Scahill: Obama may be afraid of Blackwater

[MinM]

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/scahill-obama-afraid-blackwater/

Despite news reports that the security contractor formerly known as Blackwater has seen its contracts dry up and its influence wane, the company continues to do brisk business in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and the Obama administration may be too afraid of the firm to do anything about it, says investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill.

"You know who's guarding Hillary Clinton in Afghanistan right now? Blackwater," Scahill told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Tuesday night. "You know who guards members of Congress? Blackwater. They have half a billion dollars in contracts in Afghanistan right now. CIA, State Department, Defense Department. Why is President Obama keeping these guys on the payroll? There has never been a company in recent history that made the case that corporations are corrupt, evil organizations than Blackwater."...

Scahill suggested that the security firm's deep and continued involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars means the company could potentially embarrass any administration with the things it can reveal.

"Another way of looking at this is Blackwater knows where a lot of bodies are buried," Scahill told Maddow. "These are guys who worked on the CIA assassination program, the drone bombing campaign, and regarding all of the senior officals, they know a heck of a lot about what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those are not guys that you want on the other side of the fence if you're running Washington." ...

YouTube - Scahill: Why is Obama still funding Blackwater?

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. America's own Praetorian Guard

The privatization of functions that should be left to the state is quite troubling. History shows that it never really works out as intended.

[azul]

13. Or America's Revolutionary Guard?

This is a crusade, after all, even if we can't admit it?

The governor of California tried to ensconce them in the state with a contract to take over in emergencies -while the national guard was busy elsewhere out of the country. Don't really know where they really stand now. Must be proprietary or national security stuff.

[Vidar]

22. Except the Praetorians had a habit of replacing corrupt Emperors,

even if they didn't always get it right.

[fasttense]

2. How long before these money hungry, bought and paid for murderers turn their guns on

this administration? As evidence of their illegal activities slowly leaks out, will they fight back the best way they know how, with their guns? And if they know where the bodies are, how long before they sell the national secrets they know to the highest bidder?

Blackwater or X is a danger to national security.

[mopinko]

3. hey, they scare me, but

i don't think they scare obama. i think he just doesn't have anything in his back pocket to replace them, or halliburton, et al. he isn't the kind of guy to saw off the limb he is standing on. he builds a ladder first.

[lonestarnot]

6. Must be difficult to replace dishonest murderers with honest murderers.

[mopinko]

7. hey, they aren't standing around on every street corner.

although i suppose you could empty out a lot of the prisons that way.

[pscot]

28. The prisons are mainly full of potheads

and sex offenders. I don't think that would get you very far.

[thunder rising]

4. For all the praise of the military, US Gov has no confidence in it.

That's why you see Blackwater (Xe) escorting government officials.

[Myrina]

9. Bingo!

n/t

[ShortnFiery]

15. If I were a State Department Official, I'd much rather have an active duty Marine

escort than ANYTHING Blackwater could drag in to protect me. :shrug:

[bertman]

23. I think that's an erroneous statement, thunder rising. It's more likely that the privatization

campaign convinced the government that it would be better to use the military for soldiering and hire the "pros" to escort government officials. The argument would be that it would free up more of our military types to do their work.

This was a hugely pervasive meme over the last twenty-five or thirty years that was being pushed by the "smaller gummint" crowd.

Our military, especially the elite groups, would be exceptionally good at guarding the diplomatic corps.

This has to do with giving government contracts to groups affiliated with the War Industry. Eric Prince jumped on that bandwagon and got a huge boost from BushCo.

[Bitwit1234]

5. WHY should Obama be afraid

I sure he hasn't been in office long enough to get involved in the stuff Blackwater has done. The ones to be afraid are Cheney and Bush.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

12. Keep telling yourself that

if it makes you feel better.

[bertman]

35. The fear that Scahill refers to is most likely based on the knowledge that Blackwater's

security guards of someone like Sec. Clinton could easily take her out or allow her to be taken out and make it look like an accident or an assassination by another nation.

Also worth considering is the fact that many BlackWater operatives are highly skilled FOREIGN special ops pros who would have the training and knowledge and experience to set up an assassination of President Obama IF they were directed to do so.

This BlackWater operation is more than just a cash cow for some individuals. It is also a way of keeping professional killers on a short leash and ready to use on whatever "project" the fascists might need completed.

[TankLV]

8. What does THIS Administration have to do with their "bodies"?!!!

If anything comes up - it will be politicall and legally troubling for the BUSH* REGIME, not Obama...!!!

[The Wizard]

10. The solution

Send Army Rangers, Navy Seals and Marine Recons into all paramilitary camps and destroy everything, and disarm everyone there. Round up the bums and send them to Cheney's secret foreign prisons.
They are a real and present danger to democratic principles.
The members of upper management have to be separated and isolated so they can't communicate with each other.
Before long one of them will start talking and the Bush cartel will be soiling their undies.

[Enthusiast]

30. I like the way you think!

But we can't do that. :cry:

[Doctor_J]

11. We should all be afraid of them

They're a lot like the death squads that people associate with 3rd world banana republics. If they were to suddenly turn on US citizens, I am not sure what could be done about it

[ShortnFiery]

14. If Obama is more afraid of Blackwater than the American Voter ...

and follows-through with sending more troops to Afghanistan, he deserves to be a one term President.

We now have "Ceasar" (DEM President) but it may best to allow "Nero" (GOP President) who may promptly destroy The Empire once and for all.

Only THEN will we have a chance of re-establishing our Democratic Republic. Now we are caught in a death spiral battle between two sides of the same coin, ruling elite despots who only serve the large corporate backers.

