Want Private Armies in America? Say Yes to Blackwater

The Iraqi government, no paragon of legal niceties, demanded that Blackwater leave the "sovereign" territory of Iraq. Why? Well, as Cliff Shecter points out, while the Iraqi government is already engaged in its own civil war, they seem not to want the US to start another one. And that's precisely what started to happen yesterday when Blackwater security guards fired at and killed somewhere between eight and thirteen civilians. And this time the Blackwater boys were not protecting supplies. They were protecting the American government. That's right. Blackwater killed Iraqi civilians while careening through Baghdad in a convoy of black SUVs containing US embassy officials.

I for one want those embassy personnel to be safe. The Foreign Service is staffed largely by professionals intent upon doing their best to further America's aims via peaceful means. Joe Wilson was one of them and fortunately there are many others like him out there. With a real government in Washington that understands that diplomacy is not the logical extension of war (to paraphrase Metternich), those professionals might even be able to end the war and build a peace. But not now. Not with Blackwater, a shadowy private army owned and operated by right wing Republican billionaire donor Erik Prince, providing "security" to our professionals.

But why Blackwater? Why not the US military? Last I checked, Marines guard embassies all over the world, but apparently not in Iraq. Instead, we have a band of unregulated thugs loose on the streets willing and able to kill with impunity, at least partially because they know there is no "higher authority." They answer to no law, not Iraqi, not US, not military and not international. And this is certainly not the first time that Blackwater has become the problem, not the solution, in Iraq.

The good news is that something like this could never happen in the US, right? Think again. Blackwater has a 7,000 acre training facility in Mayok, North Carolina. It has a large facility outside of Chicago that is being opposed by our friends at Clearwater. But that's not enough: Blackwater is trying to open an 824 acre facility in east San Diego County that will have as many as 700 people there at any given time. And they are bidding for work to guard the border between the US and Mexico. Imgaine the international incident when the gun down unarmed civilians on the border. Or when they "show up" for an emergency in LA or San Franciso, armed to the teeth as they did in New Orleans, and offer their services? Will they go away quietly? Will we have to call in our own National Guard to get them to leave just as happened in Iraq?

This nation can no longer afford to support mercenaries on our soil or off. We certainly cannot allow Blackwater to open in California. More than 4,000 people have joined Courage Campaign in asking Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger to stop Blackwater. Will you?

Comments

[Roger4]

Blackwater is a clear and very real manifestation of the evil that attends this war. Blackwater embodies the greed and violence that we took to Iraq. So, let the military pull out and give Blackwater the job of creating a peaceful Iraq, with no increase in funding.

[yellowdogSC]

Rog,

I'd be VERY tempted to agree, except for one line from "Apocalypse Now",

"How can you shoot women and children?"
"It's easy. You just don't lead them so much."

These guys are having WAY too much fun. (Watch some of the video available. Maybe look up "Brave New Films" on YouTube." Or “Greenwald­”.)

[Roger4]

It certainly seems like some of them in particular like to shoot at cars and people for fun. I saw part of a report from Iraq on NBC tonight and heard a man commenting that private guards will play a bigger role when the troops start to pull out.

[TheHandyman]

Remember, Rumsfield's stated goal was to do away with the Pentagon. Too many people who opposed what he wanted to do which was to privatize all military services. Imagine that there was a call by the President to suppress a growing rebellion to his authority and he called out the troops. Given their being lied too, how many troops would actually try to put down the people? Nobody knows, they are an unknown. If you had a mercenary army on beck and call, someone you could count on, would you hesitate to call them out? When one really looks at who makes up Blackwater, and a lot of the other so called Security contractors, you see that they are made up of a lot of elite foreign special ops companies trained at the School of the Americas. A Scahill reported on Democracy Now that BlackWater got a whole Battalion of Special Ops troops, officers and all, from if I remember right Chile. A group trained for Pinochet and we know what he was like.

In large part, the cost of this war has been exceedingly expensive because of all the privatized services that been created. In Nam, we had Army Cooks, medical staff, engineers, etc. Yes, on my airstrip, we hired local women to do our laundry and we had locals for haircuts and other personal services and the cost was minimal. Our troops are being forced to pay outrageous fees for those services now. And how soon we have forgotten the 65 water purification plants that didn't work and our troops drank and washed in heavily polluted water. What happened to the investigation on that. Ever heard anything more about it?

BlackWater has Cheney to tell the Iraqi's...­go fuck yourselves­...and they will stay and kill and answer to no one! If the US has another terrorist attack, you can thank all the war profiteers and their enablers for whatever happens!

And the MSM is busy saying...l­ook over here..its OJ....no, no look over here its Brittany!.­...no, no its a duck, look its a duck!

[Senzasord]

The constitution gives Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. No letters of marque have ever been granted by Congress, therefore they have no obbligation to honor any payments due to Blackwater. Congress should resolve to stop any and all payments to that organization. If the Iraqis want to hire them, let them. Otherwise they should get out.

[eniobob]

I have a suggestion­.Since we are told that the surge is working.Wh­y not let Iraq expel Blackwater and turn the security details over to the Iraqs.Isn'­t this what we are being told that they are capable of taking care of their own problems.I­f that happens then we will see how many congressmen and senators go over there with the Iraqs protecting them.

