Blackwater latest

[Myra Bronstein]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/23/...robe/index.html

"The Iraqi government will file criminal charges against employees of U.S. security firm Blackwater who are blamed for a gun battle in Baghdad in which civilians were killed, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Sunday.

It is unclear how Iraqi courts will attempt to bring the contractors to trial. A July report from the Congressional Research Service said the Iraqi government has no authority over private security firms contracted by the U.S. government.

The Iraqi government claims that as many as 20 civilians were killed by the private contractors, who were guarding a U.S. diplomatic convoy.

Iraqi officials, who claim the shootings were unprovoked, dispute the U.S. claim that the guards were responding to an attack and said on Saturday they had a videotape that showed the Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation.

The incident prompted the Iraqi government to call for Blackwater's expulsion from the country and sparked anger among ordinary Iraqis.

...

Blackwater USA security resumed its normal operations in Iraq on Friday after a hiatus sparked by concerns among Iraqi and U.S. government officials over last weekend's shooting.

Sheikhly said the Iraqi government has allowed Blackwater to again operate in the streets of Iraq, because otherwise U.S. troops would have to be pulled from the field to provide security, creating a security imbalance."

Wow, they're going so far as to stage a kangaroo court.

I wonder which PR company will get the big contract from Blackwater.

[John Simkin]

Blackwater was set up 11 years ago by Erik Prince, a reclusive right-wing Christian billionaire. After 9/11 Blackwater moved swiftly into corporate and other forms of security, and in 2003 won a State Department contract to provide bodyguards for Paul Bremer. As further contracts followed, Blackwater assumed effective charge of large areas of Baghdad.

Blackwater is among the most prominent of dozens of American security firms earning millions of dollars by conducting war zone operations previously the preserve of national armies. Like US and British troops, they are not subject to the jurisdiction of Iraqi courts. Nor are they subject to courts martial either. In other words, they are effectively immune from prosecution.

[William Kelly]

Blackwater was set up 11 years ago by Erik Prince, a reclusive right-wing Christian billionaire. After 9/11 Blackwater moved swiftly into corporate and other forms of security, and in 2003 won a State Department contract to provide bodyguards for Paul Bremer. As further contracts followed, Blackwater assumed effective charge of large areas of Baghdad.

Blackwater is among the most prominent of dozens of American security firms earning millions of dollars by conducting war zone operations previously the preserve of national armies. Like US and British troops, they are not subject to the jurisdiction of Iraqi courts. Nor are they subject to courts martial either. In other words, they are effectively immune from prosecution.

When U.S. CENTCOM Commander Adml. William Fallon was questioned by the Senate committee that approved his nomination, he was asked about private defense contractors in the war zone, but replied that he was not familiar enough with the issue to comment. I would think that now, six months on the job, he knows there's a problem.

Today (Tuesday), the Waxman House Oversight Committee is holding hearings on the issue and the head of Blackwater is testifying before the same committee that is neglegent, err responsible for oversight of the JFK Act.

Those who can watch the hearings live or taped on CSPAN or on the Committee's web site, can get an idea of who is on this committee and a sense of their character, and possibly be stimulated to contact them, especially if they are constituents of a committee member, and ask them about oversight hearings on the JFK Act.

These hearings, not previously scheduled or announced, show how quickly this committee can decide to hold hearings on important and newsworthy topics, and that we may have to drum up media support for JFK oversight hearings before they are held.

It appears they only act on intense public and media pressure.

http://us.f605.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLette...=&box=Inbox

BK

This Morning: Hearing on Blackwater USA’s Mission and Performance in Iraq and Afghanistan

This morning at 10:00 a.m., the Oversight Committee is holding a hearing to examine the mission and performance of private military contractor Blackwater USA in Iraq and Afghanistan. Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, will testify as well as three State Department officials.

The hearing will provide members the opportunity to address three key questions: (1) Is Blackwater’s presence advancing or undermining U.S. efforts? (2) Has State Department responded appropriately to the shooting incidents involving Blackwater forces? (3) What are the costs to U.S. taxpayers for the reliance on Blackwater and other private military contractors?

A live video of the hearing will be available at www.oversight.house.gov beginning at 9:45 a.m. Archived video will become available this afternoon.

