Jeremy Scahill: Where Is the Defund Blackwater Act?

[Louisiana1976]

Democrats joined Republicans in voting to "Defund ACORN," yet have done nothing to stop Blackwater's ongoing taxpayer-funded crusade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Perhaps one of the most jarring comparisons here is the fact that ACORN is now being attacked while the Obama administration continues to contract with Blackwater, the favorite mercenary company of the Bush administration, which is headed by Erik Prince, who was a major donor to Republican causes and campaigns, including those of some of the Defund ACORN bill's sponsors, among them Indiana Republican Mike Pence, one of the key figures in hunting down Van Jones. Prince, of course, was recently described by a former employee as a man who "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and whose companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

At present Blackwater has a $217 million security contract through the State Department in Iraq which was just extended by the Obama administration indefinitely. It holds a $210 million State Department "security" contract in Afghanistan that runs through 2011 and another multi-million dollar contract with the Defense Department for "training" in Kabul. All of this is on top of Blackwater's clandestine work for the CIA, including continued work on the drone bombing campaign in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This also does not take into account Blackwater's lucrative domestic work training law enforcement and military forces inside the US at the company's compounds in North Carolina, California and Illinois, nor the private "security" work it does for entities like the International Republican Institute, nor the work it does in training "Faith Based Organizations." It also does not include the contracts doled out to Erik Prince's private CIA called Total Intelligence Solutions, which works for foreign governments and Fortune 500 corporations.

Then there is this fact: Blackwater was paid over $73 million for its federally-funded, no bid-security contracts with the Department of Homeland Security in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, billing taxpayers $950 per man per day, a spending decision the Bush administration called "the best value to the government." ACORN, meanwhile, only helped poor people who were suffering as a result of the government's total and complete failure to respond to Katrina.

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Here is a question for those Democratic lawmakers that voted in support of the Defund ACORN Act: How do you justify making this a major league legislative priority while Blackwater continues to be armed and dangerous across the globe on the US government payroll? Where is the Defund Blackwater Act?

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/to-the-dems-who-voted-to_b_299266.html

[G_j]

1. K&R

& Much gratitude to Scahill for his awesome investigative reporting on Blackwater/XE!

[booley]

2. According to Alan Grayson

The ACORN Bill would defund Black water since bill s can't be specific to one person or organization.

So any corrupt contractor would be defunded.

At least if it was enforced.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x376918

[autorank]

3. It's an amendment to the defund Goldman Act k*r

And you know what happened to that one;)

Scahill is terrific, a warrior.