Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater Responsible for Bombings/Assassinations in Pakistan (& LatAm)

From the "why do they hate us" dept....

Thanks to DUer Bullet1987 for posting this in the Political Video forum.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x524940

Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater Responsible for Bombings/Assassinations in Pakistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCPTtRL2YNI

The (actions of the) US must be stopped!

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That's what I'm getting from Schahill's comments on the latest disclosures about Blackwater, that they had an informal, off-the-books assassination program, CIA-connected, with Cheney acting to cover it up.

The YouTube vid cut off the segment before Schahill says anything about Latin America. But there was a news report a couple of months ago that the State Department had "fined" Blackwater for "unauthorized" "trainings" of "foreign persons" (don't know who) in COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan."

I figured that this might be related to the secretly negotiated, secretly signed U.S./Colombia military agreement arranged, last year, by Bushwhack ambassador to Colombia, Wiliiam Brownfield, and the drug and Bush Cartel-connected outgoing pResident of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe. Obama/Clinton/Panetta kept Brownfield in place in Colombia until quite recently, possibly to get this done (as well as the extradition of death squad case witnesses to the U.S., where they have been buried in the federal prison system--out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors--by complete sealing of their cases). This agreement, among other things, provided signed (by Uribe) total diplomatic immunity for all U.S. soldiers and U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia. The Colombia military has one of the worst human rights records on earth and is notorious for murdering trade unionists, human rights workers, teachers, community activists, journalists, peasant farmers and others, and also for murdering boys and dressing their bodies up like FARC guerrillas, to up their "body counts" (to earn bonuses and impress U.S. senators). Seems like an environment in which Blackwater would be 'comfortable.' They could do any fucking thing they wanted to.

I think that this State Department "fining" of Blackwater for "unauthorized" "trainings" in Colombia was a coverup or part of a coverup. It sounds very similar to what Schahill is describing (and just found out about)--the "informal" Blackwater assassination teams for Iraq, Afghanistan and other places (that Cheney acted to cover up). Were these "unauthorized" "trainings" in Colombia how Blackwater prepared their operatives for carrying out Cheney's murder directives elsewhere?

That's one of my guesses: They trained their assassins for Iraq, Afghanistan and other places by doing "turkey shoot" practice against Colombian civilians--with possible involvement in the La Macarena massacre (among other murders).

I think that one of Panetta's jobs (given to him by Daddy Bush) is to cover up Junior's bloody trail around the world, including in Colombia. That's probably why Uribe was exited from power (too obviously dirty and Bush-connected). Panetta visited Bogota amidst rumors of a Uribe coup to stay in power. (Note: Panetta was a member of Daddy Bush's "Iraq Study Group"--"old CIA" in my opinion.) Uribe was landed on his feet--given a cushy academic sinecure at Georgetown U. (by the Jesuits! --George Tenet is an alumnus) and appointment to a prestigious international legal commission (investigating Israel's firing on aid ships) by Obama/Clinton. But pretty clearly Panetta was ousting him--"golden parachute" or not. (The perks were to keep his mouth shut?) And now there is this whole democracy cosmetics thing going on in Colombia with the new leader, former Defense Minister Manuel Santos--while many murders of civilians continue (--at least 50 trade unionists murdered so far this year). (Amnesty International attributes about half of the murders of trade unionists in Colombia to the Colombian military; the other half to its closely tied rightwing death squads). While Brownfield/Panetta/Clinton, et al, have been prepping Colombia (trying to clean up its image--for instance, by getting rid of Uribe and burying witnesses in the U.S.--to get a U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" bill through Congress, Diebold/ES&S has done its work to fill Congress with Pukes who could give a fuck about democracy (or murders of leftists) in Colombia but won't mind the cover.

Ah, me. Ever since I read about the "immunity" provision in Brownfield/Uribe's secret agreement, I have suspected that something was up with regard to U.S. soldiers or 'contractors' in Colombia. Anyway, the Schahill interview never gets to Latin America. (It's abruptly cut off.) What did he say about it?

