Military Contractors (CORPS-3)

BLACKWATER (BW) Links List https //www brookings edu/articles/the-dark-truth-about-blackwater/ https //www cbsnews com/news/indictment-looms-in-blackwater-shooting/ https //theintercept com/2019/05/01/shadow-players-erik-prince-julian-assange-and-the-bizarre-world-of-trump/ https //www mcclatchydc com/news/nation-world/national/article24580081 html https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ https //www nytimes com/2009/12/11/us/politics/11blackwater.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&loc=interstitialskip https //www nytimes com/2010/01/01/us/01blackwater html https //operationiraqifreedomfaq blogspot.com/2009/12/ https://www.salon.com/2007/10/02/blackwater_bush/ https //www scribd com/document/231898515/2007-State-Department-s-Blackwater-Investigation-Documents https //slate com/news-and-politics/2014/06/blackwater-shows-theres-nothing-special-in-the-nature-of-americans html Start Here Americans as unexceptional common rogues without American rules and accountability? Slate dot com 2014/06/30 American Unexceptionalism: The Blackwater scandal shows the U.S. isn’t immune from behaviors we abhor in others. BY WILLIAM SALETAN https //slate com/news-and-politics/2014/06/blackwater-shows-theres-nothing-special-in-the-nature-of- americans html Excerpt: The enduring lesson, however, is about human nature. Blackwater was staffed by Americans. Many of them came from the U.S. armed forces. Nothing in their DNA or their military service guaranteed their virtue. Stripped of supervision and transplanted to Iraq—where, as Carroll put it, “no one cares”—some of them absorbed the nihilism of their environment. They cheated, stole, exploited, threatened, and killed. Their story is much like that of Abu Ghraib, where American discipline collapsed even in the uniformed military. What makes America great isn’t something marvelous in our nature. It’s our rules and our mechanisms of accountability. If I were to shoot and kill you, someone would do something about it. That’s the way it is here. And that’s the way it has to be, wherever we go. https //slate com/news-and-politics/2014/06/blackwater-shows-theres-nothing-special-in-the-nature-of- americans html 15-Count Indictment The Nation [More below] 2010/06/15 Is Blackwater’s Erik Prince Moving to the United Arab Emirates? https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ Excerpt: In April, five of Prince’s top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince’s longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince’s former legal counsel Andrew Howell. https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ Some Details: Names, Terms, Locations, etc: Company names; Xe Services" and the "US Training Center”; Academi; Names: Erik Prince (BW owner); Jordan's King Abdullah II, Gary Jackson (former BW president); Mark Corallo (BW spokesman); William Mathews (former BW VP); Ronald Slezak (ArmyVet, navy shipbuilder); Scott Horton, a Columbia University Law lecturer and international law expert who has long tracked Blackwater; Locations: North Carolina (Camden County sheriff’s office); (Moyock); Terms: Short-barrelled rifles; Committees: House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff; Hiding Out Overseas like in UAE https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ Excerpt: The UAE is made up of seven states, the most powerful among them being Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Since 9/11, they have emerged as hubs for the US war industry. "Global service providers" account for some three-quarters of Dubai’s GDP, while oil represents only 3 percent. "They have established themselves as the premiere location in the Middle East for offshore banking and professional services," says Horton, who has legal experience in the UAE. "If you have connections to the royal families, then the law doesn’t really apply to you. I would be very surprised if Erik Prince does not have those kinds of connections there." https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ Anti-Blackwater The questionable use of private military contractors Brookings dot edu 2007/10/02 The Dark Truth about Blackwater. By Peter Singer https //www brookings edu/articles/the-dark-truth-about-blackwater/ Excerpt: When we evaluate the facts, the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq, going against our best doctrine and undermining critical efforts of our troops. Even worse, the government can no longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation’s wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities….Our dependency on military contractors shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction. If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to counterinsurgency and the use of private military contractors, the U.S. has locked its national security into a vicious cycle. It can’t win with them, but can’t go to war without them. https //www brookings edu/articles/the-dark-truth-about-blackwater/ Pro-Blackwater Operation Iraqi Freedom FAW dot blogspot 2009/12/13 Blackwater contractors helped fight terrorists in IraqBy Eric LC https //operationiraqifreedomfaq blogspot.com/2009/12/ Excerpt*: "One former Blackwater guard recalled a meeting in Baghdad in 2004 in which Erik Prince addressed a group of Blackwater guards working with the C.I.A. At the meeting in an air hangar used by Blackwater, the guard said, Mr. Prince encouraged the Blackwater personnel “to do whatever it takes” to help the C.I.A. with the intensifying insurgency, the former guard recalled." Blackwater contractors helped fight terrorists in Iraq. Good thing, right? To my dismay, this story is being reported as a scandal. The situation in 2004-2006 Iraq was critical and worsening. The terrorists were escalating their campaign