TYT: WARNING - Video of Blackwater Contractors Driving Over Iraqi Woman

[ihavenobias]

Cenk Uygur discusses a video recently released by Harper's Magazine that shows private contractors from Blackwater in Iraq hitting cars in traffic and running over a woman.

Blackwater is the mercenary firm founded as Blackwater USA in 1996 by former Navy SEAL and fundamentalist Christian Erik Prince. It received no-bid contracts from the Bush administration in Iraq, Afghanistan, and post-Katrina New Orleans. In 2009, Prince resigned as CEO. Amid scandals over misbehavior by Blackwater employees in Iraq, the company renamed itself Blackwater Worldwide in 2007, Xe Services in 2009, and Academi in 2011. Subsidiaries include Paravant LLC. nndb.com

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[brewens]

1. From the first time I heard about the private contractors, I knew it was

a screwjob. Even without examples like these videos, how could anyone think it was going to be a good deal?

The lure guys out of the military to go to work for them. You can't blame the troops for going for it because it's big money. Those bastards then charge us enough to pay that big money and make a nice profit for themselves. We get to pay to retrain military guy to replace the ones that "went Blackwater".

Did using all those contractors help the Bush administration avoid a draft? I suppose some would say that was a positive thing. I wouldn't. A draft would have forced people to realize just what we were doing over there.

[bathroommonkey76]

5. They are a cover for the CIA. nt

[20score]

2. I remember watching videos like these years ago and being extremely angry.

And knowing that the people responsible from Bush, to most of congress, to the quasi journalists who pushed this war, that no one would be held to account. Yet most of the world knew this would happen.

[tclambert]

3. It's a Bush cowboy fantasy. The rich rancher hires gunmen to push around the little guys.

Blackwater was/is thugs for hire. Just the thing for the villain rancher in any Western. The Bush Republicans naturally root for the evil rancher who wants to take over all the little spreads before the railroad comes through. But where's John Wayne or Clint Eastwood or Kid Shelleen to rescue us?

Does this analogy make the Occupy movement Cat Ballou?

[JDPriestly]

4. Ambassadors of a Christian nation?????

[LittleCharlie]

6. Retail Mercenaries

Prosecute these motherkcufers.

[DeSwiss]

7. And ''we the taxpayers'' are still paying these murderers.....

...because, well because they know where they bodies are buried since they probably put them there.

Academi—previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis. link

- WHAT DO WE WANT? GRADUAL CHANGE!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? IN DUE TIME!!

K&R

[OhioChick]

8. K&R n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Cenk: lose the auto-captioning.

The subtitles were gibberish.

[just1voice]

10. So is Harper's about to face espionage charges for showing a war crime?

They likely will. Then read all the people's responses saying they deserve prison for exposing the war crime/murder.

I applaud Harper's for making this public, it's their duty as Americans.