All you peace activists, listen up.
Today is special. You'll want to remember this day -- May 7, 2009 -- as the day when the second largest occupying force, the private army formerly known as Blackwater, finally left Iraq.
Triple Canopy, a Herndon, Virginia-based company, picks up the expiring contract of the security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which changed its name to XE a few months ago. The U.S. State Department decided not to renew XE's contract in January.
"When the U.S. government initially asked for our help to assist with an immediate need to protect Americans in Iraq, we answered that call and performed well," XE spokeswoman Anne Tyrell said in a statement Wednesday. "But we always knew that, at some point, that work would come to a close."
The end of the contract followed the Iraqi government's refusal to renew the firm's operating license because of a September 2007 shooting in which Baghdad says security guards -- then employed by Blackwater -- killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
That slaughter, and the indictments that followed, ended an era of complete impunity for the Blackwater mercenaries.
This is how it once was (big H/T to The Nation's Jeremy Scahill for his reporting on this group):
Accounts from survivors of the Baghdad massacre are chilling, to say the least. Apart from Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill, Jennifer Daskal lays claim to some of the best reporting on Blackwater yet.
Khalaf, a 38-year-old Iraqi and survivor of the massacre, told her the scene was a "horror movie." You should read the rest.
Of course, the government didn't really want to do anything to reign these guys in. Erik Prince, founder and former CEO of Blackwater -- as well as a former Navy SEAL -- hails from a fundamentalist Christian background, and he interned for numerous Republican campaigns, including George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign.
Jeremy Scahill has more on Prince and how the company was founded.
After the massacre, it was all downhill for Blackwater. The mass killing of civilians became a rallying cry for insurgents. There were talks of prosecutions. The victims' families sued and eventually, the FBI was involved.
Then, a report released in 2007 found that since 2005, Blackwater guards were involved in 195 "escalation of force" incidents in Iraq during which they fired their weapons, an average of 1.4 per week. In more than 80 percent of those cases Blackwater guards fired first, according to the report, in an apparent violation of the company's mandate allowing only defensive fire to prevent "imminent and grave danger."
Finally, last December, five Blackwater guards turned themselves in to officials in Salt Lake City. Fourteen manslaughter charges were filed related to the Baghdad massacre. A sixth guard pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the others.
No charges were filed against Blackwater as a company, but it was the first time that any American mercenaries were held accountable for crimes in Iraq.
Prince had tried to defend himself in an extensive interview with Charlie Rose, but the company's media profile had turned rancid. So, in February, they changed their name to XE.
Prince announced on March 2 that he would resign as CEO of the company. He retained his post as chairman.
Most recently, Blackwater has found the rise of high-seas piracy a boon to business as it wrapped up its Iraq operations. The group has retrofitted an ex-research vessel to carry over 30 "operators" on missions to protect other ships, the company said late last year.
In a Fox News appearance, Prince claimed the company had been approached by 66 shipping firms interested in hiring them for security.
And even though they've lost the State Department contract for embassy security in Iraq, 'XE' retains other contracts to provide security for government officials in other parts of the world.
So the company formerly known as Blackwater is finally leaving Iraq, even as the U.S. military seems to be shifting it's focus toward Afghanistan. It's the end of an era. Don't let it pass unnoticed.
That Bush clip really makes one appreciate the fact that we now have a POTUS who can speak in complete sentences -- and think complete thoughts~
"Today is special. You'll want to remember this day -- May 7, 2009 -- as the day when the second largest occupying force, the private army formerly known as Blackwater, finally left Iraq."
Can't wait until they all come back home and get jobs with their local police force.
@ Throco: hopefully they'll all go chase pirates, but that is a very valid point you make ...
I thought I heard that when the contract was up, all of the employees got to stay and work anyway ... no?
Nothing even slightly special about it. Triple Canopy is no better than Blackwater. All mercenaries are just paid killers. Any of them would kill anyone for money. The number of mercenaries that should be employed by the American government is zero.
Now they'll be there under the name Xe..
Have you seen the Obama Deception? It details how we get the same Corporatism but without that nauseating Bush style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
[...] via The Raw Story » Blackwater’s last day in Iraq. [...]
