Blackwater trained our troops (Canada)

[sabra]

Source: national post

The National Defence Department has spent more than $6-million having its troops trained by the controversial Blackwater security company, whose own employees have been accused of needlessly killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, documents show.

The department sent a succession of personnel to Blackwater's Moyock, N.C., training compound from 2005 to as recently as April 2009, some of them learning tactics for working in dangerous settings, records obtained through access-to-information legislation indicate.

The work continued even after the U.S. State Department cancelled its pricey security contract with the company in Iraq amid mounting criticism of Blackwater's actions.

The training courses included defensive driving and "close protection" in hostile environments, as well as specialized weapons use, a DND spokesman said.

The U.S. firm was judged to be the best bidder in tenders put out for the work, and controversy associated with other aspects of its business would not have come into play, Major Vance White said.



Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2954716

[bobthedrummer]

1. Kick + "Blackwater managed CIA Predator drone assassination program"

(archived thread started by Octafish 8-20-09)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6359835

[Soylent Brice]

3. wow.

thank you for posting this link.

[bobthedrummer]

4. Let's both thank the brother that started it and never give up-kick

[Soylent Brice]

11. right on!

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Gulp....thanks for that link, Bob

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

[bobthedrummer]

6. Hey dixiegrrrrl, glad you survived them "winds" down there my friend

:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Nicely, but our northern cousins did not.

Poor Albertville.
4 tornadoes hit No. Ala.

[Uncle Joe]

7. This purposely creates an additional layer of deni-ability for the government.

The idea of for profit mercenaries is atrocious on multiple levels and a growing danger to our democratic republic.

[ManiacJoe]

12. Deniability in what way?

[Uncle Joe]

13. Plausible deniability by separation of responsibility or delegation of authority, however you

want to phrase it.

Click on poster #1's link to view the full column but here is a small portion.

In interviews on Thursday, current and former government officials provided new details about Blackwater’s association with the assassination program, which began in 2004 not long after Porter J. Goss took over at the C.I.A. The officials said that the spy agency did not dispatch the Blackwater executives with a “license to kill.” Instead, it ordered the contractors to begin collecting information on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s leaders, carry out surveillance and train for possible missions.

“The actual pulling of a trigger in some ways is the easiest part, and the part that requires the least expertise,” said one government official familiar with the canceled C.I.A. program. “It’s everything that leads up to it that’s the meat of the issue.”

Blackwater/Xe is a dysfunctional, loose cannon, leech Institution that serves as a shield of non-accountability for political "leaders" too timid to make the tough choices and take responsibility for their otherwise asinine decisions.

[ManiacJoe]

16. OK, that makes more sense.

I originally thought you were talking about the training of the troops.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I don't view the training of the troops as a deniability issue, but I do consider that a leech issue

In short the stronger for profit mercenaries become, the weaker the nation or publics defense becomes.

My disdain of for profit mercenaries, prisons and "health" insurance is equivalent.

I view them all as malignant cancers threatening our democratic republic from different angles.

[Soylent Brice]

2. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sabra.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I should add that BW, or XE, has trained LOTS of USA Police

plus people/armies/whatever from all over the world.
They are really insidious. Cities,counties and states have been sending their cops to BW for some time now.
In case you did not notice the pattern of militarization of our police.

[bobthedrummer]

15. Yep, for those that want to learn more about these murderous Knights Templars privateers

here's The Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch page on Xe

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe

[Rapier09]

14. O Canada

Now we know you are just ripe for the invading.

[bobthedrummer]

18. All those Blackwater/Xe employees had BUSH/CHENEY administration "bosses"

people like the Krongard brothers, J. Coffer Black, Douglas Feith, General Boykin, the Wurmsers...

CIA Detainee Torture, Memory Loss, and the Bush Administration's Falsification of History (archived leveymg thread started 12-13-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2462592