Chart Shows Blackwater Mercenaries Make $455,891 Taxpayer Dollars A YEAR!

[leftchick]

Holy CRAP! Our fucking congress people keep approving this bullshit???

:grr:




Graphic with charts on the record of Blackwater private security firm in Iraq. The Iraqi government has announced that it has decided to formally revoke the immunity from prosecution granted to private security companies operating in the war-ravaged country.(AFP/Graphic/Martin Megino)

[Robbien]

1. Isn't is said there more mercs than troops in Iraq?

About 150,000 or more if I recall correctly. At a half mil apiece no wonder this invasion is going to cost in the trillions before it is over, if ever.

And these guys were the ones complaining that $5,000 was too much to pay an Iraqi family when the mercs kill one of their members.

[leftchick]

2. it is obscene

Yes, Jeremy Scahill puts the number at about 170,000.

[mvccd1000]

5. Not even close...

... as I posted in another thread:

2,500 for the State Department. Less than 10,000 total, including State Department and DOD (NOTE: This total is for Private Security Contractors, NOT mechanics, cooks, truck drivers, postal employees, etc.)

From this link:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmWrnOqDy3WHd-7awW9...

The New York Times, which reported on the issue Wednesday, said the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which wants to keep control over the 2,500 private security contractors it employs in Iraq, about 800 of them from Blackwater USA.



From this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/blackwater.state... /

"Blackwater is one of three contractors being used by the U.S. and one of ten to fifteen being used in country by the U.S., the U.N. and others," one person familiar with the recommendations said. "The military can't do it all alone. You are going to be living with this for some time and so you need to have rules, regulations and a methodology."



From this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/washington/17blackwat...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is pressing for the nearly 10,000 armed security contractors now working for the United States government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely the American military, in an effort to bring Blackwater USA under tighter control, senior administration officials and Pentagon advisers say.

[devilgrrl]

3. Yet firefighters and cops make $30,000-$40,000 if they're lucky.

That's one frightening chart.

[mvccd1000]

6. What part of the country is THAT in?

I am looking at the Mesa AZ police academy, and they start at something like $46k and move up to around $60k within five years. Not including OT.

Now TEACHERS, on the other hand, are woefully underpaid. My brother and sister are both teachers, and starting salary was around $30k. That is pathetic; how on earth are the schools expecting to keep people on that wage?

[mvccd1000]

4. Blackwater bills the govt $1,222. Blackwater does not pay the men $1,222.

How would they make any money? I was a contractor at GM, and I was billed at around $45 an hour, but paid $18/hr.

[ManiacJoe]

7. Exactly.

One of the major newspapers ran an article recently that said the Blackwater contractors were averaging about $100k to $150k per year.

[Matariki]

8. THESE are the people who should be drafted...

Along with pro-war republicans...