Observing
Our Government
Through Blackwater
By David Swanson
26 September, 2007
Afterdowningstreet.org
Jeremy
Scahill, author of a terrific book on the Blackwater mercenary army,
spoke in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Tuesday to a packed hall. He
took questions at the end, and one man asked something to the effect
of "Why does the government want to privatize the military? We
taxpayers have been paying for the Army." I wished Scahill had
pointed out that it's the tax payers who are now paying the private
corporations, but the answer Scahill gave was critical.
"There's a cynical answer
and an honest answer," he said, "and I think they're the same
answer." He said that the Pentagon is useless to politicians because
it doesn't make campaign "contributions". But when you take
a big chunk of that enormous military budget and give it to private
companies, you free it up to come back (some portion of it) to politicians
every campaign season.
Scahill has the ability to
tell the story of one little corner of corruption and through it provide
an understanding of the overall military industrial media congressional
complex. The corner of corruption he focuses on is Blackwater.
Scahill described the recent
"Bloody Sunday" incident in Baghdad in which Blackwater mercenaries
shot and killed approximately 28 Iraqi civilians, including women and
children, in a square. The Iraqi government claims to have video proving
the shooting was unprovoked. Witnesses corroborate that story.
Within hours of the incident,
Condoleezza Rice phoned Iraqi President and Bush puppet Nouri al Maliki.
Within 5 days Blackwater was back on the streets.
House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman plans to hold a hearing on October
2nd and has asked Blackwater CEO Eric Prince to testify, but has not
subpoenaed him. He's asked Prince to testify before, and Prince has
refused.
The State Department has
told Waxman that any information it provides Congress on occupation
contractors will be classified. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has herself refused to comply with a subpoena. It might be possible
to compel Prince to comply, but Waxman has not subpoenaed him. Beyond
the power of subpoena, Waxman has made clear he will never support using
the power of impeachment. For several months now he has sent frequent
requests to the State Department without receiving compliance.
Scahill described the size
of the problem. There are 181 security companies in Iraq and 180,000
private contractors, tens of thousands of whom are mercenaries. And
they are unaccountable. When a Blackwater mercenary shot and killed
the Iraqi Vice President's body guard, Blackwater snuck the shooter
out of the country. In February of this year, Waxman held hearings and
invited Prince to testify. Prince did not show up, but sent his lawyer
instead. Rep. Dennis Kucinich noted at the hearing that Blackwater appears
to be complicit in the flight of a murder suspect.
Blackwater has frequently
found itself in gun battles with Iraqis, as recounted by Scahill. The
U.S. Embassy, Scahill said, lied when it recently said it had never
had complaints about Blackwater. The Iraqis have complained frequently.
But the US wants shock troops, Scahill said. "They want Iraqis
to have the fear of god in them if they try to approach Ryan Crocker
or Condoleezza Rice."
A US soldier can be court
martialed. There have been 64 courts martial for murder charges in Iraq,
which Scahill finds stunningly low, given that in his estimate there
have been 750,000 Iraqis killed. (I don't know why Scahill disagrees
with the studies that now place the number over a million.) Mercenaries
are not prosecuted under Iraqi or US law or courts martial.
Scahill said that when he
recently testified before Congress, the whole issue seemed to be brand
new to congress members. After four years of slaughter and wild west
tactics in Iraq, Scahill said, two freshman senators have finally proposed
establishing a system of justice for mercenaries.
Scahill seems to be of two
minds about this proposal. He recognizes that mercenaries, aggressive
wars, and foreign occupations are illegal to begin with, making their
regulation a dubious endeavor. He recognizes that the mercenary companies
are themselves supporting the proposal, and that this is a good indication
of how worthless it is. Yet, he finds something encouraging about the
fact that there is a proposal and a discussion underway. I am less encouraged,
largely because any bill that was actually worth passing would be vetoed.