Subscribe to the Oversight Committee's RSS Feeds:

Main Committee Feed

Schedule Feed

More Feeds

Subscribe to updates from the Oversight Committee.

Visit www.oversight.house.gov for the latest news.

[Cliff Varnell]

Blackwater Receives New $92 Million Pentagon Contract

Blackwater has received a new $92 million contract from the Pentagon to fly passengers and cargo between locations around central Asia.

Peter, the "Area of Responsibility" for Blackwater in this contract is Kyrgyzstan,

Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Let's put this in the context of the following:

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat...kwaters_dru.php

Blackwater USA, under investigation for murder and arms smuggling in Iraq, lands

contracts for "drug interdiction," and for transportation of cargo and personnel

around the area where 90% of the world's heroin is produced.

Most heroin used in the United States comes from Latin America.

The ever-growing bumper crop of Afghani heroin may well be targeted for

"interdiction" by the very company most capable of smuggling it into the

United States.

I guess Erik Prince is like Richard Helms -- we just have to take their word

that they're honorable men.

[Ron Ecker]

Buzzy Krongard may well have had a connection to 9/11. Interesting that he should subsequently profit from the invasion and occupation of Iraq as a paid consultant of Blackwater.

More dadgum coincidences. It's a small world, isn't it?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/...1_krongard.html

[Bernice Moore]

Thanks Peter for the update.......

This also is the group, that the Gov. sent into N.Os after Katrina.....

There is still info on the web, in their dealings within the city,

here is one old link.......

Katrina: Authorities bar Red Cross from NOLA; Blackwater gets carte blanche

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/09/katri...-.html#comments

B......

[David Andrews]

Remember, too, that the first modern age of imperialism began with privitization as a way to minmize national spending and government accountability:

*English privateers vs. Spanish treasure ships

*Joint-stock companies chartered to conquer east and west of Europe - from Captain John Smith to Clive of Plessy (plus imitators like the Dutch East India Company, ad infinitum).

It's within this history, rather than in those of military mercenary forces per se, that we should be seeking parallels.

Edited August 6, 2009 by David Andrews

[David Andrews]

I think that is the idea of the Oligarchy/Secret Government - to get back to the time when they owned everything privately. Hell, CA is thinking of selling their parks and prisons are private [many]; why not the police and fire departments, etc. Just like the bad old days of Feudalism. It is also [in the case of Xe/Blackwater] not just a way to make more money, but to hide dirty operations that an Army would be [more] accountable for.

Well, this takes us to another level of parallel, as early privatization in the Age of Discovery (c. 1492-1776) coincides with the rise of the modern state out of feudalism. Absolute monarchy slipping into parliamentarian constitutionalism? Parliament won't authorize war or colonization funding? Mercantilist treasury at risk? Religious wars to be fought for Christian or sub-doctrinal supremacy? Privatize and disavow!!!

With no new physical worlds to conquer, oil and labor and dying political systems are the Mundus Novus sought in Central Asia and beyond. I wonder if the CEO of the British equivalent of Blackwater has received a baronetcy by now, as Clive did after India, 1754?

When they speak of a New World Order - is this the New World context they want us to understand it in?

Edited August 6, 2009 by David Andrews

[William Kelly]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?hp

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: August 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the new C.I.A. director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.

It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.

Officials said that the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.

Blackwater, which has changed its name, most recently to Xe Services, and is based in North Carolina, in recent years has received millions of dollars in government contracts, growing so large that the Bush administration said that it was a necessary part of its war operation in Iraq.

It has also drawn controversy. Blackwater employees hired to guard American diplomats in Iraq were accused of using excessive force on several occasions, including shootings in downtown Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed. Iraqi officials have since refused to renew the company’s operating license.

Several current and former government officials interviewed for this article spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing details of a still classified program.

Paul Gimigliano, a C.I.A. spokesman, declined to provide details about the canceled program, but he said that Mr. Panetta’s decision on the assassination program was “clear and straightforward.”

“Director Panetta thought this effort should be briefed to Congress, and he did so,” Mr. Gimigliano said. “He also knew it hadn’t been successful, so he ended it.”

A Xe spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, also declined to give details of the program. But she praised Mr. Panetta for notifying Congress. “It is too easy to contract out work that you don’t want to accept responsibility for,” she said.

