Blackwater Down

Anyone else is concerned about having these gungho 'private soldiers' operating in American cities? Their track record isn't very encouraging, and even the US military itself in Iraq and other places had to at times arrest some of these people because of their irresponsible behavior. There is something alarming about having trigger-happy career warriors roaming American cities.

Oh, and do you think employing American soldiers to police American towns is a dangerous precedent?

I just found this topic interesting and wanted a debate...



Blackwater Down

by Jeremy Scahill


The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina
hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US
diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations
to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed
Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the
chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces
"join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told
a different story.

Some patrolled the streets in SUVs with tinted windows and the
Blackwater logo splashed on the back; others sped around the French
Quarter in an unmarked car with no license plates. They congregated on
the corner of St. James and Bourbon in front of a bar called 711, where
Blackwater was establishing a makeshift headquarters. From the balcony
above the bar, several Blackwater guys cleared out what had apparently
been someone's apartment. They threw mattresses, clothes, shoes and
other household items from the balcony to the street below. They draped
an American flag from the balcony's railing. More than a dozen troops
from the 82nd Airborne Division stood in formation on the street
watching the action.

Armed men shuffled in and out of the building as a handful told stories
of their past experiences in Iraq. "I worked the security detail of both
Bremer and Negroponte," said one of the Blackwater guys, referring to
the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and former US
Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte. Another complained, while talking on
his cell phone, that he was getting only $350 a day plus his per diem.
"When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?'" he
said. He wore his company ID around his neck in a case with the phrase
Operation Iraqi Freedom printed on it.

In an hourlong conversation I had with four Blackwater men, they
characterized their work in New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods" and
"confronting criminals." They all carried automatic assault weapons and
had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak jackets were covered with
pouches for extra ammunition.

When asked what authority they were operating under, one guy said,
"We're on contract with the Department of Homeland Security." Then,
pointing to one of his comrades, he said, "He was even deputized by the
governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use lethal
force if we deem it necessary." The man then held up the gold Louisiana
law enforcement badge he wore around his neck. Blackwater spokesperson
Anne Duke also said the company has a letter from Louisiana officials
authorizing its forces to carry loaded weapons.

"This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government,"
says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
"These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in
Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and
possibly illegal."

Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials
talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most
culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like
DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an
Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are
fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government
projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the
number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from
185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others
have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who
brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and
his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal
contract to house FEMA workers.

A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the
dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night
in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he
worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security
(BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one
of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city.
Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on
an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I
was on the phone with my business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the
phone and returned fire."

Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and
that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the
alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning
and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said."

Then, Montgomery says, "the Army showed up, yelling at us and thinking
we were the enemy. We explained to them that we were security. I told
them what had happened and they didn't even care. They just left." Five
minutes later, Montgomery says, Louisiana state troopers arrived on the
scene, inquired about the incident and then asked him for directions on
"how they could get out of the city." Montgomery says that no one ever
asked him for any details of the incident and no report was ever made.
"One thing about security," Montgomery says, "is that we all
coordinate with each other--one family." That co-ordination
doesn't include the offices of the Secretaries of State in Louisiana and
Alabama, which have no record of a BATS company.

A few miles away from the French Quarter, another wealthy New Orleans
businessman, James Reiss, who serves in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration
as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority, brought in some
heavy guns to guard the elite gated community of Audubon Place: Israeli
mercenaries dressed in black and armed with M-16s. Two Israelis
patrolling the gates outside Audubon told me they had served as
professional soldiers in the Israeli military, and one boasted of having
participated in the invasion of Lebanon. "We have been fighting the
Palestinians all day, every day, our whole lives," one of them tells me.
"Here in New Orleans, we are not guarding from terrorists." Then,
tapping on his machine gun, he says, "Most Americans, when they see
these things, that's enough to scare them."

