Matters Blackwater (Merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

A lengthy WSJ interview of Erik Prince. I suppose he is moving to where the $ can be made; Blackwater follows the pivot or are they the advance guard?

Link:http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...1,401,641,1009

[davidbfpo]

Security guards working for the private US contractor Blackwater have been found guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of a group of unarmed civilians at a crowded Baghdad traffic junction during one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war. The massacre in 2007 left a total of 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after the guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief it was under attack by insurgents.
During the trial’s emotional closing arguments, jurors were told of the “shocking amount of death, injury and destruction” that saw “innocent men, women and children mowed down” as they went about their business in downtown Baghdad.
The federal prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said: “These men took something that did not belong to them: the lives of 14 human beings. They were turned into bloody, bullet-riddled corpses at the hands of these men.”
“It must have seemed like the apocalypse was here,” said Asuncion in his closing argument, as he described how many were shot in the back, at long range, or blown up by powerful grenades used by the US contractors.

Link:http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...ty-guards-iraq

[davidbfpo]

Today a federal court finallys entenced four Blackwater contractors for the shooting / murder in Baghdad in 2007:

Three of the guards — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard — were each handed down 30-year sentences for voluntary and attempted manslaughter. Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.

Link:http://www.wbur.org/npr/399339092/bl...iraqi-killings

As this report explains the door maybe shut, but this has happened before in this case.

[davidbfpo]

A long report on Erik Prince's company developing a militarised version of a "crop duster" for clients:https://theintercept.com/2016/04/11/...ate-air-force/

Viktor Bout even had a role, leaving aside the Chinese investors.

[AdamG]

A long report on Erik Prince's company developing a militarised version of a "crop duster" for clients:https://theintercept.com/2016/04/11/...ate-air-force/

Viktor Bout even had a role, leaving aside the Chinese investors.

Devil in the details.

Reference weapons pylons,

After failed attempts to acquire them through multiple countries, they conceded defeat. The plane would have to deploy without the pylons. But they instructed Airborne to begin building customized pylons capable of carrying both Russian and NATO munitions that could be added later. According to Prince’s original Thrush blueprint, the aim was to patent a new pylon. Creating such a device was a challenge, but Airborne’s engineers would eventually succeed in building it, according to the former Airborne employee. “It was really an impressive engineering accomplishment,” he said, pointing out that Western and Russian bombs required different mounts. “You could arm those aircraft with any weapons — NATO or Warsaw pact — with the pylons we built. It was kind of incredible.”