AMERICAN MERCENARY IN THE UKRAINE

There's speculation in the comments below this clip in YouTube about whether he's American or Brit - seems he could be either - I watched it a few times and figured that guy might be a Brit but his accent seems more American if you ask me. Looks legit . . . S.L.



I also found it funny that to some of the people commenting, "American mercenaries" automatically means "Blackwater". Blackwater was a private military company - in fact they no longer exist as Blackwater - and what they do is legitimate security work, highly regulated and overseen by the US Government.

You've got to figure - we've had almost 15 years of continual war ... before that we had a professional military the likes of which the world has never seen, with a lot of continual experience in places like Grenada, Lebanon, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and the Mahgreb . . . and so of course it is inevitable these days that guys are "freelancing" - in two places specifically: Ukraine and Iraq.

The American warrior class is firmly established and quite distinct and visible . . . we are also the most misunderstood class of American society . . . and it is an honor to be included as a member of it . . .

STORMBRINGER SENDS

IRONY IN FULL BLOOM

HELP! I’M A CONGRESSMAN, GET ME OUT OF HERE!


This post by Nathan Hodge showed up on Wired.com - February 25, 2010

During yesterday’s Senate hearing on government oversight of security contractors, an interesting tidbit emerged. In his prepared testimony, Fred Roitz, executive vice president of contracts and chief sales officer for Xe (a.k.a. Blackwater), disclosed that his company, through its subsidiary Presidential Airways, evacuated a congressman from Niger during a recent military coup.




Turns out it was none other than Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democrat who has made his reputation by going after military contractors. Irony alert! Grayson spokesman Todd Jurkowski confirmed that Grayson was spirited out of the country on a Xe helicopter, and offered this statement to Schulman: “The flight was arranged through the State Department … The congressman did not know, and frankly did not care, who owned the plane.”








How's that for gratitude? Isn't that the way it always is? You're a thug, a mercenary, a baby killer; to be spat on, hauled before Congress and grilled, then told to turn around and march to the sound of the guns all over again. But when they need you to save their sorry ass; you're the best thing they've seen since their wedding night - S.L.


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IMMORTALITY ACHIEVED

ACTUALLY, THEY'RE PROBABLY LAUGHING AT ME


500 AK-47s, Please’: Art Imitates Blackwater


Go down to the comments, comment #1 . . .






>"This is actually funny. I know guys who sign everything over in Iraq or Afghanistan, with all sorts of funny names.(except for the chow hall) The SF community uses Sean Linnane. The Marines use Chesty Puller or Gunny Hartman. I have also seen Mickey Mouse or Hue Jazz. Hell, I am sure someone has used Darth Vader before. lol Just check a KBR chow roster from one of the DFACs (before they started swiping CAC cards). Which leads me to my next point . . . "


(italics mine)


Team Member Valeria says: It would be really funny if Sean made it in the South Park episode

Sean Linnane: That wouldn't be funny that would be humiliating . . . that's all I need . . . I mean it's bad enough already . . .

Valeria: No it wouldn't - being a character on South Park is means you've arrived in the main stream awareness . . . it pokes fun at EVERYTHING and EVERYONE with an irreverant Emperor-Has-No-Clothes attitude. So yeah, in it's own way, it would be cool.

Sean Linnane: Some how I thought immortality would feel different, somehow . . .


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SAGA OF AN AMERICAN WARLORD

In keeping with a military tradition that dates back to at least the Roman Empire, a grateful nation rewards a competent warrior with punishment and exile.

Consider the case of Erik Prince, founder of the world’s largest private army - now known as “Xe” but still commonly referred to as Blackwater. It is reported that Prince is considering a permanent move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).






Recent developments that suggest Prince’s motivation involve the 15-count indictment served to five top Blackwater executives by a federal Grand Jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy, and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell.

Prince’s plan to move to the UAE might be motivated to the lack of an extradition treaty between the UAE and the United States. Furthermore, last week Prince abruptly announced that Xe (Blackwater) is up for sale.

Prince’s alleged crime? His country called, and he was too successful at providing the services he was contracted to perform.