[Diclotican]

36. ShortnFiery

ShortnFiery

The more correct idea would be to say that the now president of the united states is more like the old Principat, who was the backbone of the roman empire to Domitatian was being the emperor, and the whole rule of the empire changed to The domininat. The Empire AUGUSTUS, and the following emperors was Principes aka, the first man along equals.. Even the tyranny of Nero was in theory like the government of Augustus, even tho Nero got mad in the proses.. When you are told to be the smartest man in the world, from a young age you need a backbone to stand against all this.. And sorry for Nero, he had not a backbone at all...

When it came to this private groups of militates, I have ALWAYS warned against this, because they tend to bit you in the ass before you know it.. The only force inside a country who should have the right to possible wage a war should be The Police and the armed forces of the military - controlled and financed by the Government.. In country where the private armies have been made possible, the government either have to slip control, or to force down the private armies..

In Europe, in the middle ages we had a lot of private armies, the lords, and the nobles had their own private armies who in most cases could be used against an unruly king who wanted more power.. In most of Europe, (specially the Western Europe) the idea of nobles and the princes to have private armies was absolutely naturally, until the ideas, and the cost of founding military forces was beginning to make their toll of them.. And slowly , as the State got more powerfully, the nobles, and the lords of large areas of land got less and less military power, and the STATE as such, got more and more... And in the end the State got the best of them, and for the last couple of hundred years, the State have had all the military power, and the nobles non...

In US today, I for one se the opposite. I se a more and more "weak" State, and far more powerfully organization, often private who own armies.. They are not nobles, but in many cases, they have the same idea.. A weak state, and a powerfully private armie, who can in more than theory attack the government if they doesn't do as they please... As in money and more power... This is dangerous, and have to be stopped before it cant be..

Diclotican

[Demeter]

16. I'm Scared of Them Since I First Learned of Them

I'm scared of anything that got the BFEE Seal of Approval, just on general principles that it WASN'T for the good of the country.

But Blackwater was something so sinister that I couldn't imagine why anybody went along with this crazy scheme.

[earcandle]

27. I seem to think that the planned Apocalypse collapsed

but these guys are still revved up and ready to go........   

[donheld]

17. Obama may also be afraid of Goldman Sachs

[tomm2thumbs]

18. military mafia & hired hitmen from the sound of it

8 years of spoonfeeding from Bush/Cheney sure got them to grow up nice and strong

[cqo_000]

19. Why is Obama still funding Blackwater?

War is a dirty business.

[sabrina 1]

20. Why does the US have mercenaries on its payroll anyhow?

What's strange is how people have accepted this. When it was first revealed, people were shocked and that's not that long ago.

If the military were guarding members of Congress and the SOS, there would be no need to worry, as I'm sure that those people are carefully chosen. But who vets these killers before they are assigned to protect government officials? Their loyalty is to money. What incentive is there for them to do a good job the way there is for the military.

And how did this happen? Did Congress pass a law? Is it even legal? And if it is, why did they try to hide it from the American people by calling them 'contractors'? I thought they were builders when I first hear of them on the media.

What a total mess this country is ~ they better start getting rid of these killers for hire before something bad happens in this country. It's already happened in Iraq and elsewhere.

[wuvuj]

21. I notice...over and over....

...that as the US continues with it's wars in SA, ME and elsewhere...and with it's sick relationship with Israel...it tends to INTERNALIZE...the techniques and technology perfected in it's wars and with it's "allies" domestic operations.

So....EXPECT the US to become more and more similar to Israel and it's apartheid structure...UK and it's domestic surveillance....Iraq/Afgan occupation activities vs the domestic population.

The US...banana republic politics (SA)...Crusades and "domestic wars" (ME)...surveillance society (Israel and UK).

The cops and the military are some HOT SHIT? You live NOW in a police state.

Show me the difference between a domestic SWAT team and their Iraq/Afgan counterparts. The color of their camouflage?

[MisterP]

32. that was one of Foucault's theses: that control techniques were perfected in the colonies

and then imported

that's why *'s torture and unconstitutionality is unsurprising: what was being exported by the School of the Americas? what were the Pentagon and CIA perpetrating to keep us safe from the Reds? what was Ollie North cooking up?

[bertman]

34. You're exactly right, wuvuj. You'd have to be blind not to see it.

[abelenkpe]

24. I haven't accepted it

I don't thing most do accept it. It's just that everyone is struggling to get by with daily life and hold on to their job. They are distracted by so many things. So many wrongs. It's difficult to focus.

[Uncle Joe]

26. 1. They can more easily wage war without taking political risks, ie; instituting a draft to support

that war.

2. It's an easy way to funnel increased amounts of money back to the Congress in the form of lobbying bribes as there is less accountability in regards to spending on mercenaries.

3. It increases the intimidation leverage the shadow power players have over the American Peoples' elected or appointed Representatives when their mercenary outfits are doing the guarding.

4. It's easier for the shadow power players to weaken the publics military; a necessary step if you plan on drowning "We the Peoples'" Government in the bathtub. They do this by siphoning off more experienced NCOs and Officers for much higher paying jobs as mercenaries and also by leeching precious defense dollars that would otherwise go to the nation's military.

5. It forms another degree of separation between the American People and their guardians by eliminating or reducing the military from the equation, Blackwater Mercenaries were among the first sent to New Orleans after Katrina hit and they had no intention of actually helping the people.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=blackwater+katrina&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

[Politicalboi]

25. It's our own Taliban

Once again the US shows it's hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do.

[showpan]

29. we don't need the draft

the military are the only ones hiring...

[dgibby]

31. Holy Moly!

Scary shit, isn't it?

[yurbud]

33. kick