"We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq," said Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management. "If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq."
And what a crying shame that would be.

That pretty much says it all. The world's "mightiest military", supported by untold billions of taxpayer dollars, cannot carry out its role as occupiers of one Middle Eastern country without the assistance and protection of so-called "private security firms". One cannot help wondering how this fits with the "New American Century" and its grandiose "full spectrum dominance" plans to rule the world.

No surprise here. Just another example of the Bush Junta thumbing its nose at the rule of law in this country and abroad. When is everyone going to wake-up and see the truth here? This entire administration that illegally seized power in 2000, is corrupt from top to bottom. I just hope the next administration is able to motivate us out of this horrible chasm we find ourselves in. May the Goddess help us all.

As long as there is oil for the taking in Iran, we'll never leave Iraq, regardless of how many lives it takes.
Iraq was just a stepping stone for the take over of Iran. That was all planned out in the beginning. The problem is that most Iraqi people didn't go along with the bush/bush/cheney plan, and now their grand scheme is bogged down.

The current bush/cheney cabal needs it's private army to control the contractors dirty business of providing shoddy goods to our soldiers, and to keep everyone in line. A few mistakes won't deter hired killers from stealing the taxpayers money, and providing security for visiting congressmen for photo ops. Besides W and Erik Prince have a similar mindset.

The use of mercenaries are a natural progression for corporate dominance because larger risks are involved with a government supplied army. For one, the army might object against fighting on moral grounds in a situation where the war is fought for corporate profits rather than the defence of the country (i.e. Iraq) whereas amoral mercenaries are only concerned about earning their pay check.

What makes this situation so unique though, is the fact that the mercenaries have the full support of Congress and the White House complete with no-bid contracts and immunity from prosecution. As the Iraqi freedom fighters continue their valiant efforts to expel the occupiers and install a democracy which represents the views of the majority, (still over 87% of Iraqis want the U.S. to completely depart immediately!) the reliance on Blackwater and other mercenary groups will continue to grow while the American middle class taxpayers fund it.

The empire will use companies like Blackwater to completely fill the enlisted ranks of our military. This will avoid the draft and since these guys are working for a private company there won't be any dead soldiers coming home which will mean less protest. No more disabled vets, no more vets with PTSD, no more homeless vets, no more disgruntled vets. No more vets. Just a bunch of mercenaries fighting for their company.
Hoa binh

"The chief reason for the company's survival? State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater . . . ."

welcome to the future

DENISE MAY

'when is everyone going to wake up and see the truth here?'

this guy has:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EXKLVgEx0

Blackwater was founded and supported by rich Republicans for the protection of rich Republicans against the citizenry whom they now so openly abuse. When needed they will be licensed by the Government to serve as Storm Troopers to round up American dissenters and place them in KBR prison camps. The President, with impunity, can now legally tag American's as terrorists and thereby deny their Constitutionally guaranteed rights. The Congress has granted the President these rights. So where is that Democracy everyone keep talking about? It was taken away by fundamentalist capitalists, fundamentalist Christians, and fundamentalist Jews aided by cowardly politicians and a compliant military. Fundamentalists have stolen our Democracy and replaced it with Fascism.

There is a great deal more to fear. Imagine, difficult as that might be, that our foreign wars may one day come to an end. On that day thousands of Blackwater fighters will come home from the Middle East and wherever else they may be. They will be disgruntled and unemployed, and looking for steady work. They will be prime candidates to form a private army, not over there, but over here. A private army working, as now, for the Republican Party. And who will they be unleashed upon? You and me and anyone else who makes it onto a list of dangerous people compiled by the NSA through secret wiretaps and internet spying. They will form the elite units of America's blackshirts--the death squads of a fully operational national security state.

Your fears about bringing the war home needn't wait for that eventuality. According to a study released on April 17 by the RAND Corporation, just under one in three — 31 percent — of those who've been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from a brain injury or stress disorder or a mix of both these conditions. They're already applying for jobs and, all over the country, police departments are advertising for Iraq vets. More here.

I think Donna Zovko is entitled to a full accounting of what happened to young Jerko Gerald, just as soon as we also have an accounting of everybody Jerko Gerald and his associates have killed. You never know but what there could be more wrongful deaths than we think.

Disgusting, really obscene, this use and protection of mercenaries to fight in this illegal war.

It's easy to see how fragile our system is when it can be breached by this administration. Henry Ford had his little army, as did other moguls, but they were dissolved. This FORCE is huge and must not be allowed to return to the U.S. organized and based or we will suffer the consequences. If we are to continue as a free nation, we must be ALERT!!!

