[Zardoz]

They're a seriously evil bunch:

Iraqis tell of guards' reckless behavior

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he young biology student pulled his car to the side of the busy traffic circle when he saw a fast-moving line of SUVs approaching from behind. As they flew past, he recalls, the lead vehicle appeared to intentionally smash into his sedan. But the worst was yet to come.

As the convoy sped off, a gunner inside the last sport utility vehicle sprayed the traffic circle with bullets. Pedestrians ran for cover. Seated in the car closest to the SUV, student Ali Karem Fakhri Hilal thrust his hands into the air to show he was unarmed.

But four cars behind him, Hussein Salih Mohammed Rabee, a retired businessman active in a local peace committee, was fatally wounded.

[Zardoz]

Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, Soldiers Say - First U.S. Troops on Scene Found No Evidence of Shooting by Iraqis; Incident Called 'Criminal'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')lackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.

"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided.

His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.

[jboogy]

Makes me wonder , are these seasoned , highly trained former special ops soldiers really so much more frightened and/or undisciplined than the young green soldiers that are there? They avoid a lot of the oversight and scrutiny that the legit armed forces operate under , by decree from the highest levels of government .Hmmm.... makes me wonder , remember the flattening of Fallujah ? What precipitated that was the killing of 4 Blackwater guys that had been sent into the lions den in undermanned , unarmored , underarmed SUV's. Hmmmm..... makes me wonder , these mens families seem to be hinting that their sons and husbands may have been sacrificed in pursuit of loftier goals , and interestingly enough Blackwater told these families they'd have to sue to get the incident reports and investigative results that they are understandably interested in seeing. I'm a wonderin' , could Blackwater and other mercenaries be there to provoke ? It seems as if the U.S. has done everything in it's power to destabilize Iraq , not the other way around . Is the endgame genocide ? We're doing a pretty good job of cleansing so far , 4 million? Iraq's have fled , mostly the educated middle class , a couple hundred thousand dead from disease , sanitation issues , another couple hundred thousand dead from either U.S. violence or Iraqi on Iraqi violence .Now we're arming the Sunni's ( the guys who have been killing our guys for the past 4 or 5 years) to fight the Shia's ! The Iraqi elected government is mostly Shia with ties to Iran !Zardoz , what if the invasion and occupation of Iraq isn't the most inept , monumental screw-up in the history of imperial conquest , but the most successful , cleverly disguised removal of an indigenous population since Europe colonized North America?Bush and Cheney say they sleep well at night ,... the sleep of the truly wicked?

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jboogy', '.')..what if the invasion and occupation of Iraq isn't the most inept, monumental screw-up in the history of imperial conquest, but the most successful, cleverly disguised removal of an indigenous population since Europe colonized North America? Bush and Cheney say they sleep well at night... the sleep of the truly wicked?

[eXpat]

Families of Iraqis sue Blackwater USA link.Not that this would go anywhere mind you ...

[jboogy]

I've suspected before but didn't want to believe , maybe the plan in the beginning was to have a stable puppet government but once it became clear the Iraqi's weren't going to cooperate they switched to re-locate and destroy mode. I don't think they'll ever be able neutralize all resistance , they might think they'll eventually be able to win a war of attrition or pound them into submission but I don't see it happening."One honest man defending his home is worth 10 trained soldiers"---Robin Hood

[bencole]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30312789

Blackwater still operating as mercenaries in Iraq, without authorization. One could obviously conclude that blackwater has some sort of ties to intelligence agencies like the CIA which allows it to operate like this.

[Ferretlover]

I know that this comes as a complete and utter surprise to me!:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ugust 5, 2009 Blackwater boss and guards accused of murder and 'killing Iraqis for fun' Founder of security firm saw himself as a Christian Crusader whose task was to eliminate Muslims, former employees allege :
Two former employees of Blackwater have accused the private US security firm and its founder of killing Iraqis for fun, smuggling weapons and deceiving the State Department.
The men, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation — one claimed that Blackwater management threatened to kill him — also claimed they had learnt that at least one person who has or planned to speak out against the US firm and its founder Erik Prince was “killed in mysterious circumstances”.
The claims were made in sworn statements filed in a court in Virginia earlier this week as part of a civil lawsuit by families of several Iraqis allegedly killed by Blackwater guards. …

[dorlomin]

Which private military contractor would Jesus own?

[Novus]

It really pays to watch the news on the holidays as this is when TPTB pull some of their most outrageous stunts in the hope the public was not paying attention.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_go_ot/us_blackwater_prosecution]Judge tosses Blackwater case[/url]

WASHINGTON – A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.

The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. The Iraqi government wanted the guards to face trial in Iraq and officials there said they would closely watch how the U.S. judicial system handled the case.

[mattduke]

They hired him to advise on, wait for it, ethics.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54283.html

In unrelated news, blackwater throws pretty good "coke and roids" parties.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09 ... s-and-aks/

[eXpat]

Why not ? Ashcroft is a very ethical person

[Oilguy]

Veterans from the most infamous private security firm on Earth and one of the military’s most controversial datamining operations are teaming up to provide the Fortune 500 with their own private spies.

Take one part Blackwater, and another part Able Danger, the military datamining op that claimed to have identified members of al-Qaida living in the U.S. before 9/11. Put ‘em together, and you’ve got a new company called Jellyfish.

Jellyfish is about corporate information dominance. It swears it’s leaving all the spy world baggage behind. No guns, no governments digging through private records of their citizens.

“Our organization is not going to be controversial,” pledges Keith Mahoney, the Jellyfish CEO, a former Navy officer and senior executive with Blackwater’s intelligence arm, Total Intelligence Solutions. Try not to make a joke about corporate mercenaries.

His partners know from controversy. Along with Mahoney, there’s Michael Yorio, the executive vice president for business development and another Blackwater vet; Yorio recently prepped the renamed Xe Services for its life after founder Erik Prince sold it.

Jellyfish’s chief technology officer is J.D. Smith, who was part of Able Danger until lawyers for the U.S. Special Operations Command shut the program down in 2000. Also from Able Danger is Tony Shaffer, Jellyfish’s “military operations adviser” and the ex-Defense Intelligence Agency operative who became the public face of the program in dramatic 2005 congressional testimony.


But Jellyfish isn’t about merging mercenaries with data sifters. And it’s not about going after short money like government contracts. (Although the firm is based in D.C., where the intel community is and the titans of corporate America aren’t.) During a Thursday press conference in Washington that served as a coming out party for the company, Jellyfish’s executives described an all-purpose “private sector intelligence” firm.

What’s that mean? Through a mouthful of corporate-speak (“empowering the C-suite” to make crucial decisions) Mahoney describes a worldwide intelligence network of contacts, ready to collect data on global hotspots that Jellyfish can pitch to deep-pocketed clients. Are you an energy firm that needs to know if Iran is going to be the victim of the next Mideast uprising? Jellyfish’s informants in Tehran can give a picture. (They insist it’s legal.)

They’ve got “long established relationships” everywhere from Bogota to Belgrade, Somalia to South Korea, says Michael Bagley, Jellyfish’s president, formerly of the OSINT Group. A mix of “academia, think tanks, military or government” types.

That’s par for the course. It sometimes seems like every CIA veteran over the last 15 years has set up or joined a consulting practice, tapping their agency contacts for information that they can peddle to businesses. Want to sell your analysis of the geostrategic picture to corporate clients? Congratulations — Stratfor beat you to it.

That’s where Smith comes in. “The Able Danger days, that’s like 1000 years ago,” he says.
Full article at: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05 ... -business/