Inspire Political Discourse

BLACKWATER aka XE Contracted With Foreign Operatives to Staff Secret CIA Program

Blackwater, who recently changed it's name to XE. the world's most powerful private army, owned by Erik Prince, a right-wing Christian, hired foreign operatives to implement a secret CIA operation. The question here is WHY would the CIA hire Blackwater for an operation well within it's own bailiwick.

WASHINGTON — When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater's lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Blackwater told the CIA that it "could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support – all of the things you need to conduct an operation," a former senior CIA official .....

Continue reading article.

Erik Prince, Founder of Blackwater, Implicated in Murder

The scourge of the earth, the man who views himself as a Christian crusader, Erik Prince, founder and former CEO of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater, the world's largest for hire/mercenary army), has been implicated in murder according to an article in The Nation.

“A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion.....”

Possibly irrelevant, but Prince was responsible, as one of the largest contributors to the cause (donations in his mother's name), for Proposition 8.

Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, Resigns

Mercenary King Erik Prince Resigns as Blackwater CEO

Jeremy Scahill

Independent journalist, author, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”

Originally posted at Huffington Post

“The company formerly known as Blackwater continues its mission to bury its tarnished reputation and soldier on. Early this morning, Blackwater founder Erik Prince released a brief statement announcing he is stepping down as CEO of the infamous mercenary firm he started in 1997. A press release from the company — which last month renamed itself “Xe” — said Prince “will now focus his efforts on a private equity venture unrelated to the company.”

In a personal message sent to his employees and clients, Prince sought to cast his departure as a natural part of the firm’s ongoing evolution. “As many of you know, because we focus on continually improving our business that Xe is in the process of a comprehensive restructuring,” he wrote. “It is with pride in our many accomplishments and confidence in Xe’s future that I announce my resignation as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.”

Prince’s resignation could be seen as a public formality in what has been a dramatic attempt to scrub all public vestiges of Blackwater, given that he remains chairman and sole owner of the network of companies now operating under the Xe umbrella. But it’s clear the firm has been thrown into turmoil in recent months. As the Xe statement says, “These appointments follow the addition and departures of several other key personnel. Recent departures from the company include its former Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer, President, and Executive Vice President.” Joseph Yorio, an ex-Army Special Forces officer and former Vice President of the international shipping company DHL was announced as the new Xe president — a somewhat humorous development, given Prince’s fondness for describing Blackwater as the “FedEx of the U.S. national security apparatus.” Meanwhile, Danielle Esposito, a longtime Blackwater employee, was named Xe’s new Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.

The rebranding of Blackwater and its attempts to hide its former self have been downright crude. The company’s domestic training centers, which some refer to as private military bases, are now simply labeled “U.S. Training Center.” Gone is the sexy black-and-red logo featuring a bear paw in a sniper-scope; it has been replaced by a nondescript, rather amateurish sketch of an American Eagle. The company website has been revamped and scaled down.  MORE HERE.

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Keith Olbermann Takes on Cheney on Fear Mongering

Political News Summary: Thursday, January 29, 2009

:: The liberal groups who fought against Bush 43's most egregious acts, now supporting President Obama. The ad shown in the video below was produced and will be aired at the expense of some of these groups, and targets certain vulnerable GOP senators on the stimulus issue. From NYT:

And, in a first test of where they will fit in the new national dialogue, several of the groups that regularly battled the Bush White House are trying to sell President Obama’s economic stimulus package with a new advertising campaign designed to pressure several Republican senators to support it (unlike their House colleagues).
Sponsored by MoveOn, Americans United for Change and two labor groups – the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – the ads will begin running this week in Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska and Washington D.C.
The spots show a shuttered factory springing back to life as oratory from Mr. Obama plays in the background (“The first job of my administration is to put people back to work,” he says.) The spots call upon different senators in each state — Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe in Maine; Judd Gregg in New Hampshire; Chuck Grassley in Iowa and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska – to “support the Obama plan for jobs, not the failed policies of the past.”