The C.I.A. this summer conducted an internal review of the assassination program that recently was presented to the White House and the Congressional intelligence committees. The officials said that the review stated that Mr. Panetta’s predecessors did not believe that they needed to tell Congress because the program was not far enough developed.

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating why lawmakers were never told about the program. According to current and former government officials, former Vice President Dick Cheney told C.I.A. officers in 2002 that the spy agency did not need to inform Congress because the agency already had legal authority to kill Qaeda leaders.

One official familiar with the matter said that Mr. Panetta did not tell lawmakers that he believed that the C.I.A. had broken the law by withholding details about the program from Congress. Rather, the official said, Mr. Panetta said he believed that the program had moved beyond a planning stage and deserved Congressional scrutiny.

“It’s wrong to think this counterterrorism program was confined to briefing slides or doodles on a cafeteria napkin,” the official said. “It went well beyond that.”

Current and former government officials said that the C.I.A.’s efforts to use paramilitary hit teams to kill Qaeda operatives ran into logistical, legal and diplomatic hurdles almost from the outset. These efforts had been run by the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism center, which runs operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

In 2002, Blackwater won a classified contract to provide security for the C.I.A. station in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the company maintains other classified contracts with the C.I.A., current and former officials said.

Over the years, Blackwater has hired several former top C.I.A. officials, including Cofer Black, who ran the C.I.A. counterterrorism center immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks.

C.I.A. operatives also regularly use the company’s training complex in North Carolina. The complex includes a shooting range used for sniper training.

An executive order signed by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976 barred the C.I.A. from carrying out assassinations, a direct response to revelations that the C.I.A. had initiated assassination plots against Fidel Castro of Cuba and other foreign politicians.

The Bush administration took the position that killing members of Al Qaeda, a terrorist group that attacked the United States and has pledged to attack it again, was no different from killing enemy soldiers in battle, and that therefore the agency was not constrained by the assassination ban.

But former intelligence officials said that employing private contractors to help hunt Qaeda operatives would pose significant legal and diplomatic risks, and they might not be protected in the same way government employees are.

Some Congressional Democrats have hinted that the program was just one of many that the Bush administration hid from Congressional scrutiny and have used the episode as a justification to delve deeper into other Bush-era counterterrorism programs.

But Republicans have criticized Mr. Panetta’s decision to cancel the program, saying he created a tempest in a teapot.

“I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

Officials said that the C.I.A. program was devised partly as an alternative to missile strikes using drone aircraft, which have accidentally killed civilians and cannot be used in urban areas where some terrorists hide.

Yet with most top Qaeda operatives believed to be hiding in the remote mountains of Pakistan, the drones have remained the C.I.A.’s weapon of choice. Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has embraced the drone campaign because it presents a less risky option than sending paramilitary teams into Pakistan.

[Guest Tom Scully]

Cia asset Joseph Finder, launches a coordinated attack on Leon Panetta and congressional democrats, in anticipation of the expected publication of the article in Bill's post, above:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...mp;#entry171376

[Ron Ecker]

Wasn't Blackwater accused at one time of shooting Iraqi civilians? Maybe the CIA contract is why. "That guy over there looks like an Al Qaeda terrorist. Wait up while I shoot him."

[Guest Tom Scully]

Cia asset Joseph Finder, launches a coordinated attack on Leon Panetta and congressional democrats, in anticipation of the expected publication of the article in Bill's post, above:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...mp;#entry171376

He's baaaaccck! :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30finder.html

The C.I.A. in Double Jeopardy

By JOSEPH FINDER

Published: August 29, 2009

..... Mr. Holder doesn’t seem concerned that each of these cases was exhaustively reviewed, beginning in 2005, by career prosecutors under the supervision of the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Those men had access to the complete, unredacted report of the agency’s inspector general, an expurgated version of which was released on Monday. Yet these prosecutors recommended against criminal charges in all but one case. (That exception involved a contractor named David Passaro, who had assaulted a prisoner with a flashlight and kicked him in the groin, shortly after which the prisoner died. Mr. Passaro was convicted of assault and sentenced to eight years in prison.)

Mr. Holder’s decision, then, implies that justice wasn’t done five years ago probably because high-level officials in the George W. Bush administration put their thumbs on the scale of justice. This seems unlikely. The prosecutors in Virginia were well experienced in dealing with classified intelligence matters, as most of the federal intelligence agencies are in their district. They have a reputation for being hardheaded and unforgiving of C.I.A. transgressions.

