Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater is the official mercenary company of the US government

[babylonsister]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/18/140201

snip//

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, clearly, Nouri al-Maliki made the mistake of believing that there is a sovereign Iraqi government for about fifteen minutes over the past twenty-four hours, and it appears now that there's a real diplomatic shuffle going on. Condoleezza Rice called Nouri al-Maliki ostensibly to apologize, but it does seem that the US is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the Iraqi government not to expel Blackwater.

And, you know, what's important to understand about this is that Blackwater is a relatively small player, in terms of numbers in Iraq. They have about a thousand operatives on the ground inside of the country. But symbolically, this is of enormous importance, because Blackwater is the official mercenary company of the US government. They protect the senior US officials in Iraq, the US ambassador. My understanding is that it was a chief of mission operation that they were protecting yesterday, which could mean that it was a very senior US official that the principal or the noun, so to speak.

But we also have to say, there's nothing new here. Iraqis for four years have been terrorized by these mercenaries, who ride around the country, and they'll do anything to keep their ever-important US lives protected, even if it means shooting Iraqi civilians. And so, if Iraq does follow through on this and expel Blackwater, it would be an extraordinary development.

more...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/18/140201

[eleny]

1. Randi is interviewing him right now

I can't recommend his book, "Blackwater", more. It's a page turner. I know some non fiction can be dry. But his writing is electric.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm always impressed when I hear him speak, too, as he did this a.m.

on Dem. Now.

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. What it implies is...

the troops arent capable of keeping those US lives safe so the job must be given to mercenaries.

[Richard D]

4. What a lot of people miss about Blackwater . . .

. . . is that unlike the military, they do not swear to uphold and protect the Constitution.