State Dept. ignored diplomats’ concerns on Blackwater.
By on Oct 7th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
State Dept. ignored diplomats’ concerns on Blackwater.
The State Department “overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining U.S. efforts to win support from the population.” Diplomats cautioned that the 2004 decision to grant contractors immunity from Iraqi courts was “a bomb that could go off at any time.” Earlier reports show that the State Department also ignored repeated complaints from Iraqi officials about Blackwater’s conduct.
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Blackwater appears to be failing only because of our assumptions. If we grade them according to helping the US further some mission to improve conditions and stability in Iraq and create a democracy, then of course they’re failing.
Blackwater is 100% successful if you understand that their mission is chaos. For that matter, Bush is 100% successful too. You have to understand that absolute instability is the main plank in the NeoCon foreign policy platform. When you create utter chaos you can do what you want. You can steal billions and there is no accountability. You can move drugs, weapons, and cash in and out of the country because no one is in control or watching the store. But ultimately, while in the throes of economic and social Shock-N-Awe, you can completely privatize a country — its people and all of its resources.
If we’d only change our collective criteria for viewing the situation, we’d all understand how awesomely successful it all is. If those damn Iraqis would just sign that oil agreement, we could call it a day and go home. The pending oil agreement means that 70% of the oil profits belong to multi-nationals for the next 30 years I believe. See that’s the prize.
Conventional wisdom says this is a mission towards democracy and it’s a failure. In reality it’s a mission towards corporate aggrandizement and it’s a success. For corporations the best part of the deal is its being funded with other people’s money – US tax dollars – and other people’s blood – US military. They have nothing at stake; there is no down side other than perhaps not getting the best possible deal on that oil and other aspects of the future Iraq economy and resources.
October 7th, 2007 at 12:41 pmIt’s hard for me to be flummoxed these days, but yeah, I’m flummoxed. Blackwater was taken out of the purview of the DOD and placed under the State Department umbrella, where it enjoys special privileges and immunities. Even the drunken contractor who murdered the equivalent of an Iraqi Secret Service guard was sent back to Iraq with the help of the State Department. Why is Blackwater, above all other contractor outfits, so important to State, and by extension, Cheney? When Maliki threatened to throw them out, Rice personally made a hurried to trip to Iraq to save Blackwater. Why is the government willing to pay so much for so little in return, and ignore and excuse the damage this group is causing? What’s going on here really?
October 7th, 2007 at 12:52 pmTP – that first link (l.a. times) required registration…
this one, from google news page, doesn’t:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-blackwater7oct07,1,4799501.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&track=crosspromo
October 7th, 2007 at 12:54 pmRice orders more oversight of contractors in Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered the implementation of three steps to bolster the accountability of private security firms in Iraq, including the Blackwater USA.
[...]
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/05/blackwater/
hurry condi! hurry!
jeesh…
October 7th, 2007 at 12:57 pm.
Why is Blackwater, above all other contractor outfits, so important to State, and by extension, Cheney?
Because Bush will need his private army when he declares a “state of emergency” and cancels the 2008 election.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:00 pmCronyism? What cronyism?
October 7th, 2007 at 1:17 pmBlackwater has deep and insidious roots into the cabal which controls the Republican party.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:19 pmIt is a product of this shadow party.
Cronyism? What cronyism?
Comment by EvilPoet — October 7, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
the White House originally installed Jim O’Beirne at the relevant evaluation desk in the Department of Defense. O’Beirne proved to be a classic Bush villain, who judged applicants not on their Arabic skills or their relevant expertise but on their Republican bona fides; he sent a twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance to manage the reopening of the Iraqi stock exchange, and appointed a recent graduate of an evangelical university for home-schooled kids who had no accounting experience to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget. James K. Haveman, who had served as Michigan’s community-health director under a GOP governor, was put in charge of rehabilitating Iraq’s health-care system and decided that what this war-ravaged, malnourished, sanitation-deficient country most urgently needed was . . . an anti-smoking campaign.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:23 pmBadger – War profiteering?! Fraud?! Corruption?! I’m shocked I tell you! Shocked! /sarcasm
October 7th, 2007 at 1:55 pm“O’Beirne proved to be a classic Bush villain, who judged applicants not on their Arabic skills or their relevant expertise but on their Republican bona fides;”
And he bunks with Sixty-Grit Kate. That alone should entitle him to a medal for duty above and beyond the call.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:57 pmWhat’s going on here really?
Comment by Candyce — October 7, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Excellent question, Candyce. What’s the hold?
October 7th, 2007 at 2:06 pmCondi Rice leaps into action 5 years too late!
The most incompetent woman to have ever been a Sec. of State in the history of the US.
Goes hand in hand with her boss, G.W., the most incompetent man ever in the Whitehouse.
-GSD
October 7th, 2007 at 2:07 pmBlackwater is Darth’s personal SS Corps, only more dangerous, because Hitler was less evil and less calculating than Cheney.
If we don’t blow up this clandestine army of jackals, they will be trolling back here looking for “dissidents” and other enemies of the BushCo State.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:10 pmCondi Rice, Secretary of State: “No one could have imagined ______________.”
October 7th, 2007 at 5:21 pmBlackwater are thugs and assassins, so Bush Regime purposely ignored their concerns.
October 8th, 2007 at 12:15 amWhere’s Condi?
She should have been at last Tuesday’s congressional hearing, representing the State Dept.
Where’s Condi?
October 8th, 2007 at 11:01 am