{"id":331,"date":"2009-08-04T17:26:11","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T17:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder.html"},"modified":"2009-08-04T17:26:11","modified_gmt":"2009-08-04T17:26:11","slug":"blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder.html","title":{"rendered":"Blackwater&#8217;s Founder Guilty of Murder?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>UPDATES I &#8211; IV<\/b>&nbsp; on Blackwater and the accuracy of these reports below the fold.<\/p>\n<p>I have long thought <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blackwater:_The_Rise_of_the_World%27s_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army\">Blackwater <\/a>was one of the scariest and most subversive institutions the Bush regime established within the US.&nbsp; Highly armed, lethally trained, militantly Christian at its top, and replacing the Army in many things, in my view Blackwater provided the core of a private army willing to do the dirty work of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dominionism\">Christian dominionists<\/a> if and when the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n<p>Now it turns out its founder, Erik Prince, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/20090817\/scahill\">may also be a murderer<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Not only that, a murderer who killed or facilitated the deaths of men who &#8220;knew too much&#8221; about his operations.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p>I have heard people are having difficulty accessing the story.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/world\/141763\/blackwater_founder_implicated_in_murder\/\"> Here<\/a> is another access point.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<br \/><b>UPDATE<br \/><\/b>Correction: Blackwater was founded in the 1990s to<br \/>\nprovide training to military and law enforcement people.&nbsp; It&#8217;s<br \/>\nexpansion into a private army came under Bush.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That said, nothing<br \/>\nelse is changed in this post.<br \/><b><br \/>UPDATE II<\/b><br \/>One commentor in the<br \/>\nresponses suggested the problem was disgruntled employees.&nbsp; Maybe, but<br \/>\nthat is also standard operating procedure for corporations seeking to<br \/>\ndiscredit whistleblowers.&nbsp; I have looked around a little bit more, and<br \/>\nthe Nation article reported the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is not the first time an allegation has surfaced that Blackwater<br \/>\nused dog food bags to smuggle weapons into Iraq. <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Blotter\/story?id=6254508&amp;page=1\">ABC<br \/>\nNews&#8217;s Brian Ross reported<\/a> in November 2008 that a &#8220;federal grand<br \/>\njury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial<br \/>\nprivate security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and<br \/>\nsilencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food.&#8221; Another former<br \/>\nBlackwater employee has also confirmed this information to <i>The<br \/>\nNation<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>ABC also reported<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Another former Blackwater insider who talked with ABCNews.com said<br \/>\ncompany executives made the decision to smuggle the weapons and<br \/>\nsilencers in the dog food &#8220;because it&#8217;s a war over there and our guys<br \/>\nneed them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Silencers<br \/>\nare useful for assassinations, not guard duty which is what Blackwater<br \/>\nallegedly was in Iraq to perform.&nbsp; M-14 are assault weapons and so were<br \/>\nofficially denied to Blackwater.&nbsp; The ABC report reported Blackwater as<br \/>\nsaying they owned no M-14s that in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>That would seem a<br \/>\npretty definitive statement, except that according to ABC&#8217;s report, &#8220;US<br \/>\nArmy officials told ABCNews.com earlier this year, at least one<br \/>\nBlackwater M4 weapon was discovered during a raid on an suspected<br \/>\ninsurgent location in Iraq.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So Blackwater has a record of<br \/>\nlying abut these kinds of issues &#8211; and of acting contrary to its<br \/>\ncontracts with the government, in ways that suggest it is involved in<br \/>\nincreased levels of violence and killinhg.&nbsp; I for one am not surprised.<\/p>\n<p>To the normal sociopathy of corporations we need to keep in mind the special kind of dementia assciated with the religious right. <\/p>\n<p><b>UPDATE III<\/b><br \/>Another report, with more details on alleged murders and the affidavits, is available from the <a href=\"http:\/\/michiganmessenger.com\/24298\/blackwater-accused-of-serious-crimes-by-former-employees\">Michigan Messenger<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><b>UPDATE IV<\/b><br \/>Sometimes even bad guys might be innocent of some things.&nbsp; Mark Kleiman over at The Reality Community has some<a href=\"http:\/\/www.samefacts.com\/archives\/_\/2009\/08\/who_died.php\"> hard questions <\/a>for those sure that Prince is guilty. This story is still filled with uncerytainties.&nbsp; What appears certain is Blackwater&#8217;s illegal activity, its militant Christian leadership, its ruthlessness, and its danger to us as a private army. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATES I &#8211; IV&nbsp; on Blackwater and the accuracy of these reports below the fold. I have long thought Blackwater was one of the scariest and most subversive institutions the Bush regime established within the US.&nbsp; Highly armed, lethally trained, militantly Christian at its top, and replacing the Army in many things, in my view&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blackwater&#039;s Founder Guilty of Murder? - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackwater&#039;s Founder Guilty of Murder? - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UPDATES I &#8211; IV&nbsp; on Blackwater and the accuracy of these reports below the fold. I have long thought Blackwater was one of the scariest and most subversive institutions the Bush regime established within the US.&nbsp; Highly armed, lethally trained, militantly Christian at its top, and replacing the Army in many things, in my view&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-04T17:26:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blackwater's Founder Guilty of Murder? - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/blackwaters-founder-guilty-of-murder.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blackwater's Founder Guilty of Murder? - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"UPDATES I &#8211; IV&nbsp; on Blackwater and the accuracy of these reports below the fold. 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