Whig at Cannablog has a hour long talk by Jeremy Scahill about Blackwater's rise to prominence. An hour well spent scaring yourself to death.
More information on Blackwater by the Citizen's Oversight Projects.
The Los Angeles Times has an editorial on Blackwater that finishes with this:
The Blackwater debacle suggests that at the very least, outsourcing the protection of U.S. diplomats operating in war zones -- a national security imperative -- is a bad idea. Military officers complain that Blackwater's cowboy tactics reflect its mission, which isn't to win Iraqi hearts and Iraq but to protect the diplomats in their care, no matter how many Iraqis are terrorized or harmed in the process. The State Department admits that without Blackwater, it can't safely escort its diplomats even around Baghdad. So it's disturbing that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insists on relying on the firm instead of asking Congress to expand funding for the experts at protecting diplomats without antagonizing the local population, the professionals who are trained to used deadly force with restraint and who understand the standards and mission of the U.S. After all, they work for her -- in the department's own Diplomatic Security unit.Blue Girl, Red State has more links about Blackwater.
If the U.S. is to calm volatile Iraq, it should start by requiring that those permitted to wield deadly force in America's name at least work for the U.S. government. Critics who fear the cost might consider instead the consequences of the "hollowing out" of the government's capacity to protect its own, and of losing to the private sector the security know-how that is essential in a world ever more dangerous for Americans.
Update: Via Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat, Phoenix Woman at Firedoglake discusses the latest Blackwater rumor:
In fact, according to some of the scuttlebutt going around town, it looks like that they might be the security force of choice for the GOP during next summer’s Republican National Convention in Saint Paul.
The really interesting thing about this is that for some time now, various right-wing bloggers and their favorite meme transmitters in the “respectable” broadcast and print media (transmitters such as StarTribune columnist Katherine Kersten, who claimed that violence at a recent Critical Mass bicyclist event was a harbinger of things to come) have been trying to stir up their followers with lurid tales of the horrible, hideous violence that will be inflicted by Evil Scurvy Lefty Protesters at the sacred RNC Convention next year — unless Something Is Done To Stop Them.
2 comments:
If we use Blackwater, what happens is our fault. Outsourcing security is the worst idea that Rumsfeld ever came up with. You give up control, but can't avoid the responsibility.
Nice point, Bryan. No control but all of the responsibility.
And if you are a diplomat or a politician, do you really want to come down hard on the very people who will be protecting your life when you visit Iraq again?
Do you really want to piss Blackwater off?
They've already becoming the Praetorian Guard, where they choose or destroy kings.
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