Criminals, all of them. Boy are we f****d.

"We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq," said Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management. "If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq."

Some rare honesty. To complete the thought he should have added- "look, a lot of people are making a lot of money over here".

What is America about? The world answers... Money!!

Those that send these thugs out to murder and maim are just as guilty as the thugs. In this case it is the Secretary of State, Ms. Rice that is the baby butcher.

This Blackwater is the reburth of the Nazi storm troopers Hitler put upon his own people. The Bush, Chaney, Rice administration along with Haliburton will one day send them out to take down Americans, if in fact they haven't already. Beware America, with a total do nothing congress and senate we are in danger of the only terrorist in this land -- the Bush administration.

Erik D. Prince, "founder" of Blackwater:

"...born into a wealthy family... attended the United States Naval Academy after high school, but left the academy after three semesters... an intern in the White House under President George H. W. Bush ("I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with—homosexual groups being invited in,)... father co-founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer... gave at least $670,000 to the Family Research Council and $531,000 to Focus on the Family... a donor to the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal group..."

Another "self made" God-nut with too much of Daddy's money, an insatiable desire for more, and the bloodlust of 4th Branch Executive Cheney.

Just the helluvakinda guy "we" want owning a private army, air force and intel agency.

Bet he belts out the Pledge of Allegiance, though, at every damn opportunity...

Good thing Iraq is a sovereign nation, though: Sept, 07: "The Iraqi government says it's canceling the operating license of U.S. security firm Blackwater USA after accusations that it was involved in a deadly shootout in Baghdad."

Apparently, "our" response was: so?

Perhaps what the following says, in addition to what's further revealed in the sources used for this article, is an, if not [the], explanation for Blackwater being used again. Maybe it also tells us that the threat of either Blackwater not getting any more contracts in Iraq, or of contractors being required to comply with laws of Iraq and the international ones, was all fake to begin with; perhaps all just for 'show', to deceive, the ultimate goal having been to protect Blackwater and its many profiteers.

After all, it's not like we've obtained any really or very significant truths from this government of ours for eight and more years now. As the article by Rev. Skaff states, it's not only the Repub. Party, but also the Dem. Party, which have many of these political profiteers of war; and the article specifies two examples, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton, f.e.

"War profits taint the greedy hands of more than 25% of members of the US House and Senate!

by Rev. Richard Skaff

Global Research, May 7, 2008″

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8920

If you look at history, virtually every empire, when it has used up its own people, has relied upon mercenaries to defend it, both from foreign invasion and domestic unrest.

These empires have usually fallen through revolt of the mercenaries. Either the government fails to pay them, someone else pays more, or they just decide, "Why get paid for protecting it when we can just take it?"

As Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." We the People, who no longer relate to anything but the here and now and the "bottom line," will doubtless repeat the ending of all the great empires. Those who have gained so much, will simply move on with the vast wealth they have stolen, leaving the rest of us to have lives that are, as Hobbes wrote, "nasty, brutish and short."

ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS....

What exactly is the necessity of having any DIPLOMATS in Iraq requiring protection?

Did we survive as a nation prior to 2002 with no diplomats in Iraq? How did we ever manage that?

Is it at all possible, that if we deserted or 'obliterated' that $78 million, 104 acre monstrosity of an embassy complex in Baghdad, that we'd have some disaster result here in America? Is our water really that bad here that we're all going crazy?

Gosh, I ask a lot of questions. Hey, how about that use of the 'oblterate' word there though. ___ Pretty neat huh?

'we the freeple' is a pigment of your refrigeration --

keep that in mind

I bet those diplomats are over there in Baghdad just to count brand new hundred dollar bills. I understand we have sent several thousand tons of them over there for some dumb reason.

Gosh, when my wife worked for a grat big 24 story high bank once, sometimes she had to go down into the hidden vaults and count hundred dollar bills and it took hours and there were four other people there just to watch her count them. So that would explain why we have lots of diplomats in Iraq. ___ Nothing else does.

It's a good thing someone is fighting Blackwater over there. So we don't have to fight them here.

DUBS_DINGLEBERRIES

no, we are a 'figment of your minageration'

State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater

This would be hilarious if it weren't so criminal and sad. Beyond the illegality of the occupation itself, the US government is violating its duty to get the best value in security for the taxpayers, meaning public employees, not private contractors. Private contractors have two to four times the expenses, salaries, profits. If it must use private contractors it should pit several of them against each other to bid the cost down.

But the US government is not interested in creating functional markets, let alone containing costs. It only wants to contain the size of the public enterprises, force the public's dependence on private monopoly enterprises, and grow the economy.