Lacking reliable witnesses or forensic evidence, they made the only call they could have made: not to prosecute. In our nation of laws, that’s exactly the way you want government prosecutors to behave. And there is no indication that any of them has complained about being pressured to decide against criminal charges. If any new information has come out about these cases, any complaints about undue influence or any new witnesses, Mr. Holder hasn’t mentioned it. The prosecutors in this case had to abide by the Justice Department’s ruling, in August 2002, that no agency interrogator would face prosecution for exceeding the guidelines as long as he acted in “good faith” and didn’t have “the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering.” Not an easy distinction to make, surely, when the work you’re told to do seems to be designed precisely to inflict pain and suffering....

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/08/...nted-nyt-op-ed/

....As you may recall, it was only ten days ago we last ran into Mr. Finder doing what he apparently does best, spinning for the CIA sub-culture and Bush Administration leaders (who Finder swears is not Addington, but rather "someone who's actually smart"). And here he is in a new and bigger forum, the august pages of the Times editorial pages, back at it.

The first 3/4 of Finder's NYT op-ed are a tour de force of spook spin. He makes assumptions out of the blue about the state of evidence and witnesses there is no way in the world he has the first clue about, thinks EDVA supersedes DOJ Main, misrepresents the state of known facts on exceeding of guidelines by interrogators, assumes the relevant detainees were directly related to 9/11 with no evidence whatsoever to support the assertion, and claims to omnisciently and definitively know what a jury would do if deliberating on the case. He also confuses the different criminal referrals made in 2003, in 2004 and 2005; which are significantly different issues given the arrival of AGAG as well as the departure of John Ashcroft as AG and Mike Chertoff from the Criminal division (we'll get back to Chertoff momentarily). Oh, and Finder doesn't understand squat about the legal concepts of collateral estoppel/issue preclusion and double jeopardy, but proceeds to state to the world that they are controlling (an absurd statement and not even competent speculation).

Perhaps it is appropriate that Joseph Finder considers himself a novelist, in light of the pro-torture fiction he has written in his side job as a national security "reporter". Clearly, reporter is a subjective term in light of Finder's background Jeff Kaye pointed out. Mr. Finder appears to be a card carrying member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), but says:

I was never on the CIA’s payroll. I was recruited by the CIA, but when I got to Langley, they showed me the cubicle where I’d be sitting and translating Soviet economic journals from Russian into English, and I said, “No thanks.” That wasn’t exactly Jason Bourne stuff…

Finder isn't an intelligence professional, but he pines to play one on the opinion pages of the New York Times. .....

Edited August 30, 2009 by Tom Scully

[Guest Tom Scully]

(Dave Clark / Lenny Davidson)

Here they come again, mmmm-mm-mm

Catch us if you can, mmmm-mm-mm

Time to get a move on, mmmm-mm-mm

We will yell with all of our might

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

Now we gotta run, mmmm-mm-mm

No more time for fun, mmmm-mm-mm

When we're gettin' angry, mmmm-mm-mm

We will yell with all of our might

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

Catch us if you can

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/11/us...pec-ops-report/

U.S. Needs Hit Squads, ‘Manhunting Agency’: Spec Ops Report

* By Noah Shachtman

* November 3, 2009

A recent report from the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations University argues that the CIA didn’t go far enough (.pdf). Instead, it suggests the American government should set up something like a “National Manhunting Agency” to go after jihadists, drug dealers, pirates and other enemies of the state....

They forgot to include an Italian prosecutor on their execution list:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_gr...ions/index.html

Criminal convictions of 22 CIA agents in Italy

The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.

Edited November 6, 2009 by Tom Scully

[Guest Tom Scully]

I would love to read corporate media NEWS sources for the following reports, but their owned owners know better than to antagonize the frontman and now spokesperson (Erik Prince)* for the operational wing of the Council for National Policy/republican-christian party, the evangelicized CIA/DIA/JSOC/USAF.....

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/...th-erik-prince/

Spy Versus Spy with Erik Prince

By: emptywheel Wednesday December 2, 2009 4:00 pm

It’s best to start reading the big Vanity Fair Erik Prince piece from this paragraph.

