Bush/Cheney ran a secret war using Blackwater's mercenary army. How illegal is that?

[L. Coyote]

Has anyone has considered the legal implications?
Did Bush inform Congress? Or was this done to circumvent informing Congress?
Is this what Obama found out about only recently?

Did we have an ongoing secret war that even the Commander-in-Chief did not know about?

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan Revealed
By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation. Posted November 24, 2009.
http://www.alternet.org/story/144153/blackwater%27s_secret_war_in_pakistan_revealed


An elite division of Blackwater plans targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. And everyone's denying it.

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment .................

[L. Coyote]

1. VIDEO: Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x410219

[Cleita]

2. And yet they wander free, enjoying their war booty, and feeling

free to criticize our legitimate President. They should be arrested and sent to one of the torture prisons they created for enhanced interrogation. This nation is more than fed up with them.

[jwirr]

3. Another Iran/Contra war? It was illegal then.

[EFerrari]

4. The Iran Contra criminals never went away. They're still all over our government.

And their methods and networks are now institutionalized.

[elehhhhna]

5. same crap, different diaper

[EFerrari]

6. LOL

[valerief]

11. Exquisitely stated. nt

[jtrockville]

9. That's what happens when criminals aren't prosecuted.

[gratuitous]

16. Or when they're pre-emptively pardoned

Don't forget that George H.W. Bush, in the dead of night on Christmas Eve 1992, after losing his bid for re-election, pardoned Caspar Weinberger, Eliot Abrams, and others who were about to go on trial for their crimes in Iran/contra. A trial that almost surely would have put the lie to Bush's claim that he was "out of the loop" during the entire escapade.

What does it say that bringing that up elicits blank stares from our pundit class, but every man jack of them can cite chapter and verse the entire story of Marc Rich?

[JoeyT]

14. Not just in the government

One of their dickhead poster boys is a regular on Fox news.
Because we really wanna be lectured on foreign policy and morality by Oliver Fucking North.

[OregonBlue]

7. Is this why Eric Prince is suddenly resigning?

[L. Coyote]

13. That has to do with either the forthcoming perjury or other criminal chargers, it seems,

if I have that part of the story straight.

==========
Blackwater linked to political murders and sex ring
By Wayne Madsen - Online Journal Contributing Writer
Aug 11, 2009, 00:20 - http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5002.shtml


(WMR) -- Explosive affidavits filed in the US District Court in Eastern Virginia in Alexandria by two ex-employees of Blackwater have thrown more light on the murky operations of the private military firm ......

.......

In his deposition, John Doe #1, a former Marine hired by Blackwater, alleges that Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq in bags of dog food. He also states that a number of people who provided or were prepared to provide information to authorities on the activities of Blackwater and Prince “have been killed in suspicious circumstances.” Doe #1 also confirms previous reports that Blackwater did nothing to prevent its personnel in Iraq from killing or seriously injuring Iraqi civilians.

John Doe #2’s deposition contains even more explosive revelations about Prince and Blackwater. Doe #2 states that Prince and his top manager, Gary Jackson, personally oversaw all Prince Group operations. Prince Group consists of Blackwater (Xe) and related firms. Doe #2 alleges that Prince transferred funds from Blackwater to another Prince Group firm, Greystone, to engage in money laundering and tax evasion.

.................

Prince seems to have omitted Greystone as a Blackwater firm during his congressional testimony. Or he perjured himself under oath. Blackwater’s presence in Barbados, under the corporate confidentiality regimes of the Caribbean island nation’s off-shore corporation hosting legal contrivances, has stirred up opposition in the country.

.........

[metapunditedgy]

8. Eric Prince has enough money now to buy 90% of Congress.

Nothing will happen.

[valerief]

10. Nothing that benefits the elite is illegal. Constitution? That's a ship, isn't it? nt

[Traveling_Home]

12. So this is going on NOW - under Pres. Obama? nt

[L. Coyote]

15. Blackwater Founder Tells of Extensive Government-Contracted Assassinations

Blackwater Founder Tells of Extensive Government-Contracted Assassinations
Friday 04 December 2009 - http://www.truthout.org/1204097
by: Yana Kunichoff, t r u t h o u t | Report


The head of Blackwater revealed the details of his collaboration with the CIA to locate and assassinate top al Qaeda operatives as part of a covert antiterror operation Tuesday, and blamed Democrats for the leak that ended the program.

..............

Prince blames Congressional Democrats for the leak. "hen it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus," he said. "The left complained about how Valerie Plame's identity was compromised for political reasons. Well, what happened to me was worse. People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it."

According to current and former government officials, former Vice President Dick Cheney told CIA officers in 2002 that they did not need to inform Congress about the program because they were already legally authorized to kill al Qaeda leaders. .........

.......... Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "It is too easy to contract out work that you don't want to accept responsibility for."

................