Blackwater Mercenaries Usurp Contracts Meant for Small Businesses

photo from Mosquito Blog

I wonder when the time of corporate, blatant disregard of rules, regulations and the law will be over?

So we all already know Blackwater is despicable. But it seems that the billions of dollars of government contracts that they were legally eligible for (using the word loosely) were not enough. A recent audit reveals that in the efforts to be the only game in town, Blackwater illegally applied for and received contracts that were designated for small businesses. The maxim being of course that too much is never enough.

Washington - Blackwater Worldwide, the contractor whose provision of private security in Iraq has been under scrutiny, and its affiliated companies may have improperly obtained more than $100 million in contracts meant for small businesses, according to federal auditors.

A report by the Small Business Administration's inspector general, issued in July, found that Blackwater and its affiliates, including Presidential Airways, won 39 contracts in the fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 despite indications that the companies employed more than the number specified by the U.S. government. In some cases, the report said, the companies also had higher revenues than allowed for a small business. --Elizabeth Olson, International Herald Tribune

These companies, like Blackwater-- are going to work very hard to support John McCain for President.

We need a new ad featuring him side by side with mercenaries, oil company moguls, fawning media celebrities, and racists. After all- these are his base.

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Blackwater: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

In spite of the efforts of progressive community groups to block the building of a new training facility for Blackwater;

Last Thursday, after a federal judge cleared the way, Blackwater opened a large training facility in San Diego, just three blocks from the border that separates California and Mexico.-Jeremy Scahill, for Courage Campaign

I bet these "training facilities" sure as hell don't look like this. And yes, your tax dollars are being used to fund this private training camp since Blackwater is paid with your tax dollars to fund their mercenary war in Iraq — $320 million paid so far, over 60% in no-bid contracts. Part of that contract cash is certainly being used to subsidize building a base of operations inside California. They say it is for training only and the fact that is near the border in coincidental, that they are not interested in border security contracts... Yeah.Right.

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Blackwater Evading Taxes?

I am shocked to find out Hauptsturmführer Prince has maybe defrauded the government and evaded paying taxes. America, God, and Apple Pie.

Lawmakers say embattled Blackwater USA, a private security firm that operates in Iraq and Afghanistan, may have defrauded the government out of millions in taxes.

The Democratic chairman of a House watchdog committee says the Internal Revenue Service disputes Blackwater's claimed exemption from Social Security and other employee taxes for contract workers. --newsoxy.com

Typical of these holier than thou types, it's all sneering Christian righteousness until you scratch the surface, and then it's how much money can I send off-shore.

These guys had the balls to try and set up a mercenary training camp in San Diego? I bet they filed for tax breaks on the property too. America does not like mercenaries, and they don't like Blackwater. The clock is ticking on these clowns.

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Mercenaries to Train Iraqi Local Forces

U.S. Seeks Contractors To Train Iraqi Military- the Washington Post.

"There is a lot of pressure on the active Army, and during this transition period where the military is converting to noncombat roles, a shift to contractors as trainers for the expanding Iraqi military is a natural step." He added, however, that the outcome "depends on the quality of those the contractors recruit."- Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official

The quality of the contractors? yeah, right. This is just great. I wonder how well this will be received by the local civilians, and insurgents? I am sure there will be dancing in the streets...(not)

Does anyone else see this as the next step in the KBR/Blackwater/Halliburton plan to become the GOP's standing army?

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KBR Mercenaries Gangrape Own American Employee

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed

Now 22?

Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.

"I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

"We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer.

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."

We can thank Rumsfeld and his enabler Cheney for this fucking disaster. Those dumb-assess opened the door for all these mercenaries. KBR, Blackwater and all these other Merc firms need to be withdrawn from Iraq right now. We haven't even gotten past the tip of the iceberg of the evil shit these people have been up to. Enough is enough. Mercs out now.


Anybody want to guess how long before we start hearing the attacks on this 22 year old girl?

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Blackwaters' Mercenary Navy?

Why is that when I hear this:

Blackwater USA -- the company at the center of a brewing storm over private contractors -- isn't letting a little controversy get them down. No, they're focused on expansion, and the latest addition is a ship that can be used for everything from anti-terrorism to special operations missions. The McArthur, a 183-ft. ship that boasts "state of the art navigation systems, full GMDDSS communications, SEATEL Broadband, dedicated command and control bas, helicopter decks, hospital and multiple support vessel capabilities." Under the new banner of "Blackwater Maritime Solutions," the world's most notorious merc outfit private security contractor now has the three "services:" Land, Air and Sea. -- wired.com

It makes me think of this:

Scientology's Sea Org was going to take over those areas controlled by Smersh (the fictitious evil organization fought by the equally fictitious James Bond), rake in enormous amounts of cash, clean up psychotherapy, infiltrate and reorganize every minority group, and befriend the worst enemies of the Western nations. Hubbard's stated intention was to undermine a supposed Fascist conspiracy to rule the world.