Struggling to deal with a two front war in the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks, the United States military exponentially increased the use of private contractors – a feature of US military operations in war and peace since the Revolution. While the majority of contractors deliver construction, logistics, telecommunication, transportation, and medical services, it is security contractors that have drawn close scrutiny.





Of the many security / paramilitary firms that filled this requirement, Prince skillfully steered Blackwater to the forefront. Recruited from the ranks of Special Operations and elsewhere, and trained at their facility in Moyock, North Carolina (within AO STORMBRINGER) the most visible Blackwater role was PSD – Personal Security Detail. Prince himself has claimed a more extensive role, however, stating that Blackwater operators have called in NATO air strikes and performed operational functions for the CIA in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

If this is the case, then this is nothing new; the CIA’s paramilitary wing has made use of contract personnel since its inception. While Blackwater’s presence on the battlefield may or may not be in violation of the Law of Land Warfare (Hague & Geneva Conventions), this is also besides the point; the CIA itself does not enjoy the protection of these legal definitions. Besides, when you’re dealing with an enemy that has no national identity, wears no uniforms or distinctive insignia, routinely commits war crimes as a major tactic and beheads prisoners, the Geneva Convention becomes an increasingly archaic piece of legislature.

Despite the fact that I have worked as a security contractor for two firms – one a well-known competitor of Blackwater, the other providing services within a narrower market niche - and have founded my own defense contracting company, I am not a personal fan of Blackwater.

We are often called mercenaries, although I believe ‘professional soldier’ or ‘security professional’ more correctly describes our role. Examply: the client I am currently working for requires prior service on a Special Forces Operational Detachment 'Alpha', and a working knowledge of the principles of Sun Tzu as prerequisites. This hardly fits the commonly held concepts of a ‘gun for hire’; there are certain parties I outright refuse to work for, and some things I will not do for any money.

Despite my feelings regarding the Blackwater phenomenon, I feel the legal actions of the Holder Justice Department represent nothing less than the Obama Administration’s personal war on its own irregular assets. This is tantamount to a commander directly ordering his own men to shoot themselves in the foot – self-inflicted wounds – as a furtive means to resolve a difficult and challenging military campaign.

A CASE FOR MERCENARY ARMIES

Secret Blackwater Tape Exposed
Jeremy Scahill - The Nation - May 3, 2010



Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does journalists are banned from attending; recording or videotaping of his remarks is verboten.

Despite these attempts to shield himself from public scrutiny, The Nation magazine obtained an audio recording of one of Prince's recent speech delivered in a private venue to a friendly audience. The speech provides a stunning glimpse into his views and future plans and reveals details of previously undisclosed activities of Blackwater.






In earlier posts, I have insisted that private contractors operating within narrow constraints as security personnel are NOT mercenaries per se. In this post there is no fig leaf - we're talking private contractors deployed in full-mission profile; defensive AND offensive operations; employed as snipers, conducting raids and ambushes, the whole enchilada.

Prince proposes armed private soldiers (like Blackwater contractors) be deployed throughout the sand countries to counter Iranian influence and Iranian-supported insurgents, specifically in Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. There's a lot to be said for this approach.

He expresses disdain for the Geneva Convention and describes Blackwater's secretive operations at four Forward Operating Bases (FOB's) he controls in Afghanistan. He called those fighting the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan "barbarians" who "crawled out of the sewer."







Despite the disparaging things I said about Blackwater in the past - and I meant every word I said - I find myself agreeing with Prince here. The United States has employed private armies in every war we've fought, dating right back to the Revolution; they have a role, albeit a specialized one.

As far as the Geneva Convention goes - has it ever occurred to anybody that we are the only ones who abide by this anachronism? And even we don't go by it all the time; if we had lost World War II, Winston Churchill and President Truman would have been sitting in the dock for all those cities we vaporized.

Wars are won by doing what needs being done. In the former Yugoslavia I observed (Allied) Special Forces soldiers operating in civilian clothes, passing themselves off as journalists. By the time I retired I'd been operating in and out of uniform for about half of my career, and I made it all the way to Belgrade.


