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Don't be alarmed anportmorgfc

The notorious private security company Blackwater, which now calls itself Xe Services, has become the center of a growing storm. In sworn statements filed in a US federal court on Aug. 3, two former employees allege that the company's founder and owner Erik Prince either murdered or arranged the murder of witnesses who were cooperating with federal investigators.

For fear of ending up in the same boat, the men's identities have been concealed, so statements were made in the names of John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. The story that was initially broken by author and journalist Jeremy Scahill in The Nation has been picked up by most mainstream television networks and newspapers and is being intensely debated.

John Doe 1 is an ex-marine who was sent by Blackwater to Iraq to guard American government personnel and now has a laundry list of accusations against his former employer. He says the company smuggled weapons into Iraq hidden in bags of dog food, which were used by persons not properly vetted by the State Department to kill or injure Iraqi civilians. He says his colleagues fired upon vehicles without stopping to check whether civilians were alive or in need of medical care and failed to report such incidents to either the Iraqi authorities or the State Department.

John Doe 2 says he worked for Blackwater for four years and has been threatened by the company's management with "death and violence." In addition, he says, "based on information provided to me by former colleagues, it appears that Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct." He further accused Prince of setting up a web of companies to obscure wrongdoing, fraud and other crimes, including money laundering, illegal arms dealing and tax evasion.

In the same statement John Doe 2 alleges that Prince views himself as a Christian Crusader, tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe and to that end he intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, "knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis."

Many of these men, he says, used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades." He claims that Prince's executives considered the killing of Iraqis as a sport, while company employees would regularly use such racist or derogatory terms such as "raghead" when referring to Arabs. He also accuses Blackwater of providing its employees with weaponry designed for maximum kill that had not been approved by the US authorities.

Lastly, he says Prince was a frequent visitor to the company's "man camp" in Iraq's Green Zone and failed to stop his men drinking heavily, taking steroids, and using prostitutes including "child prostitutes."

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who sits on a House committee that has been investigating Blackwater's activities for the past five years, says if the allegations are true then "Blackwater has been a criminal enterprise defrauding taxpayers and murdering innocent civilians."

"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally and domestically," he said. "The question is why they operated with impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations should be thoroughly investigated."

The company has denied the allegations, adding that it will respond formally on Aug. 17 in a federal court within the Eastern District of Virginia.

The reclusive Prince and his company were embroiled in scandal after scandal before these latest revelations. In 2007, Prince was called before Congress to be questioned on circumstances surrounding the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by a Blackwater security detail. In September of that year, federal prosecutors launched an investigation into employees of Blackwater accused of smuggling weapons into Iraq that were later allegedly transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the US and other countries consider to be a terrorist organization.

Yet despite its murky reputation, the Obama administration has signed contracts with Blackwater for security services in Iraq and Afghanistan to the tune of $174 million plus untold millions more for aviation services. Just last month, Blackwater's Presidential Airways received a US Army contract for aviation services in Afghanistan worth $ 8.9 million.

At the same time, the company feels free to bid for further US government contracts and is currently doing so. In the heat of war perhaps former President Bush can be forgiven for seeking the help of one of his evangelical cronies without too much oversight but what excuse does President Obama have for his failure to be discerning?

Even if the John Doe allegations turn out to be exaggerated it is well documented that Blackwater thugs have been involved in hundreds of shooting incidents inside Iraq, including the killing of a vice president's security guard that resulted in the inebriated killer being quickly shipped out of the country and allowed to walk free. Isn't it time that the families of those victims were given their day in court so they can seek justice? The problem is so-called US contractors were given immunity from prosecution but this should not prevent their boss Erik Prince being called to account in an American court.

Speaking to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Jeremy Scahill characterized Prince as "a guy who comes from the powerhouse of the radical religious right" who viewed Blackwater as a neo-Crusader force from the beginning. "And then we have his force employed in Iraq as part of a war against a Muslim nation that George Bush characterized as a crusade," he said.

Congresswoman Rep. Jan Schakowsky D-Illinois has urged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not to enter into further contracts with Xe and to immediately review any existing contracts. In a letter copied to CNN, she says, "the behavior and actions of both the company's leadership and a number of individuals employed by the company have harmed our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and endangered the lives and welfare of our troops and diplomatic personnel serving overseas." Good for her! But why isn't Congress in its entirety up in arms when America's reputation as a force for good is, surely, at stake?