Hubbard had three vessels, Apollo (formly known as the Scotsman), Athena and yacht Diana, and during the last months of 1968 all three joined up in Corfu, Greece. The ships were berthed in Corfu when people were first being tossed into the harbor. -- Operation Clambake

It hasn't seemed to have occurred to Congress yet, but it seems to me that Hauptsturmführer Erik Prince ain't the sharpest tool in the shed iffen ya get my meaning and I know you do. Must be all the inbreeding.

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Blackwater Mercenaries Busted

-- Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD - Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in a shooting last week that left 11 people dead, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Geez, who could have predicted that was going to happen? Now we are going to see Condi Rice spring into action. [crickets...]

It is time to withdraw...the contractors and mercenaries.

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Withdrawal, mercenary withdrawal

It is time to withdraw...the contractors and mercenaries.

There are hundreds of thousands of them. They have cost the US government, meaning the U.S. taxpayers, tens of billions of dollars. They have exacerbated the cultural and political conflict through improper behavior and improper training. They have participated in massive fraud - losing billions of dollars in government allotted contract money, extorting and cheating on critical deliveries of necessary items and supplies.

They perform (actually they DON'T!) tasks that could and should be performed by the Iraqi people; tasks that could and should be performed by the US military. The Iraqi people have the expertise, know-how, and connections to do construction, rebuilding, maintenance, and security - cheaper, more efficiently, and with a better eye for their own peoples' needs. The US military can (and up until this conflict, always has) provide meals, shelter, water, and logistical support for the troops and forward bases.

Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, Blackwater and all the other corporate leeches getting fat off of taxpayer dollars and FAILING to deliver on the promised critical supplies and support, need to go. We do not need to keep paying them to do the job: 1) Because the job cannot be done by them, and 2) Because they have patently failed to do that job, even with billions of dollars of cash, the support of the US military, and a free hand to do as they please in Iraq, regardless of the consequences of their actions.

Let's begin the immediate drawdown of the estimated 100,000 to 150,000 private contractors in Iraq. Let congress legislate the removal of the estimated 40,000 mercenaries in Iraq. I dont think Americans should be paying for the Iraqi PM's security and certainly not at the rates Blackwater charges - Iraqis can do that.

We do not think the US taxpayer should pay for overpriced, poor quality construction projects in Iraq - Iraqis can build schools, bridges, and power plants! If we want to pay for it, we should be paying the Iraqi construction companies, not the contractors. Besides, Bechtel is the same company that completely fucked up the Big Dig in Boston - how can we expect that they would be able to complete anything in a war zone, in a foreign nation?? They have not delivered on ANY of their promises...but the profits keep rolling in.

We think calling for the withdrawal of all non-essential personnel from Iraq would be a prudent thing at this stage. Democrats in the House and Senate can point to the billions we are paying these people without oversight. It's time to take these men and women out of harms way.

Using mercenaries and outsourcing war was never a good idea. Nor was
it ever, by any stretch of the imagination, cost effective. There were only 10,000 civilian contractors used in the first gulf war. This is 10- or 20-fold increase, all at the expense of the American taxpayer, with reduced results...and one could argue exceptionally bad, negative results. Remember Fallujah? That area blew up in large part due to the actions of "contractors"...and it has been these same "contractors"
(read mercenaries) who have been at the "forefront" of cultural estrangement, shooting up houses, strong-arming the locals, and even worse, on a regular basis.

We call for the immediate withdrawal of all non essential personnel, which would mean all private contractors and mercenaries in the employ of the Bush administration.

Time to stop pouring money into the (offshore) accounts of the big multinationals; time to stop letting them run roughshod over the locals, over our soldiers, and exacerbating a conflict that they had a big hand in bungling; time to remove that particular bit of salt from the wounds. Bring those "contractors" home, save a bundle of money, remove a serious irritant, and use the savings to fully protect our troops.

-- Hubris Sonic and RedDan
reprinted from thenewsblog.net

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Mercenary KIA

1,001

Military officials estimate that 125,000 contractors are working in the country, nearly the number of American troops. The figures on those who carry guns vary widely, depending on the source, but seem to settle on about 20,000. As of June 30, government figures show, 1,001 contractors had died in Iraq since the start of the war.

From "For an Iraq Contractor, Duty, and Then Death" at NYTimes.com (reg required)

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More Mercenaries than Troops

OK, Timeout!

There are now more Merc's in Iraq than U.S. Troops.

The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq — a mission criticized as being undermanned.

"These numbers are big," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting. "They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing."
-- latimes.com

This is just ridiculous. Thank God we took back congress, that was the only reason that we know this now. Congress ordered CENTCOM to conduct a survey of the merc's. This is the result. We are wasting BILLIONS on this assinine shit.

Lets remember that under the Geneva convention (although rendered quaint according to Cheney) A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war.

They are accountable to no one. Who has to clean up the mess? Our troops. There have been numerous incidents where these guns for hire have caused irreversible harm. You want to know one of the many reasons we have already lost this war? This is a big one.

Contractors: 180,000
U.S. troops: 160,000

180,000 people running around Iraq with no legal restrictions, astronomical paychecks (from your money), with top of the line military hardware, and no clear mission. Yeah, thats a great idea....

This has to stop. This has to stop

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