Bush's Brown-Shirts: Blackwater

[unlawflcombatnt]

Blackwater has been discussed in other threads on this board. I'm posting this subject again so it doesn't die out. Private contractors, who are accountable to no one, are essentially Bush's own Brown Shirts. Their shear number makes them of great concern to many people.

Blackwater is the biggest "private contractor" provider of mercenaries in Iraq. According to one source, the Washington Post estimates there are 100,000 private contractors in Iraq. Estimates of how much they are paid vary, from $700/day to $100,000 per year. The latter number would mean a cost to the taxpayers of $10-25 billion/year or more. Numerous articles have been written on the subject. Blackwater boasts that it provides "elite" forces for hire. As most have heard, these private soldiers are not subject to normal military laws and regulations, nor to any sovereign nation's laws. Unlike normal U.S. citizens, it is apparently legal for them to purchase and own automatic weapons. There are now several accounts of these private soldiers being deployed within the United States, the most notable case being in New Orleans following Katrina. Below is a link to an archived post by Carbondate titled America's Private Army.

Other links to information on Blackwater (and other contractors) can be found at:

Inside America's Private Army

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/062fxarf.asp?pg=1

Warriors for Hire

[whistle]

1. I think Blackwater is more like Hitler's Waffan-SS

<snip>
The Waffen-SS ("Armed SS") was the combat arm of the Schutzstaffel. Headed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the Waffen-SS saw action throughout the Second World War. A small percentage of its nearly 1 million men were charged with war crimes at Nuremberg.

After beginning as a protection unit for the NSDAP leadership, the Waffen-SS eventually grew into a force of thirty-eight combat divisions comprising over 950,000 men, including a number of elite army units. In the testimony given at the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation due to their involvement with the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), and Waffen-SS veterans were denied many of the rights afforded other German combat veterans who had served in the Heer, Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine. Conscripts were exempted from the judgment on the basis of involuntary servitude.

Basic Background

Dress Uniforms of the SS-Verfügungstruppen (pre-war Waffen-SS)The origins of the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) can be traced back to the creation of a group of 200 men who were to act as Hitler's body guard. This body guard was created by Hitler in reaction to his unease at the size and strength of the SA (Sturmabteilung, or "Storm Detachment"). The SA had grown so large that Hitler felt he needed an armed escort that was totally dedicated to him. Thus the Schutzstaffel (SS) or "protection squad" was created. After Hitler's imprisonment (and subsequent release) in the wake of the failed Munich Putsch in 1923, he saw an even greater need for a body guard, and the place of the SS was solidified in the Nazi hierarchy.

Until 1929 - the SA was still the dominant force in the Nazi Party, however - the SS was growing in strength and importance. In January 1929, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler to lead the SS (his rank was Reichsführer), and it was Himmler's goal to create an elite corps of armed soldiers within the party. However, the SS was still a very small organization, and Hitler wanted an effective force by 1933. Himmler set out to recruit men who represented the elite of German society, both in physical abilities and political beliefs. Through his active recruitment, Himmler was able to increase the size of the SS to about 52,000 by the end of 1933.

Although the SS was growing exponentially, the SA mirrored the growth of Hitler's private army. The SA had over 2 million members at the end of 1933. Led by one of Hitler's old comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA represented a threat to Hitler's attempts to win favour with the German army. As well, the SA threatened to sour Hitler's relations with the conservative elements of the country, whose support Hitler needed to solidfy his position in the German government. Hitler decided to act against the SA, and the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high ranking officers of the SA. The Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934 saw the execution of (officially) 82 SA men (today's estimates are that about 200 people were eliminated), including almost the entire leadership, and effectively ended the power of the SA.
<MORE>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS

[DCKit]

3. Not to mention that Rohm (sorry about the oomlaud) and much of his

staff were HOMOs (OMG).

