Is the introduction of the Blackwater crew a sign to Democracy?

The Red shirts of Garibaldi acted to enforce freedom on others!

The Black shirts of Mussolini acted to enforce his idea of state on others!

And do I really need to point out the results of the Hitlers Brown shirts!!

June 2004: Coalitional Provisional Authority chief Paul Bremer issues Order 17, making private contractors immune from Iraqi law.

January 2005: Families of the four contractors killed in Fallujah file a wrongful death suit against Blackwater, claiming the company failed to provide the force protection it had promised to its client. Blackwater counter-sued, saying the Blackwater employees had signed away their right to take legal action against the company.

June 2005: Blackwater guards shoot and kill an Iraqi man in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The guards fail to report the incident, which a U.S. State Department memo describes as "the random death of an innocent Iraqi citizen."

September 2005: Blackwater receives a no-bid contract to provide security for government facilities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

September 2006: A Blackwater security convoy traveling on the wrong side of the road collides with a civilian vehicle. Blackwater personnel reported that they couldn't rescue the civilian driver, because his car burst into flames.

December 2006: A Blackwater guard is accused of killing one of the security guards of Iraq's vice president in the Green Zone. Blackwater fires the man for "violating alcohol and firearm policy," but he is not prosecuted.

February 2007: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds hearings on the use of private contractors in Iraq, including testimony from Blackwater and the families of the Blackwater employees killed in Fallujah.

September 2007: Blackwater guards on a State Department convoy open fire in Nisoor Square in Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding about two dozen others. An FBI investigation finds that at least 14 of the shootings were not justified.

October 2007: Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House panel, saying his company has few remedies for dealing with employees accused of crimes.

December 2007: Blackwater says it will go ahead with plans to build a training facility in Southern California, about 45 miles east of San Diego. The announcement comes just a day after voters in the nearby town of Potrero voted to recall five planning board members who had approved the project. The issue is now in the hands of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which is waiting for the results of environmental impact studies.

The Defense Authorization Bill, including a provision to create a Commission on Wartime Contracting, is passed by the House, then the Senate 鈥?and is sent to President George Bush.

Maybe not at the moment Auntyb but things can get out of hand when too much state power is put into private hands

This whole Blackwater thing is scary..they are nothing but "guns for hire."
I would like to know when the US government would have stepped in if somehow what Blackwater was doing hadn't leaked out.

I wouldn't trust them, unless I was a US official, and even then, I wouldn't be going on any Aspen skiing trips with any of them.

Blackwater does seem to fit several of the parallels you mentioned. But the whole so-called "homeland security" thing scares me no end. That's one of the reasons I'm voting for Ron Paul, who is a strict Constitutionalist.

I don't believe it's as much about putting governmental powers to private individuals. Government has no powers, save for the ones conferred upon it by the individual.

It's about putting anyone above the law.

As crappy as some laws are, they keep us equal as long as everyone is subject to them.

Dear Sly,

you are very informative, wow!

Great Post...Good Ques. More Info. about Blackwater and other CORRUPT orgs. Stealing Americans Tax $$$ .... in Your Browser type in: Iraq For Sale

Outstanding question, and information.
Bunch of no good dirty criminals guns for hire, are usually hired by no good dirty criminals needing gnus to murder??!!

A democracy would look for such groups for one reason, to prosecute and execute them, justice for all ??!!

Best Regards.

Use of mercenaries is a sign that a country is going to fall. Some historians think that the excessive use of mercenaries contributed to the fall of Rome. Society as we know it is going to fall. All the signs are showing and problems are arising that no other society had to deal with. For example our dependence on gas and oil. We are going to run out soon and society will fall due to that. Also the next ice age is coming and I doubt america will last through that. No oil and an ice age.

This stuff is sooo scary! I don't understand why more people are not worried about this. This really is Dubya's cronies army is'nt it?!! I am afraid that by the time everyone wakes up from their fox fog it will be too late and we will all be employees/slaves of haliburton or blackwater.

I do not see the logical nor legal justification for a company such as Blackwater to be operating in America and hired by our Govt.

It sickens me to think that we actually employ these meat-headed mercenaries that value kills more than life.

Hopefully they will be shut down or at least sued into foreclosure. No more govt contracts should be given to a company that has repeatedly killed people in such dubious manners.

This harkens back to the Herbert Hoover intelligence gather operations before we had a CIA. No oversight, no laws, rampant corruption.

They are scum of the earth, barely above the ******** who hire them.

Also, how can a US General supercede Iraqi law, or even mandate who is and isn't subject to it, if the Iraqi govt is an actual govt?

I am not scared of these people, people who live in the shadows do not scare me. I am not scared to die. I am sickened that we as a nation have allowed situations such as this to arise by electing the people we have. Now more than ever I truly hope we elect the best of the best, and not the best funded.

Operations such as Blackwater (They aren't a company, they are an operation) should be sent cease and desist orders and be forced to close down.

Our govt should not be paying anyone for our security other than our military and police.