Thursday, August 6, 2009

This is BIG: Jeremy Scahill's Latest On Blackwater


Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

By Jeremy Scahill
August 4, 2009

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

More: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill

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Blackwater's Dark Deeds Exposed
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/blackwatercountdown_video

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Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!.
More: http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/jeremy_scahill

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"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally and domestically. The question is why they operated with impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations should be thoroughly investigated."
~ Congressman Dennis Kucinich

1 comment:

Felix Otero said...

As a former Operator and consultant for Blackwater USA, I have to express a strong concern for these allegations. The unfortunate truth is that Blackwater remained as a low-key and covert operation for many years. As a matter of fact, most civilians were not even aware of its existence until negative concerns began to rise through our politics. We have to take in consideration several factors and accept them: 1) For those who are not aware, Blackwater began as a highly demanded operation, initially supported by "our" intelligence community. Take a wild guess which 3 letter agencies these would be. 2) Blackwater's initial tasks and objectives were not to provide security guards around the globe. Anyone could do this without practically any skill. Blackwater's task force, to include its founders comprised of highly skilled individuals, most of which held a clearance higher than most DOD personnel. Our missions were frequently beyond belief, due to their sensitivity and the direction given to us by certain government agencies. These agencies made it very clear that they would take no claim or responsibility for our future exposure. 3) Perhaps there have been some acts deemed unethical or unauthorized, however, lets not be ignorant and assume that no other agency or military branch has never been involved in unethical operations, drug smuggling, unsanctioned missions, etc. The fact that a military service and agency is able to cover up incidents like this simply means that they have a stronger means of doing so.

Every organization, whether federally supported or not, has corruption. Once we can accept this as a reality, we can then move on to one question: "Why is Blackwater being highlighted so much?" Are they really as corrupt as the media is reflecting them to be?

As a former member of the intelligence community and other special operation efforts, I have left knowing one thing. "Nothing is what it seems". My point is that everything executed by this organization hasn't been a pure act of destructive initiative. There is a higher command, a higher voice that dictates who, what, when, where, and why. When we come to terms with this reality, then perhaps we will begin to understand how our government operates, and most importantly how it did in the past. Yet as our media focuses attention to this subject, another organization aside will rise, execute similar principles; except we won't know about it for another 5 years.

The human truth is that we are fascinated by "knowing" all things. Secrecy and darkness intrigue us, and so we must try all things in order to reveal and make sense of what we can't possible know or understand. To try to comprehend all of this is like trying to understand the word God.

God bless all, and God bless America.

FSO
Former Marine/Blackwater
Intelligence Analyst