So all that is interesting, if your looking for more video about Blackwater, Robert Greenwald covered them in his documentary "Iraq for Sale" you can watch a clip here.


You might still be asking yourself, "Whats the problem?" That is exactly what Jon Stewart asks Scahill in this interview conducted in April.

Here is something that might be interesting to follow today:

On October 2, 2007, the Oversight Committee will hold a hearing to examine the use of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Oversight Committee website says that the brains behind Blackwater, Erik Prince, will be speaking during this hearing. There are some obvious topics of conversation but also, TPM offered a sampling of some other questions that might be brought up during the discussion, like this troublesome fact:

A single Blackwater security contractor costs the government $1,222 every day to guard U.S. civilian personnel, or $445,000 per year. That's six times the cost of getting a U.S. Army soldier to perform the same function.

TPM wasn't the only blog to offer a timely article. Salon.com just posted one titled: The Dark Truth About Blackwater.

Well, I don't yet have video of the Prince testimony. He might be pretty smug. Not only did Blackwater not get kicked out of Iraq, they were rewarded with new contracts worth $92 Million. When it's online I'll be sure post it here - Nancy Pelosi usually uploads Oversight Committee clips. Until then... I've posted no less then four Blackwater videos in the recent past, so you can check those out as a warm-up. Below is a segment of the documentary "Iraq for Sale." All about Erik Prince and Blackwater.

*Edit... As promised, videos of the testimony.

Halliburton/KBR employees rape American women -- and there are no consequences. And now we find out that Blackwater gassed our own troops -- and there are no consequences. When are people going to get tired of this?

We explain how US troops were gassed by Blackwater employees in the video below:



If companies connected to Bill Clinton had done this during his administration, the Republicans would not have impeached him, they would have tried him for treason. Right-wing Blackwater does it and not a peep out of anyone.

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LA Times has an article that quotes US officials as being concerned about Blackwater's legal status in Iraq. Well, we're all concerned about that because it's not clear that they have any legal status there. But what's different about this story is that the government officials are saying Blackwater personnel might be considered unlawful combatants in Iraq. That would put them in the same category that we put Al Qaeda in, for detention purposes.

Let's be absolutely clear, that doesn't mean they do the same thing as Al Qaeda or in any way the same moral category (although they're not doing themselves any favors, morally speaking, by indiscriminately killing Iraqi civilians from time to time). But legally speaking since the Bush administration has created this vague category of unlawful combatants who don't wear uniforms in the battlefield and are not afforded Geneva Conventions rights, Blackwater might be in the same legal category.

So, one of the implications of this is that if Blackwater guards get captured in Iraq, they might not have Geneva Convention protections. I believe that's what they call the chickens coming home to roost.

We explain below:



Young Turks Rebel Headquarters

It's interesting that Blackwater is making headlines now, since they have been involved in controversies before. Is the Iraqi government allowed to make demands like this?

MSNBC aired this short clip about Blackwater on the 19th of September.

Yes, the Blackwater controversy rolls on for another week. The Iraqis are trying to prosecute the Blackwater employees involved in the Sept. 16th incident that killed 17 people (previously thought to be 11.) Here is the latest from the AP.

The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in which to bring charges. It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2, 2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June 2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a criminal code from 1969.

Generally, Blackwater has gotten away with cowboy tactics, like when a drunken employee fatally shot the Vice President's guard on Christmas eve and only got fined for the murder. But it looks like the Iraq's are going to fight for justice this time. Here is the latest from the BBC:

In the video below, Bill Moyers describes the "Spectacle of Spin" that has been provided by Blackwater leader, Erik Prince and the media during the past week. Almost everyday a new revelation about Blackwater is revealed and American citizens are starting to protest the private army.

For good reason, as it is American citizens who pay for Blackwater to exist with their tax dollars. I may have used the quote below before, but it continues to blow my mind. (Bold mine)

Federal contracts account for about 90 percent of the revenue of Prince Group holdings, of which Blackwater is a subsidiary. Since 2001, when it made less than $1 million in federal contracts, Blackwater has received more than $1 billion in such contracts - including at least one with the State Department for hundreds of millions of dollars that was awarded without open, competitive bidding.

The Congressional investigation found that Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day for each private military operative - more than six times the wage of an equivalent soldier. And still it uncovered instances of overcharging. It reported that an audit in 2005 by the State Department's inspector general found Blackwater was charging separately for "drivers" and "security specialists" who were, in fact, the same people.

After digesting the above, also keep in mind that Erik Prince was once an intern for George H. Bush...