[kenny blankenship]

5. More like the Freikorps, privately raised armies that put down communists during/after WWI

the Freikorps were the direct precursor to the Nazi S.A. "brownshirt" organization (the NSDAP did not yet exist at the time of the Freikorps). In fact the use of the swastika in the nascent fascist movement in Germany originated with a particular Freikorps unit, the Erhardt Brigade. During the latter days of WWI, the Freikorps was recruited from among German regular army units to put down Socialist/Communist dissent and revolt (among citizens and military alike) against the wartime Imperial government. After the war, the official size of the German Army was limited by the Treaty of Versailles, and the Freikorps continued in expanded form as a "Black Army" (similar echoes heard in Black Water), in otherwords an armed forces auxiliary, or para-military, that was "off the books", as far as the Entente powers France, Britain and the USA were concerned. It also didn't answer to elected German authority, but instead obeyed officers from the great war and those who rose up among its ranks like Ernst Rohm, future leader of the S.A.

There is GRAVE danger in allowing corporations to raise their own armies. Blackwater is clearly a paramilitary organization. If it is dangerous and capable abroad then it is dangerous at home. THIS Congress should set about THIS YEAR outlawing any "security services" that aspire to become more than shopping mall/ office lobby bouncers. Of course they won't succeed, but the next Democratic President MUST see to it that a similar law is passed by the United Nations--that is if he or she wants to ever have any Democratic Party successors in the Oval Office.

[unlawflcombatnt]

15. Thanks for the info

And thanks for the history lesson.

"There is GRAVE danger in allowing corporations to raise their own armies. Blackwater is clearly a paramilitary organization. If it is dangerous and capable abroad then it is dangerous at home. THIS Congress should set about THIS YEAR outlawing any "security services" that aspire to become more than shopping mall/ office lobby bouncers."

I couldn't agree more. This is very dangerous.

[indepat]

2. Brownshirts they are, accountable to no one but der Fuhrer

[aquart]

9. Well, no.

There's no ideological loyalty there. There's paycheck loyalty. Cut off Bush's ability to pay, the loyalty goes bye-bye.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Not necessarily. The man who started Blackwater is a RW

fundamentalist christian - you can't really expect that he'd hire his gang out to support any left wing cause, no matter how well it paid.

They are trying to pass themselves off as a modern version of the Pinkertons,who were, themselves, mercenaries for the corporate class, particularly the railroads and coal mine owners, but supposedly dedicated to law and order - but the fact is, they are an ideologically driven organization, and I suspect anyone with leftist or libertarian views would not last long in their ranks.

[Leopolds Ghost]

23. The Pinkertons WERE early form of fascist private armies

The only reason they didn't succeed is because, at that time in US History, local police forces and national army units were few or non-existent. Many post-Civil War army units and veterans sided with the strikers in the Midwest, for instance, and troops had to be brought in to bombard St. Louis when it "liberated" itself for 9 months during the Railroad Strike.

[rman]

17. That's true for most of politics. nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

24. Exactly. Why would the people with BIG money cut off their financial support for fascist policies

Financial support which has been on-going for centuries?

[unlawflcombatnt]

26. Cutting War Funding

It's be interesting to see what would happen to Blackwater funding if Democrats cut off funding for the Iraq war. The Bush-thugs claim it would be "the troops" that would lose funding. Maybe Congress should stipulate cutting off funding for the private "troops" first.

If all of the war bureaucrats and profiteers in Baghdad lost the protection these mercenaries provide, how much longer would the war go on? If war profiteering in Baghdad couldn't be protected, the war would come to a screeching halt.

[kineneb]

4. Blackwater- audio interview at Democracy Now

Parts I & II: interview with Jeremy Scahill

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226&mode=thread&tid=25

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1340210&mode=thread&tid=25

[unlawflcombatnt]

8. Thanks for the links

It was Scahill's interview that I saw on TV yesterday that prompted me to research Blackwater.

I'll have to get his book.

[NI4NI]

13. That was a good interview.

[peacetalksforall]

6. Q. Anyway to determine if the former FBI employee missing from

an Iranian off island - supposedly acting for a third party - is a Blackwater contractor?

[aquart]

10. Not "contractor," MERCENARY.

Don't use Republican sanitized vocabulary.

