Since the revelation earlier this week of allegations by two former employees of security firm Blackwater that its owner was complicit in murder in order to cover up the deliberate killing of Iraqi civilians, explosive charges have continued to emerge.
Perhaps the most shocking of those charges — quoted by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Thursday from the employees’ sworn declarations — is that Blackwater was guilty of using child prostitutes at its compound in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and that owner Erik Prince knew of this activity and did nothing to stop it. The declarations describe Blackwater as “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” They add even though Prince frequently visited this camp, he “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”
One of the statements also charges that “Prince’s North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince’s top executives.” According to the two former employees, Blackwater supervisors in Iraq sometimes sent men back to the United States for wanting to “kill ragheads,” excessive drinking, steroid use, or failure to follow weapon safety procedures, but “Mr. Prince and his executives would send them back” with a reprimand to the supervisor for costing the firm money. Blackwater even fired “those mental health professionals who were not willing to endorse deployments of unfit men.”
Maybe another name change is in order… perhaps something a little more upbeat.
Maybe another name change is in order……..perhaps something a little more upbeat.
How about BoilingWater? Oh, I know, Magog, Inc.
Wasn’t this all on last season’s “24”?
I hate summer reruns…
Typical religious right behavior I suppose. All we need now is to throw in some type of homosexual aspect to the wife swapping, and they’ll really be ready to run for congress.
Wife-swapping isn’t illegal, but everything else stinks… no wonder its name is Blackwater… 😛
Now can you get somebody else to confirm this? You know provide some evidence?
Just asking.
I didn’t think this organization was the Boy Scouts.
I thought is was a group of mercenaries, guns for hire, many of whom may not have even been American citizens.
If they weren’t American citizens Congress can stick it in their ear as for as those employees are concerned. If the American citizens broke American laws and it can be proved then you can charge them with something which at least makes it news.
The last I heard wife swapping was only against the law if the wife objected. Other wise this isn’t even news. It’s pretty much normal behavior for a lot of Americans that don’t care about the ethical standards found in the religious books they don’t read including Congress critters.
Wasn’t it Barny Franks that got busted for trying to have sex with a male Congressional page and isn’t he still a Congress critter? Do you really expect guns for hire to act better than Congress critters?
I not saying one wrong justifies another. I’m just noting that what you claim to be shocked about seems to be par for the course for our highest elected officials.
John Doe#1
John Doe#2
….
If this were Cronkite, possibly this would be newsworthy,
But Olbermann is not a newsman, he is a showman.
Olbermann has absolutely no credibility. He is the clown of cable news.
Just how bad is this clown? check:
olbermannwatch.com
Since John Dvorak keeps on trashing Keith Olbermann on No Agenda I’d rather you stop using his clips on his web site. I trust KO a lot more than JCD.
Pardon me, but I don’t care very much care what the jerks at Blackwater do with their ill-gotten loot, since it was obvious what would happen when they gave these companies absurdly lucrative contracts to perform services that our own military should be providing. The only reason they were awarded in the first place was to (other than the graft and kickbacks they provide to government officials) allow the Executive Branch avoid the Constitutionally required oversight of the U.S. Military.
Until the U.S. Congress begins actually READING the bills that they rubber stamp, and taking their duties seriously, nothing will change. Working in Washington, D.C. has ceased being a privilege and a public duty and become a means to gain riches through solicitation of bribes from Political Action Committees. Even the Supreme Court has ruled that their bribes are to be considered “Protected Political Speech” and cannot be eliminated by legislation.
Our Repubic failed long before any of us were born. Only the “Potemkin Village” images remain.
Didn’t you just finish a post on how people believe every nutty allegation?
Aren’t these idiots shielded from any prosecution from their actions in Iraq? Which is why shit like this happens?
#5,
Guys in a war zone away from their wives. Yup, it is true, every last bit of it.
#6 – Ah_Yea
It must be a mass conspiracy against Blackwater (or Xe, as they now call themselves), right:
Part 1/2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2EqlIrCrang
Part 2/2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jz86nsaNOFU
Jägermeister, Excellent Post!!
Kudos. You beat that ranting loon Olbermann. If he could produce a report like in the link, his image and professionalism wouldn’t be a joke.
Looks like Democracy Now! has real reporters who get credible guest who have the goods.
If Democracy Now! can do it, why not BSNBC?
