Robert Baer regarding CIA - Blackwater contract: "The other shoe has dropped"

[sabra]

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1917759,00.html

Blackwater Hit Squads: What Was the CIA Thinking?

By Robert Baer Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

The other shoe has dropped. CIA Director Leon Panetta, it turns out, ran up to up to Capitol Hill this June not simply to confess the CIA had a secret assassination program it never implemented but rather to confess it had sub-contracted the job out. As first reported by the New York Times on its website Wednesday evening, the CIA hired Blackwater to help with a secret program to assassinate top Al Qaeda leaders. Although no one was ultimately assassinated before the program was ultimately shelved — and the Times reports that it's not clear that Blackwater was engaged to do anything more than assist with planning, training and surveillance — Panetta must have been horrified the CIA turned to mercenaries to play a part in its dirty work. It's one thing, albeit often misguided, for the agency to outsource certain tasks to contractors. It's quite another to involve a company like Blackwater in even just the planning and training of targeted killings, akin to the CIA going to the Mafia to draw up a plan to kill Castro.

...

And there may even be a darker side to Blackwater. This August one former anonymous Blackwater employee filed a sworn statement in federal court in Virginia claiming that Blackwater's founder Erik Prince (who is no longer involved with the day-to-day running of the company) was involved in the murder of at least one informant reporting to federal authorities on his company. The allegation, first reported by The Nation magazine, was part of a civil suit filed by several Iraqis for the company's alleged abuses in the country. Blackwater has denied the claims, calling them "anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive assertions."

Still, the CIA has maintained its various Blackwater contracts, which run from protecting CIA operatives in the field to loading Hellfire missiles on Predator drones. None of this is to mention that as soon as CIA money lands in Blackwater's account it is beyond accounting, as good as gone.

...

Even more troubling, I think we will find out that in the unraveling of the Bush years, Blackwater is not the worst of the contractors, some of which did reportedly end up carrying out their assigned hits.

— Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

[G_j]

1. "Blackwater is not the worst of the contractors"

we need to know about them all.

There are many contractors on Afghanistan.


***************

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/03/06/iraq_private_contractors/

[G_j]

3. Blackwater part of the highest level, the innermost circle of Bush admin.?

ttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/scahill1

Blackwater: CIA Assassins?
By Jeremy Scahill

August 20, 2009


<snip>
Reached by telephone, Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that because of her oath of secrecy on sensitive intelligence issues, she could neither confirm nor deny that Congress was aware of Blackwater's involvement in this program before the Times report. Schakowsky also declined to comment on whether Blackwater came up at a June briefing by CIA director Leon Panetta, which she attended. That briefing sparked calls for an investigation into whether Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to conceal an assassination program from Congress.

"What we know now, if this is true, is that Blackwater was part of the highest level, the innermost circle strategizing and exercising strategy within the Bush administration," Schakowsky told The Nation. "Erik Prince operated at the highest and most secret level of the government. Clearly Prince was more trusted than the US Congress because Vice President Cheney made the decision not to brief Congress. This shows that there was absolutely no space whatsoever between the Bush administration and Blackwater."

As The Nation has reported, Blackwater continues to operate on the US government payroll in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where it works for the State Department and the Defense Department. The CIA will not confirm whether Blackwater continues to work for the agency (or, for that matter, if it ever has).

Blackwater's work for the CIA was the result of meetings in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 between Prince and Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, then-executive director of the CIA, the agency's number-three man. Krongard and Prince, according to a former Blackwater executive interviewed by The Nation, "were good buddies." In a 2006 interview for my book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Krongard said that the company was hired to provide security for the CIA in Afghanistan. "Blackwater got a contract because they were the first people that could get people on the ground," Krongard said. "The only concern we had was getting the best security for our people. If we thought Martians could provide it, I guess we would have gone after them."


<snip

[Stephanie]

43. Paul Bremer had Blackwater security guards

I always thought that was so strange, in photos, to see him with private security instead of US military protection.

[malaise]

2. This and the Ridge story

are HUGE!!!!!

[BonnieJW]

48. Nothing will happen.

Blackwater could be killing American citizens in the streets of Chicago and nothing would happen. It makes you wonder what kind of hold they have on congress. I think congress is afraid of them or else at the very least why are they still being paid by the government?

[tanyev]

4. Marking to read later.

[Forkboy]

5. K&R

:kick:

[Lugnut]

6. K&R n/t

[AntiFascist]

7. Don't forget the role of State Dept's Howard "Cookie" Krongard....

Buzzy's brother:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/11/blackwater-and-brothers-krongard-how-cookie-crumbled

Though Krongard had testified that he'd specifically asked Buzzy about the Blackwater matter in early October, during this more recent conversation, he said, his brother acknowledged that he was a member of the company's advisory board and had attended the meeting yesterday. Krongard then recused himself from "any matters having to do with Blackwater." Asked about the suspicious timing of his change in testimony by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Krongard responded, "I'm not my brother's keeper." Apparently Buzzy feels the same way. After the hearing, he told TPM Muckraker's Spencer Ackerman that he'd informed Krongard three weeks ago of his decision to join Blackwater's advisory board. If true, and Krongard knowingly lied to Congress under oath, his troubles may be just beginning.