"Prince blames Democrats in Congress for the leaks and maintains that there is a double standard at play. “The left complained about how [C.I.A. operative] Valerie Plame’s identity was compromised for political reasons. A special prosecutor [was even] appointed. Well, what happened to me was worse. People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it.” As in the Plame case, though, the leaks prompted C.I.A. attorneys to send a referral to the Justice Department, requesting that a criminal investigation be undertaken to identify those responsible for providing highly classified information to the media."

I say that not because we’ve got a few Plame experts hereabouts. And not because that revelation–that the CIA referred the stories on Blackwater to the DOJ for criminal investigation–is news to me, at least, though I think it very significant news.

But because of the premise.

Erik Prince complains that Blackwater’s role in the assassination and drone programs was leaked, just as Plame’s identity was leaked. And it’s worse, Prince says. Not because the kinds of operations he was involved in were leaked (on that level, it is worse; it took years before any details of Plame’s identity in preventing Iranian proliferation came out, not least because Cheney didn’t want that out). But because his “name along with it” was revealed.

As if the entire country didn’t already know that Erik Prince–who has testified to Congress as the head of Blackwater–is the head of Blackwater.

(I should say, “was,” since Prince claims he is “through” with Blackwater.)

Yet, in the same article where Prince complains that he, personally, has been outed, here are the things that he, personally, reveals.

* He was tasked by the CIA to create a “small, focused capability”

* The CIA’s original assassination squad trained at his personal estate outside of DC

* Prince integrated third-party nationals into the assassination squad who did not know of the CIA connection

* He (personally) and a team of foreign nationals targeted someone in 2008

* He did the targeting on al-Qaeda middleman Abu Ghadiyah in Syria

It even reveals some of Prince’s operational tactics–such as flying coach, or switching vehicles shortly after arriving at a destination.

Prince doesn’t seem all that bugged, when you take a step back, about the details of this program being leaked.

This, then, is not (or not just) a rant designed to attack those he claimed outed him. (He conveniently blames Democrats for this, in spite of the fact that the Blackwater stories have all been sourced to intelligence people, not political ones.) Rather, it’s either an attempt to fully burn one cover, in an attempt to sustain another cover. It’s an attempt to strike back in a game of leaking turf battle. Or it’s an attempt to distract away from the really sensitive parts of his business.

With those suggestions in mind, read what Prince offers as his explanation for leaking wildly in this article.

"This past fall, though he infrequently grants interviews, he decided it was time to tell his side of the story—to respond to the array of accusations, to reveal exactly what he has been doing in the shadows of the U.S. government, and to present his rationale. He also hoped to convey why he’s going to walk away from it all.To that end, he invited Vanity Fair to his training camp in North Carolina, to his Virginia offices, and to his Afghan outposts. It seemed like a propitious time to tag along."

That is, in light of the articles already written about his involvement in this program, Prince dialed up Vanity Fair and asked to tell a story of himself walking away from it all. That’s how the story ends, with emphasis on Prince walking away, off to teach high school. But look carefully at the narrative here:

"And up until two months ago—when Prince says the Obama administration pulled the plug—he was still deeply engaged in the dark arts. According to insiders, he was running intelligence-gathering operations from a secret location in the United States, remotely coordinating the movements of spies working undercover in one of the so-called Axis of Evil countries. Their mission: non-disclosable."

Exit Strategy

"Flying out of Kabul, Prince does a slow burn, returning to the topic of how exposed he has felt since press accounts revealed his role in the assassination program...

...First, Prince claims the Obama Administration pulled the plug “two months ago.” It’s unclear whether that’s supposed to be two months before the publication date of this story (January 2010), today’s publication of it, or the interview trips vaguely placed sometime in fall. But whichever it is, it’s long after Leon Panetta is said to have pulled the plug on June 23 or 24. In fact, two months before the time this was written would put it well after the time the NYT and WaPo first broke this story in August...."

...And here’s one other fascinating detail. By my count, “CIA” is referred to around 35 times in this article. “Special Ops” or “Special Forces” are referred to just three times–though all in context to Prince’s most recent operations.

Compare that to the news revealed in the most recent story on Blackwater’s role in intelligence programs, by Jeremy Scahill.

"At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence."

