Blackwater Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
The scandal surrounding the conduct of Blackwater contractors in Iraq is just the most recent example of contractors and criminals run amok in that ill-conceived war. Since the occupation began, the U.S. military and its contractors have relied on shady characters and even criminals to do the outsourced business of supplying the troops, delivering weapons and making sure the mail arrives.
One such wanted criminal, Viktor Bout, was paid tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars while illegally flying transport missions for the United States in Iraq. Bout is the notorious Russian weapons merchant whose fleet of aging Soviet aircraft rivals that of some NATO countries in its size and capacity. By marrying his access to Soviet bloc weapons with his airlift capacity, Bout established himself as the world's premiere purveyor of illicit weapons to the world's tyrants-- a one-stop shopping source for everyone from Charles Taylor and his armies of child soldiers of Sierra Leone and Liberia to the Taliban in Afghanistan, from Jonas Savimbi in Angola to the FARC rebels in Colombia.
As shown in the new book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by former Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah and the Los Angeles Times' Stephen Braun, Bout flew hundreds of flights for the Pentagon and its contractors in Iraq. He did so despite having been: 1) identified by U.S. and British intelligence as a supplier of weapons, ammunition and aircraft to the Taliban and, indirectly, to al Qaeda; 2) the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant at the request of the Belgian government; 3) named in almost a dozen U.N. public reports as the chief illegal provider of weapons to Africa's rogue regimes, and; 4) the subject of an executive order signed by George W. Bush in July 2004 making it illegal to do any business with Bout. The executive order was followed by an order from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in May 2005, freezing the assets of Bout, his senior partners and main companies, again making it illegal for U.S citizens or their government to do business with any of the named entities.
Yet the flights in Iraq went on, at the request of Halliburton, KBR and others, on behalf of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, until early 2006. Farah and Braun, based on flight and refueling records from Iraq, estimate Bout's companies may have flown up to 1,000 flights as a secondary contractor for the U.S. government. Each flight cost about $60,000 -- not a bad chunk of taxpayer dollars. Bout managed to up his profit margin considerably by having his pilots apply for and receive special refueling cards that allowed them to gas up for free when they landed in Iraq.
Using an Amnesty International report as a starting point, the authors trace a deeply troubling incident that, based on a July GAO report, was not unique. The GAO report found that tens of thousands of weapons purchased by the U.S. military and destined for delivery in Iraq remain unaccounted for.
Some of weapons--200,000 AK-47 assault rifles--were transported by Bout's aircraft before going AWOL. One of his airlines, Aerocom, registered in Moldova, obtained a contract from the Pentagon in August 2004 to fly the weapons from Bosnia to Iraq, along with millions of rounds of ammunition.
But, according to Amnesty International and the authors, there were several problems with the deal. Aerocom was already named in U.N. reports to illicit weapons trafficking in Africa, and Bout was on UN and U.S. sanctions lists. The day before the first flight, the Moldovan government canceled the Aerocom aircraft's air-operations certificate, making taking off illegal. Still, the flights went on, although there is no record of them ever landing in Iraq or of the weapons being delivered to their declared destination.
Blackwater is just one piece of an entire outsourcing system for which there is no accountability. Congress is presently debating a number of bills that would reign in this whole mess of outsourcing gone wild. The House overwhelmingly passed this week a bill by Rep. David Price to bring better oversight and legal accountability. On the Senate side, Senator Barack Obama was the first Senator to introduce legislation on this subject last February. Obama has also added in a section to ensure that critical U.S. military functions are not simply handed over to contractors like Viktor Bout.
It is well past time that the U.S. Congress enacts these bills in to law. That is, unless we want to keep giving our business to the Viktor Bouts and Blackwaters of the world. By failing to control the contractors, or giving contracts to criminal enterprises, we squander our moral authority, waste tax dollars and undercut our men and women in uniform fighting far from home.
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"Ike" Eisenhower coined the term "military industrial complex" in January of 1961 when he warned the nation of this new danger as he left office. We should have listened to him then. We should listen to him now.
"Ike" was one of only a small handful of Presidents who gained the Presidency after first earning their way to the very top echelons of military command. He was, therefore, extremely familiar both with the military and the political issues involved.
Today, WE DO NOT HAVE TO endure this. We do not have to give up our country for these scoundrels. And it is imperative that we must not do so.
