminate a government contract by no fault of the contractor. In this case, there’s nothing the contractor can do to save the deal.
Blackwater "reported directly to George Bush’s secretary of state and then to the president." They lost their Baghadad embassy contract, but they're still in Iraq (plus Afghanistan and Pakistan) today-WHY?
The venerable Helen Thomas, at almost 90, is also curious about the continued use of Blackwater. Back in August-
The veteran journalist Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the Obama administration’s dealings with Blackwater.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: "I asked for an update, which I have not yet gotten, on where we are in different contracts. I would—as it relates to CIA’s use of contracting, I would point you specifically to them for responses on that."
Helen Thomas: "I don’t think they would tell us."
Gibbs: "They may tell you, Helen. If you use that sweet voice on the
phone, you never know what you could get."
Thomas: "I want them to stop killing people."
Gibbs: "You should let them know."
Thomas: "You should, too."
"You should, too."
The news Today of yet another upcoming Blackwater trial comes just days after the resolution of the Blackwater 5's trial here by dismissal of the case. So perhaps it is not surprising then to hear announced civil settlements related to that case announced also.
Blackwater's killing of 17 unarmed civilians was news enough to make it to the
New York Times.
The Nisour Square shooting was the bloodiest and most controversial episode involving Blackwater in the Iraq war. At midday on Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire on Iraqi civilians in the crowded intersection, spraying automatic weapons fire in ways that investigators later claimed was indiscriminate, and even launching grenades into a nearby school. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and dozens more were wounded.
The recent news that the Blackwater 5 had the charges against them dismissed by a federal judge may be viewed by some here who despise Blackwater as yet an illustration of the integrity of our courts, but will be viewed quite differently by people in those countries that we mandate Blackwater to play in. After all, they know more about Prince & Blackwater than we do.
As you consider the similarity-
In a memo defending his opinion, Urbina cited a similar rationale used in the dismissal of charges against Iran/Contra figure Oliver North--namely, that the government violated the rights of the Blackwater men by using statements they made to investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting to build a case against the guards
please don't confuse these two fine thinkers.
| with this one.
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Just explain to me why we still need the "man" in the middle.