The US government is controlled by capitalists, by and for capital. Security becomes another property on the capitalists' monopoly game board. They play on the backs of the taxslaves. Like in 1984, wars have to be perpetrated indefinitely to help keep the economy afloat while suppressing ideas of peace, equity and prosperity for all the people.

The answer is for individuals to join world movements for economic/political independence for all individuals, starting with land, water and food rights and many further rights to be included. Individuals may shift their individual exchange/association away from the power centers and toward their local communities.

" libertas fugit May 10th, 2008 3:11 pm

If you look at history, virtually every empire, when it has used up its own people, has relied upon mercenaries to defend it, both from foreign invasion and domestic unrest.

... Either the government fails to pay them, someone else pays more, or they just decide, "Why get paid for protecting it when we can just take it?"

... Those who have gained so much, will simply move on with the vast wealth they have stolen, leaving the rest of us to have lives that are, as Hobbes wrote, "nasty, brutish and short.""

--------------

That's very much as John Perkins briefly but nevertheless excellently explains in the following interview. When making my first post, above, I knew there was another and related article that I really wanted to include the link for, but wasn't thinking of precisely which, and it's this interview with John Perkins, author of 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' (EHM), and a more recent book on this Western 'global empire' sort of "business" activity; and the title for that book is also mentioned in the interview.

He says that the whole network of various parties employed for achieving the ultimate goal, so employed for and by the imperialist, ... "bosses", uses the EHM first of all, and if they fail to corrupt national leaders, then next employed is the CIA with its various 'jackals' used covertly (and which seem to include private "security" company mercenaries) for overthrowing good, but "disagreeable" state leaders, or else for assassinating them. And if both of those "efforts" fail, then there's the military "hammer" to "get the job done", "finally".

And he adds, they sure do seem to have [already] achieved their goal of establishing their 'global empire' over our world. It's a very credible perception of (horrible, terrifying for many of us) reality too, imo.

""Economic Hit Man" John Perkins Recounts US Efforts to Block Nationalization of Panama Canal",
May 8, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/8/economic_hit_man_john_perkins_recounts

Re: Kem Patrick and 104 acres @ $78 Mil

Here's the "UGLY AMERICAN" all over again. Can anyone remember that in the late 40's or early 50's the U.S. built a golf course on the Embassy grounds in a far eastern country, but only Americans were allowed on the course.
Of course these are different times, now we have added, at some mighty big bucks, goons to guard the course.
We sure know how to make friends and then stick it to them.

Coco: Great video! Thanks for the link!
I post it here again for all to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EXKLVgEx0

The man says it like it is!

~ MIKE CORBEIL~ Speaking of the Panama Canal. I understand that the Chinese now have the contract to manage that baby we built and paid for.

Those who control the world's major shipping canals and narrow sea lanes, control the world economy and geo-politics.

Demonstorm beat me to it. Awesome video link, Coco! Thank you.

If you google Iraq embassy cost, you will find that the cost will be closer to $780 million than $78 million.

Do not recognize them as "Blackwater". Whenever you talk/write/discuss about them in any shape or form use the term "Shitwater".

Coffee.........

Now as capitalism enters its final stage, a nearly seamless political transition to fascism is well underway in the United States. The mass media, the electoral machinery, and both major political parties are under corporate control. The trappings of bourgeois democracy are a hindrance on profits and so they are being shredded. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights are being rendered meaningless by plans for perpetual war, by presidential signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive, extraordinary rendition, government surveillance programs and the like. Programs based on democratic principles like the public schools, Social Security, and Medicare are being starved to death. Separate and parallel Internet and military forces are being constructed along with internment camps and the legal construct for a martial law declaration. Blackwater is the growing private military force of the ruling class, protecting them in Baghdad and patrolling the streets of New Orleans for them now. Because there are too many sons and daughters of the working class in the US military it can not be trusted by the bourgeoisie when the order is given to attack and subdue the American people. Likely the two militaries will one day face each other in combat.

ALOHA !!

This is what happens when spineless politicians are afraid of restarting the "DRAFT"! Had our elected leaders have tried to man the WAR ON TERROR by using the DRAFT there would not be any WAR ON TERROR, because nobody would want their own kids lives put on the line, ala Vietnam. I am wondering just exactly who will be left to volunteer for military service when we actually have a REAL WAR!

What brought down past Empires was the "cost" of Empire not rental troops! Empire is just not financially sustainable in the long run and hence the purchasing power of the US PESO has diminished substantially since Vietnam. The WAR ON TERROR will be the US PESO's GRAND FINALE! What's next then?