We should not accept the continuing lie that the current crop of "so-called candidates" are the only legitimate future leaders that we could have. Nor should we accept the lie that there is nothing we can do until the next election.
We can pooh-pooh the impeachment power, or use it in a farcical show over a ditty with a Washington w*ore ... or we can demand that its "terrible swift sword" be used. It is a law-enforcement power, just like expulsion, and "any civil officer" of our government is subject to it. We must demand that it be used.
The so-called politicians who continue to make misbegotten fortunes try to tell us that to do this is "political," but it isn't. Just as a Grand Jury and a District Attorney are required by law to prosecute known or probable crimes, so is this Congress.
I recall a movie where there was a secret government running ours and selling us out to the world for power. There is something about all the different holes money has been lost to by this administration. There is no doubt that Bush has sold us out and Blackwater is a longtime Cheney connection so is a movie just a movie or a plan. No paranoia needed for this administration has hidden so much in their secret government that we may never know the extent of the damages brought by them. God help us all.
The American people are forced to give a portion of their monthly incomes to an organization which then does exactly what it wants with the peoples money.
They have learned to call it taxes and have learned to think of it as some legal part of living which is normal. From generation after generation the idea has been passed down from the times of Rome and other empires.
Their monies which is forced from them is then used to pay the lively hoods of others who often live vastly beyond those whos monies pays for their life styles.
Taxaction is thief, plain and simply. It is just one enormously learned and excepted swindle put on the people. And the enforcers who will literally come and take the house and cars or what ever that may be sold are called IRS or legalized and institutionalized mafia.
Legalized gangsters.
Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to add to the list the $9 billion in cash that was airlifted into Iraq by the US military and subsequently went missing. Still trying to wrap my head around what seems to be a universal dismissal at all levels of government of any attempt to follow the money.
The $9 Billion never made it to Iraq. It is in Dick Cheney's garage out in Wyoming covering an oil stain.
Yeah and I'm sure this will all come as a complete surprise to congress. Where else and what (who) else are they transporting?
Congress knows exactly whats going on and is refusing to do a thing about. If they don't then they have not asked enough questions and demanded more answers- more corruption or ineptitude. Either way grounds for dismissal- sooner the better.
A really thought-provoking blog. So many posts say"the problem is not this or that, but..." From where I sit, it looks like the problem is-- nearly all of the above. Here's the deal. We are getting set to nominate some presidential candidates
festering cholera outbreak, however black and brackish,
must we call it water? :-)
HOW do we justafye the :
THE DEATHS OF 2,800 PLUS U.S. SOLDIERS
THE WOULDS OF OVER 28,000 PLUS SOLDIERS
THOUSANDS OF IRAQE PEOPLE
MEN
WOMAN
CHILDREN
AND say "VICTORY " is just a few years away.
I'M AN AMERICAN I HAVE FOUGHT ONE WAR ALREADY
MY LEADERS tell me our ARMY, MARINE AND NAVY are in DYER NEED OF MEN, SUPPLES, EQUIPMENT, ETC. AND ONE YEAR LATER GOS TO WAR.
AND as we know now all on LIES, BUT WE CONTINUE.
WE " AMERICA " say we are the :
" MOST POWERFULL MILITARY IN THE WORLD "
WELL AS THUTH MA HAVE IT IN THE LAST SIX YEARS OF WAR WE HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT REFIGHT IN AMERICAN BLOOD EVERY FOOT OF THE GREEN ZONE WE HAD AT THE START OF THE WAR.
WE have more presons in iraq, outside of iraq and in cuba then we have safe out posts OUR LEADER IN THE FIELD are being HELD BACK or know nothing about WAR.
OR our war in IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN IS BEING RUN AT THE W/H WITH A MAN PLAYING "TIN SLODIERS ON HIS TABLE.
BECAUSE if this is the MOST POWERFULL NATION AND MILITARY I'ED LIKE TO KNOW WHY l
SIX YEARS
3,800 PLUS U.S.DEAD
20,000PLUS WOUNDED
SYILL FIGHTING IN THE STREET
NO WATER
NO ELICTRIC
AND IN SIX YEARS OF BLOOD SHED BY SOME AMERICANS THE REST OF AMERICA JUST SEATS AND ALOWS OTHERSTO CONTINUE TO DIE.
..........
