State Department Still Paying Blackwater More Than $400M -- Despite Public Break With Company

nytimes.com:

WASHINGTON -- Despite publicly breaking with an American private security company in Iraq, the State Department continues to award the company, formerly known as Blackwater, more than $400 million in contracts to fly its diplomats around Iraq, guard them in Afghanistan, and train security forces in antiterrorism tactics at its remote camp in North Carolina.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[MarcusT]

Thank god Obama won.

[oberon123]

400 million dollars! Now that is change we can believe in. Erik Prince is a terrorist. The fact that the Obama government is still doing business with him proves that it is still business as usual in Washington.

[duxguts]

The thing to do is find out who is getting the kickbacks.

[einstein10]

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!

[AmbientDiscord]

congress has thousands of hands handing out money and none of them know what the others are doing it seems.

[ghtrains]

The repub goal was and still is privatization of services. Any service that was formally done by US citizens under some department of government has been mined. The story is that it is cheaper for private companies to do what used to be done by citizens employed by some government agency. Also, the job will be done better. The truth is that many services were seen as a untapped gold mine. By taking over the job of a government agency, corporations could make a real buck. So the Marine guards give way to private security. The army cooks become private food services. Schools become charter schools. Health care with government involvement will be poorly done. We have been fed the lines of how poorly government agency do their jobs for so long that most people actually believe this.

[spoonerrothbard]

Interesting point. But, if the government pays their salaries directly, is it still a private company? It seems to me that the government is going into business into what should be private enterprises, which is what Mussolini defined as fascism.

[BlackWidowPilot]

I'm afraid you've got it backwards; when Mussolini stated he wanted to create a "...corporate/fascist state," he meant that *corporate* interests would run government, that government would be the enforcement apparatus for *corporate* interests and goals.

Under fascism, the only reason the government pays corporations directly, is because the corporations set the prices beforehand; there are no negotiations.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

One of the 47 Million

[einstein10]

NO accountability!

[foxnewsfan]

will someone please tell Hillary that SHE is Sec. of State and she should stop waiting on Bill to make the big decisions. I think she should fire Blackwater immediately and hire ACORN to provide security in Iraq and Afganistan. And why are our soldiers still in S. Korea, Japan, Germany, plus 89 other countries instead of being home with their loved ones. Where is Cindy Sheehan when we need her?Is she still camping out in Crawford Texas?

[Domenica Iacovone]

Don't you have a Sproul and Associates meeting to attend to?

[nodonjuan]

Another Murdoch zombie?

[Gregor53]

Disgraceful. And they are trying to prevent spending money for Health Care. We are more than willing to Kill, but to save. It appears our country has lost all of its honor and integrity. This is about the time limit for a Republic.

[yathink]

Crime pays and congress stinks.

[Usama]

It would seem that murder, fraudulent auditing, witness tampering, and a dozen other high crimes would be justification enough to suspend a contract. If the State Dept omitted any morality clause in the function of Xe/ Templar's Group/Blackwater, then they would have to consider detriment to their diplomatic missions.
In any case, America is going the way of the Roman empire.
Not until the CORPORATION can be dismantled, will the people of the world be safe from the tyranny of private firms functioning in the capacity of a government.

And the saddest part is the GOP would be even worse than the Democrats were they in power.

[Marcospinelli]

After looking for the easiest, fastest, most expedient way to repair the problems, to return the democracy back to We The People, a list of 10 things. Any would go a long way toward change; all, if adopted, would make us (and the US) vibrant:

1) Eliminate corporations' status under the law as "persons".

2) Public financing of campaigns.

3) Presidential candidates' debates hosted by (and rules determined by) non-partisan group (League of Women Voters).

4) Eliminate PACS

5) Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

6) Prohibit lobbying.

7) Prohibit privatization of military.

8) Shift 100% of funding for education (k-12) to the federal level.

9) Establish Medicare For All.

10) Establish a US Trust Fund, similar to Alaska's Trust Fund, whereby each citizen over 18 years of age would get a monthly check, just big enough to cover bare essentials like shelter and food (determined by national average rentals available). I think we would be amazed at how this would solve some of our more enduring conflicts, like abortion, entitlements, etc., and surprisingly motivate people to innovation for wealth creation.

[nodonjuan]

Sign me up for the first nine. Number ten would need some great lobbyists :)

[drewrichards]

tap tap tap hello this thing on?

[drewrichards]

SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP SHHH be quiet i'm sweeping it under the rug...

Meet the New boss, it's the same as the old boss....

[Marcospinelli]

The g.u.n-toters at Town Hall meetings? Do you recall the one on Hardball with Chris Matthews, and his sign with the Jefferson "tree of liberty" quote?

These 'toters' aren't showing up at Town Hall meetings out of the blue.

The FBI trained and paid radio personality and rightwing blogger Hal Turner:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/lawyer-fbi-paid-right-wing-blogger-charged-with-threats/

[Hawaii5-0]

They need to keep the private mercenary army intact for the day they turn them on the people in America. I heard they were used in the aftermath of Katrina to force people out of their homes at gunpoint.

[spoonerrothbard]

They don't need to use the private mercenaries. The US army (since 2008) now has a standing brigade for "homeland" security. Basically the president has his own standing army.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

[Usama]

The US military cannot be compared with these mercenaries- .

[itsmyparty]

What else is new?Bush on steroids.