Blackwater's Expanding Global Web of Power Relations.

How in the name of all that's despicable does Blackwater keep track of itself? One would think that, by now, Mr. Prince would've caught himself up in the web of aliases he continues to spin at a pace that would make Charlotte blush. To be sure, spinning false fronts that form crucial connections back to Blackwater, in this shell game he plays to win government and corporate contracts, is not so much to hide from governments and corporations, because they already know.  Rather, the idea is to shield himself, and the governments and corporations that he forms an alliance, from the bad publicity that would indeed generate, upon the public finding out about Blackwater's tie-ins to so many institutions vital to the established routines and events taking place here and abroad.

The latest conquest: Blackwater, now known as Xe gets a slice of a new $10 billion state department contract , despite repeated violations, which includes the murder of 17 Iraqis, including women and children,

According to State’s statement, the contracting process for the new Worldwide Protective Services deal included a “review” to ensure that companies met “minimum criteria” for eligibility. “This review included a process to determine whether any offerors had been suspended or debarred from the award of federal contracts,” it said. Despite Blackwater guards killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, killing two Afghan civilians on a Kabul road in 2009, and absconding with hundreds of unauthorized guns from a U.S. military weapons depot in Afghanistan using the name of a South Park character, federal contracting authorities have never suspended or debarred Blackwater.

Let's see. What else? Oh yeah...in addition to their $100 million contract with the CIA, and  $220 million deal in Afghanistan, they handle intelligence operations, training and security services for several multinational corporations... publicly traded companies, one of which includes acting as "the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm." Other companies include: Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays.

So, why didn't the red flag begin to wave after finding out Blackwater began to seek training contracts from foreign governments and other foreign organizations without adhering closely to American regulations? Not to mention, shipping automatic weapons and other military equipment for use by its personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan in violation of export controls, hiding its actions in some cases?

Well the flag did wave, but not enough to stop Blackwater.  Trace all the Blackwater links, which are completely unrestricted by geographical limits, and then consider the fundamental politics they embrace, and the entity's likeness to that of a government, keeping in mind the vast infrastructure, people involved, and its substantial hardware inventory, it illuminates that this private, unaccountable army, given immunity from prosecution it seems, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power" that former President Eisenhower spoke of "exists and will persist, endangering our liberties or democratic processes."

"We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist, endangering our liberties or democratic processes. As we peer into society's future, we must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering the precious resources of tomorrow." -- President Eisenhower

Links:

Announcement of the contract award  “International Development Solutions,”

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Obfuscating the Real Issues.

While everyone is waxing hysterical over the manufactured controversy regarding President Obama's speech to schoolchildren, clearly a non-issue, there are real controversial issues that need to be addressed.

For example, why is President Obama continuing some of the Bush administration's disastrous policies, specifically retaining Blackwater (rebranded Xe pronounced “z”obviously a ploy to operate in the shadows rather the limelight of their murderous past), which is owned by right-wing religious fanatic, and "Christian" crusader, Erik Prince, who is currently accused of murder.

Why isn't Obama doing more to reverse the Bush Administration's destructive courses of action and instead relying on what can only be called, "Bush-era tactics." ?

Why isn't he doing more to stop the senseless bloodshed...to stop the hiring of mercenaries from "for profit" war corporations, who currently comprise more than half of all military forces in U.S. war zones?

Why does the Congressional research group, report civilian contractors working for the Pentagon in Afghanistan not only outnumber the uniformed troops, but also form the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel recorded in any war in the history of the United States?

What happened to the Stop Outsourcing Security Act? , which would have phased out the use of private military contractors? Open Congress reports that secure it's interests regardless of costs in collateral damages.

Could it be that war profiteering is just too profitable to the corporate elite to put a halt to mercenary armies?

Do we really need a new super-sized U.S. embassy in Islamabad that rivals the scale of Bush's giant U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which was completed last year after construction delays at a cost of $740 million?

So, why not hire private contractors, especially when our military is stretched so thin in various places around the world?

Jeremy Scahill eloquently answers this question and I will do my best to paraphrase. He basically says, when it becomes a necessity to hire an army of people to fight a war, it’s not a reflection of the will of “we the people”. If this were truly a war of national defense, people would willingly sign up, and the government would impose a draft. In this situation, however, imposing a draft would almost certainly put an end to this war as it would surely serve as the fuel needed to fire "we the people" up.

180,000 private contractors are in Iraq right now working for "for profit" war corporations. There are only 150,000 US soldiers. There are 630 corporations on the US government payroll in Iraq. 40% of the money being spent on the occupation in Iraq goes directly to these corporations.

This administration has circumvented the democratic process in order to keep a draft off the table. They have replaced a system of negotiation or international diplomacy or coalition of willing nations with a coalition of corporations. This not only violates democratic principles in the United States, it violates the sovereignty of nations around the world because they are hiring people from countries who are against the war.

On of the gravest matters regarding this issue is that the contractors have not been held to the same standards as the military. They are not held accountable under any system of law whatsoever. 70 soldiers have been court marshaled on murder related charges alone since the beginning of the Iraq war. Not one armed contractor has been prosecuted for any crime under any legal system.

Our soldiers are lucky if they're earning $40,000/year. Their families are at home saving their own money to buy body armor, meanwhile these contractors are making six figures and have much better equipment than our soldiers, manufactured by one of the companies that make up the Prince global empire. In addition, our soldiers often pay the price for the misconduct of the contractors, as they are above the law.

It wasn't all that surprising to see our government stoop so low as to hire Blackwater contractors take on the truly "dangerous" .... dying cancer patients, when Bush was in office, because, after all, President Bush was in office. However, it is surprising to see the escalation of some of Bush's most controversial policies under President Obama.

The bottom line is we need to differentiate between real issues and manufactured issues designed to steer us away from what is in our best interest.

Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)

Contracts to Blackwater USA from 2000-2008

Triple Canopy and DynCorp.

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