9
9 Trillion Dollar Republican Natio
Guest
This is what happens when you pay billions of dollars to a bunch of
dumb angry overzealous redneck Republicans with more weapons than the
US Military itself.
Blackwater Blues for Dead Iraqi Civilians
by Bill Berkowitz / September 19th, 2007
Erik Prince, the founder and head of Blackwater USA, has contributed
mega-bucks to Republican Party candidates and Christian right
organizations and causes. Why is this advocate of "traditional family
values" stonewalling the families of four Blackwater contractors
killed in Fallujah in March 2004?
After an incident over the weekend that resulted in the murder of
eight civilians and the wounding of thirteen others by private
security forces in Iraq, the ministry of interior yesterday took the
decision to expel Blackwater from the country.
According to The Guardian, US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,
"apologized to the Iraqi government ... in an attempt to prevent the
expulsion of all" Blackwater employees from Iraq.
Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, the son of conservative multi-
millionaire, the late Edgar Prince, and the brother of Betsy DeVos,
the wife of Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos.
Over the paast two decades, both the Prince and DeVos families have
given millions of dollars to Republican Party candidates, and
conservative Christian organizations and causes.
'The world's most powerful mercenary army'
In 1997, Erik Prince founded Blackwater USA, a company that grown into
what journalist Jeremy Scahill terms "the world's most powerful
mercenary army," in his recently released book titled "Blackwater."
Both Prince and his company prefer to avoid the spotlight.
In March 2004, however, four of Prince's American contractors - Jerry
Zovko, Scott Helvenston, Michael Teague and Wesley Batalona - were
killed in Fallujah while escorting a convoy of empty trucks. They were
ambushed, shot and overcome by an angry mob. The men were burnt in
their vehicles and then their charred bodies were strung up from a
bridge.
The horrific images of the dead Americans received worldwide media
attention. That incident was soon followed by a massive U.S. assault
on Fallujah, an attack that reportedly resulted in thousands of dead
Iraqi civilians.
Erik Prince's Blackwater USA was no longer under the radar.
For the past three years, the families of the dead contractors have
been trying to find out what really happened that March day in
Fallujah. For three years they've been stonewalled by Prince.
The suit and countersuit
In February of this year, relatives of the four slain Blackwater USA
contractors testified, at a House hearing in Washington - held by Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif. - on the company's operations. The families of
the slain men, still unclear about what happened when their loved ones
were killed, sued Blackwater USA "for wrongful death in the hope that
their questions will be answered," the Associated Press reported in
mid-June.
The lawsuit alleges that Blackwater sent the men on a job with
inadequate equipment and protection.
According to the suit, AP pointed out, "the men should have been
traveling in fully armored vehicles and should have had a guard in
each vehicle acting as a rear gunner to protect them from attack."
The legal battle could have much broader implications. It "could
prompt more government oversight of security contracting companies and
determine the extent of their legal liability in the war zone," AP
noted. It "is the most prominent [suit] in an emerging body of
litigation surrounding the secretive world of private security
contractors in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As details about
security operations are revealed in the court cases, pressure has
intensified in Congress to regulate how armed contractors operate."
Blackwater has assembled a high-profile well-connected legal team to
combat the suit. They also filed a $10 million counterclaim.
Blackwater's legal dream team - which once included Fred Fielding, now
White House counsel - includes Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor
who investigated the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater scandals during
the Clinton administration.
Blackwater maintains that since it was working for the government, it
was "subject to the same protections against lawsuits as the military,
which cannot be sued for the deaths or injuries of its troops," AP
reported. The company "argues that the four families' lawsuit
`unconstitutionally intrudes on the exclusive authority of the
military of the federal government to conduct military operations
abroad.'"
In the two years since the families filed its suit, it has bounced
between state and federal courts amid a jumble of claims and
counterclaims. Last month U.S. District Judge James Fox in North
Carolina ordered the families and Blackwater into arbitration, a non-
public procedure that is designed to resolve disputes without a trial.
While the families are protesting that decision, that is a desirable
outcome for the company as it would continue to secrecy for its
operations.
Blackwater USA
That we know as much as we do about Blackwater USA is in part due to
the first-rate reporting of several journalists, including The Nation
magazine's investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill. In his bestselling
book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
(Nation Books, 2007), Scahill describes the company as "a sort of
Praetorian Guard for the Bush Administration's `global war on
terror.'"
He maintains that Prince
has been in the thick of this right-wing effort to unite
conservative Catholics, evangelicals, and neoconservatives in a common
theoconservative holy war.
At the time the book was written Scahill pointed out that the Moyock,
North Carolina-headquartered company had
more than 2,300 private soldiers deployed in nine countries,
including inside the United States. It maintainsa database of 21,000
former Special Forces troops, soldiers, and retired law enforcement
agents on whom it could call at a moment's notice. ... [It] has a
private fleet of more than twenty aircraft, including helicopter
gunships and a surveillance blimp division.