TAGS: GOP/Republicans, President Obama, JOBS, LABOR, Economy, Stimulus,
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:: For the love of cats, the Republicans need to be made to understand that they LOST. That they are currently IRRELEVANT. An incomplete recitation of their activities today:

A Democracy Requires That We All Become Aware and Involved, or We Risk Losing it

My reasons for writing this post are solely to encourage you, and to arm you. I am compelled to do so not only by the events of the past eight years, but by what has been revealed in Keith Olbermann's interview with former National Security Agency analyst, Russell Tice.

My intent is simple: that you and your family, if you have not been focusing your attention on national politics, as indeed, I myself did not until last August, are able to become aware of and absorb the events that occurred in this country under the auspices of the Bush administration.

The events which sent the United States barreling towards becoming a Fascist Republic, and signified the end of our Democratic Republic. Indeed, in the 200+ year history of our nation, such a situation had never been allowed to occur, and yet it did, on our watch. We must guard our freedom well to prevent any possibility of a recurrence, because we love our children and our country. And guarding it requires awareness and action.

But..... it's over, you say. President Bush and Vice President Cheney are no longer in power. In part, certainly. However, in order to safeguard our freedom for future generations, we must all be aware of, and pass on what happened to this country to cause it to conform with the ideals of a fascist republic, and give up our constitutional rights to a group of men who sought power that was not their's under the tenets of our constitution.

This is so important, that this era of our history will forever become a part of all unbiased teachings about our constitution, the history of our republic, and so on. We as a country, came just this close to becoming what the constitution was supposed to have prevented.

It occurred because a group of men, led by President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove, sought an inordinate amount of power in order to personally benefit from the wielding of that power. Their methods included the intent to instill so much fear in the American people that we would willingly accept restrictions upon our liberty, the revocation of the tenets of our constitution, and they were indeed highly successful. They benefited personally on a scale never before seen, and we have been left with the nation's coffers empty, the monies handed over to Halliburton, Blackwater, and others, a resulting economic crisis of a magnitude not yet reached, a global financial crisis that may take years to recover from, two wars, one of them completely unnecessary and immoral, and our reputation in shreds all over the world. 

videos after the jump

Leaders of the Anti-Civil Rights "Yes on Prop 8" Group "Command" the California Court to Nullify 18,000 Marriages

In a lawsuit filed by the leaders of the anti-civil rights group responsible for Prop 8, and representing the evangelicals, the Mormons, and all those well-meaning demented religious fanatics who think that they must have the ability to regulate the lives of us all, have "commanded", yes, the language used was "COMMANDED" the California courts to "bow" to the will of the people, and nullify 18,000 marriages.

From Dr. Jeffrey Feldman at the Huffington Post:

“The idea that civil rights can be stripped by a simple majority plebescite is not just unethical, but actually violates the principles on which our system of government is based.  First off, it is unconstitutional to pass laws that deprive citizens of rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution (e.g., equal protection), a basic point the Prop 8 folks do not seem to get.  Second, the purpose of the judiciary is to uphold the Constitution as form of systemic balance to the other two branches of government--not to bow down to them.

The language of the 'Yes To 8' brief suggests that group see itself in a moral struggle not just to strip gay people of rights, but to mobilize public against the California judiciary.

Time will tell which effort will hold the day.  However, I suspect there are few judges in California (or anywhere else) who respond well when lawyers 'command' them to 'bow' down.  Come to think of it, nobody responds well.  And when you think about it, that really is the point of this whole Prop 8 nonsense, is it not?   Try to strip American citizens of their equal rights, and when that does not work:  raise a bloody stink about the supposed despotic decline of the United States judicial system.”

Meanwhile, California attorney general, and former governor, Jerry Brown, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Prop 8 is in violation of the civil rights of "a classification of people". Hey, we told you that in November! Below, quoting myself from my original article.

“This being the case, Prop 8 is not a matter of legitimate policy. It is a law which revokes the federally guaranteed civil rights of a classification of people, and is thus unconstitutional, and would not hold up to a review by the Supreme Court.”

And Brown, as quoted in the LA Times:

“Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.”

And indeed, both Brown and I are right. My question is, when he wins his lawsuit, how enraged will these prop 8 purveyors be? Ah, ever helpful, I have some suggestions for the inimitable purveyors of hate. Got any of your own? Tell me in a comment.