Although we’re not always on the same wavelength (but one example: I don’t think hate groups are covertly run by the federal government through proxies like the Southern Poverty Law Center), special guest blogger KK4 and I do see eye to eye on many of the defining issues of our era: the need to adhere of the constitution, the stunning beauty of rapper M.I.A., and that when our government contracts mercenaries to do its bidding, liberty is on life support. —Robert
Unless you have been living under a rock (or perhaps the extensive complex of caves inside of Tora Bora in southern Afghanistan along the border with our good buddies Pakin’nukesistan), then you should know about the new Schutzstaffel which is serving the current Administration loyally in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places in between… as long as the checks clear. Like any homegrown movement to stifle freedom and liberty, the current administration has its own paramilitary force to harass and suffocate our freedoms at home. The Nazis had the Brown shirts, Mussolini had his Black Shirts, and Lenin had the NKVD. Our own dictator-in-waiting, George W. Bush, not one to be one-upped by dead Europeans, has Blackwater USA. Unlike the aforementioned groups, Blackwater USA is not a band of brigands and thugs recruited from the ranks of unemployed guttersnipes and World War I veterans; Black water is a multi-million dollar business, a private mercenary army recruited from the ranks of the Special forces and other elite units of the United States military. If you haven’t been paying attention until now then I suggest that it’s about time that you started to become concerned.
Blackwater USA, which has come under increased public scrutiny following an incident in Iraq where a Blackwater convey allegedly opened fire on an unarmed crowed of Iraqi civilians, killing an estimated 16 people and wounding dozens more, first came to the public’s attention in early April of 2004 when several Blackwater mercenaries were killed and later had their bodies mutilated and drug through the streets in the city of Fallujah. Following the incident the Marine Corps was ordered to pacify the city. Yet there is more to the Blackwater story which has come to light in recent months, including murder, alleged arms smuggling and a general “devil-may-care†attitude that we would expect from soldiers of fortune off to pillage the nation of Iraq. However, Blackwater are far from squirrelly amateurs who like to break traffic laws and strafe the occasional crowd of unarmed civilians.
Founded in 1997 by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, an eccentric millionaire and Republican party contributor, Blackwater occupies a 7000-acre training facility in North Carolina which would make Cobra Commander green with envy. Since its founding, Blackwater has been destined form greatness, and has hired some very interesting fellows to run its operations. Cofer Black, the current vice chairman of the company is the former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Centers, while other executives, such as Joseph Schmitz and Robert Richer, also have held positions within the Defense Department and the CIA. Blackwater was founded with the vision “to support security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere,†yet news from the ground leads one to believe that Blackwater may be blind in one eye, or at least cross-eyed. Although their corporate website talks a good talk, their mercenaries on the ground do not seem to be living up to their lofty ideals. Prior to the War on Terror Blackwater, like the administration awarding the company juicy no-bid government contracts for the state department, was a relatively unknown outfit.
However, the rise of Blackwater goes far above and beyond simple outsourcing of military duties to private mercenary brigades, and should be looked at in relation to all of the other abuses of American civil liberties and constitutional protections by the current resident and occupant of the White House. Since 9/11 our fragile rights have been taking a beating from overzealous ideologues adhering to the Neo-con agenda of Strussian totalitarianism. Since the congress passed the Patriot Act there has been a never-ceasing campaign of abuse and destruction aimed against our constitutional rights, and all for the cause of “security.†The government has been transformed over these past six years from a free republic to a docile dictatorship with our self-proclaimed unitary executive decider George W Bush (the “commander guy,”) just waiting for an excuse to kick the last vestments of rule of the people, by the people, and for the people in the throat and into the near inescapable void of tyranny. In order to make such a jump from freedom to slavery, not only has the government played on fears of imminent annihilation to trick us into abandoning the protections of the constitution and to sell us an imperial war, but has also fostered a climate hostile to the free expression of opposition to the war and loss of liberties as well as general political unorthodoxy.
In addition to creating a climate hostile to the free exercise of our inherent rights, every closet Caligula knows that there is a need for a para-military praetorian guard to quell any possible insurrection or domestic opposition by political opponents. Like the Schutzstaffel, which was originally the Nazi Party’s own diplomatic protection detail, Blackwater seems to be quickly becoming the new praetorian guard of the American Empire. Tyrants need enforcers to do their dirty work, and as long as the checks are still made payable to cash, it seems that Blackwater USA is more than willing to take a hands on with the American people.
The majority of honest Americans who have lives, jobs and like to watch the occasional spectator sport believe that as long as Blackwater is over there – breaking Iraqi traffic laws and gunning down heathen Muslims – then everything is fine and dandy. Surely they are unaware that Blackwater has in the past been deployed against the American people, specifically in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where they were employed by the federal and state governments to secure areas of New Orleans. Far from patrolling the streets of some far-off war zone in exotic locations most public school educated Americans would be hard pressed to find on a map, Blackwater mercenaries were operating domestically in a large urban area, armed to the teeth with orders to shoot to kill American citizens. If that isn’t a cause for outrage than I guess it’s time to put your American flags in the fire and start learning the chorus for L’Internationale, unless the Horst Wessel Lied better suits your ears.
