And people used to worry about Chinese tanks rolling down their streets.

All this chat about who started the fires near San Diego.
Where does Blackwater want to set up the brownshirt camp?

Potrero, CA.

Hmm.

I knew in 2004 that the four were gun-toting mercenaries, but I didn't know they were some of Blackwater's terrorists.

They were probably doing the same crap that got them in trouble this time (vis a vis, killing civilians without provocation) but on that occasion, they got caught.

Review: Blackwater: The Rise of The World’s Most Powerful Mercernary Army by Jeremy Scahill

He spelled "Anti-American, Right-wing, Terrorist Army" wrong

The story goes that the four blackwater guys who were killed and burned, were sent into the town by blackwater officials with no map and without enough defense equipment. That's what their families are claiming. Seems they were supposed to deliver some kitchen equipment like pots and pans or something.

Dan, I don't want to think about that because the nightmares that could produce, both imagined and real, are just too frightening.

Four Blackwater terrorists walk into a bar...

Can't wait till these freaks come home from Iraq and REAL American vets kick their asses.

Andy, did the men in white coats usher the crying Repub away? Man, I wish you knew his name and where he is from. That guy needs some help.

pissed off patricia @ 15:

Andy, did the men in white coats usher the crying Repub away? Man, I wish you knew his name and where he is from. That guy needs some help.

He's been on tweety before...I was watching and the camera didn't pan back until the end and I was thinking that better not be a picture of a fetus and sure as sheet it was....a 3 foot by 5 foot painting of a giant embryo...I think he was pissed at the provision about covering pregnant mothers,,,,

Ill try to use my word carefully without drawing conclusions that might sound tin foil hatish but, We do need to be concerned here in America about black water, dyncorp, Wackenhu and others like this. War is a raquet. This war is not to end but to be sustained. Read history get informed people. Don't fall for the "left" foot, "right" foot.

I would look into some of claims of TFhaters.

The military industrial complex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IetpD63lhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDEM5iqDxk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZX1odzHdAo

So if we do away with abortions this will help us have less kids who have no insurance and decent health care? What the hell does one have to do with the other? This guy sounds like some miserable desperate guy who has massive issues.

pissed off patricia @ 21:

So if we do away with abortions this will help us have less kids who have no insurance and decent health care? What the hell does one have to do with the other? This guy sounds like some miserable desperate guy who has massive issues.

I know it's off topic but he claimed to be some big childrens advocate...On tweety he was mega pro war also.....I think his name was Frank. I was half watching...maybe C&L could get the clip...it was friggin weird.

I just finished reading Blackwater yesterday, and if there is any book that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, this is it. It paints a very dire picture of what happens when politics, deregulation and religion come together at a (to use another book title) tipping point in our history. I am seriously afraid that this country has taken one too many steps down the empire path. In fact I feel like I'm sitting in Rome and hearing that the Huns are on the way.

Scahill was also on On Point this morning. Definitely a podcast worth listening to.

just did a blog post yesterday on fear tactics by Fox and included the books of blackwater and others, and listed many of the companies (besides them) who have profited in the billions off this war

http://politicaldiscontent.blogspot.com/2007/10/fox-uses-sensationalism-...

as for the warped usage of abortions in the topic, a while back Max Blumenthal did one of his great infiltrations of the enemy's camp, and we had on video Tom Delay making some really warped comments about abortion and the military.. it was just insane.. i added the vid to youtube a long time ago

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3inspkrGVbw

is it funny or frightening how warped this country has become in their thinking? or both? I'm not sure.. but it's an uncomfortable feeling to have people out there that think like this.

also, I have to say I'm a bit surprised to see the book being promoted here now, when it's been out for such a long time, hell i've had it listed on my blog for what seems like a yr.. maybe not that long, but still !

There may be some scary constitutional implications here.

Here's the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution:

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

It's ambiguous, unclear and very badly worded, but this sentence is the basis of broad claims by gun advocates that any American citizen has the right to own and use lethal firearms.

What if the hard Right and the NRA, in their devious wisdom, were to assert that Blackwater is a "well-regulated militia", and therefore constitutionally protected from being disarmed or disbanded? Think about it. It's not a stretch. The word "militia" can mean many things. No reason it can't apply to a private, for-profit army like Blackwater, which is more plausibly a militia than Joe Sixpack the citizen gun-owner.

The 2nd Amendment, as written, may provide the basis for constitutional protection of mercenary armies.

Four Blackwater terrorists walk into a bar…

Can’t wait till these freaks come home from Iraq and REAL American vets kick their asses.

