Wasn't There a Doobie Bros. Song About Black Water? (UPDATED)

Xmas tree ornament ($11.50) from the Blackwater PROSHOP.
The "somewhat popular" Tbogg leads us to a Politico report on Mittens Romney's connection to Blackwater USA. Here are the hot parts:

The top counterterrorism and national security adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign is Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA.
[...]
It’s become de rigueur for campaigns to assemble teams of experts to advise candidates and bolster their bona fides, particularly on their weaker issues. In tapping Black as a senior adviser to the campaign, Romney said in an April statement: “Black’s experience at the forefront of our nation's counterterrorism efforts will be a tremendous asset.”
And three days before the Blackwater shootings, Romney announced Black would lead the campaign’s 10-member counterterrorism policy group. Black served nearly 30 years in the CIA, eventually heading its counterterrorism efforts and later those of the State Department, before joining Blackwater in 2005 as vice chairman. After the shooting, though, a Romney spokesman would not say whether Black has advised Romney on the use of security contractors in Iraq. Nor would he elaborate on Black’s role in the campaign or answer specific questions about whether the U.S.’s level of oversight over security contractors is adequate.
The spokesman directed questions to Blackwater, whose spokeswoman did not return telephone and e-mail messages.
[...]
An aide to Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said he supports “greater oversight of private security contractors including imposing more robust reporting requirements as part of their contracts.” Hunter, who is running a long-shot campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, appears to be the only presidential candidate to have accepted contributions from Blackwater executives, which is somewhat surprising given that company chairman Erik Prince has given more than $230,000 to Republican candidates and committees.
The $2,000 Hunter received from company president Gary Jackson and Prince was for his congressional campaign.
Hunter’s aide said his boss thinks it's premature to consider sanctioning Blackwater or ending its contract “until all of the facts of the incident are known.”

Jeremy Scahill's testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee last Friday is @ The Nation, where commenter Dawn Remington is thnking along the same lines we did in the item below:

The next step by Bush & Cheney will be for these Blackwater Nazi-type mercenaries to turn on the American people. Mark my words.

BusinessWeek has a quickie on the co., too:

Experts say that success -- combined with the murky legal world in which Blackwater operates and its strong ties to Republicans -- that has allowed the company to operate with impunity.
[...]
Blackwater's ties to the GOP run deep. Company founder and former Navy Seal Erik Prince has given more than $200,000 to Republican causes, a pattern of donation followed by other top Blackwater executives. The company's vice chairman is Cofer Black, a former CIA counterterrorism official who is serving as a senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Members of Blackwater's legal team have included former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and current White House Counsel Fred Fielding. The company tapped a GOP-connected public relations firm after the grisly 2004 deaths of four Blackwater employees who were ambushed by insurgents in Fallujah. Their remains were strung from a bridge.
"I'm disappointed it became a matter of politics," said Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow in foreign policy at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "At the end of the day, it's really about fundamental choices that the nation needs to make: What aspects of your national security do you keep within the control of your government?"

Really, there's no reason not to outsource/privatize policy decisions to the people who'll be carrying out the policies.

UPDATE (24 September 2007 @ 2011): More info on Erik Prince, from some sort of "Christian" (not really, they don't seem to believe that this is a Christian nation, and are more interested in something called "social justice," rather than God's awesome power to destroy evil sinners) website, Talk To Action:

Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, the son of conservative multi-millionaire, the late Edgar Prince, and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the wife of Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos. Over the past two decades, both the Prince and DeVos families have given millions of dollars to Republican Party candidates, and conservative Christian organizations and causes.
[...]
In 1997, Erik Prince founded Blackwater USA, a company that has grown into what journalist Jeremy Scahill terms "the world's most powerful mercenary army," in his recently released book titled "Blackwater."
Both Prince and his company prefer to avoid the spotlight.
[...]
In his bestselling book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" (Nation Books, 2007), Scahill describes the company as "a sort of Praetorian Guard for the Bush Administration's 'global war on terror.'"
He maintains that Prince "has been in the thick of this right-wing effort to unite conservative Catholics, evangelicals, and neoconservatives in a common theoconservative holy war."
[...]In addition to Prince, "A number of Blackwater executives are deeply conservative Christians, including corruption-smeared former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, who is also a member of the Sovereign Order of Malta, which Scahill describes as 'a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century [to defend] 'territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems,'" Chris Barsanti wote in a review of the book for In These Times.
[...]
Blackwater USA is the brainchild of Erik Prince -- a former Navy SEAL and son of Edgar Prince, a wealthy Michigan auto-parts supplier -- described by Scahill as a "radical right wing Christian mega-millionaire" who is a strong financial backer of President George W. Bush, as well as a donor to a host of conservative Christian political causes.

In the 1980s "the Prince family merged with one of the most venerable conservative families in the United States," when Erik's sister Betsy - nine years his senior -- married Dick DeVos, whose father Richard, founded the multilevel marketing firm Amway. The two families exercised enormous political influence both inside and outside Michigan. "They were one of the greatest bankrollers of far-right causes in U.S. history, and with their money they propelled extremist Christian politicians and activists to positions of prominence," Scahill writes.

Despite what we said earlier in the comments, Mr. Scahill did look at Prince's theocratic interests. Plus we get The Order of Malta. And one of America's most venerable conservative families is behind scam/cult Amway. Is the "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon in here anywhere? Just Another Blog™ may have to go to the library &...Ah, the hell w/ it. Here's the review of Scahill's book mentioned above.

Trigger-Happy for Jesus (Or At Least The Pope)

Our hero, the Prince of Darkness & Popery.Previously, on Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™: We looked at "private security contractor" Blackwater USA, & its founder Erik Prince, as well as videos & a tease. Today, the lying liberals of the biased mainstream media & an op-ed columnist (Or is that "Communist?") look at gov't. (Well, it's the State Dep't., you can't get more sissified than that & remain in our manly gov't.) statistics, and the larger implications of foreign policy out-sourcing.

So-called news first:

Blackwater is now the focus of investigations in both Baghdad and Washington over a Sept. 16 shooting in which at least 11 Iraqis were killed.

Beyond that episode, the company has been involved in cases in which its personnel fired weapons while guarding State Department officials in Iraq at least twice as often per convoy mission as security guards working for other American security firms, the officials said.

[...]

“The incident rate for Blackwater is higher, there is a distinction,” said a senior American government official who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss a delicate, continuing investigation. “The real question that is open for discussion is why.”

A Blackwater spokeswoman declined to comment.

(Off topic: Have you noticed how the press has started attempting to explain exactly why they are using anonymous sources? No longer the "senior official speaking on 'background' only," now it's "in order to discuss a delicate, continuing investigation," or "not authorized to speak on the matter.")

Rosa Brooks opines in the L. A. Times:

The White House's motives are obvious. Why fight another war, with all the bother of convincing Congress, if you can quietly hire a private military company to fight it for you? Why interrogate suspected insurgents if you can outsource the whole messy business? Why go through the tedious process of training Afghan judges if DynCorp will handle it instead -- as long as you're not too picky about the results?