Black Water Business School
#13 – Ah_Yea
No problem. Like a lot of the other talking heads on TV, Olbermann isn’t really a journalist… he’s a news commentator. And as we know… they don’t always reference their sources. 😉
#8 You missed a major point. The US military simply did not have the man power required to do what what was asked of it without putting the National Guard in the field for years as in having guys serve for years in a combat zone. Some guys are already on their third one year combat tour and that isn’t good.
You pull bleep like that and people start to do bad things like get that thousand miles stare and off themselves and others when they aren’t supposed to.
They couldn’t run a draft.
They couldn’t get enough volunteers.
They didn’t actually want to spend the time and money to expand the army so they hired some guys with guns for whom they aren’t liable.If somebody working for Blackwater get’s his head blown off they don’t have a causality.
Except that many of them are Americans Blackwater isn’t any different than the Iraq militia forces we hired to put down the religious fighting in Iraq and both were good deals for us.
#7. Obviously, you are hopeless.
#5, doill,
If they weren’t American citizens Congress can stick it in their ear as for as those employees are concerned.
Blackwater is an American firm, subject to American laws, being sued in an American Court,that was paid by the American government, using American tax dollars. I think that makes them civilly liable.
Wasn’t it Barny Franks that got busted for trying to have sex with a male Congressional page and isn’t he still a Congress critter?
No, that was a Republican Congressman from Florida. His mommy called him Mark Foley. Franks might be gay, but he keeps his hand in his own pants. Nice try to continue the right wing nut bullshit.
Now we should be accurate here. Barney Frank wasn’t in bed with a Congressional page.
Just so we have things straight:
“Frank’s former romantic partner, Herb Moses, was an executive at Fannie from 1991 to 1998, where Moses helped develop many of Fannie’s housing and home improvement lending programs. In 1991, Frank pushed for reduced restrictions on two- and three-family home mortgages. During the time that Frank was in a relationship with Moses, he blocked tougher regulations on the banking companies while voting for the Government Sponsored Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1991 and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.”
Frank was in bed with Freddy Mac,
Literally.
#1 “Typical religious right behavior I suppose.”
No, not even close my friend.
#19 – mr. show – “Typical religious right behavior I suppose.”
No, not even close my friend.
You’re right… Erik Prince is pretty lame compared to the real Christian fanatics in the USA.
First murder and anti-islam and nutjob christian beliefs and now child prostitutes and wife swapping? What’s next, satanic rituals? secret deals with the lizard people from the planet Neptune?
I’m as far from a repub as you can get, but I’ve got to admit, those allegations are sounding more bogus by the minute. I wasn’t really sure about them at first but now I’m pretty sure they’re 100% baloney.
Wife swapping? Fuck that, I can barely stand the one I have.
Occupying a country for 7 or 8 years and outsourcing your army are both good ideas.
#22 – qb
Exporting your industry is another good idea.
#24 – homehive – If these changes are NOT made, what will happen THEN.
PEACE.
We can’t have THAT!!
“Perhaps the most shocking of those charges — quoted by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Thursday from the employees’ sworn declarations — is that Blackwater was guilty of using child prostitutes”
1) Olbermann was quoting other people’s “sworn declarations”, not making up the charges.
2) Interesting that child prostitution is said to be more shocking than murdering innocent people. And they really are people, even though they are (fill in your favorite hate object here).
#18, Ah Yea,
What FUD.
During the time that Frank was in a relationship with Moses, he blocked tougher regulations on the banking companies while voting for the Government Sponsored Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1991 and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.”
The regulations were relaxed to allow greater access to housing for the poor. This helped contribute to the eight years great economic times under Clinton.
BTW, Franks had this to say.
When I first read the headline I thought BS, they wouldn’t tolerate child prostitution etc. Then I thought about some of the things I heard about that went on around the US bases in the Philippines in the sixties and seventies. Wild, weird crap within walking distance of the bases.
Now fast forward to the present decade where Blackwater was above the law (as far as Iraqi courts were concerned) and was only nominally under the control of US forces/Coalition command. The allegations do not seem so far fetched.
It will be interesting to see how far this lawsuit proceeds or if the Obama administration stops it in interest of “National Security”. Didn’t the Obama admin stop release of some horrible photos to protect troops from retaliation.
#12. Jagermeister- Yes nice find….I’ve changed the video.