I'd love to know what their mission is.



 

[$150 million]

MOMBASA: Somali pirates fired grenades and automatic weapons at an American freighter loaded with food aid but the ship managed to escape the attack and headed to Kenya under US Navy guard, officials said.

One of the pirate commanders said yesterday the attack on the American freighter Liberty Sun late Tuesday was aimed at "destroying" the ship in revenge for an operation that freed a US captain.

"This attack was the first against our prime target," pirate commander Abdi Garad told AFP. "We intended to destroy this American-flagged ship and the crew on board but unfortunately they narrowly escaped us.

"The aim of this attack was totally different. We were not after a ransom. We also assigned a team with special equipment to chase and destroy any ship flying the American flag in retaliation for the brutal killing of our friends."

Despite US President Barack Obama's vow to halt their banditry and the deaths of five pirates in recent French and US hostage rescue missions, brigands seized four vessels and more than 75 hostages off the Horn of Africa since Sunday's dramatic rescue of the American freighter captain, Richard Phillips.

That brought the total number of sailors being held by Somali pirates to over 300 on 17 different ships — a distinct surge in the number of captives over the last few days.

Pirates can extort $1 million or more for each ship and crew — and Kenya estimates they raked in $150 million last year.

The Liberty Sun's American crew was not injured in the latest attack but the vessel sustained some damage, owner of the Liberty Maritime Corp. said.

Still, the attack foiled the reunion between Richard Phillips and the 19-man crew of the Maersk Alabama who he had saved with his heroism.

Capt. Phillips was planning to meet his crew in the Kenyan port of Mombasa and fly home with them yesterday. But he was on the USS Bainbridge when it was diverted to help the Liberty Sun, and the crew left Mombasa without him yesterday on a chartered plane.

"We are very happy to be going home," crewman William Rios of New York City said before departing. "(But) we are disappointed to not be reuniting with the captain in Mombasa. He is a very brave man."

Maersk spokesman Gordan van Hook said crew members would arrive at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland. Their reunion with Phillips will now take place in the United States, he said, without elaborating.

Liberty Sun sailors used one of the same tactics Phillips employed to foil the pirates — blockading themselves inside the engine room.

"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets," crewman Thomas Urbik, 26, wrote his mother in an e-mail Tuesday. "We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. A rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out." The Liberty Sun "conducted evasive maneuvers" to ward off the pirates, said US Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

"That could be anything from zigzagging to speeding up to all kinds of things," he said. "We've seen in the past that that can be very effective in deterring a pirate attack." The USS Bainbridge responded to the Liberty Sun's call for help but the pirates had left by the time it arrived five hours later, Navy Capt. Jack Hanzlik said.

The ship, with 20 American mariners, had left Houston with a load of humanitarian food aid for the UN World Food Program. Some of that aid was destined for Somalia, where nearly half the country's seven million people depend on food aid.

This year, Somali pirates have attacked 79 ships and hijacked 19 of them. One pirate declared they are grabbing more ships and hostages now to prove they are not intimidated by Obama's pledge.

"Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land," Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone from the Somali port of Harardheere.

Pirates say they are fighting illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters but now operate hundreds of miles from there in a sprawling 1.1 million square-mile danger zone.

In another development, a French warship patrolling waters off East Africa as part of an EU anti-piracy force captured 11 pirates near the Kenyan coast yesterday, the French Defense Ministry said.

The frigate chased the pirates 500 nautical miles east of the Kenyan coast after tracking them overnight from the scene of a failed attack on a Liberian-registered vessel, a ministry spokesman said.

"The pirates were sailing a 10-meter mother ship carrying 17 drums holding 200 liters of fuel each and two assault skiffs," he said, adding that the captives were being held on board the French warship, the Nivose.


These guys obviously fear no one, least of all the US Navy it seems.

HAIL: Vice cops in Hail arrested on Monday a young Saudi nurse who attempted to rape a woman patient by posing as a doctor at a government hospital.

The male nurse, an employee at the hospital, told the woman, a teacher, that he was a specialist doctor and needed to carry out a detailed examination to diagnose whether she had an abdominal disease.