As for the corporations so eagerly lapping up the contracting dollars, there's no conspiracy -- it's just the good old profit motive. If the White House wants to sell off U.S. foreign policy, someone's going to buy it. Prince, the former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater, is straightforward about his company's goal: "We're trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service."

Since FedEx rendered the post office irrelevant for all but the most trivial forms of mail, this means you can kiss our national security apparatus goodbye.

Now we start picking on Erik Prince. An excerpt from an extract of Jeremy Scahill's book on Blackwater, published in the Times Online (The extract is a long one for you Internet attention span types, but here are our favorite parts):

Blackwater is a private army, and it is controlled by one person: Erik Prince, a radical right-wing Christian mega-millionaire who has served as a major bankroller not only of President Bush’s campaigns but of the broader Christian-right agenda. In fact, as of this writing Prince has never given a penny to a Democratic candidate—certainly his right, but an unusual pattern for the head of such a powerful war-servicing corporation, and one that speaks volumes about the sincerity of his ideological commitment. Blackwater has been one of the most effective battalions in Rumsfeld’s war on the Pentagon, and Prince speaks boldly about the role his company is playing in the radical transformation of the U.S. military. “When you ship overnight, do you use the postal service or do you use FedEx?” Prince recently asked during a panel discussion with military officials. “Our corporate goal is to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal service.”

[...]

Blackwater claims that its forces operate under the legally impotent and unenforceable code of conduct written by its own trade association, ironically named the International Peace Operations Association. Erik Prince says his forces are “accountable to our country,” as though declarations of loyalty to the flag are evidence of just motives or activities or somehow a substitute for an independent legal framework.

[...]

Prince likes to position Blackwater as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military, and in September 2005 he issued a company-wide memorandum requiring all company employees and contractors to swear the same oath of loyalty to the U.S. Constitution as Blackwater’s “National Security-related clients (i.e. Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies)” to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. . . . So help me God.”

But despite the portrayal of Blackwater as an all-American operation seeking to defend the defenseless, some of its most ambitious and secretive projects reveal a very different and frightening reality. In May 2004, Blackwater quietly registered a new division, Greystone Limited, in the U.S. government’s Central Contracting office. But instead of incorporating the company in North Carolina or Virginia or Delaware, like Blackwater’s other divisions, Greystone was registered offshore in the Caribbean island-nation of Barbados. It was duly classified by the U.S. government as a “tax-exempt” “corporate entity.” Greystone’s promotional literature offered prospective clients “Proactive Engagement Teams” that could be hired “to meet emergent or existing security requirements for client needs overseas. Our teams are ready to conduct stabilization efforts, asset protection and recovery, and emergency personnel withdrawal.” It also offered a wide range of training services, including in “defensive and offensive small group operations.”

Greystone boasted that it “maintains and trains a workforce drawn from a diverse base of former special operations, defense, intelligence, and law enforcement professionals ready on a moment’s notice for global deployment.” The countries from which Greystone claimed to draw recruits were: the Philippines, Chile, Nepal, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Peru, many of whose forces have human rights records that are questionable at best. It asked applicants to check off their qualifications in weapons: AK-47 rifle, Glock 19, M-16 series rifle, M-4 carbine rifle, machine gun, mortar, and shoulder-fired weapons (RPG, LAAW). Among the qualifications the application sought: sniper, marksman, door gunner, explosive ordnance, counter-assault team. In Iraq, Blackwater has deployed scores of Chilean mercenaries, some of whom trained and served under the brutal regime of Augusto Pinochet. “We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals,” said Blackwater president Gary Jackson. “The Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system.”

With domestic armed forces stretched to the limit—and a draft off the table for political reasons— the U.S. government is left to struggle to find nation-state allies willing to staff the occupations of its “global war on terror.” If the national armies of other states will not join a “coalition of the willing,” Blackwater and its allies offer a different sort of solution: an alternative internationalization of the force achieved by recruiting private soldiers from across the globe. If foreign governments are not on board, foreign soldiers—many of whose home countries oppose the U.S. wars— can still be enlisted, at a price.

This process, critics allege, is nothing short of a subversion of the very existence of the nation-state and of principles of sovereignty and self-determination. “The increasing use of contractors, private forces or as some would say ‘mercenaries’ makes wars easier to begin and to fight—it just takes money and not the citizenry,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose organization has sued private contractors for alleged human rights violations in Iraq. “To the extent a population is called upon to go to war, there is resistance, a necessary resistance to prevent wars of self-aggrandizement, foolish wars and in the case of the United States, hegemonic imperialist wars. Private forces are almost a necessity for a United States bent on retaining its declining empire. Think about Rome and its increasing need for mercenaries. Likewise, here at home in the United States. Controlling an angry, abused population with a police force bound to obey the Constitution can be difficult—private forces can solve this ‘problem.’”

As with Halliburton, the Pentagon’s largest contractor, Blackwater is set apart from simple war profiteers by the defining characteristic of its executives’ very long view. They have not just seized a profitable moment along with many of their competitors but have set out to carve a permanent niche for themselves for decades to come. Blackwater’s aspirations are not limited to international wars, however. Its forces beat most federal agencies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, as hundreds of heavily armed Blackwater mercenaries—some fresh from deployment in Iraq—fanned out into the disaster zone. Within a week, they were officially hired by the Department of Homeland Security to operate in the U.S. Gulf, billing the federal government $950 a day per Blackwater soldier. In less than a year, the company had raked in more than $70 million in federal hurricane-related contracts—about $243,000 a day. The company saw Katrina as another moment of great opportunity and soon began applying for permits to contract its forces out to local governments in all fifty states. Blackwater executives have met with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about deploying there in the aftermath of an earthquake or another disaster. “Look, none of us loves the idea that devastation became a business opportunity,” said the Blackwater official heading up its new domestic operations division formed after Katrina. “It’s a distasteful fact, but it is what it is. Doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, even newspapers—they all make a living off of bad things happening. So do we, because somebody’s got to handle it.”

But critics see the deployment of Blackwater’s forces domestically as a dangerous precedent that could undermine U.S. democracy. “Their actions may not be subject to constitutional limitations that apply to both federal and state officials and employees—including First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Unlike police officers, they are not trained in protecting constitutional rights,” says CCR’s Michael Ratner. “These kind of paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts, functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that can and does operate outside the law. The use of these paramilitary groups is an extremely dangerous threat to our rights.”

What is particularly scary about Blackwater’s role in a war that President Bush labeled a “crusade” is that the company’s leading executives are dedicated to a Christian-supremacist agenda. Erik Prince and his family have provided generous funding to the religious right’s war against secularism and for expanding the presence of Christianity in the public sphere.

Prince is a close friend and benefactor to some of the country’s most hard right Christian evangelists, such as former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who went on to become an adviser to President Bush and a pioneer of “faith-based prisons,” and Christian conservative leader Gary Bauer, an original signer of the Project for a New American Century’s “Statement of Principles,” whom Prince has worked alongside since his youth and who was a close friend of Prince’s father. Some Blackwater executives even boast of their membership in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending “territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems.”

