Blackwater

[SHRED]

Blackwater represents the privatization of our military into a Republican/Christian mercenary force.

Onward Christian soldiers.
Holy shit.
:mad:

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"“Contracting out security to groups like Blackwater undermines our constitutional democracy,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Their actions may not be subject to constitutional limitations that apply to both federal and state officials and employees—including First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Unlike police officers they are not trained in protecting constitutional rights and unlike police officers or the military they have no system of accountability whether within their organization or outside it. These kind of paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts, functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that can and does operate outside the law. The use of these paramilitary groups is an extremely dangerous threat to our rights."

The politicization of the military, the fostering of the belief that violence must be used to further a peculiar ideology rather than defend a democracy, was on display recently when Air Force and Army generals and colonels, filmed in uniform at the Pentagon, appeared in a promotional video distributed by the Christian Embassy, a radical Washington-based organization dedicated to building a “Christian America.” "

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/
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"Blackwater was co-founded by former Navy Seal Erik Prince, a "billionaire right-wing fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Michigan Republican family. A major Republican campaign contributor, he interned in the White House of President George H.W. Bush and campaigned for Pat Buchanan in 1992. He founded the mercenary firm Blackwater USA in 1997 with Gary Jackson, another former Navy SEAL."

Prince's father, Edgar Prince, and Gary Bauer started the Family Research Council, where Prince interned. Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, is a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party."

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2249

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" Blackwater USA was founded by a man named Eric Prince. And Eric Prince is ... currently in his late 30s, but at the time of founding Blackwater in 1996 he was believed to be the wealthiest person that had ever enlisted in the U.S. Navy SEALs, which is widely considered to be the most elite force within the U.S. military. And Eric Prince came from a very conservative evangelical Christian family in the state of Michigan. His father was a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps businessman who started a very successful auto parts manufacturing business called Prince Manufacturing. And what the company was best known for was inventing the now ubiquitous lighted sun visor. Any time you’re in your car and you pull down that visor and it lights up, that’s Eric Prince’s family that invented that. So this company was very successful throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and really, young Eric Prince watched as his father used his very successful business as a cash-generating machine to fund the rise of the Republican revolution in 1994 that brought Newt Gingrich and the Contract With America to power. To give the kick-start money to Gary Bauer to start his group, the Family Research Council. They were heavy funders of James Dobson and Focus on the Family. And so young Eric Prince grew up in this family that was very strict Calvinist in their religion and then real free-market-gospel followers. And so he saw this sort of model from his father, and that really has been the model that he has picked up and ran with as he’s built up his Blackwater empire."

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20070330_jeremy_scahill_on_soldiers_of_fortune/

[msongs]

1. what is ANY elected democrat going to DO about blackwater? nt

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. The simplest answer:

Cancel any and all government contracts with Blackwater. Then, investigate, after pulling its federal firearms licenses.

Blackwater is, in truth, a highly-paid, well-armed and equipped right-wing militia.

[MikeNearMcChord]

4. You said it right there.

"highly-paid, well-armed and equipped right-wing militia." I say outlaw these mercenary companies, they are a threat to American Democracy. Take a look at South America and see how private armies thrive.

[alfredo]

19. Maybe they will be protecting bush when he

goes into exile in Paraguay.

[Vexatious Ape]

6. Good answer.

[SHRED]

18. great question!

[Aviation Pro]

3. Perfumed Prince Erik Prince....

...is now suspect as a real SEAL. No real SEAL ever starts out by introducing himself as "former Navy Seal Erik Prince." Once an owner of Budweiser always an owner of a Budweiser.



What's your class number Erik?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Uhoh.

The Phoques, both presently and once-serving, take a very, very dim view of pretenders to their hard-earned throne. Something about the crucible of fire that is BUD/S, IIRC, amongst other things. They do not suffer this particular form of fool gladly, either. It's not particularly hard for them to confirm bona-fides either.

Wish it was earlier and TomFromTib was up and around. I would like to hear his take on this. I always listen to his wise counsel in matters such as these, since he has, as they say, "been there, done that".

Sounds like Mr. Prince, if it is confirmed he did not serve or somehow falsified service records(not outside the realm of possibility, these days...) is facing a crisis of credibility.

On edit: do you have a link to some enumerations of these doubts, regarding Mr. Prince's service record?

[Aviation Pro]

7. Right now, just a feeling....

...but he was "allowed" to leave the service after just three years after his father died. That's pretty unusual. Also, he "left" the USNA and went somewhere else because he couldn't hack the discipline (my speculation). This leads me to believe that if he can't cut a four square bed at Annapolis how in the hell did he put up with sugar cookies and surf drills on the beach at Coronado?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Valid Feeling.

If he got the Budweiser, that means he not only bought it hard, but the Navy invested a lot of money in his training. Letting him out early does not seem plausible. Besides, a question that could be asked is this: would a real SEAL walk on the basis of his father dying? I mean, it is not as if the family would have been left destitute and struggling with hardships.

You're right. Problems with the smell test.

[Aviation Pro]

8. For those who don't know....

...phoques is french for seal and pronounced, well you get the idea.

[supernova]

9. Sorta begs the question

did he sign up for the SEALS because he wanted to at the time and then founded Blackwater later. OR, did he go into the SEALs with the intention of founding an organization like Blackwater? IOW, did he just sign up for the SEALs as a way to get some bona fides?

I don't suppose it makes a difference, really.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

11. In truth...

and as I understand it, people go into the SEALS only because they are incredibly motivated, down to some relatively unknown sub-molecular level, to be SEALS. Once they are in BUD/S, that attitude quickly turns to a motivation to survive to the next day and not drop out.

The instructors in BUD/S are incredibly good at making the course material...challenging.

I have a couple of friends who were/are SEALS and when I was working for Seger, we used to get a lot of guys, older SEALS, who would come to the shows when we were in Washington or San Diego. Interesting folks. I learned a bit about all this from my friends. I am not an expert.

[supernova]

13. That's what I have observed

from a distance (I don't know any SEALs either, ex or otherwise)

people go into the SEALS only because they are incredibly motivated, down to some relatively unknown sub-molecular level, to be SEALS. Once they are in BUD/S, that attitude quickly turns to a motivation to survive to the next day and not drop out


Same could be said for Special Forces types too. I guess what I'm saying is the people this admin attracts seem to be a different breed, motivation wise, altogether.

*sigh*

Sidebar: I'm particularly ambivalent about Blackwater being based in NC. Who the hell told him about NC and why it would be a good place for that dastardly organization? I wish they'd leave. Permanently. Better yet, be completely destroyed and disbanded. OTOH, if they were to move somewhere else, Dubai say, we wouldn't know what they were up to .... at all.

[Aviation Pro]

16. Because it splits the difference....

...between Fayetteville, NC and Little Creek, VA. Prime recruiting grounds there and there.

[supernova]

17. That makes sense. n/t

[conspirator]

12. Is Blackwater the New World Order Army?

It used to be sci-fi that multinational corporations will rule the world and have their own private armies. This is a global world. Borders and local languages are meaningless when u have the internet, aviation. The elite families in different countries are now more united than ever.

[ryanmuegge]

14. That's exactly what I see them as.

They will be used to "ease" tensions between the haves and (many) have-nots of globalization

[Gabi Hayes]

20. Willam Gibson, anyone? Zaibatsus for EVERYone.

[ryanmuegge]

15. I could be wrong, but Blackwater was hired by the super rich during Kartrina to stand guard, right?

Rich people hired them to guard their houses?

What a bunch of fucking thugs, if that's the case. This is a Bush / Milton Friedman wet dream come true: their only loyalty is to profit.