Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Shorter 'Blackwater' : Scary, Shameless SOBs ...

19 June 2007

Shorter 'Blackwater' : Scary, Shameless SOBs ...

There's an old saying that goes something along the lines of: One can't lay down with dogs, and still stay flea-free.

However, since under circumstances such as those which should soon become apparent, we still can't bring ourselves around to being cruel enough to start shouting "Karma".

Regardless - read on.



Blackwater Heavies Sue Families of Slain Employees for $10 Million in Brutal Attempt to Suppress Their Story.

The following article is by the lawyers representing the families of four American contractors who worked for Blackwater and were killed in Fallujah.

After Blackwater refused to share information about why they were killed, the families were told they would have to sue Blackwater to find out. Now Blackwater is trying to sue them for $10 million to keep them quiet.

Raleigh, NC — The families of four American security contractors who were burned, beaten, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and their decapitated bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River on March 31, 2004, are reaching out to the American public to help protect themselves against the very company their loved ones were serving when killed, Blackwater Security Consulting.

After Blackwater lost a series of appeals all the away to the U.S. Supreme Court, Blackwater has now changed its tactics and is suing the dead men’s estates for $10 million to silence the families and keep them out of court.
Now, move on over to 'Current Era' for more.

But before you leave us, take a little look here to learn
more about Blackwater

Then there's this at Wikipedia.

And here's where you can enlighten yourself regarding the guy responsible for inflicting Blackwater on the world in the first place --
he's Erik Prince.

That one's own so-called civilized government should come sink to this, eh?

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6 Comments:

Blogger Kathryn in MA said...

lie down wih dogs, rise up with fleas.

We're following in the footsteps of The Fall of the Roman Empire

2:48 am  
Blogger gordo said...

In the late 1990s, one of the things that really excited the neocons was the prospect of hiring more mercenaries. You don't have to pay them when they're not fighting, you don't have to pay disability or retirement benefits, you can maintain plausible deniability when you send them on covert ops, and you can have them do the sorts of unsavory activities that got us into such trouble at Abu Ghraib and My Lai. Also, they thought, they could maintain public support for wars in which only mercenaries, most of them foreign, were killed.

Mercenaries were seen as being a necessary part of the new American empire, along with the outsourcing of nonmilitary functions (to make them cheaper and more efficient, har har), the weakening of the UN, and the switch to a tech-heavy military that would inflict a lot more casualties than it suffered.

It was all based on a combination of wishful thinking and an assumption that Americans can stomach even the most horrific of crimes, as long as the cost is cheap in terms of American dollars and American lives.

Thankfully, it seems as though the neocons miscalculated, but unfortunately they won't be stopped in time to save Iraq.

3:56 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Richard;
I find no problem with saying karma. These mercenaries will do, and have done anything that's been asked of them - and plenty that's not been, just for their personal sadistic gratification and ego\power trips -- all for MONEY.
This world is better off without their type.

5:19 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is something about mercenaries I find extremly troubling. Even more so now I understand governments viz the US hire them to carry out the most distateful of activities on often the completly innocent of civilians. In truth as I write this I wish them and their kin long lingering and truly painful ends.

5:44 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Thanks for the insights & info, all. With comments starting to come in again we may soon be back to 'normal'.

9:18 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For those interested in a detailed history of Blackwater, with considerable material on the 4 who died in Fallujah in March 2004, I can recommend Jeremy Scahill's excellent book Blackwater, recently released.

10:02 pm  

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