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Jesus, read this story about the Blackwater murder-fest in Baghdad last month if you have any doubt about whether they should be allowed to operate with utter impunity in the name of our country in Iraq or anywhere else.
Guess what? When you hire mercenaries, you get mercenaries. Surprise!
PS: From another related story:
The most serious consequence faced by Blackwater personnel for misconduct appears to be termination of their employment," the report states.
In one case cited in Monday's report, a Blackwater guard who was visibly drunk shot and killed a bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi during a confrontation in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve in 2006.
Blackwater hustled the guard out of the country within 36 hours with State Department approval, and the company later paid the Iraqi's family $15,000, the report states.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a Senate committee last week that the incident is under investigation by the Justice Department, but no charges have been filed against the man.
The report also questions whether the government is saving money by hiring out its security work. It found the government pays the company about $1,200 a day for each contractor on the job in Iraq -- between six and nine times the pay and allowances of an Army sergeant.
- Wow, what a bargain! We get crazed killers in place of trained soldiers at the low, low price of thousands more per day and political scandals. Hooray!
Chris
Guess what? When you hire mercenaries, you get mercenaries. Surprise!
PS: From another related story:
The most serious consequence faced by Blackwater personnel for misconduct appears to be termination of their employment," the report states.
In one case cited in Monday's report, a Blackwater guard who was visibly drunk shot and killed a bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi during a confrontation in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve in 2006.
Blackwater hustled the guard out of the country within 36 hours with State Department approval, and the company later paid the Iraqi's family $15,000, the report states.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a Senate committee last week that the incident is under investigation by the Justice Department, but no charges have been filed against the man.
The report also questions whether the government is saving money by hiring out its security work. It found the government pays the company about $1,200 a day for each contractor on the job in Iraq -- between six and nine times the pay and allowances of an Army sergeant.
- Wow, what a bargain! We get crazed killers in place of trained soldiers at the low, low price of thousands more per day and political scandals. Hooray!
Chris
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Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (just before using the hearings to show MoveOn's Petraeus/"Betray us" ad again) said that the reason there's a hearing is because "There is a party in Congress that doesn't like companies that make a profit."
Republican Rep. Michael Turner: "Blackwater is our team. They are working in the trenches, and in a war zone." ....Suggesting that Democrats are playing for "their team" rather than "our team," Turner also noted that committee members haven't complained about "the rules of engagement for al-Qaida and the insurgents."
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa also held up a copy of the MoveOn ad and declared: "What we're hearing today is in fact a repeat of the MoveOn attack on Gen. Petraeus' patriotism ... What we're seeing is what they couldn't do to our men and women in uniform, they'll simply switch targets."
Republican Rep. John Mica said that a decline in U.S. deaths in Iraq last month is "bad news for the other side" -- the "other side" being the Democrats --- and accused Chairman Waxman and his colleagues of holding the hearing to distract from that news. Mica then moved to adjourn the hearing before it could really begin, a motion that was voted down by other committee members.
NONE of this will get covered in the mainstream media. I guarantee it. Hell, even CNN this morning, in its brief coverage of the hearings, said that "there was controversy" about the PMCs, and that "most Americans weren't even really aware of the extent of their involvement in Iraq." Do you believe that shit? Don't cover the stories, Don't inform the people.....and then report on the fact that they aren't aware and informed.
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Gaaah!
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Not to mention the left-wing people who would be much happier with a multi-party system. Lots of us who don't like to associate with the Democrats anymore, either.
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*insert dripping sarcasm here*
Well, we do save money on paying out veterans' claims when they get injured.
Wanna get really pissed off about something else? Come to work with me for a day and listen to the tales of how long it takes the VA to approve a claim for a vet these days. We have not only Vietnam era.. but WW-fucking-II vets still awaiting the benefits they were promised when they went to war for us.
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PS: I just saw this on
Blackwater contractor wrote government report on incident — So, having outsourced our diplomatic security to Blackwater, the Bush administration tries outsourcing the investigation into a major incident on Blackwater's part to... Blackwater.
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So you work at the VA in Topeka?
I'm actually looking for a story to do in early November on veterans - and this is the number one complaint I hear from veterans when talking to them about ANY topic - health care access and broken promises about health care...
Contact me at margaretq(at)gmail(dot)com if you would let me either come trail you at work or do an interview (not right now - it'll be a few weeks).
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Unfortunately I can't let you trail me at work due to confidentiality issues, but I will gladly put you in touch with our attorney, Virginia (Amy) Girard-Brady.
If you want a bit of advance info, our website, although being restructured is here.
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"Look! A terrorist threat!"
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