Feds probe whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq

Feds probe whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq

www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

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Related News Links:
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article.nationalreview.com
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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Blackwater security firm banned from Iraq

It seems now that Blackwater is in the News, that there is quite a bit more news about their dealings. I am not sure I know what is propaganda, and what is real news anymore...

DocMoreau

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting this thread probably wont get the response it deserves. Assuming that Blackwater did smuggle weapons to the various insurgent groups the company has committed treason. The American right will probably just ignore this matter because in the past they have been more concerned about preserving there own delusions rather then dealing with reality.

reply to post by xpert11


Interesting that you mention treason, as you already pointed this will news will fade away and business as usual in Iraq with Blackwater will prevail.

So many scandals and nothing has been done, I guess that when it comes to fighting terrorism everything is allowed.

Originally posted by marg6043
Interesting that you mention treason, as you already pointed this will news will fade away and business as usual in Iraq with Blackwater will prevail.

Yeah this should be headline news but it isnt.
How can smuggling weapons to the enemy be anything other then treason ?

So many scandals and nothing has been done, I guess that when it comes to fighting terrorism everything is allowed.

If reasonable proof is found that Blackwater are guilty of treason a bigger conspiracy can of worms then Watergate will have been opened. CIA agents ID have been leaked so who knows what limits exist in the current admin.

Bomb the Blackwater compound!!

Supporting terrorism means you are a terrorist!

Sorry... someone had to say it.


Seriously tho, by the standards set by US policy, shouldn't Blackwater now be listed as a terrorist organization? Aren't certain factions pushing for war with Iran because of reports of Iranian weapons being found in the hands of Iraqi insurgents?

Originally posted by xpert11
Yeah this should be headline news but it isn[']t.
How can smuggling weapons to the enemy be anything other th[a]n treason ?

Thing is, Blackwater isn't a government agency. They are a corporation. They have no loyalties other than to make money. Selling your products (weapons) to the highest bidder is just good business sense, right?

This underlines both why corporations should never be trusted to look out for the best interests of people and why employing contracted third party security is just a really bad idea.

reply to post by BitRaiser


Well in the very least Blackwater should be removed from the bidding process on any further US government related jobs while the investigation is under way. If they are guilty of aiding the enemy they are in bed with the terrorists which is just as bad as committing an act of terrorism your self. Given the lack of corporate accountability in the US the Feds must have a pretty reasonable case against Blackwater.

I cant figure out why Blackwater isnt claiming that the weapons were intended for the Iraqi security forces and that they were diverted to the differnt insurgent groups because the enemy had infiltrated the security forces.

Edit: Profit driven motives and selling your products in other markets is how economics works and I don't have a problem with such things. However having said that anyone with a conscience and/or national pride would put national security above such things.

[edit on 22-9-2007 by xpert11]

I think this is the first war where the true corruption of the military industrial complex is taking hold, and the people should be informed. It's sad and I don't doubt that the journalists themselves are aware of this, mainstream journalists must have no respect for there trade anymore.

Blackwater, and others like them, are Mercenaries.


Guns for hire.


They exist for money. As such, they are not duty bound to a country, or an ideology.


Guns for Hire sell themselves and their weapons to the highest bidder.


All very well for the NeoCons (and the US military) while the US is the highest bidder for their services.


But sometimes, the US may be outbid.


Remember, these Mercs are there for one existence: Money.


They do not fight for the US, or any other country, or ideology.


Only who offers the most cash.


And up until now, unaccountable to nobody and nothing but money.


That's what they judge their work by.


Worried?


You should be.

[edit on 22-9-2007 by Regensturm]

Originally posted by xpert11
Profit driven motives and selling your products in other markets is how economics works and I don't have a problem with such things. However having said that anyone with a conscience and/or national pride would put national security above such things.

That was exactly my point.
There's nothing wrong with commerce, as long as it is tempered by morality.
Corporations have no morality simply because they have no accountability nor drive to aspire towards anything other than a fatter bottom line.

In this case we are discussing a corporation that is armed and chartered to do violence.
I can think of no scarier thing.

Originally posted by xpert11


I cant figure out why Blackwater isnt claiming that the weapons were intended for the Iraqi security forces and that they were diverted to the differnt insurgent groups because the enemy had infiltrated the security forces.

that is the most likely conclusion which the (guaranteed to be lengthly)
joint Iraqi-American 'investigation' will publish on this unfortunate situation

in a broad brush, this is more like the Iran-Contra arms deal
rather than 'treason'.


another observation, the supply chain of arms was interruped by terrorist agents (that could be the official explaination).
which is not unlike the U.S. 'trust' of Iraqi units & police forces...
we do not turn over Iraqi security to Iraqi units because the loyalty of the
forces is a big question mark...
our HQ planners have serious doubts that each & every Iraqi military unit is completely free of covert AQ sympathizers, who await their moment of opportunity to sabotage or steal weaponry & ordinance,
go into their martyr mode.

a multi-generational 'war' indeed

Blackwater selling arms to insurgents, insurgents who attack and cause insecurity, thus Blackwater fuels the need for THEMSELEVES.... private security. A plan SO DEVIOUS.

