Iraqi Government May Ban Blackwater Security Group
An incident that left eight Iraqi civilians dead has raised concerns about the private military contractor in Iraq.
By Dan Murphy from the September 18, 2007 edition
Cairo – The Iraqi government said it would suspend the license of Blackwater, probably the most famous among the armies of private security contractors working inside Iraq, after an incident in central Baghdad in which government officials alleged eight civilians were killed. The incident looks certain to rekindle the controversy of the wide role given to the contractors in the Iraq war, with critics saying that they operate outside the sorts of legal oversight and codes of conduct that restrict the behavior of soldiers in war zones.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Looks like Blackwater finally rubbed the Iraqis the wrong way. This is a classic case of how a group of people supported by a government can truly believe they can act outside the law. Good lessons which we can learn from this story.
Private security men from Blackwater in a helicopter over Baghdad. Photograph: Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty images
On Thursday, 02 August 2007, BU wrote a piece entitled “The Re-emergence Of Russia As A Global Player And Its Alliance With China ~ What Are The Implications For Barbados?” There is no doubt that there is a need for our politicians to understand how the policy of super powers can impact small and insignificant countries like Barbados in the context of world foreign policy. A regular BU contributor sent us an interesting article. (Thanks a lot!) For those of us who have a keen interest in world affairs, the war or invasion of Iraq depending on your view point would have been featured. We are sure some of you have had many discussions about the merits and demerits of the US led action.
What we know several years later is the script has not played-out the way President George Bush and his Cabinet had planned. Today, we have an Iraq which is engulfed in a civil war, there is a government which has been “elected” by the Iraqi people, but more ominous is the inability of Iraq to protect itself without the help of the USA. Pundits all believe that the pretense by Rumsfeld and Bush to go to war with Iraq was all about gaining control of one of the world’s major oil supplies and less about Saddam Hussien being a sponsor of world terrorism. Since the destruction of Iraq, the country has had to be rebuilt, and we now have the interesting development of a war torn country which continues to be very unstable, but at the same time many Western contractors have been encouraged to work at premium rate, to supply many services to the country. This opportunity to work for good pay in Iraq has seen many Westerners risking their lifes on a daily basis.
This is where the plot thickens!
Many of the contractors working in Iraq are American or British companies, which have relished the opportunity to boost their bank accounts because of relationships with Bush or the former Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair, to win contracts during this period of reconstruction. The current state of affairs has given rise to a demand for para-military services; for companies like Blackwater and others, who are being hired to provide services to important people and companies doing business in Iraq. The article sent to BU gives a chilling account of a private war which is being waged in parallel to the traditional news reports we receive daily from the warmed-over Barbados press.
When we were done, the idea that Blackwater, an elite para military company operating in Iraq is managed by an International Business Company set-up right here in Barbados, under the name Greystone Limited became very intriguing. It made BU wonder what other mysterious IBC’s are registered in Barbados. It feels surreal that services offered by Blackwater through its Greystone Barbados domicile are offered right on our door step!
Minister Eastmond after reading this article are you comfortable that Barbados is a “clean” jurisdiction?
‘The company (Blackwater) has been quietly marketing its services to foreign Governments and Corporations through an offshore affiliate, Greystone Ltd, registered in Barbados’.
If you’ve got a high speed connection try watching the documentary Zeitgeist on google video. After you finish you’ll have a much
better grasp of why things are the way they are in this apparently increasing dysfunctional and conflict striven world.
Here’s the link:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgeist
It’s quite long, 1hr 56min, and the introductory material takes about 4 or 5 minutes before it starts to get off the ground. If you click on the google video link above, you will see the link for the whole movie or you can watch each of the three parts individually.
Part 3 is the part that documents how the financial elite manipulate economies and stock markets for financial gain and invoke wars for corporate profit through political and psychological manipulation and media propaganda.
Saw this video before and I still confused because if it is true then why no one is taking it up?
Saw this video before and I still confused because if it is true then why no one is taking it up?
———————————————————-
I think more and more people are” taking it up” as the corporately controlled mass media loose their traditional, hegemonic control over the distribution of information thanks to the growth of the internet.
See for example: http://www.ae911truth.org http://www.wearechange.org http://www.truthaction.org http://www.911blogger.com for some examples of those who have decided that they have no choice but to “take it up.”
That being said you don’t turn around a heavily laden oil tanker at cruising speed in its own length, as it takes time to overcome the momentum that tries to keep it heading in its original direction and any change in direction might be almost imperceptible at first. The “ships of state” and their corporate partners have their own momentum going for them as well and admittedly its going to take time for the actions and pressures of the “taker uppers” to start pushing the bow in a new direction. We can only hope there is still time.