Occupied Iraq has the Largest Number of Prisons in the World

Sahar Yasiri says "Iraq is the number one country having the largest number of prisons in the world where there are more than 400 thousand Iraqi detainees including 6500 children and 10 thousand women." This is the first part of long interview translated by AMSI English Web Team.

http://heyetnet.org/en/content/view/2849/1/

Oops, I dropped the 0 on the $78 million. then the annual operating cost of OUR beautiful Iraqi embassy is projected to be one billion. Projected? Sure, uh-huh, we all know how militay and government cost projections go.

Is that a fact that there are 6,500 kids in jail in Iraq? ___ What hath WE wrought?

I always wondered if the positioning and destruction of sevicemen and equipment of our State National Guard units in Iraq is a prelude to US military/Blackwater control in this country, diluting our local defenses against total federal and corporate control. Sure can get paranoid these days.

Troop Shortages? Trigger happy career-mercenaries? Criminals filling the ranks in the Army? Not to mention hastily started wars with the People's doubts coming too-little-too-late. You want to see all of this end? Required military service of all citizens.
I seriously doubt this war in Iraq would have happened had their been the threat of young men being sent to war without signing-up. The war-fervor post-911 would have given into reason, and you wouldn't have all these young men telling themselves, "well, this is what I signed up for."
Furthermore, if we were at war, I seriously doubt we'd be seeing such atrocities as those carried out by these private contract "professionals" and their admirers.

Hell's Angels without the Nazi helmets and riding hogs.

I'll answer for her in case she does not return. ~CONTINUALLY AMUSED ~ For starters, the United States is a signed and sworn charter member of the United Nations. The UN laws, which are also our laws, have been violated numerous times by Bush.

Then we have the Geneva Conventions, which we are also obligated to conform to. We have violated many of those rules and crimes against humanity and the Earth's enviroment and our leaders are subject to prosecution.___ Check it out.

Blackwater; check out Naomi Klein's, The Shock Doctrine. Most of us already knew the essence, but she lays it out in lumenescent detail. And, of course, Jeremy Scahill. And, of course, the beautiful video sent by coco & demonstorm, wh/after great effort I was finally allowed to emailed.
Protecting diplomats is a joke. there's no diplomacy, just bombs & missiles, & torture. There will be major change when Obama takes over, and we must hold his feet to the fire(and to Congress) when he falters!

@KEM PATRICK May 10th, 2008 4:51 pm

I laughed your questions about the need for so many diplomats in the US embassy in Baghdad. It was like something a stand up comedian would ask. Of course there is no answer, because the word Embassy, here is just an Orwellian Euphemism (for something, but I know not what). It is an Embassy that ordinary Iraqis simply cannot visit. An Embassy that houses the puppet government of Iraq too.

Blackwater= Americas AQ
to me it shows the level of what america has becomes, people who are accountable to no one enforcing the law, ( whose law?) Sounds sort of SS to me of pre WW2
Butterfield:
Fighting BW over there and not here, give it time. I am sure BW will be coming to help the local police keep everyone in line as the gas price makes food rationing for everyone but the 1% of America

There is only one way to be empowered in the US and that is to be wealthy. If you are not wealthy you are a worker for the owners and you have no power. We live in a plutocracy, as do most people on earth. Mr. Prince's success in selling auto parts gave his son a place among the rulers. So hurry up and produce something everyone will buy, if you want any power at all for yourself and your children.

But outsourcing is a good thing, isnt it? ( and other fig newtons of the machination).

Remember that Blackwater was also used in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.....

The use of private contractors has been made necesary because Bushistas will do anything to avoid instituting a draft. It was, in my opinion, the draft which brought the Viet Nam War home ot every household with draft eligible children. Cant have that sort of subversive potential out there, now can we?

The next president of the United States is going to be a democrat; and Blackwater will on the chopping block! Heads will roll!

Greatbear - don't hold your breath waiting or those heads to roll. What did our last Democratic president do to reverse the crony-capitalist abuses of the Reagan-Bush era?

American mercenary armies in foreign places is nothing new: William Walker briefly took over Nicaragua with one in 1855. What is malign about them in terms of how the US and its' people are perceived by the unfortunates who must endure them: future generations of Americans are stained by their bad acts (it is why Che Guevara is such an icon in Latin America). Erik Prince and his trigger-happy mercenaries are doing the modern equivalent in Iraq and the damage to America's image is worse than any episode of gunboat diplomacy or fruit company corporate paternalism of the prior centuries. It is absolutely vital that Blackwater be put out of business and that Prince be forbidden from doing trade in the mercenary enterprise ever again. Jail for him is the impossible dream.