The Order today boasts of being “a sovereign subject of international law, with its own constitution, passports, stamps, and public institutions” and “diplomatic relations with 94 countries.” The outsourcing of U.S. military operations in Muslim countries and in secular societies to such neo-crusaders reinforces the greatest fears of many in the Arab world and other opponents of the administration’s wars.

Most of the world first heard of “private military companies” after the infamous March 31, 2004, ambush of four Blackwater soldiers in Fallujah, Iraq—a gruesome mob murder that marked the moment the war turned and the Iraqi resistance exploded. Many of the media reports at the time (and today) refer to these shadowy forces as “civilian contractors” or “foreign reconstruction workers” as though they were engineers, construction workers, humanitarians, or water specialists. The term “mercenary” was almost never used to describe them. That is no accident. Indeed, it is part of a very sophisticated rebranding campaign organized by the mercenary industry itself and increasingly embraced by policy-makers, bureaucrats, and other powerful decision makers in Washington and other Western capitals. Those men who died at Fallujah were members of Washington’s largest partner in the coalition of the willing in Iraq—bigger than Britain’s total deployment—and yet most of the world had not a clue they were there. The ambush resulted in Blackwater being positioned in a key role to affect the regulations that would oversee (or not) the rapidly expanding industry, of which Blackwater was the new leader. Three months later, the company was handed one of the U.S. government’s most valuable international security contracts: to protect diplomats and U.S. facilities. The highly publicized deaths of four of its private soldiers would prove to be the spark that set Blackwater on a path to success for years to come.

The story of Blackwater’s rise is an epic one in the history of the military-industrial complex. The company is the living embodiment of the changes wrought by the revolution in military affairs and the privatization agenda radically expanded by the Bush administration under the guise of the war on terror. But more fundamentally, it is a story about the future of war, democracy, and governance. This story goes from the company’s beginnings in 1996, with visionary Blackwater executives opening a private military training camp in order “to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing of firearms and related security training,” to its contract boom following 9/11, to the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah, where the corpses of its mercenaries were left to dangle from a bridge. It includes a rooftop firefight in Muqtada al-Sadr’s stronghold of Najaf; an expedition to the oil-rich Caspian Sea, where the administration sent Blackwater to set up a military base just miles from the Iranian border; a foray into New Orleans’s hurricane- ravaged streets; and many hours in the chambers of power in Washington, D.C., where Blackwater executives are welcomed as new heroes in the war on terror. But the rise of the world’s most powerful mercenary army began far away from the current battlefields, in the sleepy town of Holland, Michigan, where Erik Prince was born into a right-wing Christian dynasty. It was the Prince family that laid the groundwork, spending millions of dollars over many decades to bring to power the very forces that would enable Blackwater’s meteoric ascent.

Whew! Some of Erik's friends & associates, from a review of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army in Media Mouse:

The founder and CEO of Blackwater is Erik Prince, son of Edgar Prince, the now deceased businessman from Holland, Michigan. Prince's background as a Western Michigander is not just limited to geography, the brother of Betsy DeVos has also embraced the conservative religious beliefs that his family promoted zealously, particularly with their money. Erik began his political career working as an intern for Gary Bauer at the Family Research Council and also worked in the Bush I White House, although he thought that this administration was too liberal. Prince disapproved of the Bush I administration to the extent that in 1992 he supported Patrick Buchanan for President, something that got him into trouble with his sister Betsy.

Unlike his family, which is part of the Christian Reformed Church, Erik Prince is a Catholic. He most likely became Catholic when he married his first wife, who died of cancer shortly after they were married. Interestingly enough, most of the leadership at Blackwater is also Catholic, albeit a conservative wing of the church that is quite reactionary. Erik Prince is personally connected to conservative Catholic groups like Catholic Answer, Crisis magazine, and a Grand Rapids-based group, the Acton Institute. But Prince has not abandoned his Protestant/Evangelical roots and is a close friend of Watergate criminal turned believer Chuck Colson.

They have shared the podium on several occasions, even once at Calvin College. According to Scahill, Prince is aligning himself with a new Catholic/Evangelical alliance called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." The ECT manifesto states:"The century now drawing to a close has been the greatest century of missionary expansion in Christian history. We pray and we believe that this expansion has prepared the way for yet greater missionary endeavor in the first century of the Third Millennium. The two communities in world Christianity that are most evangelistically assertive and most rapidly growing are Evangelicals and Catholics."

Prince's relationship to what Scahill calls the "Theocon" movement is not marginal. Prince himself writes about this relationship and it's importance, particularly with the mission of Blackwater. Prince says "Everybody carries guns, just like the Prophet Jeremiah rebuilding the temple in Israel - a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other."

[...]

Then Fallujah happened. Several Blackwater contractors were killed in what Scahill documents as a botched mission. This didn't stop the administration and Blackwater in using the Blackwater deaths as justification for a massive military assault on that city just after the 2004 Presidential election.

Blackwater used the incident to hire its first lobbyist, Paul Behrends, from the Republican lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group. Here Prince's religious right connection paid off. Behrends was on the board of Christian Freedom International (CFI) with Prince for years. The CFI was founded by veterans from the Reagan administration, many of who were "major players in the Iran-Contra scandal."

This lobbying certainly paid off. Blackwater was able to expand in step with US foreign policy interests. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, the US set up military bases in the Caspian region. In Azerbaijan, Blackwater "would be tasked with establishing and training an elite Azeri force modeled after the US Navy SEALs that would ultimately protect the interests of the US and its allies in a hostile region." This all occurred during a time when the US State Department said there were "restriction[s] on the right of citizens to peacefully change their government; torture and beating of persons in custody; arbitrary arrests and detention, particularly of political opponents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations; and police impunity."This constant growth for Blackwater posed a problem, in that they were not able to keep up with the growing demand for training and providing mercenary forces for "security duty." Again Prince turned to his past connections. He was stationed for a period of time in Chile while in the US military. It was here that he tapped into another military source. Jose Miguel Pizarro was an ex-military man in Chile that Prince knew. Pizarro, an ardent defender of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet eventually became Blackwater's main recruiter for mercenaries from Latin America. Soon, other Chilean mercenaries, Colombians and Hondurans would become contract workers for Blackwater in Iraq. This raises interesting questions about the type of people that Blackwater employs, considering many of them have worked as part of military or para-military organizations with brutal track records.

Blackwater was also able to tap into veterans of the US intelligence community. Cofer Black a 37-year veteran of the CIA, was hired by Blackwater in February of 2005 as the company's vice chairman. Black had been appointed by Bush as his "coordinator of counterterrorism, with the rank of at large ambassador at the State Department." Soon after that the company scored another big insider in the person of Joseph Schmitz. Schmitz, before joining Blackwater was tasked with the job of overseeing all war contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Schmitz, whose connection to war profiteers was well known, determined after his investigation that "there was no wrong doing" with any of the private contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan. For those who have seen the documentary Iraq for Sale, you know this to be a bold lie. Shortly after Schmitz exonerated his friends in the war profiting industry he announced that he was going to work for Blackwater.