Scahill said that McCain's (U.S. taxpayer funded) "International Republican Institute" contracts with Blackwater. The "International Republican Institute" (IRI) is a program of the CIA-connected USAID, which is notorious for using U.S. taxpayer money to fund rightwing groups all over Latin America. The IRI is likely doing the same, and also participated in the phony election in Honduras (during martial law) to smear some democracy cosmetics on that coup d'etat. Honduras is also starting to resemble Colombia, with hundreds of leftist activists in Honduras murdered by rightwing death squads. One question all this raises is: What is the IRI paying Blackwater to do?

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One thing I didn't know--which we should all be alert to: Blackwater operates under some 20 different names. Amy Goodman asked Schahill about Blackwater's new name--"Xe." Schahill laughed and said, "That's so yesterday!" Then he rattled off a number of the many names that Blackwater operates with, using various subsidiaries. He mentioned the number 20.

Scahill Talks about Blackwater's Interest in Latin America for Growth Opportunities
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x4182

:thumbsup:

I was trying to track down the full episode on the Democracy Now site, but I was distracted by a toothache (someone else's).

America (the corporate/hedge-fund/fascist version) is a pox upon the planet. :(

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I'm going to quote some of it. But first I just want to point out that the article is dated 2008 and speaks of Blackwater's INTENTION to exploit the (ahem) death squad 'market' in Latin America. I remember picking up somewhere, 3 or 4 years ago, that Blackwater had already been operating in Colombia, and this "informal" assassination program dates back to 2002.

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EFE: 05/05/2008-18:21:00

Blackwater said looking at LatAm for growth opportunities
By Fernando Puchol.

Madrid, May 5 (EFE).- Blackwater, the U.S. firm that has made a fortune providing paramilitary services in Iraq, has its sights fixed on Latin America as a future market....

(Paraphrase: Scahill was presenting his book on Blackwater and discussed Blackwater's transformation into one of the most influential actors in the U.S. military-industrial complex. He said that it was now diversifying and looking toward Latin America.)

'Blackwater could end up in Latin America," said Scahill, who emphasized that the Pentagon had urged (Blackwater)... to apply to join a plan to fight drugs, mainly in Mexico and Colombia, that has a $15 billion budget.'

It is through these private firms that Washington wants to guarantee its presence in the region without 'leaving a military footprint,' the journalist said, adding that the billions of dollars that the United States has invested over the past 15 years in the anti-drug fight in the region has been for 'the counterinsurgency struggle.'

Scahill cites the example of Colombia, which receives from Washington roughly $500 million per year to fight drug trafficking, of which, in turn, Bogota allocates a good part to pay for the services of firms with the same characteristics as Blackwater, like DynCorp.

'The future is in the training and preparation of Latin American troops, with the objective of having small paramilitary teams working for these companies in Latin America. We will see an increase in the presence of these firms that decide to set up in the region,' Scahill predicted.

The logic is that of business and the free market, the same thing that motivated Blackwater and other firms that hire out mercenaries to establish themselves in the cheap labor markets of countries like Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru and Bolivia.

(SNIP)

Most of the personnel working for such firms are former soldiers who got their training during the "dirty wars" that several Latin American military dictatorships waged against their own peoples in the 1970s and '80s....

Scahill says in the book that 'one of the largest contingents of non-U.S. soldiers imported to Iraq by Blackwater was made up of former Chilean commandos, some of whom had been trained or had served during the brutal military dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet." EFE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x4182

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Lots of interesting items in this article (and, obviously, in Scahill's book--which I haven't yet read).

We mustn't forget DynCorp--which likely participated in the bombing/raid on Ecuador in 2008, where 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" were dropped on the FARC's hostage and peace negotiator, Raul Reyes (likely intended to end all those hostage releases and Reyes' effort to negotiate a peaceful end to Colombia's 70+ year civil war). 25 sleeping people were blown to bits. I hadn't thought of DynCorp as being like Blackwater--but, when you think about it, of course they are. Their relationship with the Pentagon is perhaps more formal and involves administrative work as well as providing plane, pilot and bombs for dirty ops (and who knows what else? the "miracle laptops"?). DynCorp was running the U.S. base in Ecuador. The new leftist president kicked the U.S. military out of Ecuador, and thus DynCorp ended up in Colombia, where the Pentagon now has use of at least 7 military bases. In any case, that's what they are--mercenaries--just like Blackwater.

Note that Scahill is speaking, in 2008, of future Blackwater intentions in Latin America. I think they were in operation in Colombia a lot earlier than that.

