"And who in his mind has not probed the black water?" - John Steinbeck: "East Of Eden"
The many layers that envelop the ongoing military contractor controversy are being gradually unpeeled to reveal some ugly truths at its core. The most reprehensible of them all is the common refrain about how trigger-happy commandos on a corporate payroll get by with no government oversight. And how acts such as intoxication on the job and reckless, unprovoked murder on the part of these hired guns have been systematically silenced by the State Department. Once again, we learn that under the Bush Administration, we no longer live in a nation of laws. It's now a nation of men who unscrupulously have each other's back when it comes to preservation of self-interest.
Up until recently, if you were to present that last statement to me as a claim with proof, I wouldn't have bought it. That was until I heard about how contractors can operate in foreign countries and remain exempt from local laws. And how the Bush Administration sidestepped assistance from the UN or NATO allies in favor of private military firms (PMF's), now with close to 20,000 troops in Iraq. When I heard that there were more PMF troops on the ground in Iraq than military troops from any one ally, including the UK, I sensed something was wrong. That grew to a feeling of certainty when the lobbyists for PMF's became known, with millions of dollars invested toward both K Street and political campaigns.
But this travesty runs much deeper. PMF's have a longer history that most don't know about, before Blackwater became the prime target. A kidnapping of contractors with Kuwait City-based Crescent Security Group gained minor media attention last year. Though the issue didn't involve the same allegations, it did reveal an early indication that the U.S. government took steps to keep the PMF problems quiet at any cost. Five contractors with Crescent Security were kidnapped in November 2006 after an ambush of a trucking convoy serving the Italian military, travling from Navistar, Kuwait to Tallil Air Base in Nasariyah. Four of the five abductees were U.S. citizens, the fifth being an Austrian national. To date, they haven't been located and the details behind the government's search for them are sketchy.
Washington state resident Jackie Stewart is the mother of one of the kidnapped Crescent contractors, Joshua Munns. In both media interviews and on her blog, she has alleged a cover-up of sorts by the U.S. government regarding the disappearance of these five contractors. Her repeated attempts to obtain assistance in locating her son via the FBI and State Department have been futile. And now, her silence has understandably been broken:
"The government, for months, has been telling us (the family members) that we needed to keep quiet and not make a big deal about this because it would add value to their lives. I kid you not, that is what I have been told over and over again. When they were first taken, I followed what the FBI and the State Department had directed us to do. Stay quiet, be patient, wait.
"I'm not going to do it anymore."
But one other interesting point she asserts runs contrary to the current Blackwater debate that the contractor troops are just inhuman corporate mercenaries-for-hire:
"What you should understand is, not all of the guys who go over there as private security contractors, go over there to be cowboys. Josh went back because he felt a need to continue serving his country, but felt that in the private sector he would be better equipped and better funded than the military was."
"When he was leaving for Iraq on his first deployment, his father had to go and BUY him more gear to protect himself. He had to BUY him a pistol, a Glock as I recall, because the government did not equip him with the things he needed to go to war with!!! When he went to work for Crescent, he found himself having to fight the same kind of battle with the administration that he did in the military. The guys asked for more armor plating on their vehicles, and more body armor. Crescent was not a good guy company. They were among the worst, probably THE worst. That's why he was planning to leave the company. Josh was always of the opinion that he was still serving his country to best of his ability even though he was among the private sector."
Though the Blackwater horror stories of job fairs in eastern Europe and the recruitment of ex-devotees of Milosevic are understandably horrifying, there's a flipside to the attraction behind active duty with PMF's. Not necessarily the chance to be Jack Bauer on a corporate bankroll, but to serve one's country without the worry of fudged Defense Department numbers or inadequate protective gear. Though the heinous acts and Orwellian overtones behind Blackwater are beyond disturbing, the story of the Missing Five and one woman's refusal to be silenced show that a human element does indeed exist underneath all the dark and disturbing circumstances.
And if stories like this got as much effortless media attention as Limbaugh quotes, we'd get to the heart of the matter a lot faster, don't you think?
Ms. Stewart seeks donations and has t-shirts for supporters available at TheMissing5.com