There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official figures and some estimates run much higher. Security contractors are not counted as part of the coalition forces.
Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation authorities in Iraq that immunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from prosecution.
Blackwater has also constructed “the world’s largest private military facility - a 7,000-acre compound near the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina.” Blackwater also recently opened a facility in Illinois and is moving ahead with plans to build another huge training base near San Diego. The company recently announced it was creating a private intelligence branch called “Total Intelligence.”
Erik Prince, who founded and runs Blackwater… has close ties with the radical Christian Right and the Bush White House. the appearance of Blackwater fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, may be a grim taste of the future. In New Orleans Blackwater charged the government $240,000 a day.
Were this country (USA) to become even a little less stable, outfits like Blackwater might see a heyday. If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations, and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New Orleans could appear on our streets.
All in all you've got to step back and take the whole picture in. we've all heard the predictions of civil war in the states following in the future, a rise of the oppressed peoples clinging to their second amendments which they haven't given up on yet. taking up arms against the elite to win back their own liberties and freedoms from the might of these corporations and overun goverment. is this too far out? well the rise of an unanswerable private war machine in Blackwater and other such groups points to a grim future. .... but you gotta think, these mercenaries are humans aren't they? cant they rationalise? can they be so brainwashed? are we that stupid that we are sitting back knowing whats in store and not changing it?
how have we come so far, and yet still wish to beat our fellow brothers down with clubs ... or M-16s. knowledge is power, dont let it happen here in Oz.
ORIGINAL STORYCOMMON DREAMS.orgBRIAN WOOD - author of the graphic novel DMZ
BLACKWATER: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army - BOOK