Dan,

what the hell are you saying? most if not all these guys were x military men that saw the opportunity to make $30,000 to $100,000 per month with blackwater and bring home some big bucks to their families, so after their duty to the military they decided to go with blackwater... it is their leaders i would assume that turned them into animals, much as our military is except it goes further with blackwater.

we are a nation mostly of human beings and kind people. our military are trained to be cut throat warriors in order to save themselves.. it's true.. in order to save their own lives in war the military teaches them to toughen up and not give a damn about pulling that trigger and hurting another human being.. the longer they are in the military the more cold blooded they become..

for those who moved onto blackwater just picture it, first they had the training to be cold blooded and unemotional to other human beings, then at blackwater they are trained to believe they are above the law and answer to no one, their soul priority is
to accomplish a mission..

i try to see every side of any issue and these are guys who were toughened up, super toughened up, and brainwashed.

and we do have a lot of military coming back either violent and/or mental disorders who need help.. they say it's in the 100's of thousands and a long waiting list for these guys to get mental help, who have seeked out help..

then there are the suicides that no one in the media exposes or discusses.

Andy @ 28:

"I feel like I’m sitting in Rome and hearing that the Huns are on the way."

Bogel of Vanguard Funds said the same thing on Moyers....there are many parallels...do a goog search on the fall of rome.

Well, now I have another book to read! Thanks for the lead. I found this on Bill Moyers' site. Fascinating listen....I've got it playing now.

So when Cheney declares martial law, if the military refuses to comply, Blackwater steps in. Well, there goes my last hope of freedom. How much is airfare to Canada?

Powkat @ 37:

So when Cheney declares martial law, if the military refuses to comply, Blackwater steps in. Well, there goes my last hope of freedom. How much is airfare to Canada?

Bush administration’s Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight.

Better hurry

L.A. Confidential @ 39:
Bush administration’s Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight.

Better hurry

I hear it's 96 hours if you request a vegetarian meal.

We have a dual class voluntary military system. In one, kids are underpaid, underequiped, and under orders. In the second, men seeking money are hansomely paid through fat military contracts and under no supervision. They're both paid for by the US taxpayer, though it will be our children, grand children, and great grandchildren who pay them, and probably beyond, if our country doesn't fall apart like the Soviet Union did under such pressure.

I think we should privatize our entire standing army. What would the framers think of our standing army with their 1/3 army 1/3 navy 1/3 airforce budgetary appropriations that never ever goes down? We can't stop our addiction to the permanent military force.

But we do know that the day after we leave Iraq, we can fire each and every one of our blackwater mercenaries. That's a good thing!

The problem is not with blackwater, but with their mission objectives. We give them mission objectives like "protect VIP so and so, at all costs" so that's what they do, the blow up anyone in their way, because that's the job we gave them. We didn't give them a job that says, "Talk with the natives and be friendly with them, and if the VIP you are escorting dies that's too bad, but we can deal." Don't blame blackwater for the job they are doing in Iraq they are doing what we told them to do.

I long for the day when we can disband the entire army and use the combination of drafts and mercenaries for our military needs. If you have the biggest standing army in the world, sure you are going to use it.

Powkat @ 37:

So when Cheney declares martial law, if the military refuses to comply, Blackwater steps in. Well, there goes my last hope of freedom. How much is airfare to Canada?

Well this is hardly new.

This is why each state was SUPPOSED to maintain a militia. (no not those crazy gun show vaguely racist loonies; a REAL state militia) It prevents a federal take over. I think we vastly over-reacted to the Civil War over the years.

In other words, Democrats should have guns or at least be well versed in their operation. No harm in that, although it is the command structure and group training that would make citizens themselves effective deterrents to tyranny. Don't wander off to Canada, certainly! It's OUR mess, stick around and help us clean it up! Unfortunately, the National Guard is basically a branch of the federal armed forces. We saw that in the civil rights movement, and Katrina, and we see that now in Iraq and Cullyfawnia. They are federal troops with a governor rubber stamp.

I do not believe (well, since I was 14 anyway), as our strict libertarian friends, that an "armed society is a polite society". But I do believe that an unarmed society is helpless against a military dictatorship. It is a tragedy that we have so grossly overpopulated and urbanized, that most of our citizens are no longer trained marksmen simply though the act of hunting often, as they were generations past.

It keeps politicians from getting strange ideas. Anyone else see the irony that the REPUBLICANS destroyed state's rights? I thought that was one of their major themes...

