Think Progress:
In a letter to Blackwater CEO Erik Prince today, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) says he has obtained documents “which suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion” by labeling their armed guards “independent contractors.” Due to the label, “Blackwater may have avoided paying millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes for which it is legally responsible,” writes Waxman. DynCorp and Triple Canopy, “the two other major private military contractors providing security services to the State Department in Iraq,” classify their guards as “employees.”Degrades the police force? Via Morse of Republic of Sestakastan, a Wayne Madsen report: (my bold)
The mercenary firm Blackwater USA is well known for the controversy involving its "shoot first, ask no questions" policy in Iraq. It is also known that Louisiana's Department of Homeland Security contracted with Blackwater to provide public law enforcement services in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. Blackwater is also planning to establish regional training centers in Potrero, California and Mount Carroll, Illinois, billed as Blackwater West and Blackwater North, respectively.Finally Bill Moyers talks in depth to Jeremy Scahill. Watch or read the transcript.
These training centers, in addition to Blackwater's Lodge and Training Center in Moyock, North Carolina -- Blackwater East -- and a possible fourth rumored to be slated for the Pacific Northwest -- Blackwater Northwest -- may result in the establishment of a network of Blackwater-trained police, sheriffs, and other police units around the country. Given Blackwater's dismal record on human rights and brutality, this spells trouble for civilian control of police and paramilitary forces in the United States, from major metropolitan areas to small rural towns.
4 comments:
and when the Feds stop cutting checks to these mercenaries, where do they go for work? I don't see them doing well as greeters at Mall Wart.
OMG! I had this mental picture of a shopper in a headlock as the Blackwater greeter insists the shopper try a fruitcake sample....
Wal-Mart greeters, MFA. When the feds stop cutting checks to Blackwater, the Bush family picks up where our tax dollars leave off; then the Bushists truly have a private army... which they can run from that land they've acquired in (Peru?). Hey, the world might survive; a few hundred years ago, several European families had private armies. I wouldn't bet a nickel on the survival of the American nation as a representative democracy in such a world, but let's be "realistic": omelet, eggs, etc.
I wonder how kind Blackwater would be to someone who is not president and has less power? Maybe they won't want to be associating with Bush after his preznitcee is done....
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