I call this hypercapitalism. When a capitalist mindset overshadows what is right. Someone who profits from chaos, distruction, and violence. You go from earning a buck (capitalist) to creating a problem that you can be PAID to alleviate. Gee... wish I could crash someones car and then get paid to fix it. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON THESE DAYS?

IRAQ: A place where security, violence, and atrocity are tradable commodities.

Originally posted by AllSeeingI
Gee... wish I could crash someones car and then get paid to fix it.

In some parts of the world, that actually happens. Tow truck drivers will sprinkle nails and shards of broken glasses on the highway then "magically" appear when someone gets a punctured tire. It's so wrong..

Feds can probe - but I think CIA outranks those FBI agent.

And former CIA and Pentagon officials basicly OWN Blackwater and they share the same friends in the high places, who give them billion dollar deals and I do not think any FBI probe will get into their way of conducting business.

Blackwater USA - SourceWatch

"A number of senior CIA and Pentagon officials have taken top jobs at Blackwater, including firm vice chairman Cofer Black, who was the Bush Administration's top counterterrorism official at the time of the 9/11 attacks (and who famously said in 2002, 'There was before 9/11 and after 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves came off')," Ken Silverstein wrote September 12, 2006, in Harper's Magazine.

In fall 2005, Robert Richer "resigned from the post of Associate Deputy Director of Operations; he immediately took a job as Blackwater's Vice President of Intelligence. Richer is a former head of the CIA's Near East Division and long served in Amman, where, for a period beginning in 1999, he held the post of station chief. For years he was the agency's point man with Jordan's King Abdullah, with whom he developed an extraordinarily close relationship," Silverstein wrote.

Also, Silverstein wrote in September 2006, "there's talk at the agency that Blackwater is also aggressively recruiting José Rodriguez, the CIA's current top spy as director of the National Clandestine Service. Rodriguez has a number of former agency friends at Blackwater, most notably Rick Prado, with whom he served in Latin America and who is now Blackwater's Vice President of Special Programs."

So you can see that they have connections everywhere they go.

And with the latest non-develompments in banning them from Iraq - why would they be banned from their own home? Even if they are, they shall just move the HQ to some far away island or a friendly Middle Eastern country like Halliburton did. As long as bullets keep flying - to this guys, that means a lot of MONEY!

I certainly was not surprised to see this in the paper this morning.:shk:

IMO, this thread kind of ties in with the other thread about U.S. officials paying off the criminal/terrorist element in Iraq so they don't strike our forces, which really probably meant they were paying the other side in order to fund them so they could keep fighting our forces.

Traitors of the highest order!

Peace

This is treason, plain and simple. The fact that they're a corporation doesn't make any difference, as some here seem to think. They're an AMERICAN company, and the individuals involved are Americans. If several people at, say, General Electric, did something to aid the enemy and hurt the U.S., it would be treason. You don't have to be in the U.S. military or be an elected official to make it treason.

This is an outrage. If the charges are proven to be true, I think the individuals involved should get the death penalty.

Originally posted by ClintK
This is treason, plain and simple. The fact that they're a corporation doesn't make any difference, as some here seem to think. They're an AMERICAN company, and the individuals involved are Americans. If several people at, say, General Electric, did something to aid the enemy and hurt the U.S., it would be treason. You don't have to be in the U.S. military or be an elected official to make it treason.

This is an outrage. If the charges are proven to be true, I think the individuals involved should get the death penalty.

Outrageous yes, treasonous no.

Small arms are not going to threaten the lives of the average citizen any moreso than the black guy with an ingram.

If what you say is true, then every criminal in america needs to be charged with treason as well.

funnily enough, you could say that blackwater was guilty of inciting terrorism - the very thing that the establishment uses to keep civilians in line seems to be ineffective on these multi-billion dollar international organisations.

reply to post by Throbber


No, it most certainly is treasonous. This was far more than just an illegal arms sale. The allegation is that these weapons were knowingly sold to militants and used against U.S. troops.

Ihope the they open this really wide and let the worms dry up in the sun. Most if not all these contracts for haliburton kb and others were setup during the Clinton adm and maintained by Bush..So it makes you wonder which party is a puppet of who..these guys are making over $100, 000 per and there they number as much as our troop force. I remember the horrid videos of BlackClaw security employees being burned . What could have provoked people to do that..its eye for eye so something happened.while our GIs are geting what..All wars have profiteering but this is on a astronomical scale and we are footing the bill. Then look at "Do Buy" sic excuse me.."DuBai", their banks funneled the funds for 911 hijackers and we are letting try and buy Major American interests while our ex politicians lobby for them like pimps..I wonder what happened to the investigation of stolen SUVs being sold and used as suicide Bomb vehicles in Iraq.. Its like they announce FBI on TV, and we are supposed to think, hey they are on their toes. but we never here results. The Hillary/ Hsu thing went quiet..what happened then..That involved missile tecjhnology with China..not just a campaign violation...Not to denigrate them, The FBI is needed but kind of pales in comaprison and, smokescreens the Do Buy juggernaut. I agree Doc, its almost impossible to tell anymore.

Sys

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[edit on 22-9-2007 by Sys_Config]