Jeremy Scahill, author of a new book on Blackwater, has a new piece posted on The Nation, including a video from You Tube summarizing his knowledge of this right-wing organization. Worth a look.
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You might want to check out this Zogby poll if for no other reason than to glimpse at how things might be changing in America, for the better we hope. But still, things seem a bit strange, like how those polled blame virtually every identified ill on the Republicans, but still hold the Democrats more responsible for crime. Go figure!
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Blackwater, the private U.S. contractor security firm, has been in the news lately and today is on the front page of the NYT. They were involved in the Sept 16th killings of 11 Iraqi civilians, which many believe was an unprovoked attack on innocent civilians. Blackwater has a “cowboy” reputation among the U.S. military as well as other U.S. security firms: shoot first ask questions later. There are at least three private security contractors working for the U.S. in Iraq and the total numbers of U.S. civilians involved one way or the other in U.S. affairs is more than 137,000. You can get some idea of our intentions in Iraq when you realize that our embassy there is the largest U.S. embassy in the World. We do not have enough U.S. military to provide security for this big operation, which is the normal method of diplomatic security, so private firms for this purpose are unavoidable. And, given the size of our embassy there, the mission is huge. But Blackwater and the other U.S. firms get no oversight from congress. Indeed, Jeremy Scahill, author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army“ is so much more knowledgeable than anyone in Congress, that he was asked to testify for the purpose of educating congressional members on the organization.
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