[peacetalksforall]

18. You're right. Edited to add - mercenaries led by intense christians.

[aquart]

7. And we're paying how much for these punks?

[NI4NI]

14. According to C-Span's interview with Scahill,

Blackwater seurity employees in Iraq are paid $1000 a day.
During the looting after Katrina,
600 Blackwater employees were sent to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
They had been deputized by state officials and housed at Homeland Security Dept. facilities.
Each employee was paid over $300 per day while Blackwater billed our government $900 a day for each employee.

[jaksavage]

11. Trained from birth

We are a warrior nation
our children are trained in the basics
we idolize the service
we ignore the imperial nature of it

vengence rather than justice
is what we want

It is a natural thing
for a beast like us

society and civilization are the antidote
but the media monster
obfuscates healthy messages

[rman]

16. Naomi Klein on the privatization of the State - Democracy Now

Monday, April 2nd, 2007
"The Worse Things Get in Iraq, the More Privatized This War Becomes, The More Profitable This War Becomes" - Naomi Klein on the Privatization of the State
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/02/1345218

...
As we continue to look at the issue of Iraq and the US occupation, we turn to the acclaimed author and journalist Naomi Klein. Naomi Klein is a widely read columnist for The Nation magazine and the London Guardian, author of the best-selling book No Logo, more recently, Fences and Windows. She came to New York for the launch of Jeremy Scahill's book on Blackwater and spoke at the Ethical Culture Society on the privatization of military and the state, putting it in a historical context.

more...

[unlawflcombatnt]

20. Privatization = Corporate Socialism

It's interesting to note that during all of this "privatization" process, it's still taxpayers who're paying for the services provided. The difference is that with privatization, taxpayers are forced to allow Big Business & Corporate America to pick their pockets. Instead of private "free" markets, taxpayers become involuntary victims of these privately owned, government-protected non-free markets.

Taxpayers do have a choice when purchasing goods and services on the open market. In contrast, however, they have no choice when their tax money is taken by the government and given to Corporate America in the form of government contracts.

"Privatization" should be called by its real name: Corporate Socialism. It's welfare for the rich, taken from the pockets of the poor and middle class.

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. There's another word for it.

Fascism.

[unlawflcombatnt]

25. Exactly

Mussolini's own definition of Fascism was the same as "Corporatism."

A dictatorship run by Corporations. Sounds pretty close to what we have now. And with a private army (Blackwater) to furnish necessary military force.

[PsycheCC]

19. The idea the the Bush administration could buy mercenaries

to fight Bush's war that his own military leadership no longer fully supports is pretty alarming. This is the best example of many where privatization has gone very wrong. It is most certainly NOT cheaper to privatize services usually provided by government; it just moves money onto the balance sheets of big corporations instead of into the pockets of average Americans who used to work for their government and take pride in public service.

Blackwater sending armed thugs into New Orleans was the most eye-opening part of the Scahill interview in my opinion. I knew this was going on around the world, funded by American tax dollars, but I hadn't really thought about my government paying private companies to do its bidding here at home. Maybe if they had spent more to help Katrina victims up front, they wouldn't have felt the need to protect businesses from luting to the tune of $900+ per day per Blackwater employee. And as noted above, Blackwater only paid their employees a third of that $900. The rest added to corporate profit, making the rich richer.

There are some jobs best done by government. I hate the idea of hired guns doing George Bush's bidding. At least the military has its own leadership that isn't solely motivated by profit as it determines its level of support for the war.

[unlawflcombatnt]

21. Well Put

"It is most certainly NOT cheaper to privatize services usually provided by government; it just moves money onto the balance sheets of big corporations instead of into the pockets of average Americans who used to work for their government and take pride in public service."

I completely agree. Privatization has become nothing more than taxpayer handouts to Corporate America. And given that Corporations have shareholders & Corporate management to pay, services provided usually cost more than when provided by the government. Blackwater is a classic example of how much higher the costs are when government services are privatized. Again, government employees are far more directly accountable to taxpayers than government contractors.