[juangault]

More defenders of the constitution. I feel safer already.

[apduncan1]

Can you please support your statement with hard facts?

[yellowdogSC]

duncan,

Much of this can be found in Brave New Film's "Iraq for Sale".

Available at Amazon.com.

HIGHLY recommended.

[hawkny]

Remember Argentina!!!!

[realitytrumpsbull]

Just say 'impeach', and then turn Congress loose with the subpoenas and the newly sharpened budget axe. If by some unfortunate circumstance it turns out that they SOLD said axe for a bottle of ripple, I'm sure we can pass the hat and purchase them a new one, even get it sharp for em...

[Iownpeterbilt]

They are all slopping out of the same PUBLIC TROUGH, they are not about to impeach...­...

[ajax2]

Commentators make a huge mistake if they tag Blackwater as Bush or Republican. There are many Democratic leaders in love with these mercenaries. Blackwater receives no-bid contracts and unlimited funding from the Democratic leadership.

[JudyGee]

Where is congress and the news journalists, again hiding under their chairs afraid to lose their paycheck. I don't blame them. It's really hard to find a job and it doesn't pay much anyway. Unless you're a thug, a criminal, psycho, religious flaggelator or rotting with corruption.
What a great place to live and work and raise children. Fat, dumb children poisoned by corn syrup, e-coli, and lead paint.
To crush the fascist takeover, obsess on losing more weight, eschew flab, slice up our faces, stick needles in our lips, shove plastic balloons into our chests, and suck our fat.
We also need a lot more reality shows, polygamy arrests, and news readers.

That should do it.

[Neuromancer13]

Speaking on the equipment and pay issue. Blackwater has a *lot* of cash on hand. I was at a family function recently and spoke briefly to a distant relative by marriage who had recently gotten out of the Marines (as a sgt.). He said that he had considered working for Blackwater because they were offering a salary of $60,000 per month.

Perhaps we've found some of the missing billions?

And yes, I totally agree with most of you that unaccountable mercenaries are truly dangerous to us and our society. The Iraqis have every right to go to the UN or the ICC with this, but I worry that it might inflame the political situation here and cause the administration to do something even more stupidand violent than they would do without the (perceived) provocation.

[OldKnute]

People, Get it!

These enforcers have been with us for years.

They broke windows and set fires and raised havoc to discredit the Martin Luther King march in Chicago.

The provocateurs that disrupted the peace demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic convention were these same people. In Seattle at the WTO protests, the black masked people who burnt trash cans and windows, and started throwing rocks at McDonalds. California, New Orleans, Chicago, you will find them, HAVE found them for as long as we have been a nation. They tried to pass out blankets with yellow fever during the civil war, leading to our very own revolution they threw tea into Boston harbor disguised as native Americans. Remember the TRUTH about the Boston Tea Party was not known until their ruse was discovered and exposed, then it was SPUN into an act of Patriotism and incorporated into our national narrative.

They will always wear black masks or disguises.

They are REAL, they are with you, they are hear.

This is Cheney’s army, the dark side, a supposed necessary concession to protecting law and order. Dick’s interpretation of the second amendment to the constitution permits him to organize, fund and maintain a private militia.

If you doubt me, ASK Mr. Cheney directly. ASK HIM!

Ask Mr. Cheney about his private militia.

Ask him under what provisions, protections, authorizations, and legal standing he finds it necessary and permissible to maintain a private army on American soil.

Ask how they were seen at the levies in New Orleans, at the banks, and firing into the air as rescue helicopters approached to bring water to the Katrina survivors. Those were NOT military or SWAT squads or riot police they were BLACKWATER.

AND, they are coming HOME.

The Super Patriots, The Super Men, The Super Christians, ALWAYS DRESSED IN BLACK.

ASK HIM. He will tell you.

All the best

Knute (Neo-LIB)

[Theou]

Knute
Interesting read.
If Blackwater and its ilk can do black ops in this country, isn't likely that they are doing them in Iraq?
I have long suspected that the so-called "Al Quaeda in Iraq" is almost entirely a US operation and "civilian contractors" would be the perfect operatives.

[JohnJames]

Some web sites devoted to the subject of peak oil suggest that Cheney has come to believe the world is headed for a Mad Max dystopia as energy becomes scarcer. It does seem to explain him as well as explain comments by his friends that they no longer recognize him. It certainly explains the invasion of Iraq.

[BufoAmericanus]

When every single person who had anything to do with accepting the validity of this war, and shackling the USA to this gang of cut-throats is drummed out of Government for corruption, compliance or cowardice, America may once again call itself a free country.

Until that time, we are harboring fugitives and will not know truth.

[charon]

Just one more nail in the coffin of America. What you are seeing is the start of the fascist police state. When these goons come home they will be a threat to us all, worse than al queda, out of control trained murderers, who will kill without conscience. They belong in jail, as do all mercenaries. They are unfit for civil society.

[Atticus]

This has been going on for a long time. I remember watching Stormin' Norman Schwartzkoph going to his briefings attended by a guy in civies, wearing a goatee and holding tight to what appeared to be an Uzi. I knew there was no way that bodyguard was a regular soldier.
Special Ops?
Blackwater?