Schmitz is also part of the inner circle of Theocons with Prince.

In a 2004 speech Schmitz said "No American today should ever doubt that we hold ourselves accountable to the rule of law under God. Here lies the fundamental difference between us and the terrorists." Schmitz is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, "a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems." In addition, Schmitz is a devotee to someone who fought alongside of George Washington, the Prussian militarist Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben. "Von Steuben is one of four men often cited by Blackwater officials as founding mercenaries of the United States." Erik Prince and the other Blackwater leadership, like Joseph Schmitz, think they are following in that tradition.

A pause to look at the "Order of Malta," & its Wikipedia entry. And something from Conspiracy Nation. And a bit more paranoia from the web, linking the "Military Order" w/ the John Birch Society.

From the Iraq for Sale website:

It should also be noted that Erik served as a defense analyst for tainted Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California). Rohrabacher was a special assistant to Reagan before being elected to Congress in 1988, and has a chronicled involvement in the scandal of disgraced Republican lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Erik was a volunteer firefighter and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1992, joining the elite SEALs and operating with the SEAL Team 8 in Norfolk, Virginia. Due to personal reasons, his military career was cut short, bowing out in 1996. At the age of twenty-seven, he founded Blackwater USA.

He is a board member of Christian Freedom International, "a nonprofit group dedicated to helping persecuted Christians around the world," reported the Virginian-Pilot on July 24, 2006. As of April 2005, among the list of "directors" for CFI is Robert Reilly, the former director of the Voice of America (VOA), who was criticized for being "too ideological." (The New York Times reported on the ideological bent in October 2001. Subscription required.) After Reilly resigned "abruptly" from the VOA, the April 21, 2003 edition of the Christian Science Monitor, it was reported that he now heads the Pentagon's broadcasting efforts in Iraq.

Another side note: The only reference we've seen to Mr. Prince attending the USNA was in the Wikipedia entry on him. That may just be (gasp!) incorrect.

Another review of Blackwater, from the Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel:

[P]olitically powerful Christian fundamentalists and Neocons are pressing forward with their battle for what they call 'freedom' and 'democracy'—whether the U.S. public, or indeed the rest of the world, wants to fight or not.

They envision, as a Baltimore Sun letter to the editor expressed on March 25, "a global war, with the United States serving as the primary defender of Western civilization against our rarely named enemy, Islamist totalitarianism..."

Sounds over the top, doesn't it? Yet those who believe "Western civilization" (read "Christendom" or perhaps "Judeo-Christendom") is imperiled by 'infidels' are pushing hard to confront and defeat 'the enemy.'

War that serves the purposes of this 'belief' faction also fuels profits for war-related businesses.

[...]

In addition to its size, Blackwater merits being singled out for attention because of its leaders' well-placed political, social, and religious connections, and its founder Erik Prince's immense wealth and Catholic extremist connections.

[...]

Questions arise for which there are no known answers at this time, such as: How much seed money did Prince put up to start Blackwater? How much profit did he make on his initial investment? Who else besides Erik Prince has a financial stake in Blackwater?

[...]

Joseph E. Schmitz, the scandal-ridden former Pentagon Inspector General during the first years of the Iraq war, is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Says Scahill, Schmitz "comes from one of the most bizarre, scandal-plagued, right-wing political families in U.S. history," and the facts back him up. Schmitz left the Pentagon in 2005 to take job as Blackwater's Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.

How interesting. Which family could that be? (Didn't make the local connection there, to Southern California's own John G. Schmitz.)
Wikipedia says:

Joseph Edward Schmitz is the son of the [late] John G. Schmitz, former California State Senator, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Presidential candidate (1972). Schmitz attended Catholic schools as a child and Georgetown Preparatory School while his father served in Congress. He holds a B.S. (1978) from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and a J.D. (1986) from Stanford University. He was on the wrestling team at the Naval Academy. His siblings include Mary Kay Letourneau and John Patrick Schmitz. Upon graduation from the Naval Academy, Schmitz served in the U.S. Navy for approximately four years, including a stint as an exchange officer with the German Navy. Schmitz left active duty and was in the Naval Reserve until 2001. After leaving active duty, Schmitz attended law school. He clerked with James L. Buckley, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was a special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III during the Reagan Administration.

[...]

He is a member of Opus Dei.

Hmmm, The DaVinci Code or not, Opus Dei, huh?

Wiki, again:

Some ex-members and their families, secularists, supporters of liberation theology, some Catholics, especially liberals, have argued that Opus Dei is cult-like, secretive, and highly controlling. For Massimo Introvigne, a Catholic sociologist, Opus Dei is intentionally stigmatized by its opponents, because they "cannot tolerate the 'return to religion' of the secularized society."

Guess what, Massimo? We cannot tolerate a return to the Stone Age, either.

Robert Greenwald has a brief Huffington post on Prince. Here's video.A look at the big Blackwater cheeses, & the components of the empire. Chris Hedges, former NYT Mideast Bureau chief, in Truthdig on "America's Holy Warriors:"

The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. [...] I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack—the military and law enforcement. [...] They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as “satanic.” All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society. [...] “The Bush administration has already come close to painting our current wars as wars against Islam—many in the Christian right apparently have this belief,” Ratner said. “If these wars, bad enough as imperial wars, are fought as religious wars, we are facing a very dark age that could go on for a hundred years and that will be very bloody.”

That's the same Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights quoted above in the extract from Jeremy Scahill's book. We've had just about enough of this, which must be the longest piece of typing & copying & pasting since the inception of this web log. For further info (if you think you need any) please consult this page o' links we stole most of this from. "And in conclusion..." we'll go w/ this brief reply we left to a comment:

We're no more paranoid than the next wacky leftist blogger/smart-ass, & don't much go for the conspiracy theory approach either, but when dealing w/ true believers who are convinced they are fulfilling "God's plan," as opposed to, say, a bunch of semi-competent bureaucrats &/or corporate drones w/o a holy mission, our paranoia level goes up a few notches.

Not Just Blackwater

What the State Dep't. seems to feel is permissible for its private security contractorsmercenaries, in this case DynCorp International, to do:

Ms. Nantongo, the embassy spokeswoman, said that according to DynCorp’s own report to the State Department on the episode, the DynCorp guards first used “nonlethal means to warn the driver of the vehicle to stop.” In Iraq, the term “nonlethal means” often indicates that guards threw water bottles, waved or fired a small flare to get the attention of a driver. But DynCorp told the State Department that the vehicle continued forward, and that a guard “discharged his weapon to disable the vehicle,” Ms. Nantongo said. “There are conflicting accounts as to whether anyone was injured or killed,” she said. [...] Mr. Lagana said the DynCorp guards reported that they were unaware that they had wounded or killed anyone. “We knew that we had fired at the front of the vehicle,” he said. “We were kind of surprised that there was a death.”

In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle (who seems to have been promoted from private to "Guy in Charge in Iraq"): "Surprise, surprise!" HERE'S THE BLACKWATER PART: More on Erik Prince, from the Detroit Free Press, known as the Freep. Don't be scared, it has no relation to Fresno's finest, Free Republic. Yeah, yeah, it's over a month old, but it provides some insight into Mr. Prince's characterpersonality, whatever you want to call it.

