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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/29/2007 : 22:10:02
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The State Department has assured Blackwater's mercenaries that they will not face US prosecution in the recent Baghdad massacre of 17 Iraqis. That offer may foil any attempt within US law to bring these men to justice.
Blackwater mercenary boss Erik Prince.
Erik Prince, the fundamentalist, NeoCon Bush crony who runs Blackwater, has told his buddies at the Moonie-owned, far right-wing Washington Times that he will not allow his men to be tried by the Iraqis. Blackwater has been paid hundreds of millions of dollars for supplying mercs to the State Department. After the Baghdad massacre, the initial State Department report on the "incident" was actually written by a Blackwater employee!
Wasn't it nice of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to protect Blackwater on the home front? It's good to have friends in high places.
It's practically like getting away with murder.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/30/2007 08:14:19
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2007 : 23:17:08 [Permalink]
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I have absolutely no problem with private entities hiring professional security people, including ex-soldiers, to guard their assets.
That said:
The US government should, under no circumstances, hire private military to perform official functions of the US government. Things like guarding embassies and diplomats, providing security for ANYONE inside a warzone, etc.
Any private security must be 100% accountable to the laws of whatever nation they are in. They are not US soldiers, and even US troops are accountable to the laws of countries they serve in, in addition to the UCMJ.
No private security should ever, under any circumstances, be in areas where US military operations are being conducted unless they are specifically invited by the commanding general and are subject to the military chain of command. Even then, the role of private contractors should be entirely advisory. They shouldn't be involved in active combat or security operations.
The situation with private security soldiers in Iraq is a joke. They are immune to Iraqi laws, they are not accountable to the local military commanders, and they have no oversight.
As a side note, you all do know that there are more "private contractors" in Iraq, on the US dime, than there are active duty soldiers? Not all of them are "security", but we are pimping out shit that the military or Iraqi businesses/companies should be doing to US companies, on no-bid contracts with ZERO oversight.
Iraq For Sale.
Its a fucking joke. Who knows how many illegal actions these people are responsible for, say nothing of the billions of dollars that are unaccounted for.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2007 : 02:33:32 [Permalink]
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What gets me about this is how much corrupt smoke there is throughout this matter. There's almost certainly fire there, too. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for in Iraq. It wouldn't surprise me if there were several officials in this Administration who have some large, numbered offshore accounts that have been established for them during the last four years of GOP frenzy feeding.
Everett Dirkson once said, "A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon you're talking about real money."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/30/2007 02:35:45 |
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2007 : 06:14:04 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
What gets me about this is how much corrupt smoke there is throughout this matter. There's almost certainly fire there, too. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for in Iraq. It wouldn't surprise me if there were several officials in this Administration who have some large, numbered offshore accounts that have been established for them during the last four years of GOP frenzy feeding.
Everett Dirkson once said, "A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon you're talking about real money."
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All of these billions are borrowed money on which interest has to be paid by future generations of Americans.
The Canadian Federal Government is expecting a surplus of 14 billion this year - and we have universal health insurance.
Why are American voters, especially so called Conservatives so fiscally ignorant? Never mind the moral ignorance that there isn't more moral outrage about the government hiring paid killers.
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"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2007 : 08:27:38 [Permalink]
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As terrible as the financial looting of our our descendants is, and it's a horrible thing, that pales in comparison with the untold thousands of deaths this war has caused. And apparently simply for corporate greed and kickbacks to officials. But the deaths, I suppose, are simply collateral damage in the process of getting at the people's money.
BTW, a new report says the State Department is now denying the facts of the earlier information that it offered immunity to the Blackwater employees. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- No immunity deal was offered to Blackwater USA guards for their statements regarding a shootout in Iraq last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, a senior State Department official told CNN Tuesday.
Blackwater contractors take part in a firefight in the Iraqi city of Najaf in 2004.
The statement contradicts comments made Monday by a U.S. government official who said the guards were promised their statements would not be used against them in any prosecution resulting from the September 16 shootings in Baghdad |
Needless to say, I am distrustful. I wonder if this new press statement was written by a Blackwater contractor. And was the announcer then quizzed with softball questions by fake Blackwater reporters?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/30/2007 08:32:30 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2007 : 08:32:33 [Permalink]
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I'm waiting for Mycroft to pop into this thread and innocently state that he fails to see a problem.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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State Dept promised immunity to Blackwater guards