"War is simple, direct and ruthless." - General Patton's Maxims.


I'm not suggesting we lower ourselves to the degree of savagery displayed by our enemies on a daily basis, but think about it for a minute - if the Post Office could accomplish it's mission, UPS and FedEx wouldn't be able to survive as commercial enterprises. Why should we constrain ourselves in warfighting?

Once we decide to win this Hundred Years War we are currently fighting, necessity will dictate our conduct. To prevail against irregular insurgents and terrorists, we need irregular, unconventional counter-insurgents and counter-terror soldiers, and we should be open-minded and imaginative when the rule book gets in the way.






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SEAL UPDATE

SEAL Trials to be Moved to Iraq
- Navy Times Tuesday Jan 12, 2010


A military judge has decided to move the trials for two of three Navy SEALs accused in connection with the alleged assault of a suspected terrorist to Iraq.

Cmdr. Tierney Carlos, the trial judge for the courts-martial of Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class (SEAL) Jonathan Elliot Keefe and SO1 (SEAL) Julio Antonio Huertas Jr., agreed Monday with defense motions to move the trials to Camp Victory in Iraq so the sailors can face the alleged victim, Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the government sought to depose in lieu of a trial appearance. Keefe’s court-martial had been scheduled to begin April 6, while Huertas’ was supposed to begin Monday.

“If he is available for a deposition, then he is available for trial,” Carlos said during the hearing for Keefe Monday.

The U.S. thinks Abed masterminded the 2004 ambush in Fallujah, Iraq, in which four Blackwater security contractors were burned. Two of their bodies were hanged from a bridge.




Burned bodies of two Blackwater contractors hanging from Fallujah Bridge, 2004


Keefe, Huertas and SO2 (SEAL) Matthew McCabe are accused of making false statements in an alleged attempt to cover up the assault, as well as dereliction of duty. McCabe is also charged with assault. All three have pleaded not guilty to all charges.


3rd SEAL Trial to Stay in Virginia
- Navy Times, Friday Jan 15, 2010

NORFOLK, Va. — The trial for the Navy SEAL accused of punching an alleged al-Qaida terrorist while in U.S. custody in Iraq has been postponed until May 3, but the trial will remain in Norfolk.

Capt. Moira Modzelewski granted government prosecutors the continuance on the grounds that most of the evidence in the case is still undergoing a classification review and has yet to be seen by either the prosecution or the defense.

Modzelewski stopped short of moving the trial of Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew McCabe to Camp Victory near Baghdad.



Matthew McCabe


That news comes two days after a different military judge decided to move the trials for the two other SEALs accused in connection with the alleged assault to Iraq.


“We can’t send these guys into harm’s way to get the highest profile terrorists and then have them come back here and fight the system,” Marty McCabe, father of Matthew McCabe, told CNSNews.com.

“They’ve been tracking this guy [Abed] since 2004,” Marty McCabe said. “There was no collateral damage. No shots fired. It is absurd to think they would do anything to him. These guys are pros. If they wanted to do something to him, they would have done it during the capture.”


“I can’t believe the way political correctness has intertwined itself like a snake into our military. What these gentlemen did, if they did it, does not warrant court martial. That terrorist is lucky to be alive after what he did to the Blackwater guys.”

- Dawn West, a Norfolk realtor and an organizer of a rally held December 9th, 2009 outside the front gate of Norfolk Naval Base.

U.S. INVESTIGATING BLACKWATER BRIBERY CLAIMS IN IRAQ

from THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 31, 2010:

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former government officials . . .

. . . The investigation, which was confirmed by three current and former officials speaking on condition of anonymity, follows a report in The New York Times in November that top executives at Blackwater had authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials to buy their support after the shooting. The newspaper account said it could not determine whether any bribes were actually paid or identify Iraqi officials who might have received the money.

The Justice Department has obtained two documents from the State Department, which had security contracts with the company, that have raised questions about Blackwater’s efforts to influence Iraqi government officials after the Nisour Square shootings, according to two American officials familiar with the inquiry.