"In Holland, there's very much a strong sense of patriotism," said longtime friend Jim Heetderks. "I think he really took that to heart more than the rest of us." Prince declined to be interviewed for this story. His mother and sisters did not respond to requests for comment. Prince was steeped in free-market, faith-based, Republican values from a young age. [...] After graduating, Prince headed to the U.S. Naval Academy, only to quit after three semesters. He told friends he was disappointed in the maturity and morality of his fellow midshipmen. "I know when he got back, he said that he thought everybody at the academy would just bleed red, white and blue like he did," the former coach, Heethuis said. "But he found out some people were just there for a free education." Prince landed an internship in the early 1990s in the White House under then-President George Bush. Again, he was disappointed. He later told the Grand Rapids Press: "I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with -- homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kinds of bills." But he didn't reject politics. He stumped for Pat Buchanan, and interned at Bauer's Family Research Council in Virginia, even climbing trees in Bauer's backyard to trim dead branches. Prince's connection with Christian conservatives was strengthened by another internship, with California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who recalled talking with Prince about his ideals. "If he wanted to make money, he could have done a lot of things to make more money," Rohrabacher said. "He is an idea-driven person."

Those who know of Rohrabacher will be amused by that statement. Also, a quickie bio of Erik Prince from the Freep. And, from an interview he gave the Free Press a few days after declining to be interviewed:

WASHINGTON -- As Blackwater USA's owner, Erik Prince can rattle off reasons for its meteoric success getting work as security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. But his family's political connections, its vast giving to Republican, Christian and conservative causes and campaigns aren't among them, he says. "I'm not a zealot," he said. "I'm a businessman."

Often the same thing. Certainly, family connections & massive donations (from the foundation he established, besides the $200,000 Prince has personally given to drooling wingnuts) have nothing to do w/ success in no-bid gov't. contracts.

Prince deflected accusations of a cowboy mentality within his company, that his contractors shoot first and ask questions later in protecting dignitaries and diplomats. "They're out there doing a very difficult job," he said, noting contractors' military and law-enforcement backgrounds.

Sure, no one in law enforcement or the military has ever acted like a fucking cowboy. From April of this yr., a look at Prince (w/ links) from Michigan Liberal.com. And all of this Michigan based stuff comes to our attention from nancynall.com, whose commentariat, & some other stuff we've seen, suggests that Western Michigan is a hotbed of crazy people. Oh, we're sorry, don't mean to be uncivil, they're perfectly normal people who just happen to hold 16th century views. And the Dutch Reformed Church (very popular around Holland, Mich.) of which Prince was a member before converting to Roman Catholicism, is one of those Calvinist outfits.

Today In Hypocrisy

Beyond the theocratic militarism, general thuggery & secret privatized spy network we already know he'd like to be free to perpetrate, pathetic warlord wanna-be Erik "Blackwater/Xe/Whatever" Prince has further revealed himself to be a douchebag of the first water, & not merely because he's the brother of simply horrid SecEd Betsy "Amway" DeVos.

Nope, he's another one of those knocked-up-the-nanny-while-his-wife-was-dying-of-cancer types beside his other virtues.

Erik Prince has been in the news a lot lately. In his book, he explains the kind of man he is: the kind who impregnates his children's nanny while his wife is dying of cancer. https://t.co/Ih8Lapd1pj pic.twitter.com/gX7Ckg0Dfg

— Elise Jordan (@Elise_Jordan) December 7, 2017

A man who can't keep his household from spinning completely out of control sounds well prepared to lead a 21st century American version of the British East India Co. thieving resources in Afghanistan while he's also running Trumpy's private web of spies.

 Aram Roston / BuzzFeed:

Private War: Erik Prince Has His Eye On Afghanistan's Rare Metals  —  BuzzFeed News is publishing the slide presentation by the founder of Blackwater to privatize the Afghan war and mine Afghanistan's valuable minerals.  He pitched the proposal to the Trump administration.

Discussion:

Anne Laurie / Balloon Juice:   Russiagate Open Thread: Meanwhile, What News of the Prince of Amway?

Kelly O'Meara Morales / The Week:   America's top mercenary wants to go into Afghanistan and take the minerals

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:   Erik Prince discussed unmasking with Devin Nunes after GOP lawmaker stepped aside from Russia probe

Natasha Bertrand / Business Insider:   Devin Nunes spoke to Erik Prince about House Intel testimony despite recusal from the Russia probe

Enough of this already. Go ahead, turn the entire defense budget over to Erik Prince, & let him run foreign policy too, such as it'll be beyond "Nice little country you've got here, 'cept for all the swarthy non-Christians in it". The sooner these United Snakes dissolve, implode, explode or drown in their own filthy hypocrisy the better.

Private Army of God

Take a peep @ the Wikipedia entry for one Erik Prince, a 38 yr. old USNA drop-out & former U. S. Navy SEAL, who is connected to Amway (Alticor) & Republican politics, & is a board member of Christian Freedom International. Mr. Prince is also the founder of Blackwater, the world's largest private army. "Danger Room's" "Mercs" category has further info on Blackwater & what it's up to, including the acquisition of attack aircraft.

Jeremy Scahill recently wrote a book on Blackwater. An article from The Nation, excerpted from his book. Apparently Scahill doesn't favor the same things as the founder of Blackwater, so The White Rabbit (blackwaterblogger.com) rakes him over the coals:

Jeremy Scahill was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by his “social activist” parents, learning early on about radical figures like Malcolm X and other pacifist/socialist/anarchist advocates. He graduated Wauwatosa East High School in 1992, then drifted through a couple University of Wisconsin regional campuses and an area technical college before determining that his “time would be better spent by entering the struggle for justice in this country."

Erik Prince, on the other hand, from Wikipedia:

[A]fter high school he briefly attended the United States Naval Academy before attending and graduating from Hillsdale College. [...] When his father Edgar Prince unexpectedly died in 1995, he ended his Navy service prematurely. After Erik's mother, Elsa Prince, sold the family's automobile parts company, Prince Corporation, for $1.3 billion to Johnson Controls, Inc., Erik moved to Virginia Beach and personally financed the formation of Blackwater USA at the age of 27.

And from Blackwater's "mission statement:"

Blackwater was founded in 1997 from a clear vision developed from an understanding of the need for innovative, flexible training and operational solutions to support security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.

Our founder is a former U. S. Navy SEAL. He created Blackwater on the belief that both the military and law enforcement establishments would require additional capacity to train fully our brave men and women in and out of uniform
to the standards required to keep our country secure.

[...]

We are not simply a "private security company." We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions. We assist with the development of national and global security policies and military transformation plans.

[...]

Blackwater lives its core values of excellence, efficiency, execution, and teamwork. In doing this, we have become the most responsive, cost-effective means of affecting the strategic balance in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.

Note the highlighted phrases. These "professional military" people seem to have missed the little part in the constitution about civilian control of the military. Well, that's just the U. S. military. It's completely different if the U. S. is financing a private "professional military" company, whose millionaire founder just happens to return some of that money to Republican candidates & causes.

