Do you ever wonder why so many of these "Christian" right-wingers are such dastardly law-breakers? I suppose with god on their side, they believe they are exempt from the rules.We referring here to the Blackwater organization and the guy who runs Blackwater, Erik Prince. Blackwater is a mercenary outfit hired by the government to do military work the government doesn't want to use soldiers to do. More importantly, like all of the privatization schemes the Republican blackguards promote, this one is just another way the Bush Administration can hand out billions of dollars of government monies to its crooked friends.
Erik Prince is the guy and a "prince" he is not. He's a secretive, ultra-right Christian conservative who has his hands in all sorts of pockets of power. His father was a very rich auto parts supplier and had close connections with many far-right Christian leaders, including Gary Bauer and Jerry Regier. When the old man died, the company was sold for $1.4 billion.
The whole family is a moneyed force behind the ultra-right. Erik's sister, known as Betsy, was active in Republican circles in Michigan and for a while served as finance chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She married Dick DeVos, son of the Amway multi-millionaire. In 2003, Dick was said to have a net worth of $1.7 billion.
Dick and Betsy give big chunks of moolah to the Republicans...and ultra-right causes: Since 1999, they have donated some $7 million into promoting school choice--vouchers, tuition tax credits for private schools, and charter schools.
Back to Erik. He's been involved in Republican politics since a kid. He interned at the Family Research Council and for six months served as an intern to George H.W. Bush. But in 1992 he went to work for Pat Buchanan because he thought the senior Bush too liberal -- he "saw a lot of thing...homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clear Air Act..."
Erik joined the Navy in 1992 and became a SEAL. For some unknown "personal" reason, his Naval career ended abruptly in 1996 when, at age 27, he founded Blackwater USA.
Prince is tied in to numerous organizations, either as an owner or board member, including Christian Freedom International, Bering Truck Distribution, Phase One Ltd., the Prince Group, Christian Solidarity International, etc. Blackwater owns Presidential Airways, and received a $2.43 million contract from the Defense Department to provide "aircraft supports." According to Dana Priest of the WaPo, Prince's air companies were involved in flying CIA detainees to secret CIA prisons in Europe.
Blackwater is a private security company that provides mercenaries for governments with the cash to pay. He is a war profiteer and answers to nobody. In Iraq his mercenaries are given duties that were formerly entrusted to U.S. military personnel.
On March 24, The New York Times described how "Blackwater Worldwide keeps outdoing its own mercenary record. Ranking Blackwater executives have used inside influence as administration fund-raisers to multiply their no-bid war contracts a thousandfold to more than $1 billion.
"Armed Blackwater guards redefined Ugly America for the Iraqi people last September in fatally shooting 17 civilians with impunity in a burst of 'spray and pray' panic on the streets of Baghdad."
In addition, Blackwater seems to have messed with their bookkeeping. Blackwater wants the U.S. government to believe that all 850 of its employees in Iraq are separate contractors and not employees. If that were true, which it is not, Blackwater could avoid about $50 million in payroll taxes.
Not only so, but Henry Waxman, chair of the House government oversight committee, was highly agitated to discover that $144 million worth of contracts that were supposed to go to small businesses, somehow got shuffled off to Blackwater.
The IRS says Blackwater's employees are employees, not independent contractors!
Erick Prince is no prince. It's just that being a Christian conservative and all, the Bush administration treats him, not as the crook he is, but rather as if he were royalty, which he is not!
1 comment:
I think the careless outsourcing of military tasks has done damage. I think it wasteful in many cases and takes tasks out of the control of anyone! It was a goal of Cheney’s when he was still in Congress. He retired shortly after he had accomplished his goal to outsource so much. The lack of Congressional oversight was a tragedy and must be corrected immediately. If our armed forces need more people to do their job, that should be addressed immediately. If we cannot maintain a volunteer force then a draft is urgent. In either case it is imperative that the situation be investigated tomorrow. The “mercenaries” have sapped the armed forces with their higher pay and lack of rules. Experts have quit the armed forces to join high paying civilian “armies”. I see no reason why the services cannot feed, clothe, guard, drive trucks, etc. Perhaps had the armed services been in charge, they would have had proper equipment much sooner and thousands of lives would have been affected. If we are to wage war, we should all be involved, including families of our leaders.
If a war is not in our best interest, we should not go to war. If war is in our best interest, it must involve everyone. We rushed into this war without taking the time to plan properly and too many mistakes were made.
It is time to reconsider!
Bob Poris
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