The problem is that there are many still not connected to the internet (especially the older generation) and who still believe that corporately owned and controlled media is an impartial and reliable source of information as to what exactly is going on in the world today.
Dr. Norman D. Livergood a former department head at the US Army War College where he researched subjects such as propaganda, brainwashing and psychological warfare etc. has an interesting article on the Internet that perhaps explains why there are still so many that have not yet risen to the challenge and “taken it up.”
Brianwashing America
by Dr. Norman Livergood
The puppet Bush regime is using new, aggressive forms of brainwashing to change the very way Americans think and feel.
This is the psychological dimension of the demonic cabal’s general onslaught against American workers, just as the “war on terrorism” is the military dimension and corporate crime and tax cuts for the rich comprise the economic dimension.
We are living under the beginning stages of a military dictatorship in precisely the same way that 1930s Germans suffered under the Nazi regime.
As in the case of Nazi Germany, state-sponsored propaganda (brainwashing) is a vital part of the Bush regime’s strategy.
SNIP
In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:
* unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns
* these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems
* these profiling systems can be used to program and control people
Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns that apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control.
Complete article posted at:
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
A final thought:
Interesting to note that up until early 2000, military personnel from the Fourth Psychological Operations Group based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina were active at CNN’s Atlanta-based headquarters – and left only after public outcry when CNN admitted to employing them. Their presence was perhaps not surprising given former CIA director William Colby’s boast that “the Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any major significance in the major media.”
So much for a democratic free flow of information.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1016-06.htm
Interesting if inaccurate. Greystone are not in control of Blackwater, far from it, they are a marketing arm of the organisation. I am only too aware of Blackwater as I am in the same business and supply them with training and specialist personnel at times.
The world of the PMC is now far removed from that of the dogs of war of old. It is a well (self) regulated business in the largest theatres.
It is worthy of note that in many of the worlds trouble spots, the leading democratic parties and leaders choose to have PMC’s provide their security as they would rather trust us, than their own people.
PMCs are businesses we make money is that a crime, we give employment to many in my case UK and commonwealth ex military, at good rates of pay, though I guess the US could just re institute the draft to make up the numbers!!!
nothing new to Bim.
Gerald Bull was here… remember South Africa /Angola War..
we have been in the WAR business for years…
independent dem
goldenboy~wow we have a mercenary among us!
Anyway back to the point which you have not addressed and that is the role of Blackwater in Iraq and the autonomous role they seem to have taken on with the blessing of the Bush admin.
How say you goldenboy?
The war in Iraq was/is needed it rid the world of a very wicked man only prob the allies should have hit them a little harder ,, the real mistake here was that George Bush sr did not hit them properly in 1991 thats when saddam should have been disposed and hung .. i fully support the war in iraq
So anonymous what made Saddam more wicked when compared to the other tin pots ruling countries around the globe? Ooops we just remembered:he was ruling a country which sit on some of the largest deposits of oil in the world!
Bush decides that they should desecrate a country older than Jesus to make a point.
Well said David
Anonymous is unfortunately just regurgitating the Bushist propoganda. I can’t believe sensible people fall for that crap!
Iraq is a mess. Another Veitnam.
A recent survey in Baghdad, carried out by a UK magazine found out that a vast majority of city dwellers preferred life under Saddam. That is not to say that he wasn’t a despot, but the US did it all wrong!
The USA picks its fights and usually it involves something in it for them!
Where were they during the slaughter in Rwanda? How about the Sudan? What are they doing about Zimbabwe?…….
Oh I forgot, no oil!
Anonymous, on August 12th, 2007 at 8:21 pm Said:
The war in Iraq was/is needed it rid the world of a very wicked man only prob the allies should have hit them a little harder ,, the real mistake here was that George Bush sr did not hit them properly in 1991 thats when saddam should have been disposed and hung .. i fully support the war in iraq
i agree one hundred percent
BU said:
You could also add to the statement above, “And well connected corporations like Kellogg Brown and Root, Blackwater, Haliburton etc. have made, and continue to make, immense profits also on a daily basis.
See, for example:
Maybe the Bush administration’s alleged incompetence in preparing for the post-invasion occupation of Iraq wasn’t really incompetence after all, but part of the plan. After all, the longer the US public can be sold on the necessity of US troops and their mercenary allies remaining in Iraq to maintain “stability” the more billions in profits Dick Cheney’s buddies in Halliburton and mercenary contractors like Blackwater (and even Cheney himself through his stock options) will be raking in.