[KoKo]

8. OMG! If Baer says Blackwater was not the worst...WHO WAS?

Even more troubling, I think we will find out that in the unraveling of the Bush years, Blackwater is not the worst of the contractors, some of which did reportedly end up carrying out their assigned hits.

[AntiFascist]

9. CACI and TITAN were involved with the Abu Ghraib scandal...

I suspect that much of the truth has gotten covered up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janis_Karpinski

On November 10, 2006 Time magazine reported that civil rights activists were intending to file legal documents with a German prosecutor with the hope that charges would be brought against senior U.S. political and military officials. The legal documents will detail the alleged roles of the officials in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. Among those including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, and former CIA Director George Tenet. According to the article lawyers claim that Karpinski will be testifying on behalf of the plaintiffs. With the legal filings a written statement will be included from Karpinski saying, "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility for what happened at Abu Ghraib goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld." The U.S. Department of Defense has not replied, because the documents have not been filed yet. On November 14, 2006 the Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights had officially filed a war crimes lawsuit in Germany against Rumsfeld and other high-ranking U.S. officials for their role in the torture of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo. Karpinski confirmed that she will be testifying.<15><16>

[KoKo]

11. I remember Blackwater from Falluja..Burned Bodies.....but your post gives more info!

Good stuff. :ThumbsUp: for your post.

[fascisthunter]

15. remember how CACI went after Randi Rhodes?

[AntiFascist]

16. Yeah I saw that... a $10 million lawsuit?? n/t

[aquart]

39. And...who assigned the hits?

Who was Cheney ordering killed?

David Kelly?

[EFerrari]

10. Is Baer "former" anything? Why is he spinning for Blackwater

and CIA?

He doesn't know that no one was assassinated by BW.

He should know that Eric Prince is not associated with Blackwater but is associated with many of their 19 other companies.

So when he says, BW wasn't the worst, he's skating around the possibility that one of their other brands is.

This reads more like damage control than anything else. :shrug:

[KoKo]

12. You think he's apologizing for Blackwater? Maybe...is he on their BOD?

That's something we Dems need to investigate. If Robert Baer is on payroll of Blackwater and covering up for them...deflecting the criminality...we need to know. :-(

If he's an "analyst" for MSNBC he might be in the category of the "former Military Advisors" that MSNBC and CNN HIRED to Promote Iraq Invasion and Afghanistan Occupation.

:-(...it's hard to know these days with the "Military/Media/Industrial Complex." :shrug:

[EFerrari]

13. He is former CIA or so he says. n/t

[KoKo]

14. BUT...is he on the Cheney Side of CIA..or the one that does retain some Morals?

That's what I want to know.

[HamdenRice]

29. Bob Baer is the "good" former CIA guy. I confuse him with Mike Scheuer the "bad" former CIA guy.

Have you ever seen the movie, Syrianna? The "Bob" character played by George Clooney is losely based on Bob Baer's life.

It looks like Baer may be ready to drop some bombs on the Bush Cheney junta. Just a few months ago he was hinting that 9/11 was carried out with help from inside the Bush administration, as a result of what he learned about the interrogation and torture of Zubaida

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer#Doubts_over_official_explanation_of_9.2F11

Doubts over official explanation of 9/11

In an interview with Thom Hartmann on June 9, 2006, Baer was asked if he believed "that there was an aspect of 'inside job' to 9/11 within the U.S. government". He replied, "There is that possibility, the evidence points at it."<3> However, he later stated, "For the record, I don't believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by our own explosives, or that a rocket, rather than an airliner, hit the Pentagon. I spent a career in the CIA trying to orchestrate plots, wasn't all that good at it, and certainly couldn't carry off 9/11. Nor could the real pros I had the pleasure to work with."<4>

[Jackpine Radical]

17. Buzzy Krongard was the guy who placed all those "puts" on the stock market

just before 9-11. Remember? Airline stocks & whatnot, things that were bound to crash after the Towers fell. Wow, everywhere you start unraveling, the yarn all seems to come from the same big ball.

[AntiFascist]

21. He was probably part of the Fifth Column...

pull on that thread!

[troubledamerican]

26. ... "was" ?

Present tense

[DCKit]

30. Which is why the government (under BushCo*) couldn't afford to go after him.

The whole thing would have unraveled on them and they'd all have been in prison by 9/30.

Looking at Dumbya's face when he was advised of the attack, I can't help but think he knew it was coming, but not how big/bad/successful it was going to be.

[Raster]

52. And remember: that was the SECOND jet! The first had already hit.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. I betcha some of the hits have been domestic, and I bet they're still happening.

Will we ever get anything like thw whole story here? Will the American public ever believe it, even if the dead carcasses are dragged out onto the public square?

