Blackwater, Hot Water
Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:56 pm
From here.
I was watching the hearing on Iraq Reconstruction and Contractors on C-Span...in which the mothers, wives and daughters of four men killed on a convoy which was attacked and overrun (the men were shot, mutilated and hanged, their corpses then set ablaze), spoke of their struggle to gain simple answers to questions surrounding the deaths from the men's employer, the privately owned security firm known as Blackwater USA.
...the moms and wives and daughters spoke, expressing outrage in hoarse, respectful tones. They testified that they had asked Blackwater USA simple questions: how did my boy die? Why was there no planning? No protection? No help? Why were these men---some in Iraq for mere days before being killed on the mission to protect catering equipment---denied the use of maps? Of an experienced escort? Of heavy defensive weaponry? Where were their remains? Blackwater USA informed them that in order to obtain answers to these questions the families would have to sue the company. Otherwise, they were not obliged to respond. And months later, at a memorial service organized by Blackwater USA, the families were closely guarded by Blackwater USA security and prevented---prevented---from speaking with each other. So sue they did. And what was the response to the suit the grieving families launched? Blackwater USA countersued to the tune of 10 million dollars.
At the hearing, when his turn came to question the mothers, daughters and wives, California Republican Representative Darrell Issa prefaced his inquiry with his assertion that their testimony was not germane to the goal of the commission. Having gotten this matter out of the way, he proceeded with what he felt was germane: the authorship of their statement and whether a lawyer was involved in its drafting. As the term "lawyer" emanated from his lips, the specially equipped lenses picked up strong indications of a particularly agitated and opaque, darker presence perched on Issa's shoulder...
That our administration contracts private firms to do the jobs traditionally performed by our military is yet another example of the Neo-Con's ultimate aim to dismantle the beneficent mechanism of government, to ensure its failure, to create the problem and to conveniently supply the only solution, to construct a vacuum to be filled by treasure. And to turn the federal government into a privately held business, acountable only to itself.
I was watching the hearing on Iraq Reconstruction and Contractors on C-Span...in which the mothers, wives and daughters of four men killed on a convoy which was attacked and overrun (the men were shot, mutilated and hanged, their corpses then set ablaze), spoke of their struggle to gain simple answers to questions surrounding the deaths from the men's employer, the privately owned security firm known as Blackwater USA.
...the moms and wives and daughters spoke, expressing outrage in hoarse, respectful tones. They testified that they had asked Blackwater USA simple questions: how did my boy die? Why was there no planning? No protection? No help? Why were these men---some in Iraq for mere days before being killed on the mission to protect catering equipment---denied the use of maps? Of an experienced escort? Of heavy defensive weaponry? Where were their remains? Blackwater USA informed them that in order to obtain answers to these questions the families would have to sue the company. Otherwise, they were not obliged to respond. And months later, at a memorial service organized by Blackwater USA, the families were closely guarded by Blackwater USA security and prevented---prevented---from speaking with each other. So sue they did. And what was the response to the suit the grieving families launched? Blackwater USA countersued to the tune of 10 million dollars.
At the hearing, when his turn came to question the mothers, daughters and wives, California Republican Representative Darrell Issa prefaced his inquiry with his assertion that their testimony was not germane to the goal of the commission. Having gotten this matter out of the way, he proceeded with what he felt was germane: the authorship of their statement and whether a lawyer was involved in its drafting. As the term "lawyer" emanated from his lips, the specially equipped lenses picked up strong indications of a particularly agitated and opaque, darker presence perched on Issa's shoulder...
That our administration contracts private firms to do the jobs traditionally performed by our military is yet another example of the Neo-Con's ultimate aim to dismantle the beneficent mechanism of government, to ensure its failure, to create the problem and to conveniently supply the only solution, to construct a vacuum to be filled by treasure. And to turn the federal government into a privately held business, acountable only to itself.