"These actions raise serious questions about the consequences of engaging private, for-profit entities to engage in essentially military operations in a war zone," the committee report said.
Blackwater Focused on Cost, Not Safety, Report Says
By Glenn Kessler and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 28, 2007; A14
The report comes as Blackwater -- the State Department's prime security force -- faces new scrutiny for its role this month in the killing of at least 11 Iraqis. Citing e-mails, fresh interviews and previously undisclosed incident reports, the report by the majority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform provides details about how cost considerations appeared to shape Blackwater's decisions that led to the brutal deaths of its employees at the hands of insurgents on March 31, 2004.
For example, the assessment said that Blackwater, then operating under a Defense Department contract, was supposed to use vehicles with armored protection kits, but as of the date of the killings, no such vehicles had been obtained. A Blackwater internal report obtained by the committee quoted an employee who said the contract "paid for armor vehicles" but that "management in North Carolina . . . made the decision to go with soft skin due to cost."
The report disclosed that another complicating factor was a contract dispute with a different company. The report suggested that Blackwater never intended to armor its own vehicles. Instead, Blackwater employees were told to "string along" the other company in hopes of forcing them out of their contract or giving them "no choice but to buy us armored cars," according to interviews by the committee staff with Blackwater officials.
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"Defense is an example of
"Defense is an example of public goods that should be categorically excluded from the market." Please bear with me for a second as I expound on your title:
In the minds of the corporate wackos running the USA now that is exactly what you do. These firms allow corporations to do what(ever) they want to from a law enforcement/military POV with "immunity from prosecution" as Blackwater et al have in Iraq (don't take my word for it, go read "Bremer's edict" that he got approved before escaping Iraq). Now the corporations get millions of tax dollars "free as a bird" and send it back to their political shareholders in the guise of fat-cat jobs, corporate board seats, stock options, enormous salaries, obscene profits, and, of course, political donations. Sounds criminal to me but it's just supporting "the economy" to the criminals at work on this scheme.
Now, on to Blackwater and the USA (I include all of these private security firms when I say Blackwater). Weren't they used in New Orleans post-Katrina? Have they been involved with the DOJ in the unpublicized massive sweep of "criminals" ongoing during the past few months? Are they being secretly prepared for the ramp-up of the massive "detention centers" being built in the USA? In what role would Bush use them after the NEXT "false flag" attack in the USA (since we know that Bush can and will start "The Plan" when the time is ripe)?
"Time will tell."- Malcolm X