Key words in the "mission statement"? "Security and peace." In that order. Followed by the comma-separated afterthought, "freedom and democracy." In that order.

We've heard the carping from the right that this is a "Christian" nation, and how, First Amendment or not, we have to "take it back" from the godless atheists, and stop letting Christians be pushed around, denied their "rights" as a majority, yada yada.

How long until these Christo-fascists decide that the so-called "War on Christmas" is a real, shooting, war & decide to take out a few Target stores w/ their "counter-insurgency aircraft" because Target employees are forced to say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas?"

Though before that we'll probably see Blackwater overthrowing (for the sake of "security and peace," of course) governments where Christians are being "persecuted," as Christian Freedom International would have you believe. Eritrea seems like a good bet, as India, Egypt, & Pakistan might be too big for Blackwater to take on. Funny how the "majority rights" of the people in those countries aren't that important.

What's In The Water In Wyoming?

Overlooked during the Russian election was Liz (native of Madison, WI & Daughter of Dick) Cheney's election to the
at-large Congressional seat granted, for unfathomable reasons, to the uninhabited wasteland of Wyoming.

First edition, second printing. US$70.00.
Inscribed first edition, US$2,500.00.

Now this:
New York Times:

Erik Prince, Blackwater Founder, Weighs Primary Challenge to Wyoming Republican  —  WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the founder of the security contractor Blackwater, is seriously considering a Republican primary challenge for a Senate seat in Wyoming, potentially adding a high-profile contender …

Discussion:

Christian Davenport / Washington Post:   Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder, is considering a Senate run in Wyoming, according to a media report

Jim Geraghty / National Review:   John Barrasso Is Not the Problem for the Trump Agenda or the GOP

Taegan Goddard / Political Wire:   Blackwater Founder Mulls Senate Run In Wyoming

Or this:

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

GOP megadonor Foster Friess exploring a run for U.S. Senate in Wyoming  —  Longtime Republican donor Foster S. Friess said Monday that he is exploring a 2018 bid for U.S. Senate in Wyoming, making him the latest conservative figure to consider challenging Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a low-key member of the leadership.

Discussion:

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:   Rich anti-contraception Republican mega-donor may run for U.S. senate

Taegan Goddard / Political Wire:   GOP Megadonor Mulls U.S. Senate Bid

Jonathan Swan / Axios:   Steve Bannon's next victims

Is there a way to force a state out of the union?

Prince Group of Darkness

Consider the phrase "business-friendly government." Doesn't that imply "worker-hostile government?" Now consider where we encountered the phrase: In a WaPo story about the Prince Group's intelligence service.

The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government.

In other words, let Total Intelligence Solutions find where your corporate entity can maximize profits from natural disaster & the political disaster of lax to non-existent regulation.

Because of its roster and its ties to owner Erik Prince, the multimillionaire former Navy SEAL, the company's thrust into this world highlights the blurring of lines between government, industry and activities formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.

The roster? Here are thumbnail sketches of the two weasels named in the WaPo article, from Salon. (A tip of the Bouffant chapeau to alex constantine's blacklist.) Positions listed are those they hold at Blackwater; J. Cofer Black is the chairman of Total Intel, Robert Richer is its chief executive:

J. Cofer Black, vice chairman: Black spent most of his 28-year CIA career running covert operations in the Directorate of Operations, where he worked with Rob Richer (below). At the time of the 9/11 attacks, he was director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. There he was former CIA Director George Tenet's ace in the hole when it came to convincing Bush that the CIA should lead initial U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan after 9/11. Black is, according to published accounts, a man with a flair for the dramatic, the kind of briefer President Bush likes. In one briefing, according to several reports, Black told the president, "When we're through with [terrorists in Afghanistan], they will have flies walking across their eyeballs." (Black also ordered CIA field officer Gary Schroen to bring back Osama bin Laden's head packed in dry ice so Black could show it to Bush.) Black's Afghanistan presentation earned him "special access" to the White House, the Washington Post's Dana Priest reported in December 2005.
Black is also one of the more prominent faces associated with the Bush administration's interrogation and extraordinary rendition policies. In a famous moment, Black told Congress in 2002, "After 9/11, the gloves came off." And the group within the CIA responsible for extraordinary renditions -- operations in which covert agents grab terror suspects and take them to secret prison facilities for interrogations that would normally be prohibited as torture -- fell under Black at the CTC, Priest has reported.
Black later went to the State Department, where one of his roles was to begin coordinating security for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. In 2003, the State Department gave Blackwater a contract to train the Olympic security teams.
In 2004, Black left the State Department to join Blackwater, part of what Harper's Silverstein termed a "revolving door to Blackwater" from the CIA. In addition to his work with Blackwater and his own company, Total Intelligence Solutions, Black also recently joined the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, where he serves the Republican hopeful as senior advisor for counterterrorism and national security.

Oh, great. The guy who was in charge on 11 September 2001, a macho poseur who impresses the president, & he's Romney's senior advisor for blah blah blah. Romney's campaign theme, by the way, is: "Strength." That's it. "Strength." Sound a little, oh, what's the word, "fascist," to anyone?

Rob Richer, vice president for intelligence: Richer was head of the CIA's Near East division -- and the agency's liaison with King Abdullah of Jordan -- from 1999 to 2004. In 2003, he briefed President Bush on the nascent Iraqi insurgency. In late 2004, he became the associate deputy director in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, making him the second-ranking official for clandestine operations. He left the agency for Blackwater in the fall of 2005, effectively taking the agency's relationship with Abdullah with him. The CIA had invested millions of dollars in training Jordan's intelligence services. There was an obvious quid pro quo: In exchange for the training, Jordan would share information. Jordan has now hired Blackwater's intelligence division -- headed by Richer -- to do its spy training instead. The CIA isn't happy, writes Silverstein: "People [at the agency] are pissed off," said Silverstein's source. "Abdullah still speaks with Richer regularly and he thinks that's the same thing as talking to us. He thinks Richer is still the man."

Back-slapping, glad-handing, ass-kissing, networking, politics, & personal relations: Why the best & the brightest always succeed in the corporate & political worlds. (And why so many excellent movies are made here in Hollywood.) Makes you wonder how "business-friendly" the gov't. of Jordan is.

"Cofer can open doors," said Richer, who served 22 years at the CIA. "I can open doors. We can generally get in to see who we need to see. We don't help pay bribes. We do everything within the law, but we can deal with the right minister or person."
Total Intel, as the company is known, is bringing "the skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room," Black said. Black had a 28-year career with the CIA.
"They have the skills and background to do anything anyone wants," said RJ Hillhouse, who writes a national security blog called The Spy Who Billed Me. "There's no oversight. They're an independent company offering freelance espionage services. They're rent-a-spies."

Maybe it's just us, but when we hear someone denying bribery & proclaiming legality, we can't help but be suspicious.

