Judge Criticizes State Department For Leaks In Blackwater Investigation

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A federal judge is calling for an investigation of the State Department's conduct following the shootings of dozens of Iraqi citizens in 2007, allegedly at the hands of security guards from the firm Blackwater Worldwide.

In a court opinion, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth says the State Department caused years of delays in bringing a criminal case to trial in the shootings. Four Blackwater guards are scheduled to go on trial June 11.

The judge said the delays stemmed from the State Department's decision to grant the guards immunity from prosecution in exchange for their statements, which were subsequently leaked to the news media.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/254576701.html

[DURHAM D]

1. Why did State hire Blackwater in the first place?

[TygrBright]

2. Outsourcing corpses must have seemed like a sound PR strategy at the time. n/t

[Galliano Stinger]

5. It encourages private enterprise and entrepreneurship.

You, too, could start your own death squad.

[rhett o rick]

8. Which in turn leads to generous quid pro quo campaign donations. Just sayin. nm

[Galliano Stinger]

19. It's nice of guys like Erik Prince to want to share the wealth

....among our hardworking government officials.

[nyabingi]

3. Now it appears Erik Prince's...

...neo-fascist thugs have been recruited to bolster the post-coup Ukrainian government's resolve so that John Kerry and other US officials can say, truthfully, that there are no US military units operating in Ukraine. May the FSB deal with Greystone quickly and efficiently...

[PeoViejo]

6. They will find that Russian Armor and Mechanized Infantry

are a lot harder to kill than unarmed civilians.

[karynnj]

10. The US government has denied this

There are no non Russian sources on this -- and they are suspect.

[Purveyor]

11. The US government has denied this...

Of course they did, of course...indeed!

[nyabingi]

15. Of course they are going to deny it

Do you really think anyone in our elected government, regardless of political affiliation, intends to level with us about what's going on? We aren't in these places overseas so the only thing we have to go on is what they tell us, their perspective and their spin. Luckily, we can also check the perspective and spin of other nations, friend and foe, and weigh the arguments and determine what sounds rational ourselves. This is not a luxury we enjoyed before widespread internet access.

Blackwater's (Academi, Xe, Greystone, etc) was openly active in Iraq and several of them are still on trial for murdering 17 innocent Iraqis, so I'd think the probability that they are active in places like Ukraine is high.

[okaawhatever]

16. It's pretty evident that the Russian side is the one using private military contractors. If anything

American contractors would be there training their troops. The Ukraine side is trying to calm the situation. Its the agent provocateurs causing problems, and they're causing problems for the Ukrainians not the other way around. From Foreign Policy magazine:

When contacted about the Greystone allegations, the Russian Embassy in Washington forwarded an article published by the Kremlin-run Voice of Russia news broadcaster. The article discusses a "buildup" of Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine "involving some 150 American mercenaries from Greystone, dressed in uniforms of the Ukrainian special task police unit Sokol."
But the Russians weren't able to provide evidence for their allegations either.
In a phone call with Foreign Policy, a Greystone spokesperson said "the company does not currently nor do we have any plan to send employees to Ukraine." A State Department official, speaking on background, added that "we do not have any U.S. military units in Ukraine."

The Greystone allegation was made in response to Sec of State Kerry's allegations that Russia had used private contractors there. It isn't a bunch of uniformed-without-insignia types trying to quell the protests, it's the other way around.

[nyabingi]

18. Even though Russia never publicly admitted

those insignia-less troops stationed in Crimea were there's, I think it is pretty safe to say they were definitely members of the Russian military. The post-coup government is only "trying to calm the situation" now because they know they (and their western benefactors) have overplayed their hand and wouldn't be able to prevent Russia from going all the way to Kiev if they chose to do so.

We are seeing the Obama administration looking very foolish right now, busy blaming the Russians for doing the exact same things they were doing back in February when the elected president was run out of town by right-wing thugs. If the American experience with neo-conservatives should have taught us anything about them during the Bush era, it's that these people plot and scheme regime changes without caring one iota about the repercussions.

You don't have to be a political scientist to see that the people of eastern and southern Ukraine weren't consulted when the parliament in Kiev installed people willing to do Washington's bidding. It was highly democratic and against everything decent Americans should stand for, but all I see is Republicans pushing for outright war against Russia and Democrats trying to provide cover for an Obama administration that is following the neo-con playbook page by page.

Foreign Policy magazine is just about as credible a source as Voice of Russia in my opinion - both are organs to push the viewpoint of their side.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Spooks.

[karynnj]

9. They needed to hire someone to guard the embassies and consulates

This was in the Bush administration and Blackwater was the go to company. (In fairness, Blackwater and its successor companies remained there even after Obama became President. The reason is that for some reason the military could not be diverted and there are not many companies that can do security there,

[Purveyor]

12. The Blackwater thugs of Iraq should have been tried for war crimes and I

hope all of them rot in hell.

[karynnj]

13. Agree 100%

My response was to point out that this happened when Bush was President and to answer the question of why they were there. I added the fact that they continued after Obama became President - something that was much discussed here (and condemned) in 2009. (After stating this was under Bush - I thought it dishonest not to admit that it did continue.) I certainly am not defending that they were ever there.

[Tom Ripley]

14. +1000

[okaawhatever]

17. Interesting that the article mentions Eric Prince was formerly with Blackwater, now Academi

and that he is not with Academi. What they do not tell you is that he now has a private security company called Greystone.