Originally posted by CX
I don't think Blackwater will be worrying too much about this, as people have already said, the government will have more than enough for them to do
back home.
Give it a little while, and they'll be assisting with martial law no doubt.
CX.
For years Blackwater has been trying to spread it's area of expertise into other areas (and spending millions to do so). They are also extremely
eager to portray this image. All you have to do is look at their homepage....
www.blackwaterusa.com...
Innovation Begins with Experience
Blackwater Worldwide efficiently and effectively integrates a wide range of resources and core competencies to provide unique and timely solutions
that exceed our customers’ stated needs and expectations.
We are guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world. Blackwater Worldwide professionals leverage state-of-the-art training
facilities, professional program management teams, and innovative manufacturing and production capabilities to deliver world-class, customer-driven
solutions.
Our corporate leadership and dedicated family of exceptional employees adhere to essential core values- chief among these are integrity,
innovation,excellence, respect, accountability, and teamwork.
Every time you see the website of these big security contractors (not to mention the ridiculous flash movies they use to portray themselves as
righteous, life-saving cronies) the vague nature of how they describe their companies always obscures what they really do and where they do it.
Also..
ATS THREAD:
ATS THREAD: Blackwater Now in The 'Private Intelligence' Business
This just makes things scarier... Especially without any legal precedent to hold Blackwater's leadership and employees to any level of
accountability. What is scary is this..
It seems that the only reason this particular story about contractors killing innocent civilians turned into a massive corporate clusterf*** for
Blackwater is because it involved dead civilians and by the time the media jumped on the bandwagon the truth was out (There was no time or room for
any kind of coverup of what really happened at that point).. But what if the negligent acts involve bending the laws to fit, say, an intelligence
gathering op? We probably wouldn't ever hear about it..especially if it involves sensitive information for an intelligence gathering program paid
for by our government (for a variety of reasons)..
The other scary part is that the government could include wide ranging legal authority to private industry BY CONTRACT to conduct intelligence
gathering operations here at home without having to adhere to any laws that would normally be a brick wall to organisations like the CIA or FBI.
The government officially allowed blackwater to bid on lucrative private intelligence contracts as of last year. We have no way of knowing whether or
not Blackwater already has covert intelligence-gathering operations going on now (they probably do).. The entire scenario creates somewhat of a
"smokescreen" to the public at large by allowing private contractors to conduct these kinds of operations without having to publicly announce their
activities (secrecy is obviously essential to any intelligence gathering op in the first place).
Meanwhile, most people think that blackwater simply works as a security contractor when blackwater personnel could be reading your emails as we
speak.. And even if they are found somehow breaking the law, they could already have a bulletproof vest just depending on what is within the
stipulations and clauses of said contract. All of these potential unforeseen problems have probably already been accounted for and included within
the clauses of the contract(s). The CIA, the FBI, they are federal organisations that fall directly under somewhat of a federally structured
authority (they also answer directly to our government because they have to). This is different.
This entire idea of private industry conducting covert intel operations should make everyone think twice.. Not everyone really understands the
severity of the implications and possibilities involved with such a move by our government to allow all of this under our watch.
At the time it appeared alot like yet another move by the Bush administration to give private industry more and more power and authority (somewhat of
a transfer of authority/power from the public sector to the private sector).. Meanwhile, these contractors have god knows what on their hard-drives
and they don't necessarily have to report that information to the government (probably only what is within the contract). We recently had stories
about how VA laptops were stolen with millions of social security numbers and other information.. What happens when a blackwater employee has such
information? Nothing.. Because they can claim it is part of their intelligence gathering operations..
But what happens when such a company refuses to release that information to the government? Or better yet, what would happen if blackwater, with all
this information, was hacked? (We know the government has half-decent COMSEC. What about private companies?). All they would have to do is fake a
fire or something, steel the hard drives, and claim everything was lost in the fire. Giving private industry this kind of wide-ranging authority
raises all kinds of red flags that alot of people just aren't aware of.
-ChriS
[edit on 1-2-2009 by BlasteR]