Charged contractors had checkered military pasts

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AP/WP

Charged contractors had checkered military pasts

By MIKE BAKER
The Associated Press
Monday, January 25, 2010; 4:46 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A pair of former Blackwater contractors charged with murdering two people in Afghanistan had checkered pasts with the military before getting hired to work overseas, according to service records disclosed in recent U.S. court hearings.

The troubled backgrounds of the two men - including instances of violence, drug use and disregard for authority - are a first sign that Xe, the company formerly known as Blackwater, was staffing its war-zone work force with contractors who might not be suited for the job.

The military typically keeps its detailed service records confidential. That makes it difficult to verify the conventional perception that Xe has long filled its rosters with decorated special forces personnel. In the cases of Chris Drotleff and Justin Cannon, prosecutors brought up their records while arguing at hearings this month that both men should be jailed pending their trials.

<snip>

Both men were indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia this month on two counts of second-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges in a 2008 shooting along a Kabul road. They had been in Afghanistan working for Xe subsidiary Paravant under a Department of Defense contract to provide weapons training to the Afghan National Army.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012502494.html

[boppers]

1. Mercenaries are less than admirable soldiers?

Color me shocked.

[sabrina 1]

2. 'The conventional perception' that Blackwater only hires

reputable people? Not so, according to this article from Alternet in 2004:

Mercenaries 'R' Us

http://www.alternet.org/world/18193/

These soldiers-for-hire are veterans of some of the most repressive military forces in the world, including that of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and South Africa's apartheid regime.

In February, Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based Pentagon contractor, began hiring former combat personnel in Chile, offering them up to $4,000 a month to guard oil wells in Iraq. The company flew the first batch of 60 former commandos to a training camp in North Carolina. These recruits will eventually wind up in Iraq where they will spend six months to a year.

"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals -- the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater USA, told the Guardian.

Taxpayer money is going to these mercenaries and it is a disgrace that the average American has no idea who is receiving their hard-earned money. 'Support the Troops' is how Congress manages to get support for every war supplemental.

If the press was doing its job, these wars, where most of the money is being spent on 'private contractors' and trickles down to murderous goons from brutal dictatorships, would be over long ago.

These Mercenary contractors need to be thoroughly investigated. Before they become too powerful and we are reduced to third world status as Congress out of fear, and the press, are too afraid to go after them.

[EFerrari]

6. The WaHo is trying to minimize liability for Xe to hiring practices.

Prince was a CIA asset and this is obvious propaganda.

[sabrina 1]

7. True, and a lot of people will probably believe it because

other than Jeremy Scahill, the media still calls them 'contractors' and people think they are helping to rebuild as most of us did at first.

[mbperrin]

3. Checkered? "instances of violence, drug use and disregard for authority"

What does it take to have a BAD record?

[laststeamtrain]

4. TPM: Coke, Booze, Assault: Blackwater Contractors' Past Revealed In Murder Case

Coke, Booze, Assault: Blackwater Contractors' Past Revealed In Murder Case
Justin Elliott | January 25, 2010, 6:35PM

The two former Blackwater contractors who were charged this month with murder for the shooting death of two Afghan men left the military with other-than-honorable discharges for behavior ranging from assault to going AWOL and testing positive for cocaine, according to service records that surfaced in bond hearings, the AP reports.

A judge in federal court in Virginia has ordered Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon held in custody; arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. The judge called Drotleff "a danger to the community based on the nature of the charged offense, his history of alcohol abuse and criminal and military history which include crimes of violence."

It had been previously reported that Drotleff had been twice arrested for DUI in his home of Virginia Beach over the past 10 years. ... http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/records_of_blackwater_contractors_in_murder_case_c.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TPMmuckraker+%28TPMmuckraker%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

[defendandprotect]

5. kick