Clearly, the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" is a war profiteers' boondoggle--their fallback for weathering the ups and downs of the Forever War in the Middle East. And we are beginning to see that the two are related, not only as gravy trains, but also as to training assassination teams and so on. And "Free trade for the rich," in a region that has seen a huge leftist democracy movement, can't proceed without continued assassinations of trade unionists and other advocates of the poor--as we have seen in Colombia and Honduras.

"War on drugs" = "counter-insurgency." I remember when the Bush Junta linked the "war on drugs" billions for Latin America, to the "war on terror." Thus, U.S. taxpayers end up paying for Colombians to kill Colombians, in their 70 year civil war, and the drugs just keep on flowing.

Mexico! All that carnage! Is Blackwater there? Are they doing to Mexico what they did to Iraq--pitting tribe against tribe, causing general mayhem?

Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru! Wow! I had no idea of the number of Latin American countries that Blackwater has been operating in, or intends to operate in. Blackwater and similar firms. Hm. I'm wondering about those Irish and Eastern European thugs who intended to assassinate Morales in Bolivia. I'm wondering about Chiquita in Colombia as well, and the death squads they hired to murder the trade unionists on Chiquita farms. (The scandal that AG Eric Holder was involved in, as Chiquita's lawyer.)

The viciousness of this plan is striking--Blackwater and other such assassins and thugs hiring out to private multinational corporations all over Latin America, in anticipation of more U.S. "free trade for the rich."

Well, we'd better get to work on getting rid of those 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines. With this Puke Congress, I fear that U.S. depravity is going to get worse before it gets better.

Don't think for one minute that the black ops and hit men are only operating offshore.

Corporate goals are the same everywhere - and we know that the CIA is simply a "protection" agency arm of American corporate interests. Read the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man to get a picture of what I'm talking about here.

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Thanks for posting.

:hi:

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and had pledged to lead the fight against the Iraq War in the Senate, and had the charisma and the incredible intelligence to succeed.

One senator whacked and the Anthrax Congress fell into line. They even passed the e-voting boondoggle (in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution).

This is a very dark time we are living through in the U.S., and I'm not seeing a lot of daylight--except that I know, in a very deep way, that the American majority believes in fairness, social justice and peace and yearns for good government. So much has been done to defeat the "will of the people"--to demoralize, disempower and depress us--that it is very difficult for people to continue to believe in themselves as citizens.

We must take heart from the fact that, even with all the money that our government has poured into rightwing groups in Latin America, on behalf of multinational corporations and war profiteers, and all the clandestine operations and dirty deeds they have done, they have FAILED to defeat the leftist democracy movement in that region. It has won victory after victory including numerous presidential elections. The struggle isn't over. But, hey, if we JOIN them, if we LEARN FROM THEM, if we attend to our election system and grass roots organization, as they have done, and if we THINK BIG, as they have done, we can create a pan-american leftist democracy movement, here and there. Just as Latin American countries are learning to work together and have each other's backs, the north and south of the hemisphere can do the same. If democracy gets restored here, it will help them. And they have pioneered the essentials for restoring it here--transparent vote counting and other best election practices (the No. 1 priority here, in my opinion). Grass roots/community organization. Think new "New Deal" --not bailouts for the rich, not half-assed, corporate run health care and all the rest of the Corporate Democrats' bullshit. A real "New Deal" AND THEN SOME. Big. BIG! If Latin Americans can do it, after all they've suffered of brutal tyranny and oppression, so can we! Together we can fulfill the promise of the America's as dreamt of by the revolutionaries who founded our countries and threw off colonialism, and all those who struggled along the way, to free themselves from slavery, to achieve equality, to create unions, to educate their children, to free women from their shackles, to establish decent communities, to care for the weak and the downtrodden, to survive brutal, murderous oppression and to carry the dream of the Americas forward, generation after generation. Latin America is now leading the way. The fire of democracy has been re-ignited there, and that fire will never die.

That gives me heart. The example is right here before our very eyes, in Latin America!

But we do need to recognize how bad things are here, before we can begin to construct remedies. Maybe this Puke Congress will teach people. Maybe that will be the spark. I hope so, but I think it's going to be a long and difficult road before the U.S.A. has anything like real democracy again.

(Not the difficult road ahead stuff. The stuff before that. :hug: )

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:hi:

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: