State Department to Get Its Own Army...7000 Blackwater Mercenaries

[lib2DaBone]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/21/97915/state-dept-planning-to-field-a.html


WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky.

In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance.


Contractors are to operate most of the equipment, and past controversies that involved Pentagon and State Department contractors, including the company formerly known as Blackwater, have left some lawmakers leery

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.."U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky."


Nervous? Risky? They are downright NUTS! The are going to pay 7000 more Blackwter goons to occupy Iraq? Oh ..I get it. Mr. Obama brings the troops out.. then sends in Blackwater. That way he meets any campaign promise of troop reduction... Wall Street is happy and the war continues forever.

[Luminous Animal]

1. Send the troops to Afghanistan and send Blackwater to Iraq.

Yep.

[derby378]

2. If true, this amounts to a broken campaign promise

The US was going to get out of Iraq. Every day Obama keeps our troops there is a day he legitimizes Bush's evil agenda that much more.

[lib2DaBone]

5. This looks like a story gaining legs.. McClatchy Newspapers

started it... but Huffing ton post and some others have picked it up.http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/22/1741838/state-department-plans-to-field.html

How many trillions of dollars will it cost to maintain these Private Soldiers? Who will police them and control them? Blackwater is already hated in Iraq... I can't believe any sane person in our government would even consider a disastrous stunt like this? But they are..

[glitch]

17. What was their rate, $700/day? IIRC. SO glad there's all that money to throw down a rat hole.

Literally. :sarcasm:

[indepat]

33. Suspect the cost of 7,000 Blackwater mercenaries will run in the $billions per annum

:P

[jody]

35. Agree, probably $4-5 billion when all costs are considered and even more for paying off innocent

Afghanistan citizens abused or killed by the US Foreign Legion.

[RKP5637]

3. It's all getting a little weird IMO. n/t

[Cleita]

4. This is plain wrong. The military should not be privatized

nor should we be paying mercenaries. The military should be soldier citizens. This is what brought down Rome. All those German mercenaries turned on their masters and eventually broke up the Empire because they learned how the Romans did war and used it against them.

[RKP5637]

6. Yep, this is what happens... was my first thought... n/t

[USArmyParatrooper]

15. You really think that's remotely possible?

Should I worry that some rogue security company is going to attack Fort Bragg?

[Cleita]

20. I don't know. Should you?

It seems knowing our military stratagems is not really cool. Knowing where are arsenals are and how to breech security? Is that okay? If you are an American paratrooper aren't you concerned that these private companies are hiring military mercenaries from many parts of the world who aren't exactly loyal to us?

[USArmyParatrooper]

22. My question was rhetorical

And the notion of a military coup in the US via private contractor is absurd on so many levels.

[Cleita]

23. Read this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest

Arminius, a German leader, trained by Romans ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg forest, forever pushing the Romans back over the Rhine. It was the beginning of the barbarian mercenaries turning back and overcoming their Roman overlords. They had been trained in Roman warfare but also used their own native battle styles and know how to defeat the Romans.

Just remember if a bunch of Saudi American haters were able to destroy the World Trade Center and hit a few other targets in a place where we thought no militants or armies would dare to venture. Imagine what they can do when we have trained and armed them ourselves.

Also, remember we were defeated in Viet Nam by a bunch of rice farmers and will be defeated in Afghanistan by a bunch of tribal sheep herders.

[USArmyParatrooper]

25. Apples and Oranges across the board

For starters you're comparing warfare from many centuries ago to modern war fair. As Eisenhower said, "Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions." Referencing the "military industrial complex."

Do tell - what does Blackwater have that can counter F-22 raptors, stealth bombers, Abrams tanks, an enormous navy, long range missiles, millions of troops, and too much other military assets to list? You can combine every private security company in the country - the world in fact - and they couldn't even begin to mount a meaningful attack on our military.

You said: "Just remember if a bunch of Saudi American haters were able to destroy the World Trade Center and hit a few other targets in a place where we thought no militants or armies would dare to venture."

Not "thought", KNOW. Committing mass murder, even on an epic scale is NOT the same as mounting an armed invasion. The attack on 9-11 wasn't a military failure. It was a failure of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. No military in the world can touch us on our soil. Very few even have the power projection capabilities to even try, and no country is even comes close to the power projection of the US military.

[Cleita]

26. The warfare is different, granted, but the mercenaries aren't..

The dynamic of who claims their loyalty hasn't changed over the centuries. And you are right about the failures of intelligence. This is where the Romans eventually lost too. They should have known how the Germans would lead them into a trap. Our enemies have already touched our soil and will do guerilla warfare with us when the opportunity arises, so why are we making it easy for them? The Marines should be doing this.

[USArmyParatrooper]

27. You're not addressing the point

YES, people can sneak into the US and murder American citizens.

NO, there is not a military in the world who can attack the US on our soil - which is different than sneaking people in for the purpose of committing murder.

OK, so let's hash this out.

US Military vs. Blackwater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Military

vs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide


You say Blackwater wins? Really?

Blackwater
"Of the 987 contractors Xe provides, 744 are U.S. citizens."

US Military
"Active personnel 1,473,900<2> (ranked 2nd)
Reserve personnel 1,458,500<3>"

And this is just talking about numbers of troops. If you want to talk about the real damage producing assets like aircraft, tanks, ships, missiles, etc. the picture gets even worse for Blackwater.