One document, a handwritten note, shows that a Blackwater representative told a senior official at the American Embassy in Baghdad that the company had hired a prominent Iraqi lawyer to help the firm make compensation payments to Iraqi victims of the shootings, a practice encouraged by the State Department.

According to the document, as described by the two government officials, the Blackwater official said the firm had hired the lawyer hoping that the lawyer’s close ties to top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, would help Blackwater obtain a license to continue operating in Iraq . . .


Let's put this whole episode into some kind of perspective, this is the scene of Nisoor Square after the vehicle bomb went off, that immediately preceded the events of Sept 16, 2007:


A scene of disarray and destruction after the vehicle explosion. (ABC)

U.S. APPEALS RULING IN BLACKWATER CASE

WASHINGTON POST Saturday, January 30, 2010

The U.S. government appealed a ruling by a federal judge that threw out all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in a Baghdad shooting.

TROLL CHALLENGE 2010

The BlogoSphere is infested with Trolls, apparently . . .






I've got a certain effect on the evil creatures; I ATTRACT them!





I ESPECIALLY attract trolls over at FrumForum. David Frum is a personal friend of mine. I don't always see eye-to-eye with David on his politics, but Dave is a genuinely nice guy; the nicest guy I know, in fact, and one of the smartest guys on the planet. David and I share an interest in the Classic world of Ancient Greece and Rome. From David I learned to understand that bit where politicians speak about colleagues on the other side of the aisle, where the most bitter of contestants will say: "I don't agree with him, but I love him as a brother, he is a good friend."


Because I call it the way I see it and I shoot from the hip, sometimes I'm too rude and crude for David's style; but Dave's fascinated by my series on the modern phenomenon of the private security contractors, and he graciously allows me to post on his site:


The Right Call on Blackwater


Don't Call Them Mercenaries


No Army Marches Into Battle Alone


The DOJ's War on Blackwater


Seems like anything remotely linked to professional soldiering REALLY gets the trolls riled up, including this last one, which is more about humanitarian operations than private armies:


On the Front Lines of Haiti's Recovery



In Comments, the troll known as "teabag" writes:

"Do we really have to endure this idiot contributor. He has posted racist language in comments previously, runs a website where racist jokes abound and comes here and insults the people posting worthwhile reasoned comments to his article. Please reconsider asking this idiot to write here again. He has nothing to offer that is worth anything."




For the Life of me I don't know what he is talking about?


I hate to think I'm a racist . . . in any case it's a label no one can defend themselves against . . . no one under the sun, let alone little ol me . . . this despite the fact I'm in a bi-racial marriage.

OK now here's the CHALLENGE -
GO through the pages of Blog STORMBRINGER . . . thoroughly INVESTIGATE what is written herein . . . FIND ANYTHING resembling a racist joke . . . anything racist at all?


ANYTHING!


And a worthy prize will go to the Reader who uncovers the offending verbiage!



Fighting Trolls falls under the 'Fighting Evil' clause of the Mission Statement of Blog STORMBRINGER:


DIE TROLL!



OK we'll let this one live . . .




SEAN LINNANE SENDS . . .

THE LATEST BLACKWATER THING

By now it's all over the news: the United States Justice Department continues it's undeclared war on the Company Formerly Known as Blackwater:

Two Security Contractors Charged in Afghanistan Killings
January 7, 2010 9:52 p.m. EST

Washington (CNN) - Two men who worked as security contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater have been charged with murder in the killings of two Afghan men, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon are charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder each in connection with the May shootings in Kabul. The 12-count, 19-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also includes weapons charges against the two men.

The indictment was returned Wednesday but unsealed Thursday.

Both men were in Afghanistan working for the security company Paravant, a subsidiary of Xe, the military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. FBI agents have arrested both men, the Justice Department announced.

Drotleff, Cannon and two other contractors, Steven McClain and Armando Hamid, were involved in the May 5, 2009, shooting that left two Afghan civilians dead and another wounded. The men had been hired by Paravant to help the U.S. Army train Afghan troops.

