Soldier Victims Of Hillary Clinton's Promotion Of War In Iraq, Afghanistan, Etc (tags)
A litany of the consequences of Bush Clinton and Obama illegal and immoral wars
Scahill: President Obama, Why Did You Pay Blackwater $70 Million in February? (tags)
For those already outraged at the AIG bonus scandal, here is a fact that should add more fuel to the fire: The Obama administration has paid the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater nearly $70 million to operate in Iraq and, according to The Washington Times, may keep the company on the payroll months past the official expiration of its Iraq contract in May. I reviewed Blackwater's recent transactions with the Obama State Department and discovered a $45 million payment to Blackwater on February 4, 2009 for "protective services-Iraq." It is described as a "funding action only." Here is the interesting part: The estimated "Ultimate Completion Date" is 5/07/2011.
An analysis of how the recent fires in Los Angeles and San Diego counties demonstrates how much America has given up even lip service to the notion that "all men are created equal" and how this nation has evolved into an aristocratic society that judges people's intrinsic worth based on their wealth.
Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater's loopholes (tags)
REMINDER: Jeremy Scahill, will be speaking in the Los Angeles area, at the United Teachers of LA, 3303 W. Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, at 7:00 pm on Friday, Nov. 16th and at the First Unitarian Church of Studio City, 12355 Moorpark, Studio City, CA at 7:00 pm on Saturday, Nov. 17th, each with author Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq. For more information call: 213-309-2713.
Torture, Paramilitarism, Occupation and Genocide (tags)
The ugly face of US imperialism
Contracting Out the War in Iraq (tags)
After Blackwater USA’s recent street shoot out in Baghdad, which resulted in as many as 17 civilian deaths, the role of mercenaries in Iraq has received extra attention in the media. Although they have played a key role in the occupation of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, these “private security contractors” have for the most part flown under the public radar. For example, the debate over a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq usually centers around the 160,000 military personnel occupying the country. But what about the estimated 182,000 private contractors now deployed in Iraq? During the 1991 Gulf War, the troop-to-private contractor ratio was about 60 to 1. Now they outnumber uniformed troops, more than doubling the actual size of the occupation force. Private contractors in Iraq do everything from cooking food and doing the laundry to driving trucks and building bridges. Using them on such a vast scale is part of the privatization of the war, which is not only politically convenient, but results in massive profits for the companies involved. As of July 2007, there were more than 630 war contracting companies working in Iraq for the U.S. government.
Reviewing Linda McQuaig's "It's the Crude, Dude" (tags)
War, oil, Iraq, Big Oil, global warming and more in one package.