In addition, Blackwater had
train[ed] tens of thousands of federal and local law enforcement
agents ... [as well as] troops from 'friendly' foreign nations."
Blackwater "operates its own intelligence division and counts among
its executives senior ex-military and intelligence officials.
The company, which has a facility in Illinois, is building one in
California, and has a jungle training facility in the Philippines, has
garnered more than $500 million in government contracts. This "does
not include its secret `black' budget operations for U.S intelligence
agencies or private corporations/individuals and foreign governments,"
Scahill notes.
In addition to Prince, "A number of Blackwater executives are deeply
conservative Christians, including corruption-smeared former Pentagon
Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, who is also a member of the
Sovereign Order of Malta, which Scahill describes as `a Christian
militia formed in the eleventh century [to defend] `territories that
the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems,'" Chris Barsanti wote in
a review of the book for In These Times.
Blackwater had a visible, and financially lucrative, presence in the
immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as the use of company
contractors cost the American taxpayer $240,000 a day.
'Radical right wing Christian mega-millionaire'
Blackwater USA is the brainchild of Erik Prince - a former Navy SEAL
and son of Edgar Prince, a wealthy Michigan auto-parts supplier -
described by Scahill as a "radical right wing Christian mega-
millionaire" who is a strong financial backer of President George W.
Bush, as well as a donor to a host of conservative Christian political
causes.
In the 1980s "the Prince family merged with one of the most venerable
conservative families in the United States," when Erik's sister Betsy
- nine years his senior - married Dick DeVos, whose father Richard,
founded the multilevel marketing firm Amway.
The two families exercized enormous political influence both inside
and outside Michigan. "They were one of the greatest bankrollers of
far-right causes in U.S. history, and with their money they propelled
extremist Christian politicians and activists to positions of
prominence," Scahill writes.
Prince, who keeps a relatively low profile, recently appeared at the
North Carolina Technology Association's "Five Pillars" conference.
There, he put in a plug for his company, saying that had the police
had the kind of training that Blackwater provides, they could have
dealt with situations such as the killings at Columbine and Virginia
Tech much better.
"When I saw the Columbine tapes, I saw a lot of law enforcement
officers with really nice gear, equipment and weapons, but they had
never really trained together. They had never tested those
assumptions," Prince said. "The same with Virginia Tech - they had
never really trained or planned for an active shooter."
dumb angry overzealous redneck Republicans with more weapons than the
US Military itself.
Blackwater Blues for Dead Iraqi Civilians
by Bill Berkowitz / September 19th, 2007
Erik Prince, the founder and head of Blackwater USA, has contributed
mega-bucks to Republican Party candidates and Christian right
organizations and causes. Why is this advocate of "traditional family
values" stonewalling the families of four Blackwater contractors
killed in Fallujah in March 2004?
After an incident over the weekend that resulted in the murder of
eight civilians and the wounding of thirteen others by private
security forces in Iraq, the ministry of interior yesterday took the
decision to expel Blackwater from the country.
According to The Guardian, US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,
"apologized to the Iraqi government ... in an attempt to prevent the
expulsion of all" Blackwater employees from Iraq.
Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, the son of conservative multi-
millionaire, the late Edgar Prince, and the brother of Betsy DeVos,
the wife of Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos.
Over the paast two decades, both the Prince and DeVos families have
given millions of dollars to Republican Party candidates, and
conservative Christian organizations and causes.
'The world's most powerful mercenary army'
In 1997, Erik Prince founded Blackwater USA, a company that grown into
what journalist Jeremy Scahill terms "the world's most powerful
mercenary army," in his recently released book titled "Blackwater."
Both Prince and his company prefer to avoid the spotlight.
In March 2004, however, four of Prince's American contractors - Jerry
Zovko, Scott Helvenston, Michael Teague and Wesley Batalona - were
killed in Fallujah while escorting a convoy of empty trucks. They were
ambushed, shot and overcome by an angry mob. The men were burnt in
their vehicles and then their charred bodies were strung up from a
bridge.
The horrific images of the dead Americans received worldwide media
attention. That incident was soon followed by a massive U.S. assault
on Fallujah, an attack that reportedly resulted in thousands of dead
Iraqi civilians.
Erik Prince's Blackwater USA was no longer under the radar.
For the past three years, the families of the dead contractors have
been trying to find out what really happened that March day in
Fallujah. For three years they've been stonewalled by Prince.
The suit and countersuit
In February of this year, relatives of the four slain Blackwater USA
contractors testified, at a House hearing in Washington - held by Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif. - on the company's operations. The families of
the slain men, still unclear about what happened when their loved ones
were killed, sued Blackwater USA "for wrongful death in the hope that
their questions will be answered," the Associated Press reported in
mid-June.