The contractors said they were driving their interpreters on a busy Kabul street called Jalalabad Road at around 9 p.m. when a car slammed into one of their two cars.



This vehicle driven by a contractor was hit in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May, leading to a deadly shooting.


"I immediately thought we were under attack," McClain said in May.

The contractors got out to help their colleagues, and the vehicle that had struck the car did a U-turn and headed back at them, the men said. The contractors fired at the oncoming vehicle.

"The car was coming at us," Cannon said in May. "At that point we attempted to stop and immobilize the vehicle and we engaged it in small arms fire. And the car didn't stop, it just kept going."


STORMBRINGER's TAKE ON IT:

While I'm not a huge fan of Blackwater, in this case I say the burden of guilt is on the accuser. After what happened in Fallujah in 2004, any and every Westerner in the Middle East has got damn good reason to have a good immediate action drill for Jihad-fueled Road Ragers:


March 31, 2004: Four Blackwater Employees Killed and Mutilated in Fallujah




Where is the outrage? The burned, mutilated corpses of two Blackwater contractors hang from a bridge outside Fallujah while Iraqi civilians celebrate.

Four employees of the private security firm Blackwater; Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, Scott Helvenston and Michael Teague, were blockaded by a mob while driving through Fallujah, and killed by small arms fire. Their bodies were then taken out of their two vehicles and mutilated by the angry mob. Images of two corpses of the contractors hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River were seen all over the world.



We've got a few places here in the United States where whatever happens - you don't stop and you never get out of the vehicle. Parts of Fayetteville, North Carolina are like that and I can name them for you. Oakland, California - where I joined the Army - has a few ambush zones of it's own.


Sounds to me like these guys will walk - they've already said the magic words: "I immediately thought we were under attack."

THE PROFESSIONALS

In the extremely lethal overseas environment post 9/11, the role of private security contractors has expanded from guard forces to services outside the perimeter, such as Personal Security Details (PSDs) for diplomats, etc. It is this security function that has generated controversy.

Amongst the general public there is a great deal of confusion regarding the practice of the US Department of Defense (DoD) contracting out logistics and security services. Although largely viewed as a phenomena of the post-9/11 conflicts in the Middle East, the practice is not new.

Traditionally providing supplies and materiel, private contractors have been involved with the US military since the Revolution. Following the end of the first Gulf War, the DoD contracted Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown & Root Services (KBR) to study the use of private military forces with American soldiers in combat zones. The rationale was to free up military personnel for the pure military mission by contracting out services such as running mess halls, service functions such as garbage collection, etc, and base security.





Modern security professionals have been referred to in the media as "mercenaries". This is a derogatory reference, and is innacurate; a mercenary sells his services to the highest bidder - a purely mercantile relationship - and their activities may cover the entire operational spectrum, outside of legal constraints. In serving the US DoD overseas, independent contractors are limited to a defensive role, and - contrary to commonly-held belief - are fully accountable under US and international law.

There is an unwritten code of ethics amongst security professionals; we are not criminals or "soldiers of fortune". Amongst my colleagues, an operator who conducts himself as some kind of flamboyant gunslinger is regarded as a potential loose cannon, to be avoided.

We possess a unique skill set and we perform a vital service. Like professional athletes, we are paid exactly what we are worth and it is never enough - for example: try to get a life insurance policy in this line of work.





Currently the largest of the US State Department's three private security contractors, Xe Services LLC is a privately owned security services firm founded as Blackwater USA in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. Erik Prince previously served as a Navy SEAL officer on deployments to Haiti, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, including Bosnia.

In Iraq, Blackwater became poster boys for excess. A "photo cartoon" circulating in Baghdad among security contractors and some U.S. soldiers – and the laughter it generated – speaks for itself:




"Blackwater has become a symbol of testosterone-fueled excess," one security contractor stated, who like most remains unnamed because the industry is under such scrutiny.

In February 2009 Blackwater USA, was renamed "Xe", reflecting a change in company focus away from the business of providing private security. A company spokesman stated that it was felt the Blackwater name was too closely associated with the company's work in the occupation of Iraq.