Scahill recently gave a talk
in Eric Prince's home town in Michigan (a town described well in Scahill's
book). Prince published an op-ed in the local paper claiming that Blackwater
is not a mercenary company. But, Scahill explains, Blackwater has hired
soldiers from countries like Chile whose democratically elected governments
opposed the occupation, and sent those soldiers to fight in Iraq. Employing
soldiers to fight for a foreign power, such as Chileans for the United
States, is the very definition of mercenary used by Prince himself.
The Democrats in Congress
are asleep on this issue, says Scahill, and he blames the financial
"contributions" they receive from the war industry.
Scahill says that the count
of 1,000 or more private contractors killed in Iraq is almost certainly
undercounted dramatically, because it includes only those eligible for
federal aide.
Britain may put in more mercenaries
as it pulls out troops, Scahill said. The US may put in more mercenaries
when it pulls out troops. And more and more of the mercenaries may be
hired from poor nations around the world, including Iraq. (And yet the
best talk in Congress is still of "redeploying" troops, never
troops and mercenaries.)
Scahill also discussed Blackwater's
connections with the Bushes and the radical right. With Blackwater guards
now bigger targets in Iraq than the people they are guarding, why would
the US keep them on? The answer, Scahill suggests, is the role the Prince
family has played in funding the religious right and rightwing political
movements in the United States. All of this, including the story of
Blackwater's creation and rise to power, is well told in Scahill's book.
And it's not just the Princes.
The number two man at Blackwater, Cofer Black, formerly of the CIA,
is part of the power that Blackwater has over the State Department as
well, Scahill surmises. He has been in charge of capturing Osama Bin
Laden and in charge of the extraordinary rendition program. It's unclear
whether Blackwater's planes have been used in that program. The number
three man at Blackwater is Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector
General under Rumsfeld. Blackwater's lawyers include Fred Fielding,
former White House Counsel, and Kenneth Star, former investigator of
Bill Clinton's oral sex.
The main problem, as Scahill
says, is that companies have a profit motive in launching and escalating
wars. And nobody in Washington, other than Dennis Kucinich, will talk
about it, Scahill says.
Someone in the audience Tuesday
night asked whether Scahill was concerned about what role American mercenaries
in Iraq will play when / if they're brought home. Scahill agreed that
it should be a major concern, and said that he's seen a glimpse of it
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He talked to Israeli private
security guards for a company called Instinctive Shooting International
who were operating an armed checkpoint on behalf of a wealthy individual.
Mercenaries are for hire by billionaires as well as by the government.
Scahill also warned that
he expects an increase in attacks on mercenaries in Iraq as retaliation
for the recent massacre.
Scahill dodged the obligatory
9-11 theories question but answered a question on whether the four famous
Blackwater deaths in Fallujah had been an intentional set-up to spur
revenge attacks. Scahill believes that was not the case, that Blackwater
was simply rushing recklessly to fill a contract.
Someone also asked what everyone
in the room could do when they got home. Based on Scahill's response,
I posted the following call to action on a local website:
CALL
CHAIRMAN HENRY WAXMAN
Jeremy Scahill discussed
Blackwater tonight in Charlottesville. Someone asked what we could do,
and he suggested that we all phone Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat
from California and the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee. We should ask Waxman to subpoena Blackwater CEO Eric
Prince. Waxman's number is 202-225-3976.
A little background: Waxman
has subpoenaed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and she has refused
to appear. Unless Waxman backs impeachment of her (the House Judiciary
Committee passed an article of impeachment against Nixon for refusal
to comply with subpoenas) he has no leverage over Rice. Waxman has asked
Prince to testify before, and he refused. There is a chance that Waxman
could compel Prince to obey a subpoena or hold him in contempt or inherent
contempt. The State Department has told Waxman that any information
it provides is classified. Waxman should ignore that announcement, hold
open hearings, and subpoena Prince and other heads of mercenary companies.
He should expose to the public what their contracts are and what their
crimes have been, including the recent Blackwater bloody Sunday massacre,
of which Waxman should obtain the video from the Iraqi government and
air it.
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