Matters Blackwater (Merged thread)

[Beelzebubalicious]

XE = Xenon which is a noble gas.

I think they're just blowing smoke up our collective assets.

[SWJED]

Blackwater Accused of Murder in 'Crusade to Eliminate Muslims' - Tim Reid, The Times

A series of allegations including murder, weapons smuggling and the deliberate slaughter of civilians have been levelled against the founder of Blackwater, the security company being investigated for shooting deaths in Iraq.

The accusations, including a claim that the company founder Erik Prince either murdered or had killed former employees co-operating with federal investigators, are contained in sworn affidavits lodged at a Virginia court on Monday night.

The company was the most prominent of an army of private security companies employed by the Pentagon and State Department to protect military convoys and guard US diplomats in Iraq.

The accusations against Mr Prince are being made by two former employees, including a former Marine, who have sworn them anonymously as John Doe No 1 and John Doe No 2, because they said they feared for their lives if their identities were revealed...

[IntelTrooper]

My gut reaction is, "Didn't Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?"

Having people murdered? Come on...

[jmm99]

Go slow and wait. The DoJ's "neither confirm nor deny" should be taken literally. An indictment would be another story - and a big one.

[Courtney Massengale]

Will religion become the new sexual harassment?

Sure looks like things are heading that way.

[jenniferro10]

Reaction 1: Um...yeah? Surprised? Maybe you should be paying more attention. Then, calming myself a little, and trying to be more objective...
Reaction 2: Well, it seems like the murder of whistleblowers would have come out before now...could they really be that evil? Then,
back to reaction 1.

[SWJ Blog]

‘Civilian Warriors: Blackwater and the War on Terror’

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[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.

[CrowBat]

...and another one by Arnaud: Erik Prince’s Mercenaries Are Bombing#Libya

On Jan. 11, 2017, Intelligence Online — a professional journal covering the world’s intelligence services — revealed that the pilots of Air Tractor attack planes flying from Al Khadim air base in Libya are private contractors working for Erik Prince, the founder of the company formerly known as Blackwater.

War Is Boring’s own sources in Libya confirmed the assertion. Our sources said that the pilots flying the United Arab Emirates Air Force IOMAX AT-802 Air Tractors — converted crop-dusters — are mercenaries and aren’t Arabs. Most of the for-profit aviators are American, according to IOL.
...

[AdamG]

The conversion of crop dusters into light attack aircraft had long been part of Prince’s vision for defeating terrorists and insurgencies in Africa and the Middle East. In Prince’s view, these single-engine fixed-wing planes, retrofitted for war zones, would revolutionize the way small wars were fought. They would also turn a substantial profit. The Thrush in Airborne’s hangar, one of two crop dusters he intended to weaponize, was Prince’s initial step in achieving what one colleague called his “obsession” with building his own private air force.

https://theintercept.com/2016/04/11/...ate-air-force/

[AdamG]

Somewhat breathless update.

Blackwater’s Dark Prince Returns
A DECADE AFTER BLACKWATER’S RETREAT AMID SCANDAL AND A MASSACRE, ITS FOUNDER ERIK PRINCE WANTS TO PRIVATIZE AND SHRINK THE CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN. RECENT WHITE HOUSE TURNOVER HAS GIVEN HIS PLAN A FIGHTING SHOT
https://www.forbes.com/return-of-eri.../#3bc6587a50aa