RE: BLACKWATER : THE SHADOW WAR (video)

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From: Erin
Date: Jul 15, 2008 1:08 PM


The Republicans have their own private army

Whether they win in 2008 or not, the Republican Party has used the last eight years and billions of dollars of tax dollars to build their own private army.



This video is a quick summary of the details and their significance

BLACKWATER : THE SHADOW WAR

RE: It appear that Blackwater is working with the executive branch

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From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Oct 7, 2007 2:06 PM


Does Anyone beside me see this as Extra- Constitutional?
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From: Douglas Truth Seeker
Date: Oct 7, 2007 10:54 AM


Does Anyone beside me see this as Extra- Constitutional?
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From: § Lori §
Date: Oct 7, 2007 12:33 PM


From: Wayne
Date: Oct 7, 2007 12:27 PM


Thanks, Virginia Brooks:

Blackwater Air Force

In the July edition of The Idaho Observer, we ran an extensive story by Jeremy Scahill exposing the underlying purpose of armed and perpetual military conflict: It’s immensely profitable for those who have corporate interests in war. The private security company Blackwater U.S.A., run by former Navy Seals and other highly-trained special forces types, is growing exponentially at this time, reaping the rewards to be gleaned from war and "reconstruction." As its influence grows during this time of deepening and expanding conflict, so do the number of specialized services Blackwater is able to offer.

Blackwater U.S.A. is reportedly buying Super Tucano light combat aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. "These five ton, single engine, single seat aircraft are built for pilot training, but also perform quite well for counter-insurgency work.... The bubble canopy provides excellent visibility. This, coupled with its slow speed (versus jets), makes it an excellent ground attack aircraft," Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army" (2006).

The Super Tucano "can carry up to 1.5 tons of weapons, including 12.7mm machine-guns, bombs and missiles."

Since the U.S. military has enjoyed complete air dominance over Iraq since 1990, and Iraq is currently Blackwater’s main area of operations, one has to wonder why Blackwater is beginning to assemble an air force.

According to Scahill, "Blackwater’s been in negotiations with several state governments in the United States. Blackwater met recently with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about doing disaster response in California. They’re opening up a new private military base in San Diego and another one in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Blackwater has applied for operating licenses in every coastal U.S. state."

What Scahill has uncovered is that Blackwater is establishing, in cooperation with state governments with the apparent approval of the Bush administration, what is tantamount to private military bases inside the U.S.

Per National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD)-51, the plans by which the executive branch would run the entire government in the event of a "catastrophic emergency," which could be anything from a terrorist attack, a disease outbreak or a natural disaster. "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

It would appear that Blackwater is working with the executive branch to lay the groundwork for an eventual catastrophic emergency. For years now public servants and emergency medical personnel have been planning and preparing to do their parts in a declared state of emergency and even the clergy is being enlisted by the Department of Homeland Security to keep citizens in line in the event of a declaration of martial law. It is disconcerting that a private company with close ties to the GOP is arming itself with attack planes just at the moment when the President is laying the groundwork to exercise extraordinary martial authority during a state of emergency.

RE: Silent Surge in Contractor "Armies"

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From: The Man Common
Date: Jul 18, 2007 3:00 PM


Silent Surge in Contractor "Armies"

By Brad Knickerbocker
The Christian Science Monitor

Go to Original

A key support for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, civilians have little oversight and, back home, little help.

There are two coalition armies in Iraq: the official one, which fights the war, and the private one, which supports it.

This latter group of civilians drives dangerous truck convoys, cooks soldiers' meals, and guards facilities and important officials. They rival in size the US military force there, and thousands have become casualties of the conflict. If this experience is any indication, they may change the makeup of US military forces in future wars.

Having civilians working in war zones is as old as war itself. But starting with US military action in the Balkans and Colombia in the mid-1990s and accelerating rapidly in Afghanistan and Iraq, the number and activity of contractors has greatly increased. Coming from dozens of countries, hired by hundreds of companies, contractors have seen their numbers rise faster than the Pentagon's ability to track them.

Now, the challenges of this privatization strategy are becoming clear.

Everything from who controls their activities to who cares for them when wounded remains unresolved, say experts in and out of the military. This has led to protests from families in the United States as well as concerns in military ranks about how contractors fit into the chain of command.