DOSE ANY AMERICAN HAVE THE ANSWER OR WERE THEDEAD REALY WASTED BECAUSE THE OTHERS DIDN'T CARE ?.
Huff Post will surely pursue this - the biggest scandal since Watergate- everyone who has his or her hands on this one will be part of something big- Whoever gets to the bottom of the muddy blackwater scandal gets the Pulitzer- let's see if some biggies try for a cover-up scenario?
“ GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR TIME “
AFTER the SECOND WORLD WAR there was a meeting of the minds people who
WROTE
MADE LAWS
LIED TO THE PEOPLE
TORTURED PEOPLE
KILLED PEOPLE
CLOSED THE GOVERNMENT TO THE PEOPLE
ETC.
WERE put on trail for the HUMANITY OF MANKIND LYING TO THE PEOPLE ( TELLING THEM THE WORLD HATED THEM).
CONDEMNING PEOPLE OF OTHER FAITHS ( LIKE JEWS, BAPTIST,, GAYS. GIPSY, ETC )
INFIGHTING FEAR in every (SPEECH, CONVERSATION, NEWS REPORT, ETC.)
SENDING SOLDIERS INTO HARMS WAY ( I’LL EQUIPPED, UN ARMORED, NO SUPPORT, REPLACEMENTS, ETC.)
TELLING PEOPLE ( WHEN YOU SLEEP THERE COULD BE A MUSHROOM CLOUD ON YOUR CITY.)
MAYBE WE NEED A NUREMBERG TRAIL HERE IN AMERICA
TO LET THE PEOPLE OF THE LAST SEVEN YEARS KNOW
WE WILL NOT ALLOW LIES AND FEARS CREATE US TO FEAR TO WHERE WE LET OUR FREEDOM BE TAKEN.
THEY SHOULD KNOW WHAT PRISON TIME IS.
You clearly have a lot to say, but using caps is shouting.P
It appears that the battle to fight outsourcing may fall short of Blackwater. Rep Shays probably spoke for the majority of the WH and Congress when he spoke passionately for Blackwater. With Blackwater the attraction goes beyond outsourcing and on to adoration. Our current government is in love with having their own personal hit men. Hitler's officials must have felt the exact same pangs as Rep. Shays when the SS first marched outside the Reichstag.
'SUSAN RICE,I DID NOT KNOW THAT'.SUCH AS JONNY CARSON MIGHT HAVE SAID.
AFTER READING SOME EXCELLENT COMMENTS AND ALSO THE RICE ARTICLE,AN IMPRESSION OF THE OVER-ALL PROBLEMS ARRIVES BACK TO THE 'DRAFT' AS REASON TO EXTINGUISH ANY-ALL PRIVATE SECURITY GOONS.
PRAGMATICLY SPEAKING,THIS NEW DRAFT WOULD INCLUDE ALL THE CURRENT 'PRIVATE SECURITY'EMPLOYEES AND MAKE IT MANDITORY THAT THEY BE REQUIRED TO 'SERVE' FOUR IN THE REGULARS,Y
THEN,WE INACT THE DRAFT,SO ALL THOSE REPUGS-KIDS WILL NEED TO SERVE AND OF COURSE THE DEMS TOO.
CURRENTLY,ALL THESE RICH KIDS ARE RUNNING FREE-PARTY
WE CAN NOT KEEP THROWING TAXPAYER MONIES AT THE CURRENT SYSTEM,YET THERE APPEARS NO CHANGES.
RANGLE IS RIGHT,WE NEED THE DRAFT AND NOW,NOT NEXT YEAR TO MOTIVATE LAWMAKERS AVOID 'WAR' ESPECIALLY WAR FOR OIL.
Dawk, great that you have something to say, see above comment about using all caps.
Cheers.
There are many problems with the Bushies. At this point every one in the world knows how to play them. It is no secret how incompetent and just plain "stoopid" they are. The overriding problem with these jerks is they play "The Emperor's new Clothes" to an extent unimaginable. Since Bush was governor There has not been one major scandal to come near him . It appears.(t
it seems we will never have the opportunity to prosecute Bush/Cheney and the rest of the Executive Branch responsible for this Nightmare. If the best we can do is roll the heads of the contractors, i guess it's better than nothing. But it really annoys me beyond belief that the true Criminals will skate away free.
Blackwater ?
Black -- a color
Water -- a fluid
A Black Fluid?
Oh yes, of course - OIL!
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