Black and Richer spend much of their time traveling. They won't say where. It's a CIA thing. Black called at midnight recently to talk about Total Intel from "somewhere in the Middle East."
"I don't spend a lot of time telling people where I am as part of my business," he said. "I am discreet in where I go and who I see. I spend most of my time dealing with senior people in governments, making connections."
[...]
As he's no longer with the CIA, Richer said he's found that people are more willing to share information. He said a military general in a country he would not name told him of the country's plan to build its next strike fighter.
"I listened," Richer said. "We talked business and where we could help him understand markets and things like that." At the end of the conversation, Richer said, he asked the man, "Isn't that classified? Why are you telling me this?"
Richer said the man answered, "If I tell it to an embassy official I've created espionage. You're a business partner."

Let's return to a line from the second paragraph we stole from the WaPo:

[T]he blurring of lines between government, industry and activities formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.

Erik Prince, radical right-winger & converted Catholic, blurring the lines between government & industry, sniffing out business-friendly governments. We've already used the word, & we hate to beat you over the head w/ it.

Know Your Enemies: Erik Prince, Newt Gingrich

What's this crap?

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<script src="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/js/pap/embed.js?news01n3f1dqe9d" type="text/javascript"></script>

PBS advises us to "cut and paste this code to embed this clip - it needs to stay all on one line." Easier said than done, tote bag mongers.

The vids, then, anyway. Newt w/ future wing-nut welfare recipients at the Heritage Foundation is a curiosity worth the look, though it may dull out as it goes on, being the Snoozehour & all.

Erik Prince may be the only wing-nut who could present an actual threat to anyone beyond the hundred or so victims of a random bombing at a gov't. bldg. Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now! is on Xe/Blackwater & its leader like wrinkles on a cheap suit or any article of clothing we own.

Blackwater in Moving Pictures

Two videos (found @ ghost light; Added Bonus: scroll down for links to a couple of Lester Bangs pieces) concerning Blackwater. Stay tuned, later in the day Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ will feature more data on Blackwater founder Erik Prince's beliefs & pre-mercenary career. Teaser: Prince left his internship in the George Herbert W. Bush administration, possibly because of the homos all over the place:

According to The News & Observer, Prince was among the first interns at the Family Research Council and interned for President George H.W. Bush for six months. (It is reasonable to suggest that, through his father's Reagan-era connections, he was able to get the position.) He campaigned for Patrick Buchanan's Republican primary challenge to Bush in 1992, possibly because he "saw a lot of things I didn't agree with -- homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of bills. I think the administration has been indifferent to a lot of conservative concerns," he told the Grand Rapids Press in early 1992.

"Heckuva Job, Cookie"

Most interesting thing from an AP story about the Brothers Krongard, who apparently don't speak much to each other :

In addition to recusing himself from matters related to Blackwater, Howard Krongard also said he is no longer involved in corruption investigations related to the flawed construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a $600 million project that is beset by logistical delays and security concerns.

From a statement released by BW founder & chief war profiteer Erik Prince:

"The publicized allegation of an 'apparent conflict of interest' against his brother Howard, with whom Buzzy has not been close for years, is just that, an allegation," Prince's statement said.

The Bush administration may not be getting the best value for its money if the State Dep't. Inspector General has to recuse his ass from half the shit he should be working on. Even if he has recused himself, are we to believe that he'll have no influence on anyone in his office?

M. Dowd Finds Something More Interesting than Haircuts

The Duchess of Dowd prepares to sign a copy of her book. (Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Ah, now that Mr. Sulzberger has torn down the wall, the world at last has full access to such New York Times luminaries as Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, & Thomas "Oh, hell, give it another six months or so, & see what happens" Friedman.Perhaps in response to her new-found liberty, Ms. Dowd has decided to devote a column to something other than Cost Analysis of Presidential Candidate Hair-Cuts. Something worthy of the op-ed page of the self-proclaimed "paper of record." And she quotes Nietszche. Shall we look?

Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the mercenary-evangelical complex.

Mr. Prince, a former intern to the first President Bush and a former Navy Seal, is from a well-to-do and well-connected Republican family from Michigan.

He and his father both have close ties to conservative Christian groups. His sister was a Pioneer for W., raising $100,000 in 2004, and Erik Prince has given more than $225,000 to Republicans.

Blackwater, in turn, has been the beneficiary of $1 billion in federal contracts, including a no-bid contract with the State Department worth hundreds of millions.

Not much there. Not much at all. Indeed, she appears unable to write a paragraph lengthier than two sentences. Really, this was an excuse for us to run the picture of Ms. Dowd at the Top of the Sixes or wherever she is, & to link to Doghouse Riley's MoDo Glossary. Enjoy!

Mighty Sorry, No Body Cares

At this stage of the game we have no memory of sharing any or all of these liberal, biased anti-Blackwater (Hey, that name change worked out pretty well for them, didn't it?) clips from what (barely) passes for a leftish cable infotainment outlet in these United (Murdering) Snakes. As whatever the hell appears here (even repetitively) makes no difference in the greater or lesser scheme of things, if you've seen one or all, change the fucking channel already: No one's holding a gun to your head, are they? (Although if someone is, they probably are "Xe" employee contractors.)We're sure we didn't catch the above from 4 August 2009, or we would have linked to Mr. Scahill's piece in The Nation, as a service for the text-obsessed.Yet we do remember the above juxtaposition of frames of the Crusader King Prince, so we must've thrown those two up at the same time. Maybe the one just below is the one we never got around to. Are you bored yet? We can make it worse.Those who'd really like to wallow in it (& have not been obsessively reading this waste of everything for the last two+ yrs. & too many posts) can search (Look, we did it for you, lazy oafs!) "Blackwater" & "Erik Prince" to see more aggregation & smart-assery from just around two yrs. ago, when Xe Blackwater first made a big news splash. And, more from the Newspaper of Record:

Some Congressional Democrats have hinted that the program was just one of many that the Bush administration hid from Congressional scrutiny and have used the episode as a justification to delve deeper into other Bush-era counterterrorism programs.

But Republicans have criticized Mr. Panetta’s decision to cancel the program, saying he created a tempest in a teapot.

“I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

All fair & balanced, huh? Objective, one could say. Like that jerk Hoekstra's insubstantial little whine was worth publishing.

Principles Exalt A Nation

Self-styled Rebel Reporter Jeremy Scahill plays another exciting game of "Connect the Right-Wing Dots." Today's head dot? Hoosier hosebag & Representative Mike Pence, who "led the witch-hunt to force the resignation of White House Green Jobs advisor, Van Jones, over comments Jones made years ago ..."

On Friday, Pence, who describes himself as “Christian, Conservative, Republican, in that order,” said Jones’s “extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate.” Beyond the obvious here (the hate-filled rhetoric we see every day from racist, right-wing wackos, including those in public office), it is an interesting comment considering that Pence is an extremist right-wing evangelical Christian who has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince. Prince has also donated to Pence’s Political Action Committee “Principles Exalt a Nation.” [...] Should Pence resign for cavorting with and accepting campaign cash from a man who allegedly “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” in the words of a former employee? Oh, right. Those are apparently positive attributes in Pence’s view.

Well, duh, Scahill.

