Paint Them Black

The fallout from the Blackwater incident continues. The warm-up to congressional hearings today (Tuesday) is a congressional report citing the "security" (read: mercenary) company for some 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005. That's nearly two hundred in less than two years, more than one a week -- "in a vast majority of cases firing their weapons from moving vehicles without stopping to count the dead or assist the wounded," according to the New York Times report. In 163 of those cases, Blackwater gunmen fired first.

The recent incident that grabbed the attention of the Iraqi government--Blackwater allegedly killing civilians on September 16-- is being investigated by the FBI.

The Times also wrote: But the report is also harshly critical of the State Department for exercising virtually no restraint or supervision of the private security company’s 861 employees in Iraq. “There is no evidence in the documents that the committee has reviewed that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater’s actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting episodes involving Blackwater or the company’s high rate of shooting first, or detained Blackwater contractors for investigation,” the report states.

This is entirely consistent with Bushite policy and practice: no-bid, no-oversight, no-accountability contracts to enrich corporate cronies and bankrupt the U.S. government. Blackwater's "security" mandate is to protect the private property of Halliburton--that is, the Green Zone--and Halliburton's in-country customers, the U.S. "officials" and the Army. And they do so outside and above the law, another Bushite favorite.

Blackwater and other mercenaries have already been seen on the streets of New Orleans, and if any other disasters happen while the Bushites are in charge, you can be sure the future is black.