Sorry -- rambling... What I meant to say is that those "gunshow wackjobs" that form the private militia may have started out with the sane goals, but like Prince's Posse have all been subverted to think this supposed "New World Order" is somehow of the Democratic Party. What a hoax. Far from it, as they trained their hatred on the Democratic party, they are stabbed in the back by their own corporate lobbies (NRA) and the Republicans. Not that the fools will admit it, they are too busy kissing Rush's ass or listening to UFO theories. (Psst! Bush IS the NWO!) But for all their craziness, there is a grain of truth in the "militia" movement: watch your back, even from your own government. It really wouldn't hurt if there was a reason for it to respect you either.

If this breaks along any lines it is not Dem/Rep but rich/poor. Guess which side will be employing blackwater to "help re-educate" you when they come back?

But we do know that the day after we leave Iraq, we can fire each and every one of our blackwater mercenaries. That’s a good thing!

Hahahahahahah! Thank you for that. Now THAT is funny! Yes I'm sure the company that just made billions and billions will just close up shop and walk away... nice one.

To finish my little tinfoil-hat story, let me ask you this.... we've been researching along the program goals for MK-ULTRA for over 50 years now! Do you honestly believe that with the rise of technology, especially biomedical, since 1950 that we have not achieved any progress? Or that Bush is too full of honor to implement the results of such programs (of which there are many)? Sure it sounds scary. Entirely probable, and scary.

Blackwater is just "another brick in the wall".

On Bill Moyers, Scahill said that Blackwater deployed in New Orleans after Katrina, and got a contract later. With their religious leader, how are they different than the Mahdi Army? This is what Bush has unleashed on America.

BJ @ 33,

I think you misunderstood. To me Blackwater is nothing short of a terrorist group and my post just stated that I hope some of these anti-American scum come home, walk into a bar and some real American kicks their seditious Blackwater ass.

While I have avidly watched Scahill's reports, the fact is that he LIES with some regularity. He, for instance, was instrumental in intentionally (it seems) spreading the misconception that the US had an equal number of private contractors in arms in Iraq as regular soldiers.

Just this week, Democracy Now! spread one of their favorite lies, one which Scahill would probably assent to (as many of their guests), namely that there are, to slightly paraphrase Amy G., "It has been estimated that that there are more than 700 US military bases overseas."

That's untrue. There are more than 700 bases, period. The great majority of those are in the United States. The rest are mostly in NATO countries, Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy. Beyond that, a handful of bases. Which is not to underrate entirely the purposes of spreading this propaganda, but as with the claim about 'and equal number of armed contractors' in Iraq, it JUST AIN'T SO.

"Fifty thousand private mercenaries are in Iraq today. They report to no one but their company heads."

This figure, Scahill says 130,000 and 160,000 also, is not a substantiated number.

Blackwater's Iraq deployment is supposedly something like 1,000 private men in arms. Hard to see how 50,000 men in arms are deployed in Iraq, though certainly Bushco has hidden a lot from the Congress, but BW has reported 170 something weapons incidents in Iraq. If they have 10,000 or something persons deployed, that number would have a zero after it.

There are reportedly 100 security companies in Iraq. The biggest ones are the three from the US and the British two or three. I think it is highly unlikely that CENTCOM would allow 40,000 non US/UK men in arms to operate in Iraq, though it is possible. It's just not a fact simply because J. Scahill says so.

While everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon, the wheels aren't necessarily screwed on very tightly.

• Waxman's committee report says 195 incidents since 2005.

• Unlike the other two US companies, BW has been engaged in tax fraud by considering their US employees to be independent contractors. Because of this controversy, Waxman's committee has received the IRS reports, so unless a lot of US employees are hidden from the IRS, the numbers are not so unknowable.

• At $1,200 a day, each deployed soldier costs the US something like $30,000 a month/$360,000 a year. With reportedly $1 Billion in contracts, if that was only pay, in four years of deployment that's something like $1.2 Million per man in arms, and about 1,000 men in arms.

• It is hard to see how they could have much more than 1,000 men to pay from those contracts (of course, they have other contracts elsewhere, and this does not consider their forces in Afghanistan, which are part of that USG contracting).

I'm not an accountant. If someone sees something wrong with that quick averaging, please point it out.

swarmofkillermonkeys @ 58

The Department of Defense currently lists 725 official U.S. military bases outside of the country and 969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases).

Chalmers Johnson is NOT a reliable source, either, regretably.

The list that is usually circulated with this factoid is composed mainly of US-based bases, as I said. I have seen no listing that would in any way suggest that the US has 725 official US bases in foreign countries...in fact, that number seems ridiculous.