In other words, Prince claims he’s revealing “exactly what he has been doing.” But he’s revealing only those details purportedly contracted via CIA (though, again, the Ghadiyah operation involved Special Forces). He’s not revealing what he’s been doing with JSOC. And he’s sure as hell not describing what he’s been doing for the Pakistani government.

After reading Scahill’s story, I asked, “Where does Blackwater play in the CIA-DNI conflict?” After reading this story, I’m wondering even more.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

By Jeremy Scahill

November 23, 2009

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/pentagon-intim...rno-blackwater/

Claim: Pentagon tried to ‘intimidate’ journo covering Blackwater

By Daniel Tencer

Thursday, November 26th, 2009 -- 9:22 pm

The office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking soldier in the US, tried to intimidate a reporter working on a story about security contractor Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, the reporter claims.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade...tive-journalism

US investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill claims the Blackwater private security company is conducting secret operations in Pakistan, which include planning assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

In an article in The Nation he says its activities are so "compartmentalised" that senior officials within the Obama administration and the US military may not know it exists. Democracy Now! is running a video interview with Scahill talking about his story.

*

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/...lackwater_bush/

Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 13:08 PDT

The Bush administration's ties to Blackwater

Blamed in the deaths of Iraqi civilians, the private security firm has long ties to the White House and prominent Republicans, including Ken Starr.

....Prince, who founded Blackwater in 1996 but reportedly took a behind-the-scenes role in the company until after 9/11, has connections to the Republican Party in his blood. His late father, auto-parts magnate Edgar Prince, was instrumental in the creation of the Family Research Council, one of the right-wing Christian groups most influential with the George W. Bush administration. At his funeral in 1995, he was eulogized by two stalwarts of the Christian conservative movement, James Dobson and Gary Bauer. Edgar Prince's widow, Elsa, who remarried after her husband's death, has served on the boards of the FRC and another influential Christian-right organization, Dobson's Focus on the Family. She currently runs the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, where, according to IRS filings, her son Erik is a vice president. The foundation has given lavishly to some of the marquee names of the Christian right. Between July 2003 and July 2006, the foundation gave at least $670,000 to the FRC and $531,000 to Focus on the Family.

Both Edgar and Elsa have been affiliated with the Council for National Policy, the secretive Christian conservative organization whose meetings have been attended by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer, and whose membership is rumored to include Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Dobson. The Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation gave the CNP $80,000 between July 2003 and July 2006.

The former Betsy Prince -- Edgar and Elsa's daughter, Erik's sister -- married into the DeVos family, one of the country's biggest donors to Republican and conservative causes. ("I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party," Betsy DeVos wrote in a 1997 Op-Ed in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.) She chaired the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2003 to 2005, and her husband, Dick, ran as the Republican candidate for Michigan governor in 2006.

Erik Prince himself is no slouch when it comes to giving to Republicans and cultivating relationships with important conservatives. He and his first and second wives have donated roughly $300,000 to Republican candidates and political action committees. Through his Freiheit Foundation, he also gave $500,000 to Prison Fellowship Ministries, run by former Nixon official Charles Colson, in 2000. In the same year, he contributed $30,000 to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. During college, he interned in George H.W. Bush's White House, and also interned for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. Rohrabacher and fellow California Republican Rep. John Doolittle have visited Blackwater's Moyock, N.C., compound, on a trip arranged by the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm founded by former aides of then House Majority Leader Tom Delay. ASG partner Paul Behrends is a longtime associate of Prince's. ....

Edited December 3, 2009 by Tom Scully

[John Bevilaqua]

Former CNP head and Pioneer Fund BoD Member has leadership role in Blackwater....

This one should not be too hard to figure out. Who is the former Council for National Policy president and Pioneer Fund BoD Member who has a current

leadership role in Blackwater....?

Free order of Taco Bell to go for the first person who can identify him.

Identify the year he was head of the CNP!

Identify the year he was on the Board of Directors of The Pioneer Fund!

How did Richard Condon refer to him in The Manchurian Candidate? (this one may be more difficult)

It was NOT Wickliffe Draper, either, of course cause he was crumbling into dust and worm infested by 1972-73.

Let's see who gets this one first. My guess is either Tom Scully, Greg Parker, John Simkin or James Richards...

Taco Bell Gift Certificate is awaiting the winner.

Edited December 4, 2009 by John Bevilaqua