Based in North Carolina, Xe operates a tactical training facility which the company claims is the world's largest, and at which it trains more than 40,000 people a year, mostly from US and other military and police services. The training consists of military offensive and defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personal security.

Of the 987 contractors Xe provides, 744 are US citizens. Xe has provided security services in Iraq to the United States federal government, particularly the Central Intelligence Agency on a contractual basis. They no longer have a license to operate in Iraq: the new Iraqi government made multiple attempts to expel them from their country, and denied their application for an operating license in January 2009.



Based in Alexandria, Virginia, MPRI is a private military contractor that provides a wide range of services to both public and private customers, most notably the US DoD. MPRI specializes in various professions such as law enforcement, security, military training, logistics, etc. By its own account MPRI operates in over 40 countries.

A member of International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), MPRI was founded in 1987 by eight retired officers of the US Army. In June of 2000 MPRI was acquired by L-3 Communications.


Triple Canopy is a private military contracting company headquartered in Herndon, Virginia that provides global security and risk management services in North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. The company's website claims that it delivers "a broad range of security and risk management services including assessments, training, crisis management, protective, and support services."



Triple Canopy was founded in 2003, and it is best known for its work in the Iraq War. Since April of 2009 the Obama administration signed contracts for Triple Canopy to work in the Middle East.

The name Triple Canopy was initially chosen to refer to the layered canopy jungle of Southeast Asia and Central America, where some of the key founding members received their military training and operational experience; it also refers to the distinction among U.S. Army personnel of wearing the Airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces tabs, if authorized, when assigned to Special Forces units.

Under the tab “Careers” the Triple Canopy website proclaims, “Quiet Professionals Wanted”. Quiet Professionals is a military buzzword that specifically implies US Army Special Forces soldiers (Green Berets). It is rumored that leadership at Triple Canopy has roots from the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta (commonly referred to as Delta Force).




CACI International Inc founded in 1962, is a professional services and information technology (IT) company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. A member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, CACI has approximately 12,700 employees in over 120 offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Abu Ghraib Controversy

In 2004, CACI was linked to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse along with another US Government contractor, Titan Corp (now owned by L-3 Communications). 2 CACI employees were investigated in the Taguba inquiry. The US Army found that "contractors were involved in 36 percent of the (Abu Ghraib) proven incidents" and identified 6 employees as "individually culpable", although none have faced prosecution.

CACI Response:

According to CACI’s website, "the company provided a range of Information Technology (IT) and intelligence services in Iraq. These services included intelligence analysis, background investigations, screenings, interrogation, property management and recordkeeping, and installation of computer systems, software and hardware. Only a small portion of these employees worked as interrogators. The company states that "no CACI employee or former employee has been indicted for any misconduct in connection with this work, and no CACI employee or former employee appears in any of the photos released from Abu Ghraib".

CACI interrogation services in Iraq concluded in the early fall of 2005 upon the conclusion of a contract with the Department of the Army.

In 2007 CACI acquired Wexford Group International:



Operating from offices in the southeastern and midwestern US, Wexford offers management consulting services to the federal government (including the US Department of Homeland Security, US Army, and various other US Department of Defense agencies), as well as clients in the private sector. Its services cover acquisition management, organizational and performance management, risk mitigation, strategic communications, and tactical training.

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BLACKWATER UPDATE

My buddy Uncle Jimbo over at BLACKFIVE has a good post on the Blackwater case dismissal:


This was a political case from the get go, and I firmly believe the only reason these guys faced charges is the we made a deal w/ the Iraqis because they demanded we prosecute before they would sign the security agreement. There were claims that this was a massacre and that there were no shots fired at the convoy. That was always BS and I covered it extensively.


Jimbo includes his exclusive source who confirmed the convoy was fired on - AND he offers supporting accounts from State Department sources, to include Ambassador Crocker.


"Contact! Contact! Contact!"

Jimbo also includes radio logs from the Blackwater incident. Go there and read it, Jimbo did a good job of covering this from the start.