"This is a very murky legal space, and simply put we haven't dealt with the fundamental issues," says Peter Singer, a foreign policy specialist at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "What is their specific role, what is their specific status, and what is the system of accountability? We've sort of dodged these questions."

As the inevitable drawdown of US military forces in Iraq occurs, the importance of civilian workers there is likely to grow.

"In my view, the role of contractors is just going to continue to escalate, probably at an ever-increasing rate," says Deborah Avant, a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine, whose research has focused on civil-military relations.

For example, the new US Embassy now being completed in Baghdad - 21 buildings on 104 acres, an area six times larger than the United Nations complex in New York - is likely to be a permanent fixture needing hundreds if not thousands of civilian contractors to maintain it and provide services.

In Iraq, Up to 180,000 Contractors

Estimates of the number of private security personnel and other civilian contractors in Iraq today range from 126,000 to 180,000 - nearly as many, if not more than, the number of Americans in uniform there. Most are not Americans. They come from Fiji, Brazil, Scotland, Croatia, Hungary, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, and other countries.

"A very large part of the total force is not in uniform," Scott Horton, who teaches the law of armed conflict at Columbia University School of Law, said in congressional testimony last month. In World War II and the Korean War, contractors amounted to 3 to 5 percent of the total force deployed. Through the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War, the percentage grew to roughly 10 percent, he notes. "But in the current conflict, the number appears to be climbing steadily closer to parity" with military personnel. "This represents an extremely radical transformation in the force configuration," he says.

Until recently, there has been little oversight of civilian contractors operating in Iraq. The Defense Department is not adequately keeping track of contractors - where they are or even how many there are, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report last December. This is especially true as military units rotate in and out of the war zone (as do contractors) and institutional memory is lost.

This lack of accountability has begun to change with a Democrat-controlled Congress. As part of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act passed last year, Congress now requires that civilian contractors who break the law - hurt or kill civilians, for example - come under the legal authority of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So far, however, the Pentagon has not issued guidance to field commanders on how to do this.

Proposed bills in the House and Senate would require "transparency and accountability in military and security contracting." For example, companies would be required to provide information on the hiring and training of civilian workers, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to issue rules of engagement regarding the circumstances under which contractors could use force.

Senior commanders acknowledge the value of contractors, especially those that are armed and ready to fight if attacked.

At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multinational force in Iraq, said that the "surge" by US forces in Iraq might not include enough American troops. "However, there are tens of thousands of contract security forces and [Iraqi] ministerial security forces that do, in fact, guard facilities and secure institutions," he added. "That does give me the reason to believe that we can accomplish the mission in Baghdad."

Still, many senior military officers worry about the impact that relying on so many civilian contractors - especially armed private security forces - will have on the conduct of future conflicts. This past Christmas Eve, for example, a Blackwater USA contractor shot and killed an Iraqi security guard. The contractor was fired and returned to the US. The FBI and Justice Department are investigating.

The US military needs to take "a real hard look at security contractors on future battlefields and figure out a way to get a handle on them so that they can be better integrated - if we're going to allow them to be used in the first place," Col. Peter Mansoor, a deputy to General Petraeus, recently told Jane's Defence Weekly.

"I meet with a lot of O-5s and O-6s [lieutenant colonels and colonels] at the war colleges, and you hear a lot of that discomfort with how far it's gone," says Mr. Singer of Brookings.

Opinions differ over whether the trend in using more contractors is here to stay.

"Every war is unique, but the heavy use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to persist in future conflicts," says military analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "Relying on market sources is intrinsically more flexible than using government workers, and nobody seriously believes that the market will fail to respond to multibillion dollar opportunities even when danger is involved."

"In addition," says Dr. Thompson, "modern military technology often requires support that only the original makers can provide."

A New Military-Industrial Complex?

Other observers also foresee an increase in military contractors - for darker r

RE: BLACKWATER : THE SHADOW WAR

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From: Leo/FightNWO-Resisting World Government
Date: Jun 9, 2007 3:28 AM

RE: The Blackwater Mercenaries : Your Tax Dollars at Work

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From: Save Our Troops,The WE Wont Forget 911 OLYMPICS
Date: May 16, 2007 12:14 PM


Lots of Love Bubbles to
~♥Reality~

James Clair Lewis
& Elsewhere's Daughter