The men work for ISI, which describes its employees as "veterans of
the Israeli special task forces from the following Israeli
government bodies: Israel Defense Force (IDF), Israel National Police
Counter Terrorism units, Instructors of Israel National Police
Counter Terrorism units, General Security Service (GSS or 'Shin
Beit'), Other restricted intelligence agencies." The company was formed
in 1993. Its website profile says: "Our up-to-date services meet the
challenging needs for Homeland Security preparedness and overseas combat
procedures and readiness. ISI is currently an approved vendor by the US
Government to supply Homeland Security services."

Unlike ISI or BATS, Blackwater is operating under a federal contract to
provide 164 armed guards for FEMA reconstruction projects in Louisiana.
That contract was announced just days after Homeland Security Department
spokesperson Russ Knocke told the Washington Post he knew of no federal
plans to hire Blackwater or other private security firms. "We believe
we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for the federal
government to meet the demands of public safety," he said. Before the
contract was announced, the Blackwater men told me, they were already on
contract with DHS and that they were sleeping in camps organized by the
federal agency.

One might ask, given the enormous presence in New Orleans of National
Guard, US Army, US Border Patrol, local police from around the country
and practically every other government agency with badges, why private
security companies are needed, particularly to guard federal projects.
"It strikes me...that that may not be the best use of money," said
Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Blackwater's success in procuring federal contracts could well be
explained by major-league contributions and family connections to the
GOP. According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder,
billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to Republicans,
including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the
month before Bush's victory in 2000. This past June, he gave $2,100 to
Senator Rick Santorum's re-election campaign. He has also given to House
majority leader Tom DeLay and a slew of other Republican candidates,
including Bush/Cheney in 2004. As a young man, Prince interned with
President George H.W. Bush, though he complained at the time that he
"saw a lot of things I didn't agree with--homosexual groups being
invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of
bills. I think the Administration has been indifferent to a lot of
conservative concerns."

Prince, a staunch right-wing Christian, comes from a powerful Michigan
Republican family, and his father, Edgar, was a close friend of former
Republican presidential candidate and antichoice leader Gary Bauer. In
1988 the elder Prince helped Bauer start the Family Research Council.
Erik Prince's sister, Betsy, once chaired the Michigan Republican Party
and is married to Dick DeVos, whose father, billionaire Richard DeVos,
is co-founder of the major Republican benefactor Amway. Dick DeVos is
also a big-time contributor to the Republican Party and will likely be
the GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2006. Another Blackwater
founder, president Gary Jackson, is also a major contributor to
Republican campaigns.

After the killing of four Blackwater mercenaries in Falluja in March
2004, Erik Prince hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a PR firm with
close ties to GOPers like DeLay. By mid-November the company was
reporting 600 percent growth. In February 2005 the company hired
Ambassador Cofer Black, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the
State Department and former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism
Center, as vice chairman. Just as the hurricane was hitting,
Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, named Joseph Schmitz, who
had just resigned as the Pentagon's Inspector General, as the group's
chief operating officer and general counsel.

While juicing up the firm's political connections, Prince has been
advocating greater use of private security in international operations,
arguing at a symposium at the National Defense Industrial
Association earlier this year that firms like his are more efficient
than the military. In May Blackwater's Jackson testified before Congress
in an effort to gain lucrative Homeland Security contracts to train
2,000 new Border Patrol agents, saying Blackwater understands "the value
to the government of one-stop shopping." With President Bush using the
Katrina disaster to try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US
troops in domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security
firms clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US
soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way. As one
Blackwater mercenary said, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot
more guys like us in these situations."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill

 

That's exactly my concern. At least we all know as citizens that the government and our military, with all its branches, answer to the people. However, why would an Israeli private contractor who is so used to operating under no one's command -- responsible only to his company, or his 'paycheck' as you put it -- restrain himself from, say, shooting at anyone in sight whom he perceives to be a 'danger'?

I am really just interested in hearing what people think/feel about this whole 'private warriors' industry, whom are contracted by the government and heavily involved in wars and conflicts overseas and, increasingly, disaster zones right here at home. If the military themselves are 'suspicious' of these contractors, what is the alternative if the government doesn't have the necessary manpower to handle all its responsibilities at once?

 

OK, I didn't notice this part before for some reason, but I haven't heard about this at all, does anyone know if it's 'factual' or just the author's opinion?