Like I said, this is good news. Like a long tall glass of cold water to a man dying of thirst in the desert; this may be a glimmer of hope that just like the tide turned for us on the battlefield in Iraq, the political tide against us may finally turning, here at home.

MORE GOOD NEWS

This is a story we've been watching REAL CLOSE:


Judge Tosses Blackwater Case, cites Government Missteps

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.

Citing repeated government missteps, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed a case that had been steeped in international politics. The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. The Iraqi government wanted the guards to face trial in Iraq and officials there said they would closely watch how the U.S. judicial system handled the case.

Urbina said the prosecutors ignored the advice of senior Justice Department officials and built their case on sworn statements that had been given under a promise of immunity. Urbina said that violated the guards' constitutional rights. He dismissed the government's explanations as "contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility."


This is a relief for the guys, and for every man on the ground out there, doing the job without military status and all the rights and benefits that go with that.

Whether the Blackwater crew was right or wrong, I don't think anybody around here would know one way or the other. What I do know is you can't armchair quarterback these guys from 8,000 miles away from the Combat Zone. Think about it - you stick a guy out there on the two-way firing range with a lawyer in his back pocket (ROE) but WITHOUT the protection of the Law of Land Warfare (Hague & Geneva Conventions) and then when he does what he has to do to stay alive on the most lethal battlefield in the history of the world, you throw the book at him? Eff that.





It might surprise the readership out there that I'm not an especially big fan of the Blackwater operation (now known as 'XE' of course) - and not just because they're the competition. Having said that, I harbor no ill will against them; they are Americans doing a thankless job under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I say Godspeed to all the BW operators, and ALL my fellow contractors out there; best wishes and good fortune in all you do, all day every day.

"Keep your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet sharp and scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s warning."


- Sean Linnane

SCUTTLEBUTT

Yesterday LoTM asked:

Do you have any more info on the 3 SEAL petty officers facing charges in Seal Team Ten? Is there any word on the Navy 4 striper who ordered the initial Mast, that was refused, and who relieved the CO of Team Four? Is he OK or is it what we fear? Before we panic and assume the Admirals and Captains are colluding to destroy the SpecOps community it is unclear. He may be doing what is right but it sure looks bad.


. . . so I asked around, ended up speaking with a SEAL who works in a Joint billet & is in a position to know . . . (I can't get any more specific than that - in the past I alluded to my sources more specifically and got my fingers burned and a good friend in trouble - you'll just have take my word for it, this is coming from deep within the SpecOpns Community) . . . here's the deal:


Conventional sentiments regarding Spec Opns units notwithstanding, my source this one looks like its going to blow over. The prisoner showed up with a busted lip; given the microscopic filters the pro-Islamist-bleeding-heart-liberals have set up over our prisoner handling operations, right away a complaint gets filed.

The SEALs were charged under UCMJ "Captains Mast" of prisoner abuse, then covering it up. The SEALs took their prerogative to refuse the nonjudicial punishment and ask for a Court Martial - this is what you do if you know you're right and you're going to beat the rap - and were assigned JAG lawyers.

A complaint gets filed, that means an investigation MUST be initiated - the commander has no alternative - and it doesn't necessarily indicate a witchhunt. It's just like an HR complaint in the civilian world; the process is not pleasant but it's not predetermined either. Word on the street is these guys are going to be OK.

Here's the background:

Fox News reported that three Navy SEALs are facing a court martial for allegedly punching a terrorist after he was captured.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.

The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that “Objective Amber” planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and “they had been tracking this guy for some time.”

The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.




March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.


The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until September.



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The way I see it, Hajii there is lucky they didn't fix bayonets. Hey, I've done muzzle thumps on guys before; "What are all these little circles on Stinky's skinny ribcage?"

In an earlier time, a prisoner shows up with a busted lip - no big deal, right? "He made a threatening gesture". I mean, the way I was taught, all they have to be is breathing when you turn them over. If they're wounded, slap a bandaid on them before you move out; there, you've just satisfied Geneva because you have to render aid, right? Nobody says it has to be the same quality & standards you give your own guys, right?


I sure hope my source is right about these guys . . .


. . . S.L.