Instead of sending in the Louisiana National Guard, which was off protecting American interests in Iraq as opposed to serving American interests in America, the state and federal government sent a cadre of trained professional killers hardened by the action they’d seen in Iraq. The government sent into an American city professional mercenaries from Iraq, where slaughtering innocent civilians is normal procedure, with orders to kill American citizens – and yet there was no outrage. How many of the hundreds of unsolved homicides from the aftermath of the Katrina debacle are victims of the reckless action and blood lust of professional killers shipped over to America from the far-flung battlefields of what was once Iraq? How many Americans were murdered in New Orleans by the Schutzstaffel of the Bush Administration? Yet this incident remains unknown to most and is passively accepted just as Kristallnacht was passively accepted by the Germans. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where New Orleans laid in ruins patrolled by mercenaries with a reputation for disdain for civilians and no legal accountability was this republic’s Night of Broken Glass. However, this abuse, like many before it and many since, has been swept into the memory hole of American consciousness.
Because of an edict by the American provisional authority in Iraq none of the American or other allied private military contractors can be held accountable under Iraqi law, or the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. As a result of the fact that no Blackwater mercenary will be held accountable form crimes committed in Iraq, they have built up a reputation of recklessness stemming from their “shoot first, ask questions eventually” attitude of elite American soldiers. This cowboy mentality can be witnessed firsthand in the streets of Baghdad, where convoys operated by Blackwater frequently break the traffic laws by dangerously driving into incoming traffic on the wrong side of the road, and preemptively open fire upon any vehicle of pedestrians that are deemed to be suspicious.
On Christmas Eve of 2006 Andrew Moonen allegedly shot and killed Raheem Khailif, the bodyguard of Iraqi Vice-president Adel Abdul Mahdi. Moonen, although later fired by Blackwater, was then secretly spirited out of the country by his employers. The message sent to the people of Iraq and the private military contractors was clear: they are above the law and can murder Iraqis, even those in the employ of the Iraqi government, with impunity.
In recent weeks Blackwater was once again in the news following an incident in Baghdad where a Blackwater convey indiscriminately fired upon a crowd of people killing at least 11 people. Initial reports were that the Mercenaries perceived that they had come under fire from insurgents; eyewitness testimony disputes this claim. In response to the killings, the Iraqi government suspended Blackwater’s license to operate within Iraq. However symbolic the gesture, it was short lived, as Blackwater is contracted by the United States Department of State to protect high level diplomats, and is not employed by the Iraqi government. In recent weeks it has also been alleged Blackwater employees have sold weapons to the PKK Kurdish separatist group which operated out of Northern Iraq and launches raids and terrorist actions against Turkey. As a result of the illegal actions of Blackwater, the company has finally come under investigation by the Congress. Although the congressional investigation is ongoing it does not seem that Blackwater is going to lose any of its lucrative no-bid contracts in the near future despite fiery rhetoric on the Hill.
The operations of Blackwater are still expanding, thanks to those no-bid contracts. In addition to their massive facility in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina, Blackwater has opened “Blackwater North†in Illinois and is keen on opening a new facility outside of San Diego, California. In addition to ground forces, Blackwater USA also maintains an air force. Recently Blackwater purchased from Super Tucano close air support bombers from Brazil to augment their fleet of helicopter gunships and cargo aircraft that they operate in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, Blackwater recently received another lucrative no-bid contract to fight the drug war. With American troops spread thin overseas, a time may come when Blackwater mercenaries may be operation in the United States on drug interdiction missions.
In Machiavelli’s pivotal work The Prince, (required reading for all Neo-con camp followers), the Italian politician took a position firmly against the use of mercenary forces. That lesson seems to be lost upon the Neo-cons and their backers. History shows us that the use of mercenary soldiers always leads to a state of tyranny and perpetual war. In the Italian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, vast mercenary armies fought each other on behalf of whichever city state or fly-by-night republic hired them. Over time the mercenary forces became so powerful, and war so lucrative that the mercenary Generals began to dictate policy in order to perpetuate their contracts. Mercenary companies are completely unscrupulous and will turn on their employer when offered a higher wage, and this lesson is also lost on the current administration. There is also the question as to what should be done with the mercenary battalions once the war has ended. During the Middle Ages vast independent mercenary armies known as free companies ravaged Europe, raping, looting and pillaging all that was found in their path. One free company even laid siege on the Pope in Avignon, receiving for their effort much booty and a free pardon. Will the administration’s hired thug brigades do the same in third world countries after the current conflicts have ended?
Movements toward totalitarian government can happen in any nation, and the United States is not immune. In the 1930s there was a conspiracy known as the Business Plot, which aimed to overthrow the freely-elected government and install a fascist dictatorship in the style of Adolph Hitler. In this plan by the richest American industrialists of the time, mobs of paramilitary forces composed of World War I veterans and the unemployed were to be lead by General Smedly Butler to march upon Washington, D.C., and overthrow the Roosevelt administration. Butler, a Marine Corps general and American patriot alerted the congress and the plot was averted. However, that does not mean that the plot ever went away. In this climate of global political and economic instability, the government of the United States can be overthrown as easily as the overthrow of many European nations in the last century. But, much like the rise of Adolph Hitler, the threat will not come from groups of radicals outside of the government, but from within. Legislation has already been passed which allows for the government to strip American citizens of their citizenship and designate them enemy combatants, which amends the Posse Comitatus Act and will allow for the use of the US military to be deployed against the American people. Executive orders have been signed decreeing that in case of any vaguely defined emergency situation the executive becomes the sole head of government, by passing the congress and any other elected official.
The architecture of tyranny is in place and when it comes down to it, the hired thugs which will brutally enforce the dictates of the executive decider, whom ever it may be, will not have swastikas on their arms bands but bear claws. Let’s take a step back, look at the history that has lead up to all of this, and take action to ensure that it never happens in the United States of America. Not during our lifetimes, not ever.
