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Blackwater scares the shit out of me
s7apster
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Blackwater USA, as you may know, is the largest private security company currently operating in Iraq. They get contracts from the American Government to protect important buildings and personnel from the insurgency.
Blackwater is owned by Eric Prince a hard-core right wing Evangelical christian who has given millions of dollars to Republican causes. He is an ex navy SEAL, and he used his contacts to start up the corporation. The company hires ex-marines and ex-army officers from the United States, as well as a significant number of ex Chilean special forces people. Some of the best people in the U.S. military choose to retire early, drawn by Blackwater's extremely high wages and excellent training facility in North Carolina.
They are basically above the law.
They do not take orders from the U.S. military, and there have been situations where American troops have actually taken orders from Blackwater contractors. They have committed heinous crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, but have not been prosecuted because they are outside the military justice system.
When a Blackwater employee signs a contract, they sign away their families right to sue for wrongful cause if they are to die. The company is free from the legal restrictions placed on the military, but gets all the benefits. They get the best of both worlds, and there is no accountability.
Does this scare anyone else? Does the fact that a hard-core evangelical christian right wing nut-job have a private army of thousands of highly trained contractors, that is not held to any measure of legal accountability scare you? Or is it just me?
Blackwater is owned by Eric Prince a hard-core right wing Evangelical christian who has given millions of dollars to Republican causes. He is an ex navy SEAL, and he used his contacts to start up the corporation. The company hires ex-marines and ex-army officers from the United States, as well as a significant number of ex Chilean special forces people. Some of the best people in the U.S. military choose to retire early, drawn by Blackwater's extremely high wages and excellent training facility in North Carolina.
They are basically above the law.
They do not take orders from the U.S. military, and there have been situations where American troops have actually taken orders from Blackwater contractors. They have committed heinous crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, but have not been prosecuted because they are outside the military justice system.
When a Blackwater employee signs a contract, they sign away their families right to sue for wrongful cause if they are to die. The company is free from the legal restrictions placed on the military, but gets all the benefits. They get the best of both worlds, and there is no accountability.
Does this scare anyone else? Does the fact that a hard-core evangelical christian right wing nut-job have a private army of thousands of highly trained contractors, that is not held to any measure of legal accountability scare you? Or is it just me?
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They fervently believe in their "mission," (though I frighteningly have no idea what that mission is) and I would compare them to crusaders, insofar as they believe that pretty much any action is justified if it furthers their cause.
The greed of some of these people in the Military Industrial Complex is just plain ridiculous. But, they have influence so they get what they want.
That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.
Does that mean they'll find employment with other countries? I don't think you're supposed to fire talented professionals if they can work for the next guy just as easily.
No, it's that about the only thing protecting Blackwater and Prince is that Bush is President. Come next January...it could get REALLY ugly for them.
How are they in trouble when Bush is gone?
They are still a security company. They may lose contracts in Iraq/Afghanistan, but thats not gonna put them under.
Read the news sometime. They've been caught basically acting as if they're above the law. The current administration is happy to turn a blind eye, but the next....not so much.
?
How does that stop them from leaving the US and working for a James Bond villain before the next term starts? Would America covertly hunt them down before that happens, like in a Tom Clancy novel?
Just have to speak their language, and their language is money.
I would hope their patriotism...except for the chileans...wait no, especially the chileans.
I'm not so certain. The whole reason Blackwater is in Iraq right not is because we NEED them. With troops getting worn down from constant tour after tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is really hurting and can't do everything in the field by itself anymore. Blackwater has, whether we like it or not, a cornerstone of the Iraqi mission; if they were really sent home, the strain put on the military would be too great.
With that out of the way, the way they do business is rather scary. In fact, I remember reading the Stars & Stripes, the oversea military community's daily newspaper, in 2005 filled with several Letters to the Editor from troops in Iraq reporting that civilian contractors were often very unprofessional, possibly unethical, and needed more supervision. The fact that Congress and the rest of the government have been slow in picking up on this is a bit alarming.
The Iraqi mission is most likely going to be scaled down a metric ton by the next administration. I'd venture that promise is the cornerstone of any winning election campaign.
Mercenaries for hire are mercenaries for hire. Nothing is stopping them right now from turning on U.S. soldiers aside from money and common sense. I personally don't think this company is talented enough to tangle with the real un-retired regular and special forces units of the United States Military when we're not over-extended in a pointless war. Do you?
Please see my above post.