The lawsuit alleges that Blackwater sent the men on a job with
inadequate equipment and protection.
According to the suit, AP pointed out, "the men should have been
traveling in fully armored vehicles and should have had a guard in
each vehicle acting as a rear gunner to protect them from attack."
The legal battle could have much broader implications. It "could
prompt more government oversight of security contracting companies and
determine the extent of their legal liability in the war zone," AP
noted. It "is the most prominent [suit] in an emerging body of
litigation surrounding the secretive world of private security
contractors in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As details about
security operations are revealed in the court cases, pressure has
intensified in Congress to regulate how armed contractors operate."
Blackwater has assembled a high-profile well-connected legal team to
combat the suit. They also filed a $10 million counterclaim.
Blackwater's legal dream team - which once included Fred Fielding, now
White House counsel - includes Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor
who investigated the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater scandals during
the Clinton administration.
Blackwater maintains that since it was working for the government, it
was "subject to the same protections against lawsuits as the military,
which cannot be sued for the deaths or injuries of its troops," AP
reported. The company "argues that the four families' lawsuit
`unconstitutionally intrudes on the exclusive authority of the
military of the federal government to conduct military operations
abroad.'"
In the two years since the families filed its suit, it has bounced
between state and federal courts amid a jumble of claims and
counterclaims. Last month U.S. District Judge James Fox in North
Carolina ordered the families and Blackwater into arbitration, a non-
public procedure that is designed to resolve disputes without a trial.
While the families are protesting that decision, that is a desirable
outcome for the company as it would continue to secrecy for its
operations.
Blackwater USA
That we know as much as we do about Blackwater USA is in part due to
the first-rate reporting of several journalists, including The Nation
magazine's investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill. In his bestselling
book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
(Nation Books, 2007), Scahill describes the company as "a sort of
Praetorian Guard for the Bush Administration's `global war on
terror.'"
He maintains that Prince
has been in the thick of this right-wing effort to unite
conservative Catholics, evangelicals, and neoconservatives in a common
theoconservative holy war.
At the time the book was written Scahill pointed out that the Moyock,
North Carolina-headquartered company had
more than 2,300 private soldiers deployed in nine countries,
including inside the United States. It maintainsa database of 21,000
former Special Forces troops, soldiers, and retired law enforcement
agents on whom it could call at a moment's notice. ... [It] has a
private fleet of more than twenty aircraft, including helicopter
gunships and a surveillance blimp division.
In addition, Blackwater had
train[ed] tens of thousands of federal and local law enforcement
agents ... [as well as] troops from 'friendly' foreign nations."
Blackwater "operates its own intelligence division and counts among
its executives senior ex-military and intelligence officials.
The company, which has a facility in Illinois, is building one in
California, and has a jungle training facility in the Philippines, has
garnered more than $500 million in government contracts. This "does
not include its secret `black' budget operations for U.S intelligence
agencies or private corporations/individuals and foreign governments,"
Scahill notes.
In addition to Prince, "A number of Blackwater executives are deeply
conservative Christians, including corruption-smeared former Pentagon
Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, who is also a member of the
Sovereign Order of Malta, which Scahill describes as `a Christian
militia formed in the eleventh century [to defend] `territories that
the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems,'" Chris Barsanti wote in
a review of the book for In These Times.
Blackwater had a visible, and financially lucrative, presence in the
immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as the use of company
contractors cost the American taxpayer $240,000 a day.
'Radical right wing Christian mega-millionaire'
Blackwater USA is the brainchild of Erik Prince - a former Navy SEAL
and son of Edgar Prince, a wealthy Michigan auto-parts supplier -
described by Scahill as a "radical right wing Christian mega-
millionaire" who is a strong financial backer of President George W.
Bush, as well as a donor to a host of conservative Christian political
causes.
In the 1980s "the Prince family merged with one of the most venerable
conservative families in the United States," when Erik's sister Betsy
- nine years his senior - married Dick DeVos, whose father Richard,
founded the multilevel marketing firm Amway.
The two families exercized enormous political influence both inside
and outside Michigan. "They were one of the greatest bankrollers of
far-right causes in U.S. history, and with their money they propelled
extremist Christian politicians and activists to positions of
prominence," Scahill writes.
Prince, who keeps a relatively low profile, recently appeared at the
North Carolina Technology Association's "Five Pillars" conference.
There, he put in a plug for his company, saying that had the police
had the kind of training that Blackwater provides, they could have
dealt with situations such as the killings at Columbine and Virginia
Tech much better.
"When I saw the Columbine tapes, I saw a lot of law enforcement
officers with really nice gear, equipment and weapons, but they had
never really trained together. They had never tested those
assumptions," Prince said. "The same with Virginia Tech - they had
never really trained or planned for an active shooter."