New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food »
Posted By Aidenag 12 months ago in NewsA federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned.
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Aidenag
Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment.
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hyperbola12 months ago
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Would that it were so fsev41. Unfortunately the "iron triangle" corruption in the Pentagon is now deeply rooted in both parties.
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Democracy Now
Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry
... AMY GOODMAN: That was Barack Obama.
JEREMY SCAHILL: This is interesting. I mean, this is one of the more interesting exchanges I’ve seen with a presidential candidate on this issue. I mean, it almost never gets raised at all.
Barack Obama—this is the reality about this. Barack Obama understands this issue extremely well. His staff has been on top of this for quite some time. He—what he said to you is true. He did introduce the legislation in the Senate that has become the Democrats’ official legislation on these private security companies, and he did it eight months before Nisour Square. So, clearly, Barack Obama is someone who has been following this very closely. He understands it very intimately.
What’s interesting—and you raised this with him—is that he won’t take the step toward actually trying to ban these companies. Representative Jan Schakowsky and Senator Bernie Sanders have put forward legislation called the Stop Outsourcing Security Act in the Congress, and Barack Obama has said he’s not going to come onboard and support that legislation. ....
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/2/blackwater_je...
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GehlLady12 months ago
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FTA:
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"Despite four separate federal grand jury investigations of its operations, Blackwater's contract to provide security services for the US State Department was renewed earlier this year. The contract pays Blackwater $250 million a year and runs for five years."
hyper, I didn't catch that interview you quoted, but he(Obama) has said the same thing at other times during his campaign. He will not rule out continuing to use Blackwater. If he understands the issue as much as Scahill claims, he also knows the quote FTA I posted. -
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Telux12 months ago
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Blackwater is handling issues to tough to hande on a political side. Without a Blackwater there would be more deaths in Irag. It is easy to point a finger and blame and yes Blackwater might use some other means of force to deliver their " goods " but who else is going to do the s**t jobs ? I am not Military but was elite when I was in the service and there is a reason we are taught to push beyond our extremes. At the end of the day the mission is handled and life goes on. So unless you have the ability to make changes don't spit on the only unit that has the moxy to make it happen - End of Sermon
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tehranchik12 months ago
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From another article at CBS: 6 Blackwater guards may be indicted in Iraqi deaths.
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" Federal prosecutors have drafted an indictment against six Blackwater Worldwide security guards in last year's deadly Baghdad shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned. The draft is being reviewed by senior Justice Department officials but no charging decisions have been made. A decision is not expected until at least later this month, people close to the case said.
Also still undecided is whether the Justice Department would charge the guards with manslaughter or assault, according to the people, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
It's possible that prosecutors ultimately will seek charges against as few as three of the guards, whose identities are still secret. Depending on the charges, an indictment would carry maximum sentences of five to 20 years.
An indictment would send the message that the Justice Department believes U.S. contractors do not operate with legal impunity in war zones. It's an untested legal theory, since the law is murky on whether contractors could be charged in U.S. courts, or anywhere, for crimes committed overseas."
This is moxy?
This is only one instance. There are many reports.You are incorrect in your statement Telux. There will be fewer deaths without Blackwater. -
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Tcaros12 months ago
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There are those who foolishly believe that "breaking our laws" is okay for some purported reason. The problem is the laws ae there for a reason. Later the same foolish people will say "I didn't know they were doing that for another reason."
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That's why we have laws. Don't believe for a minute that it's okay to "cheat" to save liberty.
The contrary is true: We should do everything to abide by the laws we are protecting.
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flyonthewallzz12 months ago
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I know they are feeding our government watchdogs pretty well.
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It seem that the inspector generals offices of the DOD and State are stepping stones to a career at BlackWater. Not to mention the dude who's job it was to get Bin laden in the 90's.
Joseph Edward Schmitz
Howard J. Krongard
Cofer Black
To name a few.
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