Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

[Jan Klimkowski]

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.

Myra - Blackwater (aka Xe, aka Manchurian Global :creep is currently a bit of a problem for Them.

Jeremy Scahill is an excellent investigative journalist, and has been on Blackwater's case for some time. I fully expect Blackwater to become less publicly visible, whilst remaining an operator in this arena through sub-contracts etc.

The history of Private Military Contractors (PMCs) reveals that they do a lot of the dirty work that needs to be "plausibly deniable" by the state. When a particular PMC starts attracting too much attention, it reincorporates or morphs into other corporate entities.

Take Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI). They basically ran Operation Storm for the Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinan armies during the Yugoslav civil war, supplying training, military advisors and generals. This led to the ethnic cleansing of 200-300,000 Serbs from Krajina.

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)

(Full article here on Krajina is worth reading: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...va&aid=795)

And who are MPRI?

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]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Pr..._Resources

By their spooks, shall ye know them....

[Peter Lemkin]

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?

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]

...
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.

[Peter Lemkin]

...
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.

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. These numbers relate explicitly to DoD security contractors. Companies like Blackwater and its successor Triple Canopy work on State Department contracts and it is unclear if these contractors are included in the over-all statistics. This means, the number of individual “security” contractors could be quite higher, as could the scope of their expansion.

There really are quite a few of them now and the one that was Blackwater [forget its new iteration, of the month] is not even the largest, but does I think, get the largest contracts, thus far. Several are almost as large and not even talked about. It is both part of the general move to privitize everything [military included] and adds layers of deniability that whatever was done [murder/kidnap/etc.] were done by the US Government. In fact, when Blackwater had one of its employees caught in a really ugly death, they said he was not even doing so on Blackwater's 'time', but cast him to the wind to fight it legally on his own. I look at it as a kind of formation of an SS within the New Reich. 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'.

[Magda Hassan]

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]

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.

Tell you what, most of the professional soldiers are none too happy with it either, as they get about 10% or less of the pay of these guys - who are doing the same thing and with the same training. When they do 'special' missions they get paid much more. When a soldier does a special mission he gets the same pay he gets when he is washing his socks or watching TV. At one time in Iraq, all top US Officals had Blackwater guards and drivers/security - none of it was Army or other US Services....

[Ed Jewett]

There are parallels, of course, with the Schutzstaffel or .

[Myra Bronstein]

...

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'.

Peter, you already put it perfectly when you said the Republicans and Democrats play good cop/bad cop with us.

Anyone who still believes in Obama is seriously deluded.

[Magda Hassan]

Death Squad

Blackwater Accused of Creating 'Killing Program'


A memo obtained by SPIEGEL indicates that cooperation between the CIA and private security firm Blackwater was deeper than previously known. SPIEGEL has uncovered further details about a plan to set up squads for targeted killings of suspected al-Qaida leadership in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, the CIA disclosed that it had hired private security contractor Blackwater to kill senior al-Qaida members. The assassination-program has since drawn strong criticism in Washington. However, SPIEGEL has learned that the level of cooperation between the CIA and the paid mercenaries at Blackwater was even deeper than previously known.


In a memo obtained by SPIEGEL, two former employees describe details of cooperation between the firm and the intelligence agency that then-Vice President Dick Cheney asked the CIA not to disclose to the United States Congress. Even today, members of Congress do not have a complete image of the activities Blackwater undertook on behalf of the government. The intelligence service commissioned Blackwater and its subsidiaries to transport terror suspects from Guantanamo to interrogations at secret prison camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The paper identifies aircraft movements and unveils how the flights were disguised. The memo says: "The CIA hired Blackwater to conduct extraordinary renditions". And: "Blackwater flew the rendition targets from Fort Perry and Cuba to Kandahar, Afghanistan."
Blackwater also supported the CIA with other controversial activities during the Bush years, the memo states. "The CIA hired Blackwater to conduct targeted killings in Afghanistan," it reads. In July, the new CIA chief appointed by President Barack Obama, Leon Panetta first discussed an "assassination program" with members of Congress in a classified meeting.
The aim of the program was to recruit special commandos who could be trained to conduct assassinations of al-Qaida leadership. Over the years though, CIA officials told members of Senate, the program never really managed to get out of the planning stage.
A "Hitman"
Now, further details have emerged. The memo names five participants who were responsible for building the assassination team, including a member of the Blackwater's paratrooper team and an employee of Blackwater Security Consulting, who, according to the memo was meant to be used as a "hitman." The most important person named in the memo is the former third from the top at the CIA, ex-executive director Alvin Bernard Krongard. "Krongard set up the teams," the paper claims. After he left the CIA, Krongard switched to Blackwater's advisory board.
Confronted with the details of the memo on Wednesday, neither Blackwater nor Krongard would comment on questions submitted by SPIEGEL before its printing deadline on Friday. Asked for comment by SPIEGEL, a CIA spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny that the transports of prisoners had taken place or the existence of a killing program. "We do not comment on our contractual relationships," he said. However, he said the details of the memo included "mistakes," although he chose not to elaborate. Stacy DeLuke, the spokewoman of Blackwater (now called Xe Services), answered in an e-mail: "Due to the sensitive nature of these allegations, we are not inclined to comment at this time."
Next week, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is expected to decide whether it will hear a civil suit against Blackwater by the company's victims.
Following the al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, then-President George W. Bush and Cheney deployed private security firms in grand style. Almost overnight, Blackwater transformed itself into an empire funded to the tune of $1 billion by US taxpayers. The company was able to obtain 70 percent of its commissions without going through the standard bidding process. Blackwater also continues to work with the Obama administration. The firm currently handles security for all US diplomats in Afghanistan. However, an increasing number of Democrats on Capitol Hill are calling for the US government to cease working with Blackwater.
Editor's note: This has been translated from a German-language press release published by SPIEGEL on Saturday. The full version of the story will be posted on the SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL Web site on Monday.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/worl...05,00.html

[Jan Klimkowski]

Alvin Bernard Krongard, eh?

Oh my.

"Buzzy" to his intimates. :willy::willy::willy::willy:

Magda - I think we need an Octopus smiley.....

:bandit: