A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
Click the link to read more, but Congressman Dennis Kucinich (who is on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and has been investigating Prince and Blackwater since 2004) was briefed on the substance of these allegations by The Nation and gave the following response:
"If these allegations are true, Blackwater has been a criminal enterprise defrauding taxpayers and murdering innocent civilians." ...
"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally and domestically. The question is why they operated with impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations should be thoroughly investigated."
A hearing in the civil cases against Blackwater is scheduled for August 7.
I've gotta hand it to Blackwater Worldwide. They get more free publicity than John McCain. The latest news is courtesy of Voice of Mordor:
Erik Prince (prince in name, not in nature), brother-in-law to the leaseholders of the Michigan Republican party, is fighting a lawsuit against his mercenary business in Afghanistan, brought by widows of three American soldiers who died when a plane owned by a sister corporation to Blackwater, Presidential Airways [crashed].
The companies lawyers are arguing before a US federal court that Shari'a law should be applied, and not the current legal standard found in the United States of America.
Why is Blackwater seeking to hide under a burqa to have the judge apply Islamic law? Because Shari'a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work. Blackwater would be off the hook and could pocket even more money.
Oh, oh. Now they've opened Pandora's box. Or, as Attaturk at Firedoglake said:
Don't let too many Republicans know this, but Shari'a law is apparently great for business and bad for the most evil people on earth, not Al Qaeda silly, AMERICAN TRIAL LAWYERS. [...]
If this becomes well-known, the GOP's corporate base will become fundamentalist Muslims faster than you can say Mecca Oil & Gas.
According to the AP, President Bush closed a loophole yesterday that defense contractors had been using to avoid paying millions of dollars in payroll taxes. [emphasis mine]
Bush signed into law the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act, which provides tax relief for military families. Included in the legislation is a provision that would treat foreign subsidiaries of U.S. government contractors as American employers. That means they now have to pay the taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare programs. [...]
Lawmakers wanted to end the practice, which has become widespread among American businesses. The Senate Finance Committee estimates that thousands of companies have registered in the Caymans to dodge taxes. The losers, the committee said, are ordinary Americans who foot a larger share of the bill to pay for programs that benefit the elderly and the disabled.
In an example of how much tax revenue was being lost, the Boston Globe reported in April that Kellogg, Brown, and Root, which receives an estimated $16 billion a year for defense contracts in Iraq, avoided close to $100 million a year in payroll taxes by hiring workers through foreign shell companies. That's a large chunk of the nearly $846 million in revenues that The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will be brought in over the next 10 years by shutting that loophole.
I'm not sure if this will affect Blackwater Worldwide since they're headquartered in Moyock, N.C., but it should since they're violating IRS laws too according to Rep. Henry Waxman.
In a letter to Erik Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, Rep. Henry Waxman wrote:
"I have received documents which suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion. According to an IRS ruling in March 2007, Blackwater violated federal tax laws by treating an armed guard as an "independent contractor." The implication of this ruling is that Blackwater may have avoided paying millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes for which it is legally responsible.
Waxman's staff looked at the most recent State Department contract and estimated that between May 2006 and March 2007, Blackwater avoided paying $15.5 million in Social Security and Medicare taxes and $500,000 in unemployment taxes.
That's a lot of tax money they owe the country, but Blackwater can afford it. Since 2001, they've been granted federal contracts worth more than $1 billion - contracts that are being paid for by taxpayers.
As Sen. John Kerry said earlier this year, "Failing to contribute to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name of short-term corporate greed."
Looking beyond the ongoing Democratic primary and the Kwame Kilpatrick drama, this is your chance to vote for the worst corporate abuser. Corporate Accountability International (CAI) has started a nationwide voting campaign to name and shame companies accused of abusive practices, including influencing elected officials, undermining democratic decision-making, endangering the environment and public health, war profiteering and predatory lending. Some of the nominees were a surprise to me (Wendy's) and some weren't (Blackwater and Nestle). Last year more than 20,000 people took part in their poll, which named ExxonMobil, Haliburton, and Wal-Mart as the worst abusers in the corporate world.
Here are this year's nominees:
ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), for helping make Indonesia the world's third worst contributor to global warming through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.
Blackwater Worldwide, for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush Administration to secure lucrative contracts.
Countrywide, for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers, and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees.
Mattel, for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated children's toys, and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals.
Nestlé, for numerous labor violations - including child exploitation - contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies with its bottled water brands.
Toyota, for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions while hypocritically spending millions to advertise its environmental "leadership" and popular Prius hybrids.
Wal-Mart, for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation's health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.
Wendy's, for its contribution to the growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, and for refusing to meet nutritional labeling regulations.
Click here to vote. Each voter has three votes to cast on nominated corporations or for write-in candidates. Voters are also encouraged to post comments about specific corporations on the ballot. The top three vote-getters will be inducted into the Corporate Hall of Shame when the polls close on July 4th.
And just in case you wonder whether this kind of campaign does any good, here's a success story regarding Waste Management and another about Columbia/HCA. Public opinion matters, especially negative public opinion.
Wow! Blackwater is intent on putting themselves out there as equals to our military. Yesterday, we learned about their paratroopers parachuting onto the field during halftime at the SDSU "Fleet Week" game and today there's this news from Calitic:
Well, now we find out that Blackwater is intending on corrupting the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (college football game) to be played between Cal Berkeley and the Air Force Academy in Fort Worth, TX on New Year's Eve.
This is a disgrace to our fighting men and women who earn next to nothing compared to these mercenaries who play by their own rules and not those of our professional military forces. I can't believe the university is going along with this either, unless Blackwater slipped them a huge monetary donation. That would make sense. Everything in our country seems to be for sale these days.
Read Calitics suggestion on what we can do about this:
I don't want Blackwater associating themselves with the good name of our military any more, whether it's at Fleet Week or at the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.
If you don't like it either, pass this around and raise some hell. Ask anyone you know at Berkeley if they're happy that their university will be participating in a promotional event for a lawless mercenary organization.
Even if you don't know anyone at Berkley, it can't hurt to write their administration and let them know how you feel. Before you start raising hell though, check out this YouTube video of a Blackwater parachutist landing on the field at the Fleet Week SDSU game (around the 2:45 mark). He's holding the American flag and his parachute is emblazoned with the Blackwater logo.
Don Bergman of Park Township offers his take on Blackwater USA in the Holland Sentinel and asks some important questions:
Is Blackwater better-equipped than the U.S. military, better-trained and better-led to do the jobs traditionally done by Marines? If this is true, then the Gauls are at the gate. If not true, then why aren't the Marines guarding our diplomats? Are we short of personnel? If so, where's the draft? Why has this president chosen to fight this war with private contractors, which make up about half of our operations in Iraq, and nearly half of these, about 48,000, are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters, and bulletproof trucks? Why have these companies been exempt from the rules that govern our military?
What kind of people are we when our private hired soldiers can take over a major public space, kill 17 civilians without provocation and escape being held accountable?
Taxpayer subsidies for private mercenaries are antithetical to a democratic republic.
It really frustrates me that the Bush administration and Blackwater continue to blur the lines between these hired mercenaries and our troops. They're not in the same league as our soldiers. Blackwater's hired mercenaries don't make the same long-term commitments to serve multiple tours of duty for low pay (they earn 6 figures) like our soldiers do, yet they're being honored liked they're equals.
How so? For six years, San Diego has been honoring our military through a series of Fleet Week events featuring parades, displays of aircraft, etc. No problem there until the San Diego State Aztecs devoted their halftime show to honoring our veterans - a halftime show that included Blackwater USA.
The House tweaked the SCHIP bill to address some of the concerns Bush and other Republicans used as an excuse to vote against the program. They hope to vote on it again today. Here are some of the changes:
It clarifies the language on the claim that was made that people making $83,000 a year could receive SCHIP; that was patently not true, and it is clarified in the legislation that it is not so.
It addresses who is eligible for the legislation and clearly defines eligibility and that does not include illegal aliens. They are not entitled to benefits. In fact, you cannot get benefits in our country unless you have been here for five years and legally so. The bill makes that very clear.
The third category of complaint was that more adults were receiving the benefits than should and the previous legislation phased out adults receiving benefits over two years. Those are adults that are members of families that are receiving SCHIP. Over one year this new bill will phase out those adults without children who are eligible to receive these benefits in some states, as they have received the opportunity to do so in the past.
I'm not too optimistic this revised bill will pass. Bush - and those Republicans who still fall in line behind him (see the men on the right sidebar) - will find some excuse to vote against it. Maybe they'll use the same excuse as before, that people who aren't really eligible will be helped by the program and waste taxpayer money. Considering the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, that argument seems pretty weak.
Actually, the president's war has created a whole new class of welfare queens that we should be more concerned about - private contractors - and Erik Prince Is the 21st Century Cadillac Queen according to this blogger:
Reagan's welfare Cadillac queen was a myth. Prince and his company are shamefully real.
Prince's Blackwater is shamefully real, but so are the 47 million uninsured children and adults in this country. The way I see it, this vote will paint a clear picture of where their priorities lie. What will it be Republicans - help for uninsured children or more wingnut welfare?
Looking beyond the ongoing Democratic primary and the Kwame Kilpatrick drama, this is your chance to vote for the worst corporate abuser. Corporate Accountability International (CAI) has started a 