But, still, the great majority of those bases are in NATO countries and in Japan, Korea, Germany, and Italy. There are some military bases elsewhere, but not hundreds nobody knows about. For instance, South America. How many US bases? Are there US bases in Colombia? One, maybe other secret ones. Ecuador (I think) just said that the US base there would have to be closed, "unless the US will let Ecuador put a military base in Florida."

The numbers are constantly bandied about, but they simply don't add up to reality, and without the salt of constant repeating, they would be believed by no one.

Now, compare C. Johnson's "725 official U.S. military bases" (which he says are "outside of the country") with the figure "over 730 military installations and bases in over 50 countries" (which itself glosses the issue of how many are in the US). VERY similar numbers.

I think that ~750 is correct (may be way off due to new bases in ME), and the "969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases)" is leftist fudge of the same number, with the National Guard bases added in for good measure.

I watched Scahill LIE about the number of privatized men in arms in Iraq, clearly suggesting that the contractors are all men in arms. And it's really too bad, because I would prefer to trust him and Dem Now!, but in years of listening and watching, I hear about one major lie a week. That compares VERY favorably with the network fake news, but still. Our standard should be higher, since obviously a great amount of the FACTS are on our side of the argument.

Paul, it is my understanding that the number of US military bases do range from 750 - 900.

Several sources varying estimates are much, much lower than those reported in the LA Times -- source: the Pentagon under the FOIA the number of security contractors in Iraq outnumber US troops:

160,000 troops
180,000 private
340,000 total

Bush, for political reasons, downplayed the number of troops needed because he would supplement the military with private soldiers.

2004: 20,000 - 40,000 prvt contractors in Iraq

December 2006: grew to 100,000 (10 Xs the number used in the first Gulf war)

July 2007: 180,000

Evidently the number of prvt. contractors sustaining casualties range in the hundreds have also been under-reported.

BlackWater is not the sole private contractor co. in Iraq providing logistics and engaging in combat -- hundreds (?) of private companies from different locations in the world (mainly from the US, Australia, Great Britain).

Our tax dollars are funding private contractors billions of US dollars, but how much is classified. Not even Congress, the GAO, nor the IG have information which probably explains why the numbers vary.

The LA Times FOIA request came straight from the Pentagon.

Scahill does not lie. Proved by numbers matching that of the Pentagon's strengthens his credibility.

[In your title, "Review: Blackwater: The Rise of The World’s Most Powerful Mercernary Army by Jeremy Scahill"

Mercenary has an extra 'r'.]

StCyrlyMe @ 62:

These are not powerful people, but a bunch of cheap thugs that need a real good ass kicking and I believe their day is coming, sooner rather then later.

Eric Prince has been caught in felony tax evasion. Oops. He's nailed to a cell already. He may get a pardon, but is a pardon from a co-conspirator in warcrimes valid? Maybe yes, maybe no.

I am reading this book now, it is a must read. The first two chapters tell a lot of where the Radical right, Neocons & Theocons are going with all this. If you want a good Halloween scare read this book. Hey the Militia's didn't work for them so look what they are doing now.
I also noticed that Jeremy has cancelled the book tour. Can you all figure out why? Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. Damn good book, buy it, read it. Arm yourselves with knowledge.

The thing is, this isn't a "Bush privatization effort." The shortage of military personnel that we see today is largely a product of the massive military cuts of the Clinton administrations. Most of what we've seen happen under the Bush administrations is a result of infighting among the bureaucracy, not a concerted or ideological attempt to privatize the military.

As for the suggestion that Blackwater started the fires in California (one mentioned in these comments), I take it as proof - along with the Richmond Indy Media's contention that Blackwater blew the levees in New Orleans - as proof of just how absurd much of the anti-Blackwater rhetoric has become.

In the face of accusations that irrational, what can you possibly say?

Aaron R. Linderman @ 71 "The thing is, this isn't a "Bush privatization effort." The shortage of military personnel that we see today is largely a product of the massive military cuts of the Clinton administrations."

Rightwing nonsense. The "need" for genocidal privatized soldiers in an illegal invasion committed to violating the UN Charter entirely is ZERO.

Charging us three times the salary for OUR soldiers is a SCAM, not some result of Clinton military cuts. Wasting $500 billion in the Iraq boondoggle warcrime profit scheme is a Class A Warcrime. And you are covering for Nuremberg crimes -- not exactly an honorable behavior. Are you a racist?

Shutdown blackwater. The right-winger who started this got his funding from his family.

These guys should be tossed out of America.