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Blackwater

Blackwater (Xe) Founder Officially Charged

Aug 29th, 2009
by khanserai.
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The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince was officially charged in court on Friday, Aug 29, 2009 with intent to kill .

The plaintiffs hold Erik Prince responsible for 20+ Iraqi deaths, and the defense wants the motion to be dismissed. The Judge, T.S. Ellis III has not issued a ruling yet, however as the Washington Post reports:

Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed deep skepticism about the claims. "Are you accusing Mr. Prince of saying ‘I want our boys to go out and shoot innocent civilians?’ ” he asked the attorneys."These are certainly allegations of not engaging in very nice conduct, but where are the elements that meet the elements of murder? I don’t have any doubt that you can infer malice. What you can’t infer, as far as I can tell, is intent to kill these people.”

It sounds like he has already made up his mind.

Blackwater (wiki link and official Xe website link) is the CIA contractor that was hired to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan; and also transfer Guantanamo detainees to secret prisons in Asia for interrogations.

There is finally talk of charging Blackwater with war crimes by the Justice Department. Their subsidiaries and them are also currently charged with kidnapping, weapons smuggling, money laundering, tax evasion, child prostitution, illegal drug use and destruction of evidence in the Virginia Eastern Federal District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

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Finally, a Check on the CIA!

Aug 24th, 2009
by khanserai.
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The controversial CIA program for assassinating al-Qaeda leaders using Blackwater as a contractor is becoming an ever-increasing political problem for the CIA as more information gets revealed. Congress was not informed about the program’s  existence when it was formed in 2004. The new CIA Director Leon Panetta (Obama’s appointee) cancelled the program this summer when he found out about it and then informed Congress. The CIA claims that it was in the planning stages only; since then it seems that it was past the planning stages, though it was not successful in it’s seven years.

Congress has launched an investigation into the matter and most importantly the mood is changing on the Hill regarding illegal activity by the CIA. The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is currently evaluating if they should release:

newly declassified portions of a 2004 CIA report that questions the legality and effectiveness of the agency’s harsh interrogations at secret prisons. Additionally, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. may order a probe of possible criminal actions by CIA officers and contractors during those interrogations.

It is about time the legislative and judicial branches of the government actually started acting based on their mandates rather than giving a carte blanche to the executive branch as they did for the past 8 years under Bush. The separation of the various government branches is to ensure checks and balances within the system; however the more we find out about the inner working of the past administration, the more we realize that the judicial & legislative branch were made irrelevant by the ever-expanding power of the executive branch.

America needs to re-establish the rule of law for itself, and not just expect it from other countries. People in glass houses should not throw stones!

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