Cafferty takes on Blackwater, quotes Jeremy Scahill, wants to hear from you

[me b zola]

Jack exposes the private military and digs into Blackwater. Cafferty quotes Jeremy Scahill's LA Times OP-ED on the subject:

Bush and his political allies are using taxpayer dollars to run an outsourcing laboratory, Iraq is it's Frankenstein monster.


Cafferty's question for 5pm est:

What does it mean that President Bush is using taxpayer money to fund a private army in Iraq without the knowledge of the American people?

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5t.html


This seems like a job for DU to DU!!


edited to include link :hi:

[cynatnite]

1. Absolutely!

I sat stunned as he actually spoke about it. I can't recall anyone else in corporate media mentioning this before.

[jannyk]

12. So my answer was...

"It means that, as usual, the media has again let us down in not making this a 'story' until now. After all, this private, tax funded army wasn't assembled yesterday was it?
Where have you guys been? Oh, that's right, it's much more pertinent that we discuss and dissect Hilary's sense of humor and how often Nancy blinked at the SOTU. God forbid, that 'real news' should take time away from your usual major 'fluff' pieces. Investigative journalists my arse!"

Wasn't read - I wonder why?

[Vadem]

15. Great response!!!! ......n/t

[hippiechick]

2. got a link ? i'd love to send him a note ...

... thanks!

[TomInTib]

3. Try this

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/situation.room/

[me b zola]

5. Thank you for the link

My slow computer & connetion made me a bit frustrated trying to get this posted before it was time to read the comments, that I forgot the link.

[hippiechick]

6. Gracias!

:hi:

[fooj]

4. Cafferty needs to keep this up.

Airtime is critical to get the message out.

[hippiechick]

7. Mine:

"The 'outsourcing' of the military to private firms such as Blackwater is further proof - along with all the no bid/no oversight contracts to Halliburton, etc. what the real reason for invading Iraq was ... to allow Bush's war profiteering cronies to loot the US Treasury which - at the time -had the biggest surplus in US history and pad their own pockets at taxpayer expense."

[me b zola]

10. Your answer is very close to mine

Sorry I didn't save, was trying to send it off before it is too late.

My mind was flying, so I'm not sure how much sense I made. I drew paralells between Iraq & New Orleans.

[originalpckelly]

8. My answer:

It means America's republic has never been so close to a full blown dictatorship. The owner of this company is a big time Republican contributor, what happens in 2008? Will this army overthrow the government? What happens when they are pulled out of Iraq?

I don't know if we can honestly answer those questions, but the fact that they even come to mind is absolutely terrifying.

[PoiBoy]

9. Democracy Now! did a piece on Blackwater last friday...

here's the transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/26/1559232


<snip>
AMY GOODMAN: And electoral politics?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, and other Blackwater executives are major bankrollers of the President, of Tom DeLay, of Santorum. They really were -- when those guys were running Congress, Amy, Blackwater had just a revolving door there. They were really welcomed in as heroes. Senator John Warner, the former head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called them “our silent partner in the global war on terror.” Erik Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is married to Dick Devos, who recently lost the gubernatorial race in Michigan.

But also, Amy, this is a family, the Prince family, that really was one of the primary funders. It was Amway and Dick DeVos in the 1990s, and it was Edgar Prince and his network -- Erik Prince's father -- that really created James Dobson, Focus on the Family -- they gave them the seed money to start it -- Gary Bauer, who was one of the original signers to the Project for a New American Century, a major anti-choice leader in this country, former presidential candidate, founder of the Family Research Council. He credits Edgar Prince, Erik’s father, with giving him the money to start the Family Research Council. We’re talking about people who were at the forefront of the rightwing Christian revolution in this country that really is gaining steam, despite recent electoral defeats.

And what’s really frightening is that you have a man in Erik Prince, who is a neo-crusader, a Christian supremacist, who has been given over a half a billion dollars in federal contracts, and that's not to mention his black contracts, his secret contracts, his contracts with foreign friendly governments like Jordan. This is a man who espouses Christian supremacy, and he has been given, essentially, allowed to create a private army to defend Christendom around the world against secularists and Muslims and others, and has really been brought into the fold. He refers to Blackwater as the sort of FedEx of the Pentagon. He says if you really want a package to get somewhere, do you go with the postal service or do you go with FedEx? This is how these people view themselves. And it embodies everything that President Eisenhower prophesied would happen with the rise of an unchecked military-industrial complex. You have it all in Blackwater.
<end>

This stuff would be scary if it wasn't real..!!!

[BuyingThyme]

11. Is this what Cafferty's emailer was referring to when

he referred to Blackwater as a new scandal?

[NNN0LHI]

13. K&R n/t

[IndyOp]

14. I am stunned that Cafferty is covering this - stunned, please, but

quite seriously, jaw-dropping-open stunned.

:wow:

I emailed him - the "civilian corps" makes me think of Brown Shirts - the SS.

:-(

[mitchum]

16. Kick for shining a light on those mendacious dirtbags...

A HUGE private army of hired killers