I pis..ed ,,, no matter who in the h... else is not... Citizens of this country have become weak and afraid to demand that these crooks in our party as well as the republicans stop stealing our money and given it away while the screw each and every on of us... This BS coming from Obama and the democrats is just that BS...
What do you want to bet Obama and the democrats will renew the contract , or give them another assignment. with our tax money. There is a never ending pot of gold that the government can dip into for everything but the American citizens , yet it is our money they use so easily for other..
Amazing how easy it is for Obama , Democrats and republicans to come up with trillions of dollars to give to corporations and billions to give to foreign countries to build their infrastructure , and pay their leaders for their friendship , give Israel billions for their national budget , military equipment ,,,,,,,,....
Yet they have to cut our social programs , let corporations cut American wages , benefits and jobs while the Global Empire takes our tax money to sends their jobs , manufacturing plants , Then they keep their money in offshore account to pay no taxes.
Just think how far our tax money goes to support and fund everyone else in the world , yet Americans don't have a pot to pi.. in..
[...] Good: BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The troubled Blackwater era ends in Iraq on Thursday as another firm takes over the once-dominant company’s security services contract in Baghdad. var addthis_pub = "rockrichard"; [...]
Don't let "the door hit you in the ass on your way out."
I'm sure many of these mercenaries were conducting interrogations of suspects - we've already heard that there were several deaths of suspects in custody, and, we know that several CIA agents, have come forward stating they refused to participate in interrogations using torture.
What are the chances that there are many more deaths we don't know of, deaths at the hands of mercenaries ...
Hurray! justice prevails. not.
Sure Blackwater is on the way out.
If you break into a house and eat all of the food, steal all of the valuables, rape the womenfolk, and trash the place, why stick around? Your job there is done. Especially when you see the house next door. Ohh, a nice car parked up front.
Why we still hanging around here, boys? Afganistan needs a good old fasioned raping and pillaging! Whoo-hoo lets go!!!
Hello Reader,
well I did it. For the first time since the fool on the hill left I watched a clip of it in action. Suddenly a great revelation washed over me (well maybe not the great), but for the sake of making a point lets call it one nonetheless.
For this utterly useless, incompetent, embarrassing idiot to become president in this country has proven for once and for all that our process for electing our leaders is deeply flawed and unrepairable. And to prove to we the peon's that this is indeed so these ghoulish masters of disasters called politicians went so far as to show how the trick is actually done with the installation of Georgie Porgy, Pudding and Pie.
Why would they do such a damning thing? Arrogance Reader, arrogance. Many have said that Bush was nothing more than a sock puppet, but I disagree. The damage that has been done to this nation and most of the world is not the work of brilliance. It is the result of an imbecile in charge. The grand poobah's in the backroom without a doubt had their evil plans, and they instituted them whenever the could, but in their greed for absolute power and the consequences of their own treason against their fellow country men they failed on a level not seen since Rome.
As you know Reader you can not expect great victories in your rape of a nation if the only way to achieve those victories is to install a Nero like figure as your fearless leader. While your busy writing new laws that make it legal for a precious few to rob banks with pens and put people in prison for smoking the wrong weed, your boy is out getting even for making his daddy look like the loser he was. While you and your cabal are out rewriting laws to free the guilty few in your gang and imprison your opposition your Nero is out proving to the world that the investment his daddy made by purchasing that "C" at collage was a real bad deal and daddy had over paid mightily.
So what's the moral to this story? Shit if I know Reader, but I'm sure you get what you pay for.
BW thugs are no longer soldiers just hired killers. These Jackbooted BW thugs will become your local policeman or sherrif. Keep on your Mayors and politicians to vet any BW thugs out of local govt service jobs. They will find plenty of work for Obama's wars in Pakistan and Iran. And then they can come work for the Obama national security force. These thugs are pure murderers/ serial killers and will fit in well with the Obama totalitarian regime. Keep your powder dry and keep plenty of steel core ammo on hand, along with night vision and ham radios. Will be an intersting couple of years here.