Myra Bronstein Wrote:I find it really helpful that you consistently link current events to their historical antecedents Jan. It gives instant perspective and context and shows the continuity and the--all important--big picture.

Hee hee, The Bad and the Ugly.

Quote:The invasion of Krajina was preceded by a thorough CIA and DIA analysis of the region. (14) According to Balkan specialist Ivo Banac, this "tactical and intelligence support" was furnished to the Croatian Army at the beginning of its offensive. (15)

In November 1994, the United States and Croatia signed a military agreement. Immediately afterward, U.S. intelligence agents set up an operations center on the Adriatic island of Brac, from which reconnaissance aircraft were launched. Two months earlier, the Pentagon contracted Military Professional Resources, Inc (MPRI) to train the Croatian military.(16) According to a Croatian officer, MPRI advisors "lecture us on tactics and big war operations on the level of brigades, which is why we needed them for Operation Storm when we took the Krajina." Croatian sources claim that U.S. satellite intelligence was furnished to the Croatian military. (17) Following the invasion of Krajina, the U.S. rewarded Croatia with an agreement "broadening existing cooperation" between MPRI and the Croatian military. (18) U.S. advisors assisted in the reorganization of the Croatian Army. Referring to this reorganization in an interview with the newspaper Vecernji List, Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic said, "We are building the foundations of our organization on the traditions of the Croatian home guard" - pro-Nazi troops in World War II. (19)

It is worth examining the nature of what one UN official terms "America's newest ally." During World War II, Croatia was a Nazi puppet state in which the Croatian fascist Ustashe murdered as many as one million Serbs, Jews, and Roman (Gypsies). Disturbing signs emerged with the election of Franjo Tudjman to the Croatian presidency in 1990 Tudjman said, "I am glad my wife is neither Serb nor Jew," and wrote that accounts of the Holocaust were "exaggerated" and "one-sided." (20)

Much of Tudjman's financial backing was provided by Ustasha émigrés and several Ustasha war criminals were invited to attend the first convention of Tudjman's political party, the Croatian Democratic Union. (21)

Quote:MPRI is a private military contractor that provides a wide range of services to both public and private customers, most notably the United States Department of Defense. MPRI specializes in various professions such as law enforcement, security, military training, logistics, etc. By its own account MPRI operates in over 40 countries. The firm is based in Alexandria, Virginia.

A member of International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), MPRI was founded in 1987 by eight ex-officers of the United States Army. It was sold to L-3 Communications in June 2000 for $40 million. In 2004, MPRI bought Civilian Police International. The firm also serves as additional reinforcements in U.S. bases in Korea.

Management
MPRI's President, retired General Carl E. Vuono, served as Army chief of staff during the Gulf War and the U.S. invasion of Panama. The Vice President of the firm, General Ronald H. Griffith is a former Army vice chief of staff. Other top executives include General Crosbie E. Saint, former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe; and Lt. General Harry E. Soyster, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. This concentration of experience makes MPRI and other firms like it quite influential. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell described General Vuono as "one of my dearest friends."[1]

Myra Bronstein Wrote:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:It is quite amazing that: it continues with the Obama Admin., as with the Bush; that it changes its name almost every month and for every project; that its founder states that its mission is nothing short of a Christian crusade to kill Muslims and that the MSM ignores all of the above....not to mention all of their myriad crimes against humanity and the rules of war, et al. They only had the name Xe for a few months, but like a true covert entity they are, they have already shed it.....

I was just gonna ask about that Peter. The only use I've see of "Xe" for Blackwater was the original news account of the name change (from something infamous and unspeakable to something unpronounceable and unspeakable). And they've consistently been referred to as Blackwater ever since.

Did they officially change their name back to Blackwater or did it just fail to catch on?

Peter Lemkin Wrote:...
I believe they have yet a third [official] name; in fact according to Scahill they have about 10-20 names, one for each of their projects.....how this is possible I don't know..but it seem to be.

Myra Bronstein Wrote:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:...
I believe they have yet a third [official] name; in fact according to Scahill they have about 10-20 names, one for each of their projects.....how this is possible I don't know..but it seem to be.

They really are quite the shape shifters. They mutate and grow--like a virus.

Magda Hassan Wrote:No doubt Blackwater/Xi themselves (and all the others) are contracting out various jobs. No one is responsible, everyone has deniability and everyone gets a piece of the action.

Peter Lemkin Wrote:...

According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of “Private Security Contractors” working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the and a 29% increase in Afghanistan.
...
Shameful that Obama has rather than condemn them, used them more and more of them for more things. One has to conclude he doesn't just have bad advisors and somehow surrounded himself with Bushees in other clothing [of the Emperor's New Clothes variety], but is himself just another, if more intelligent and articulate, one of the puppets for the Oligarchy. Have we had change? Patriot Act repealed? Homeland Security scaled-down? Banksters thrown in jail and crooked Finance controlled? Etc. Some rhetorical flourishes and some new icing on the 'let them eat cake'.