and trying their hardest to collapse the fragile, post-Saddam Iraq with massive death and destruction. Iraqi society was tearing apart and people were dying in the streets by the hundreds. With the insurgency in Iraq reaching its height, the highest imperative for our side was to do everything we could do in order to protect Iraq and the Iraqi people from the terrorists. The Blackwater contractors, already hired and on the ground, were at least as well prepared as their overwhelmed counterparts in the CIA and US military. As the NY Times article describes the Blackwater contractors, "many of them [were] former members of units of the Navy Seals or Army Delta Force". Despite the exigent circumstances of 2004-2006 Iraq, Representative Rush D. Holt believes the use of Blackwater contractors was "a scandal" and "very troubling to a lot of people.” I disagree with Representative Holt. Not using the best people who were available on the ground at that time under those circumstances in Iraq would have qualified as 'very troubling' and a 'scandal'. Those Blackwater contractors should be commended, instead of treated as criminals. They weren't hired to fight terrorists in Iraq, but in an emergency situation, the Blackwater contractors understood the importance of the mission and the dangers faced by their short-handed government comrades. They responded like soldiers and placed their lives in more danger by volunteering their abilities to help their comrades and serve the greater good for their nation and Iraq. Blackwater helping to fight terrorists in 2004-2006 Iraq: right. Rep Holt: wrong. https //operationiraqifreedomfaq blogspot.com/2009/12/ [Author: Eric LC is a graduate of Columbia University and Rutgers School of Law. 2021/03/10 Extracted from Internet *References New York Times-2009/12/10 below] ARTICLES, ISSUES CBS 2008/11/14 Indictment Looms In Blackwater Shooting https //www cbsnews com/news/indictment-looms-in-blackwater-shooting/ 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 https //www cbsnews com/news/indictment-looms-in-blackwater-shooting/ [2021/03/10 Extracted from Internet] The Intercept 2019/05/01 Shadow Players. Jeremy Scahill https //theintercept com/2019/05/01/shadow-players-erik-prince-julian-assange-and-the-bizarre-world- of-trump/ Blackwater founder Erik Prince is facing a possible criminal probe into allegations that he lied in Congressional testimony about his trip as a Trump emissary to the Seychelles where he met with a powerful Russian tycoon close to Vladimir Putin. The Intercept’s Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed, investigative journalist Matthew Cole, and national security editor Vanessa Gezari discuss how Prince went from exile in the United Arab Emirates to a shadow player in Trump world. [Note from PF: This seems to be biased for Obama and against Trump and BW; 2021/03/10 Extracted from Internet] McClatchy DC dot com 2010/04/16 Blackwater indicted for violating federal firearms laws JOSEPH NEFF AND WARREN P. STROBEL - MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS https //www mcclatchydc com/news/nation-world/national/article24580081 html Excerpt: RALEIGH, N.C. — Five former employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater violated a series of federal firearms laws to give the company a leg up in the military contracting and training business, a federal indictment charged Friday. Blackwater officials falsified federal paperwork to conceal a gift of firearms to Jordan's King Abdullah II, whom Blackwater was courting as a client, the indictment charges. https //www mcclatchydc com/news/nation-world/national/article24580081 html The Nation [See more above] 2010/06/15 Is Blackwater’s Erik Prince Moving to the United Arab Emirates?By Jeremy Scahill With Blackwater's top deputies indicted on federal charges and the company up for sale, rumors are swirling that Prince is preparing to bolt to a country with no extradition treaty with the US. https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ [Note from PF: There seems to be a biased slant “CIA type of conspiracy”; 2021/03/10 Extracted from Internet] https //www thenation com/article/archive/blackwaters-erik-prince-moving-united-arab-emirates/ New York Times 2009/12/10 Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret C.I.A. Raids. By James Risen and Mark Mazzetti https //www nytimes com/2009/12/11/us/politics/11blackwater.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&loc=interstitialskip Excerpt: Several former Blackwater guards said that their involvement in the operations became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred. Instead of simply providing security for C.I.A. officers, they say, Blackwater personnel at times became partners in missions to capture or kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, a practice that raises questions about the use of guns for hire on the battlefield. https //www nytimes com/2009/12/11/us/politics/11blackwater.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&loc=interstitialskip 2010/01 Charges Against Blackwater Guards Dismissed in Iraq . https //www nytimes com/2010/01/01/us/01blackwater html In a significant blow to the Justice Department, a federal judge on Thursday threw out the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards … Salon 2007/10/03 The Bush Admin’s Ties to Blackwater. By Ben Van Heuvelen https //www salon com/2007/10/02/blackwater_bush/ SCRIBD 2007 State Department's Blackwater Investigation Documents Uploaded byMatthew Keys Description:Released 30/June/2014.Full description https //www scribd com/document/231898515/2007-State-Department-s-Blackwater-Investigation- Documents Updates: 2021/07/10 some excessive bold areas corrected; 2021/03/10 PAGE STARTED Military Contractors, Blackwater pro and against;