Jeremy Scahill:Blackwater and the Coalition of the Billing 1
Posted on January 23rd, 2010 by admin
Part 1 of 3 Jeremy Scahill, a Nation Magazine contributor, Democracy Now correspondent, and author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”, speaks in San Diego on May 1 2007. In Part 1, Jeremy Scahill tells the story behind the iconic images of the four Blackwater civilian security contractors who were killed and mutilated, their charred bodies hung from a bridge in Fallujah, an incident that further inflamed violence throughout Iraq. Scahill explains the inherent flaws in deploying private contract security forces into a war zone and details the tragic sequence of events that led the four American men from distinguished military careers to their doom as civilian contractors. Scahill also describes how founder and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince developed Blackwater into one of the world’s largest private security companies by providing outsourced services in the wake of cataclysmic events such the Columbine High School shootings, the USS Cole bombing, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Additionally, Scahill explores Prince’s extensive personal and political links to powerful figures within the “Religious Right.”
Duration : 0:28:25
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January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
rollot and zz: it …
rollot and zz: it does not matter who sold what to whom. Iraq 2003 was a lie based on non existent WMD. Saddam was no threat and certainly not an imminent one needing immediate action. Iraq 2003 was personal. bush jr sticking up for his daddy while distracting america from the real threat in afganistan. reagan did the same thing in 1983. we forgot all about the 243 marines killed in beirut because we were liberating grenada in the same week. same play, different actors.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
The US did not sell …
The US did not sell WMDs to Iran- those were conventional missiles in return for hostages. They never sold WMD to Iraq, either. There are other dictators but just because we can’t depose all of them doesn’t mean we don’t depose any of them. Mugabe doesn’t control an oil choke point and is deplorable, but not a security concern. If the US attacked SA due to its human rights record, would you support that? I thought not. Its heads you win, tales we lose and your ilk arent serious, credible people.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
The U S sold W M Ds …
The U S sold W M Ds to both Iran & Iraq during their war, America admits this. At the time & now there r many other dictators just like Sadam but without oil. e.g. Robert Mcgarbie of Zimbabwe. N Korea admitted to having WMDs but Bush didn’t go there. Soudiarabia still kill women i.e. stoned to death for leaving abusive partners or if they report rape but does your country do anything there ? no as they already have control of the oil there. Sadam & Osama were enemies. Wake up !
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Jeremy puts a good …
Jeremy puts a good perspective on old bits of information,
pulling it together to make sense of events largely “spun” into
none sense by Major TV media.
Worth the time to Watch.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
story] in my …
story] in my hometown theres this guy that works 4 the british army an i swear he says 1 thing i used to find soo shoking is how wen 1 of our armys dies how they stonk out!!! and the arans about 20 30 dead layin down and they wnt stink as much!! and how patient there mums are and family!! once i asked 1 palestinian guy wheres the love 4 these dead pple and he says theres no love thers happiness to die in no action u led ur self too theyre the pple of paradise!! he kept sayin that i coldnt stand
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Jeremy is the man, …
Jeremy is the man, he is fighting for the cause taking on your lord and saviors, the various evil US corporations. Screw you red neck.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Mr Scahill, your …
Mr Scahill, your are a very brave man. your country should be proud of you.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
You’re a bad …
You’re a bad American, Jeremy.
I know you feel yourself rooting for the bad guys all the time. Feel free to join the insurgents in Iraq if you don’t agree with what we are doing there.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Pila, you opened up …
Pila, you opened up this discussion with calling me an “idiot” and then calling me “dumb”- but you’re right. I’M clearly the hotheaded, irrational one here. You didn’t address my points just issued the brilliant rejoinder of me being “dumb.” You’re older than me AND Canadian- two demographic boxes that, when checked off, should make these sort of ad hominem attacks less likely.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Rollo, now you are …
Rollo, now you are just being dumb. I briefly thought you were guying to try and have a rational discussion.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
There was never a …
There was never a peace treaty with Iraq there was a ceasefire, the terms of which they broke. Bilateral treaties supersede the vagaries of a purely hypothetical international legal system. In the same vein the US attacking the DPRK would be a “legal” thing to do even if it were inadvisable. Why are people of your political stripe hung up on the legal question? I swear if you were being knifed to death on the street the only thing you’d say is: “You know, this is ILLEGAL, what you’re doing!”
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
If it was wrong to …
If it was wrong to support Hussein in the past- under Cold War realpolitik which was, I believe, the only option at the time- it is the morally correct thing to remove him now as well as it is serving US natl security because he was a state sponsor of terror. He HAD connections to AQ but not 9/11 and the ONLY reason we know Iraq to be WMD-free now is because we went in there!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
It wasn’t so much …
It wasn’t so much an illusion as it was transient, as most dictatorships are. However, the US has actively and tacitly supported many oppressive regimes, and has overthrown democratically elected governments, to suit its purposes. Consquently the US had no moral or legal right to invade any country for the purposes of regime change. And it is firmly established that Iraq had no WMDs and no connection to Al Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks either.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
That “control” was …
That “control” was an illusion and would not last forever. At some point there had to be an effort to move past the Hussein era and this was best done under intl supervision. 35 years of divide and rule combined with a 1300 year sectarian enmity meant this sort of conflict may had been unavoidable. If the US ran Iraq with the old levers of power and/or declared martial law after the fall of Saddam I guarantee THAT would be lambasted too. Its the “heads I win, tails you lose” school of critique.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Like I said, they …
Like I said, they had their problems. However, it was under some measure of control. The invasion removed any apparatus for the control of those ethnic tensions, leading to the chaos that exists today. Had the US not engaged in the deBaathification of the government and the dismantling of the armed forces, these controls would have remained in place to control this. So, yes, the policies of the US post-invasion are directly responsible for the slaughter of Iraqis and American soldiers.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Wow, keep that …
Wow, keep that witty, incisive commentary coming. You’re blowing my mind. What is it about the sight of American soldier that makes a Sunni blow up a market full of Shia?
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Rollo, you are an …
Rollo, you are an IDIOT. Iraq had it’s problems, no doubt, but it was AMERICA that turned Iraq into a hellhole.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Sweet Jesus! They …
Sweet Jesus! They were caterers! How could we expect them to NOT be killed! Thank Gaia for this philosopher-kin/ warrior-poet’s courageous truthtelling. Lest it be unclear by THIS point to the Iraqi “resistance”- if you fire at us we WILL hit back and our guns are bigger. We’re there to help, if our help’s not appreciated, lots of luck my friends living in the hellhole you’ve created for yourselves.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Nuke iraq and send …
Nuke iraq and send blackwater to our borders now!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
This guy is an …
This guy is an idiot!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Why would we ever …
Why would we ever here the real truth on TV! Because all the rich greedy would look really Bad! As a country, we need to read more books,and stop watching so much TV!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
The Cole happened …
The Cole happened in 2000, not 1999.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
if they ran this …
if they ran this type of material, people would either bury their heads deeper in the sand, or impeach bush and put the whole administration on trial. god forbid justice prevailing in this country.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
why doesn’t cnn or …
why doesn’t cnn or msnbc or abc ever report this stuff?!!…..i think our media is state run!!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Blackwater deserved …
Blackwater deserved it and the rest of the company should be killed and hanged on every overpass in Iraq for the illegal killing they do every day!