The author Naomi Klein has a new book out called “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. In it she describes how modern day capitalism uses the shock to populations brought on by natural and man made disasters (e.g. New Orleans, Iraq) to implement sweeping economic changes and privatization schemes which are extremely profitable (to corporate interests) but which would, under normal conditions, never be allowed by the subject populations to be imposed on them were their wits still about them and their ability to resist the changes not diminished by the adverse conditions with which they have to contend.
Here is a brief YouTube video on “The Shock Doctrine” released in conjunction with the publication of Klein’s book:
Here’s a snip from an excerpt of the book published on the Toronto Globe and Mail’s web site:
What is your point ‘Only Me”? that only means that you is an idiot too…
Sadly when somone as limited as George Bush became the President of the USA with that brought the wild west mentality and shooting from the hip style of goverance.
I am not sure that Saddam was such a bad thing for Iraq at least under Saddam he kept order of the various religious sects, he may have killed a few but does it compare in the slightest as to the extent of the daily death toll taking place in Iraq each and every day now?
Bush will go down in history as the most evil, stupid president the USA has ever elected, one who has started another war that the Americans are unable to finish.
I am sure if a survey were done in Iraq today it will be more than likely the majority of those polled you will find that the majority will say that life much better under Saddam than under George Bush the clown.
It is interesting to note that Alan Greenspan an American insider has just gone public with the news that the US invasion of Iraq was all about oil. To Anonymous we would have welcomed USA invading South Africa at the hight of the apartheid system instead Mandela spend 20+ years in prison. Let us not forget Afghanistan which was suppose to be rescued from the Taliban and today reports suggest that there is a resurgence of this dissident group and the growing of Opium continue to flourish.
The world is a funny place!
Below is a snip from a recent article published in The Daily Mail and written by the UK”s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, in which he explains how the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan are actually protecting the drug lords and their profits.
It is interesting that often the mainstream media links the resurgence in the Afghanistan drug trade to drug dealing undertaken by the Taliban to obtain revenue for their operations (although the Taliban were the ones who for religious reasons had recently stamped out the opium trade in Afghanistan). Well whether or not the Taliban have overcome their religious scruples to start dealing in drugs, Mr. Murray explains that what he witnessed in the region was that it was the US/NATO Afghanistan allies who were profiting dramatically from the increases in opium and heroin production in the region.
So there you have it. Under the Taliban the illegal drug trade in Afghanstan had been almost completely shut down. The US invades, and now the Afghanistan drug trade is back with a vengeance, raking in enormous profits for the war/drug lords who happen to be the US/NATO allies in the region and act as their local enforcers. However, these drug lords will not be the only ones profiting from the revenues flowing out of the drug trade. To see how the money from illegal drugs flows into and helps stabilize the “above ground” economy while enhancing corporate profits, read the article “How the Money Works” in the Illicit Drug Trade” by Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing in the first Bush Administration.
If you are interested, Craig Murray, retired British ambassador and the author of the Dail Mail article linked above, maintains a website at: http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/
SNIP from a recent post at Democratic Underground on Blackwater:
Following up on that last paragraph in the snip above from Democratic Underground concerning the implications of possible future deployment of Blackwater’s mercenary goon squads on US soil, I came across this news from author Naomi Wolff on the internet today.
If you would have no problem with unaccountable ( to all intents and purposes) and armed mercenaries patrolling your own neighborhood and providing “law and order”, I suggest reading the following article for even more insights into the day to day procedures and practices of the Bush White House’s favoured band of mercenaries.
(Just a note in passing – isn’t it ironic that, in the days of the American revolution, Britain’s King George employed large numbers of Hessian mercenary troops in his attempt to control and defeat the unruly American colonists objecting to the harshness of his rule and the injustice of his tax laws, and now it looks like the current “King George” of “they hate us for our freedoms” fame is intent on reviving the dictatorial methods and practices of the reviled British monarch.)
When push finally comes to shove, just how much is an innocent life worth to Blackwater and the US State Department?
$15,000 apparently.
From TheHill.com:
Here is an interesting take on Blackwater.
http://rncnyc2004.blogspot.com/2007/10/blackwater-usa.html
Surprise, surprise! the puppet Iraqi government seems to be getting some backbone. They are not backing down from the Blackwater saga!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/world/middleeast/08blackwater.html?ref=middleeast