Posted on 06/03/2007 6:28:20 AM PDT by Valin
Its a big, evil secret behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq - a 100,000 strong mercenary force that the Bush administration has hired to do the U.S. governments riskiest and dirtiest operations. It works behind the scenes and is virtually above the law.
Its name is Blackwater USA -- and its a private army with a license to kill.
More evil still is the fact that Blackwater USA is run by a multimillionaire Christian fundamentalist who has also bankrolled President Bushs election campaigns. And what makes the whole exercise so frightening is that American mainstream media - supposedly the champions of free inquiry - have never bothered to investigate the issue. In fact, a recent book that reveals stunning information about this massive secret army has received no significant coverage at all.
Jeremy Scahills just-published 450-page "Blackwater" (2007) uncovers a story of deception and intrigue whose moral is that some of Americas richest and most powerful have no respect for human lives.
Welcome to George W. Bushs U.S.A. where secret civilian hired guns can use any means to justify the Administrations ends.
The idea is devilishly simple: offer killing contracts to privately-run militias and pay them handsomely to do the job - no questions asked. It is a turnkey system in which the Bush administration pays, and Blackwater kills.
And thats not all. If and when U.S. troops are withdrawn from Iraq, Blackwater operatives can stay.
According to Scahill, the idea of hiring a mercenary army was the brainchild of Donald Rumsfeld. On September 10, 2001 (only one day before the fateful 9/11) he pitched the concept to a high-level Pentagon meeting attended by former corporate executives from Enron, Northrop, Grumman, General Dynamics and Aerospace Corp.
All were chosen by Rumsfeld to work with him as top deputies at the Department of Defense. At that meeting Rumsfeld outlined his strategy for using "the private sector in the waging of Americas wars," a strategy supported by the likes of Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith.
Blackwater is controlled by one person, Erik Prince, described by Scahill as "a radical right-wing Christian mega-millionaire who has served as a major bankroller not only of President Bushs campaigns but the broader Christian-right agenda."
The 38-year-old Prince is a former U.S. Navy officer who serves on the board of Christian Freedom International, whose mission is to help "Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ."
Price started Blackwater in 1995 at age 27, after his father died and left him a $1.3 billion automobile parts firm. Princes first wife died of cancer in 2003 and he has six children.
As Scahill quotes him, Prince speaks proudly about his soldiers-for-hire
company: "When you ship overnight, do you use the postal service or do you use FedEx? Our corporate goal is to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal service."
In Iraq, Blackwater is free to hire whomever it pleases -- Iraqis, Americans, Israelis... Its mercenaries get paid $300 to $600 a day, a big contrast to what men and women in the official American armed forces earn.
But there is also another difference: when Blackwater soldiers are killed, they are not heroes. In fact, they are not even acknowledged. They are not added into the American casualty totals, nor are their coffins draped in the American flag.
Whatever they do is secret and there is no accountability for why or how they kill Iraqis.
Paul Bremer, Bushs envoy in Iraq during the first year of the occupation, issued a decree on June 28, 2004 granting immunity to Blackwater and other military "contractors" from prosecution for war crimes. Blackwater was even able to bypass the Pentagons Uniform Code of Military Justice, claiming its soldiers are "civilians."
In a public hearing, Congressman Dennis Kucinich lamented that, "These private contractors can get away with murder. [They] do not appear to be subject to any laws at all and so therefore they have more of a license ...
to take the law into t heir own hands."
As the Administration is planning to increase the size of the army in Iraq at a cost of anywhere from $3.6 billion to 4 billion, Prince has also been talking about building a permanent "contractor brigade" and doing it cheaper.
In praising Scahill, Canadian reviewer Naomi Klein said: "[His book shows] how the Bush administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars building a parallel corporate army, an army so royal to far right causes ... [It is] the most important and chilling book about the death throes of the U.S. democracy you will read in years and a triumph of investigative reporting."
(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. He can be reached at np@canadianislamiccongress.com)
I’m surprised not to find California and Massachusetts on that list.
Not since Sonny ran off with the car....
Absolutely, hell pay them by the head count and save the army for full scale offensives....
did the cable guy have on a tin foil hat?
I wish it were true-—we are going to need more than this “organization” to decide the fate of freedom because this ideology is even worse than Marxism.
I don't like the idea that these guys are immune from war crimes prosecution (if this is indeed true!), other than that, I like the idea a lot.
Take it from a man who knows something about not respecting human lives.
Go to Blackwater.com on your computer and there is another outfit out there that does the same line of work. It’s called Khaki.org or go to your local news stand and get a copy of Soldier of Fortune magazine. Better still, Google mercenaries. These organizations have been around for years.
CBS News was hiring these types of individuals during the Los Angeles riots to protect their news crews. CBS News and others were in San Diego looking for ex Navy seals and were reportedly willing to pay $1,000 per day for bodyguards to protect the news crews.
Of more recent history one can remember the exploits of : Mad Mike in the Congo
or the Département Protection Sécurité (Greenpeace anyone?)
And even the US Army War College Lists these:
A 1997 study by the private Center for Defense Information lists dozens of such organizations with international operations. South Africa has been the leading home of international security companies, including
Executive Outcomes,
Combat Force,
Investments Surveys,
Honey Badger Arms and Ammunition,
Shield Security,
Kas Enterprises,
Saracen International, and
Longreach Security.
International military firms based in other parts of the world include:
Alpha Five,
Corporate Trading International,
Omega Support Ltd.,
Parasec Strategic Concept,
Jardine Securicor Gurkha Services (Hong Kong),
Gurkha Security Guards (Isle of Man, UK), [my son has worked along side of these guys, quite good]
Special Project Service Ltd. (UK),
Defence Systems Ltd. (UK),
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
Vinnell Corporation (US), and
Military Professional Resources Inc. (US).[2]
Executive Outcomes (South Africa) has been described as "the world's first fully equipped corporate army."[3]
Nothing new, evil or demonic - solid 'play for pay' work - some technical (SAIC? as mercs? pffft) others somewhat more deadly.
Where can I send my donation to Blackwater?
YOW! I sure hope this is all true.
Don’t fret Mohammed baby... you fund ‘em, we’ll cap ‘em.
1. Has this made DU yet?
2. Normally the Al-Qaeda / Al-Jazeera talking points seem to come straight from the DNC. But I haven't heard this from the Dems yet. Wazzup with that?
Cheers!
Muzzie war criminals HATE IT when people fight by their rules.
One thing that this clown forgot to mention is that Blackwater has proposed to go to Darfur and stop the Genocide but the bedwetters at the UN don’t want them there. But Blackwater is evil....
The answer to a lot of these tinpot dictatorships are mercs...
It helped in places like Sierra Leone (Executive Outcomes) and the Congo (Mike Hoare). It can work again...
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