Without further adieu, here is the Bill Moyers clip as promised. Tip to C&L.

Looking back at Hurricane Katrina, this is quite scary...or at least I find it scary.

So this is how I digested Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater story. After Katrina, with no orders Erik Prince sends 600 Blackwater troops (a couple battalions) into New Orleans to patrol the streets. Within a week they were given a contract to provide security.

Bill Moyers Journal

Following up on this Blackwater business.
From the New York Times - Nov 14th 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case...Read more in the New York Times...

I don't have any video directly related to this news, but here is Amy Goodman calling out Jon Stewart (I miss TDS.)

From the News wire..

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.

I've posted about Blackwater in the past, but it looks like they got themselves in deep trouble this time. Of course, we know how it goes, Iraqis want them out, but the Iraqi government isn't really in charge are they? The article adds...

It was unlikely the United States would agree to abandon a security company that plays such a critical role in American operations in Iraq.

A State Department official confirmed the call but said he could not describe the substance. The U.S. clearly hoped the Iraqis would be satisfied with an investigation, a finding of responsibility and compensation to the victims' families - and not insist on expelling a company that the Americans cannot operate here without.

Here is a clip from the Robert Greenwald documentary "Iraq for Sale," which offers a bit of background on Blackwater USA.

*Update - Found another related Video

I haven't been able to post much this week as I have family from out East visiting me here on the West Coast. However, I have found some time this afternoon to post some of the great TDS clips that came out this week. A lot has happened and the only news I have had time to watch is the Daily Show. So here are the comedic stylings of Jon Stewart.

On Bush's Childrens Health Care Veto...

On Blackwater...

On the African American Republican Debate...

Blackwater security forces in Iraq, already in trouble for a September shooting incident that left 17 dead, is in the news again, this time for killing the New York Times's dog. Yes, that's right. The newspaper's dog. Blackwater doesn't deny the shooting, but says that the paper's dog attacked one of the company's bomb-sniffing dogs and that the handler was "forced to use a pistol."

Correspondent Alissa Rubin commented on the dog's life and death, as well as the State Department's decision to visit the compound twice to investigate the incident: "They were very solicitous and I thought took the incident very seriously. It's not a dog that everyone's close to in the compound. But it's a dog that's been around a long time. It lived its whole life there."

Dog stories tend to tug on heartstrings, and there's nothing fun about a story that ends with a dog being shot by a security guard. On the other hand, didn't Blackwater have an obligation to protect its bomb-sniffing canine employees?

George W. Bush never wanted to be president. He just wanted to be elected president.

He said recently he is going to miss campaigning because that's fun. Whereas, clearly he isn't having any fun in actually doing the job. The work of actually being president is like homework to him. So, he winds up ignoring his work in a criminally negligent manner that winds up getting people killed.

The perfect example is in the video below. A student asks him about the fact that no law seems to apply to US contractors in Iraq. This is a vitally important question because, as we have found out recently, Blackwater employees wound up killing dozens of innocent Iraqis and KBR/Halliburton employees wound up gang raping at least one American woman -- and they cannot be punished because the Bush administration never bothered to bring these people within the law.

Now that you know that background, watch this pathetic performance by Bush when he is asked this question a year and half ago:




People sometimes accuse me of being a Bush-hater. To which I reply, hell yeah!

But I didn't start that way. I thought his father was a good president, who was the best foreign policy president we have had in my lifetime. I was a Republican when George W. Bush came into office. It's because of him I ran screaming from the party. My distaste for Bush has grown through experience. He has earned it!

When your president is this incompetent and this indifferent, I have to wonder about your sanity if you don't dislike him. He isn't a dentist or a plumber. His decisions, his actions, and in this case, his lack of action or interest, gets people killed. And when he seems to show absolutely no concern over it, I grow from disagreeing with him to disliking him. I just don't understand how anyone can stomach a man this clueless and this callous.

So, if you want to see why I hate him, look at the clip of him answering that question in the video above. That's how. He earned it!

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Who is the largest individual political donor in the country? Who owns the world's largest private army? Who are the media magnates who created their own island kingdom?

These aren't blind items -- at least not anymore, thanks to Radar Online's excellent new feature, The Most Powerful People You've Never Heard Of, which reads like a cross between the Fortune 500, the Robb Report, and the Trilateral Commission.

You have to read it to get a good sense of the levels of power, but -- in most cases -- the people profiled have the ears of international governments or are back-room brokers of American candidates. It raises a host of issues. Are the people in the piece -- Bob Perry, Erik Prince, David Addington, and others -- more powerful than their more visible counterparts in politics, business, and media?