[troubledamerican]

27. Operation Condor becomes Operation Falcon

[BlueMTexpat]

19. I am one who suspects that Margaret Hassan's murder was actually

implemented either by Blackwater, another US contracting organization, or a third country group. An Iraqi man has supposedly "confessed" after strong "persuasion," but there was no reason for any Iraqi to kill this woman. It makes no sense whatsoever.
I would love to know the truth behind this senseless and brutal murder.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1190342/Iraqi-man-jailed-murder-British-aid-worker-Margaret-Hassan.html

[ShamelessHussy]

20. hmmm... how convienient that the other shoe didn't have a 'soul' either

I still ain't buying this BS about these plans not reaching the treading stage when we can see on our news reports that we target AQ leaders almost weekly now.

But I am sure it will be enough for the M$M to swallow and regurgitate.

[pjt7]

22. When will criminal charges be filed against Prince?

everything else is headlines..

Let's go.

[Wilms]

23. Thanks. n/t

[wildbilln864]

24. k&r! nt

[Richard Steele]

25. K&R

[laststeamtrain]

28. K & R - n/t.

[pleah]

31. K&R

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

32. War Games

There is nobody in Washington except Cheney & Rumsfeld. Cheney is coordinating from his office a North American Transcontinental Military Operation and Rumsfeld is in the Pentagon not paying attention, to what one would think the Secretary of Defense would be heavily involved in.

A civilian Jumbo Airliner slams into one of the WTC Towers, Rumsfeld doesn't forget to finish his coffee and donuts. The president jogging in Florida dismisses the 'accident' as one bad pilot, and the ever skillful Cheney watches on TeeVee while commanding and coordinating hijacked airplane scenario drills to ready the Homeland for a possible Terror Attack -

Now I read former CIA Agent Baer has alluded to possible involvement deep inside the Bush Administration on 9/11 with 9/11.



Blackwater never actually kills anyone, they just take monies - how many dollars went missing that Rumsfeld quoted?
Oversight went missing too.

Tom Ridge claims the Bush Administration left him out of security related information and wanted him to raise his color coded alert to Orange when the dead bin Laden threatened our Homeland right before the 2004 election. I guess Tom wasn't "Read Into" the Secret Agenda talked about in the Inspector Generals Report - http://washingtonindependent.com/50380/the-inspector-generals-report-on-warrantless-surveillance That's okay, neither was the Gang of Eight.



"I, Barack H Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

...and look forward without regard to the crimes from the Office of President of the United States and against the Constitution from my predecessor,

"I, George W Bush, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."



I'm not sure the other Shoe Has Dropped.

Slog On. :argh:



:redbox: :tv:

[Raster]

34. It does boggle the mind, doesn't it?

And remember, "Hear no evil, See no evil and Speak no evil!"

Believe me, there ARE more shoes left to drop. Or be thrown...:evilgrin:

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

42. Sorry Ignored

I can't see your post.

[Octafish]

35. The CIA DID go to the mafia to draw up a plan to kill Castro.

The year was 1960 -- when Ike and Tricky Dick and Allen Dulles called the shots.

[aquart]

40. Oh, those dim-witted Dulles boys.

Will we ever recover from them?

[daleanime]

36. "Contractors....?"

Call them what they are mercenaries.:argh:

[me b zola]

37. K&R

[Piewhacket]

38. A criminal conspiracy start to end, plain and simple and way beyond. PROSECUTE!!!

[arcadian]

41. Don't trust Robert Baer

That fact that he's saying this is that he's trying to finalize CIA involvement. There isn't just "another shoe". There is another show after that, and another show after that, and another show after that...

[Myrina]

44. Which one of those companies was Wesley Clark involved with?

I recall that catching me by surprise when he was a media darling in '03/04 ...

[OnyxCollie]

45. K&R. nt

[mzmolly]

46. Long ago, we had an person (claiming to have inside knowledge) post a repy to me in a thread here.

He/she (assuming he) said that people were being hired to go to Iraq and deal with various "problems". This person could not say much, but the gist of the post was that we were deploying mercenaries to tamp down rebellion in Iraq. The poster also implied that we had a hit squad in the area. This post was made before this kind of news was public. Every time I see a story like this, I think someone in the know, shared here, long ago, about what was happening.

[Norrin Radd]

47. kr

[sofa king]

49. Color me unsurprised.

It's fun trying to track the Bush Administration lies as they undergo continual revision. The Obama Administration is playing its role, too.

Let's see, first, none of this was happening. Then the CIA planned it but didn't go through with it. Then the CIA planned it and farmed it out to Blackwater, which didn't do it.

Next we'll be finding out about who did do it, and where. I'll give you a hint: MILFs.

It turns out that everything I really knew about the Bush Administration was learned on a bar stool, and everything in print was total bullshit.

[redqueen]

50. Moro Islamic Liberation Fronts?

[sofa king]

51. Yep.