Religious Rupture, Not Rapture, Regarding Rudy

The Council for National Policy got together in Salt Lake City last wknd. An earlier take on the Council, from this very web log (quote from Mother Jones):

The Council for National Policy—a group that holds meetings for right-wing leaders, once dubbed “the most powerful conservative group you’ve never heard of”—was founded in 1981 as a project of top John Birch Society figures. Its members included Rushdoony, Gary North, Tim LaHaye, former Reagan aide Gary Bauer, and activist Paul Weyrich, who famously aimed to “overturn the present power structure of this country.”

Make no fucking mistake about it: These people are serious, they are powerful, and an organization like Blackwater fits right into their plans. Note the connection between Erik Prince's father, Edgar, & Gary Bauer (from Blackwater Runs Red):

The elder Prince was widely known for his close association with anti-choice crusader Gary Bauer. Bauer was a domestic policy advisor in the Reagan White House before succeeding Jerry Regier (a former Reagan official, as well) for the leadership role of the Family Research Council (FRC) in 1988. With Edgar's help, Bauer put the FRC on the map.

According to the NYT, some of the evangelical power brokers in SLC had an extra super-secret meeting, on the subject of Rudy "The Catholic" Giuliani & his lead in the polls.

The participants said that the group chose the qualified term “consider” because it had not yet identified an alternative candidate, but that it was largely united in its plans to bolt the party if Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, became the nominee. [...] Gary L. Bauer, a Christian conservative political advocate who was a Republican primary candidate eight years ago, said that, speaking by phone to the meeting, he urged the group to proceed with caution. “I can’t think of a bigger disaster for social conservatives, defense conservatives and economic conservatives than Hillary Clinton in the White House,” Mr. Bauer said. He added, “But I do believe there are certain core issues for the Republican Party — low taxes, strong defense and pro-life — and if we nominate someone who is hostile on one of those three things it will blow up the G.O.P.” [...] Participants in the group that endorsed the resolution said they had reached their position after hearing an assessment of the state of the Republican primary from Mr. Perkins, who acts as a point man in Washington for the movement. Mr. Perkins told them that Mr. Giuliani could plausibly win the primary if he carried Florida, which has many conservative Christian voters, and that now was the best chance to stop any momentum behind his campaign.

Old fool James C. Dobson (see a scathing analysis of his son Ryan's website) cranked out a column for the Times on the extra super secret meeting:

Reports have surfaced in the press about a meeting that occurred last Saturday in Salt Lake City involving more than 50 pro-family leaders. [...] Although I was neither the convener nor the moderator of the meeting, I’d like to offer several brief clarifications about its outcome and implications. [...] After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous. The other issue discussed at length concerned the advisability of creating a third party if Democrats and Republicans do indeed abandon the sanctity of human life and other traditional family values. Though there was some support for the proposal, no consensus emerged. Speaking personally, and not for the organization I represent or the other leaders gathered in Salt Lake City, I firmly believe that the selection of a president should begin with a recommitment to traditional moral values and beliefs. Those include the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and other inviolable pro-family principles. [Go fuck yourself, you hate-filled Yankee Taliban. — Ed.] Only after that determination is made can the acceptability of a nominee be assessed. [...] The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, for example, that supporters of traditional family values are rapidly “splintering.” That is not true. The near unanimity in Salt Lake City is evidence of much greater harmony than supposed. Admittedly, differences of opinion exist among us about our choices for president. That divergence is entirely reasonable, now just over a year before the national election. It is hardly indicative of a “splintering” of old alliances. If the major political parties decide to abandon conservative principles, the cohesion of pro-family advocates will be all too apparent in 2008.

On the other hand, Lew Rockwell questions Dobson's sincerity:

I have long thought that the Christian Right would have no trouble supporting the Rudester because he is as pro-war and pro-police state as they are. And James Dobson won't be an exception, after he is promised patronage. That is the point of his protest. And now John Hagee says on TV that he can endorse Giuliani--despite pledging never to support a pro-choice candidate--because Rudy is more pro-Israel than Hillary.

On the Catholic front, from Taki's Underwear Drawer:

And that, I’m afraid, is frightening confirmation of the extent to which politically active conservative Catholics in America have become enslaved to the Republican Party. If Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination, we will hear dozens of reasons why Catholics should vote for him. Some will declare a vote for Giuliani a positive good, deciding that his support for the war in Iraq (and, more broadly, the “War on Terror") is more important than his position on abortion. Others will make the (dubious) argument that he’s still more likely to appoint pro-life judges than any potential Democratic candidate. Still others will tell us that, of course, Giuliani is hardly better than a Democrat, but the alliance of pro-lifers with the Republican Party ”necessarily places voters in the situation of in effect having to buy a whole political package”--even when that package now includes abortion “rights.” And finally, and most pathetically, we’ll be told that pro-abortion “conservatives” are our most faithful allies in the fight against “Cultural Marxism"--as if Rudy and his ilk aren’t Cultural Marxists themselves.

"Cultural Marxists." Some of these bead-rattlers are just plain nuts. Does too much fish on Fridays lead to mercury poisoning & brain damage? From the AP:

Viguerie would not give specifics of the proposal or reveal additional names of participants, but said President Bush "would not have been elected in '04 without the people in that room." "There is such jaundiced feelings about any promises or commitments from any Republican leaders," he said in a phone interview. "You could almost cut the anger and the frustration with a knife in that room it's so strong. Because they don't know what else to do, they're talking third party." [...] The participants were in Salt Lake City for a separate meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, a group of conservative business, religious and political leaders that was co-founded years ago by Tim LaHaye, author of the "Left Behind" series of books. Vice President Dick Cheney flew into the city Friday to address the group, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Christian conservatives, who hold considerable sway in the Republican Party, have been deeply unhappy about the field of GOP presidential candidates. Dobson has said he wouldn't support Giuliani, calling the former New York mayor an "unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand." Dobson has also rejected former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson as wrong on social issues, and wouldn't back John McCain because of the Arizona senator's opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. [...] "Conservatives have been treated like a mistress as long as any of us can remember," Viguerie said. "They'll have lots of private meetings with us, tell us how much they appreciate it and how much they value us, but if you see me on the street please don't speak with me." A third-party run would be a long shot, requiring millions of dollars and challenges to ballot access. Such a bid could prove disastrous for the GOP by splitting the vote. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, was not at the meeting. But he said no one floating the idea of a third party thinks there's much chance the candidate would win. He considers the proposal a reaction to "moguls of the Republican establishment" who think conservative Christians will support the GOP no matter what. "A lot of them won't hold their nose and do it," Land said.

Looks as if the Republicans can't depend on the cultural conservatives, conservative Catholics, religious reactionaries & so forth for too much longer. Maybe a Ron Paul-Alan Keyes third-party ticket is the answer. Just Another Blog™ would love to see that. And if Sen. Clinton gets the Democratic nod, maybe a fourth, leftist, ticket. If nothing else it could lead to the end of the Electoral College. And (fingers crossed here) political violence in the streets. Only 13 mos. to go, get your guns & ammo now. You won't want to be the last one looting the gun store.