It's very easy to imagine that you are superior to the U.S. military when you are guarding a bunch of foreign service officials who are so fucking important that they warrant the obscenely expensive services of a private mercenary company.
And BW isn't disarming IEDs, or doing room clearing in hotspots or any of the other super-dangerous-get-your-limbs-blown-off shit. They are primarily used to guard "important" persons and places and to provide armed escorts to important people and things.
Blackwater could completely go away and the only thing we'd be risking is a possible, slight decrease in the safety of the exact people who should be put at more risk so they hopefully pull their heads out of their asses and stop proclaiming "success" and "mission accomplishment" every 20 minutes.
Um, I think you need to get "edu-macated" about Blackwater. Last time I checked, they were providing guard to military bases, working convoys, guarding the American embassy, working as snipers and patrol squads fighting insurgents (Fallujah 2004 is a big example), and other jobs & missions. They've been taking on a LOT of the traditional military roles. If they were to disappear, troops would have to be committed back to these jobs, meaning in new troop surge would be necessary (if the Iraqi War continued, that is).
The fact of the matter is that, should the contractors go away, we would have to scale back our mission in Iraq. Our doomed clusterfuck of a catastroFUBAR of a mission. Please don't throw me in that thar briar patch.
Besides, Blackwater couldn't save James Doakes, why should I give a shit if they're thrown to the wolves?
How old are you?
I kid, but agree with your point.
32. If they REALLY wanted to draft me, they could. And then I would live in jail.
The big deal is that they take on the duties of soldiers, but have not had the discipline or oversight of soldiers.
If a soldier murders civilians, he gets put up on court-marshal.
If a blackwater mercinary murders civilians, he is told to stop making the papers.
/sarcasm
They hire people who were trained by the military. Usually the people they grab were the best. Now they answer to the one guy. That guy doesn't really answer to anyone right now.
Hey! My parents are draft-dodgers from 'nam, thats why I live in Canada!
Well, my dad at least.
That aside, what you people are failing to realise is that they are accountable to the conventional criminal justice system, which is notably less lenient than the military justice system.
They're a shady Mercenary company given leeway to pretty much get away with as much as they can get away with. They don't abide by Military Law. They're pretty much this administration's private army. If they ARE accountable for anything, they're sure as hell not being made accountable by this administration.
They actually DO act as soldiers and do take part occasionally in combat operations. The issue is they've been noted by troops to practice unsafe, unprofessional, and possibly unethical practices on a regular basis.
Man, no. The US Army is this administration's private army. Blackwater is a security force that just cleans up behind them.
And now I'm offended...
Have you been listening? They take part in combat operations, and are tasked with protecting the most important personnel in Iraq. And they do it dangerously and unethically.
Okay, Church, I'd like you to meet an internet forum. Internet forum, I'd like you to meet Church.
It's nearly 5 pm on friday after a long week, and I really didn't feel like checking www.dictionary.com like I usually do when spelling words I'm not sure about, mostly because I have not seen people on this particular forum try to discredit someone's argument for not spelling something correctly.
Please. I'm an adult male who has been exposed to both military fiction and news about military reality for most of his life. I have friends in the service. I'm not an expert, but I've fucking seen A Few Good Men for crying out loud.
They are, NOW. Before they started making headlines for murdering people, they didn't answer to Iraqi justice, military justice, or American justice. This has been reported in books, TV, and print media for the last year or so. So before you go trying to discredit me, do your homework.
Cite an example of Blackwater personnel that is known to have committed a crime that hasn't recieved punishment and won't recieve punishment.
"On February 6, 2006, a sniper employed by Blackwater Worldwide opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry shot and killed three guards working for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network. 13 witnesses said not one of the slain guards fired on the Justice Ministry. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." Iraqi Media Network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation." The U.S. State Department, based on information obtained from Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force." "
Also, numerous reports from various troops of guards point guns at allies, firing w/o being fired on, and generally acting like flambouyent cowboys.
Your newsletter? I'd like to sign up for it.
I sincerely hope (and do believe so) American law prevents you of signing away fundamental rights like that in an employment contract. It is logical that a court would rarely rule the cause of death to be wrongful if you die in a dangerous job like this, but preventing your family, or anyone (!) to go to court and argue the opposite should be (and is, I think) illegal (well, just impossible, not actually illegal).
And now that one example (of the many available, I assure you) has been cited, I trust you will stop trying to peddle this particular line of bullshit.
How was that incident handled? What occurred in the aftermath?