Dude, get real.

:tinfoilhat:

[Cleita]

28. Historically, mercenaries and private armies are the

graveyards of nations. Read your history.

[lunasun]

29. never say never...look what has been going on lately

[Hardrada]

7. Hillary's Praetorian Guard!

She can use some of them as a security detail and honor guard at that wedding!

[DURHAM D]

9. give it a rest...

[DURHAM D]

8. Guess they don't know any other way to protect the embassy.

How about they just vacate it - along with our 13 or 14 military bases that we built.

[glitch]

18. Wonder what the Marines have to say about that? Embassies we should keep. nt

[Overseas]

10. No no no! Give it back to the Marines!

The Marines did that when I was growing up. They did a fine job.

And we didn't have the Marines skimming off millions in private profits.

I was hoping the State Department would abandon that terrible idea.

[Cleita]

24. I agree only the Marines should be doing this job. n/t

[immune]

11. Rome redux.

... without roads that can stand the test of time.

[jody]

12. I won't be surprised if McChrystal is involved advising Clinton. They would make an awesome pair of

candidates for the white House.

[msongs]

13. the buck stops on the desk of the CIC, not Clinton. The big O is responsible for this nt

[jody]

34. ROFL please read my post again and understand what I said. n/t

[happy_liberal]

14. I think this story might be more important than how much the clintons are spending on a wedding

This has to be illegal. This has to be unconstitutional. When did this become acceptable?

When BP was able to hire blackwater to protect them from us..that was a very bad step in the wrong direction. We better put an end to this as it is a very slippery slope.

[USArmyParatrooper]

16. Misleading Title

Where does it say all 7000 will be Blackwater? Blackwater is only one of many private security companies in Iraq. For example, the last time I was there guard duty for the base was pulled by Ugandan personnel employed by EODT. They aren't mercenaries, they're security guards.

I read the article in its entirety, and there is a glass half full scenario here.

Critics say it would be more logical for the military to leave several thousand troops behind to protect government officials and property.

However, that would require renegotiating the U.S.-Iraqi status of forces agreement, a sensitive step. There's "no thought of that right now," the senior administration official said.

If State Department officials are worried about having to fend for their own security this means the extent of the planned exodus is greater I expected.

[laughingliberal]

19. *sigh* nt

[JohnyCanuck]

21. Glenn Greenwald on "The secret private-sector government"

The irony here is that the decision to declare enemy fighters in Afghanistan as "unlawful enemy combatants" -- which is what, in turn, "justified" denial of Geneva Conventions protections for them (at least until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise) -- was grounded in the fact that they do not, as Mukasey put it, "wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly." That's what made them, in the U.S. lexicon, not only "unlawful combatants" but even Terrorists. But, of course, exactly the same is true for our countless private contractors who are acting as combatants for the U.S. in multiple parts of the world; as Priest and Arkin document, they are so numerous and unaccountably embedded in secret government functions that they are literally "countless":

Making it more difficult to replace contractors with federal employees: The government doesn't know how many are on the federal payroll. Gates said he wants to reduce the number of defense contractors by about 13 percent, to pre-9/11 levels, but he's having a hard time even getting a basic head count.


"This is a terrible confession," he said. "I can't get a number on how many contractors work for the Office of the Secretary of Defense," referring to the department's civilian leadership.

In sum, if you combine this second Post installment with the first one from yesterday, the picture that emerges is that we have a Secret Government of 854,000 people so vast and secret that nobody knows what it does or what it is. Roughly 30% of that Secret Government -- engaged in the whole litany of functions from spying to killing -- is composed of private corporations: "The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors." That there is a virtually complete government/corporate merger when it comes to the National Security and Surveillance State is indisputable: "Private firms have become so thoroughly entwined with the government's most sensitive activities that without them important military and intelligence missions would have to cease or would be jeopardized."

As little oversight as National Security State officials have, corporate officials engaged in these activities have even less. Relying upon profit-driven industry for the defense and intelligence community's "core mission" is to ensure that we have Endless War and an always-expanding Surveillance State. After all, the very people providing us with the "intelligence" that we use to make decisions are the ones who are duty-bound to keep this War Machine alive and expanding because, as the Post put it, they are "obligated to shareholders rather than the public interest." Our military, our CIA, our spying agencies (such as NSA) are every bit corporate as they are governmental: in some cases more so. So complete is the merger that it's the same people who switch seamlessly back and forth between governmental agencies and their private "partners," which means we have not only a vast Secret Government, but one that operates with virtually no democratic accountability and is driven not by National Security concerns but by its own always-expanding private profits. Just read the years of work from Tim Shorrock -- which disgracefully was not even cited by the Post -- documenting how dangerous all of this.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/20/mukasey

[Zhade]

30. "Change"

NT!

[USArmyParatrooper]

37. Of course it's a change

A troop withdraw on such a massive scale that State Department officials are worried about their own protection IS a dramatic change. I know you want things to be the same so you can criticize Obama, but try to see things objectively.

[BR_Parkway]

31. So Hilary finally gets her black helicopters and there's a black man in the office

The teabaggers are going to go apeshit

[SunnySong]

32. Security for the wedding? nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

36. Batshit, motherfucking crazy --

is how I would phrase it, but that's just me.

Christ, what a damned clusterfuck this mess it -- and being made WORSE by actions like this.