The nurse asked the woman to come for an examination the next day and to come alone and send her driver away as he would drop her off at home, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

Following examinations a day after, the man told the woman that she was suffering from a rare and serious disease, and that he had the correct medicine for her but that it was at home. He then asked the woman to come to his apartment where he tried to rape her. The woman, however, managed to escape.

The man then contacted the woman and tried to blackmail her into starting an illicit relationship, threatening to inform her husband of their "relationship" if she did not succumb.

The woman then contacted the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and explained her situation. Commission members asked the woman to arrange to meet the man at an apartment. As soon as the woman entered the apartment, commission members entered and arrested the nurse.

"The commission members caught the man and handed him to police for further investigations," said Suleiman Al-Redaiman, director of the commission in Hail. "People should not send their women folk alone to hospitals or other places where men work," he added.

Meanwhile, a court in Sharourah in Najran province handed varying periods of jail time to five men who were convicted of sexually attacking a boy.

Two of the men were jailed for two years and given 500 lashes each, a third was sentenced to 26 months and 600 lashes, a fourth, at whose home the crime took place, was sentenced to 12 months and 150 lashes, while a driver who helped the men abduct the boy received six months and 150 lashes.

A 13 year old girl get's stoned to death for being raped........jail and a few lashes for men

The US Defense Department has approved the sale of 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) to the Israeli Air Force (IAF), the official Israel Radio reported yesterday.

According to the report, the deal is valued at $15.2 billion and includes an option to buy 50 additional bombers in the coming years. Each plane is estimated to cost between $70 million and $80 million. The report quoted a Pentagon official as saying that the sale of the stealth jets to Israel was in America's national interests and was meant to ensure that Israel maintained its qualitative edge over armies of neighboring countries. A department in the Pentagon, responsible for cooperation with foreign powers, reportedly relayed a message to Congress announcing the approval of the deal, where it is expected to be confirmed within 30 days, before the Nov. 4 US presidential elections.

The sale would be the first to a country outside the US and eight partner nations that are collaborating on the F-35. The jet is still under development and is not yet in service, but the US plans to eventually acquire 2,458 planes for the army, Marines and air force at a cost of $300 billion.

The F-35 was designed as a replacement for a range of warplanes, including the F-16, which is a large component of many air forces worldwide. Countries such as Spain, Singapore and Japan also have expressed interest in the F-35.

Israel has said it plans to buy a fleet of F-35s as it upgrades its military technology. The first batch of 25 would be the variant of F-35 designed for conventional takeoff from military airfields, but the later 50 could include a version that can land vertically.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement that the proposed sale will help Israel "develop and maintain a strong self-defense capability." It also said that sale of the technologically advanced fighter won't upset the balance of military power in the region.

The decision to consider the F-35B, a short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft, was made due to an understanding that in a time of war, Israeli bases and runways will be heavily targeted by enemy missiles.

IT is necessary to read between the lines in the statements that have accompanied the resignation of Adm. William Fallon, commander of US forces in the Middle East (CentCom). They show that the Bush administration remains bent on aggression against Iran. Ever since the US Embassy hostage crisis, Iran has been seen by America as a malign power, needing to be contained. Such a containment objective must have been shared equally by Fallon and Bush.

It is over the tactics that the two men have fallen out. Bush, staring at a two-term legacy of failure, sees the chance to quit next January, with one last military huzzah. He made it perfectly clear to his hosts on his visit to the Gulf in January that he was intent on confrontation — rather than the negotiation that Iran's Arab neighbors, his hosts, were urging on him. Here surely is the genesis of the rift between him and Fallon.

The admiral was being ordered to prepare an assault on Iran. This is a highly respected sailor who, in his previous command in the Pacific, earned a reputation for diplomacy as well as command. He is credited with establishing good military relations with the Chinese despite the growing suspicion with which each country views the other's military. If, indeed, such orders as an assault on Iran came from the White House, Fallon will have immediately realized their madness.

A strike on Iran, almost certainly with cruise missiles and Stealth bombers, would be an unmitigated disaster for US interests in the Middle East. Iran would immediately unleash its radical Shiite attack units in Iraq, plunging that country into even bloodier chaos. It would also undoubtedly step up its intervention in Afghanistan, tipping what is an already precarious security situation toward outright failure. Tehran would also urge Hamas and Hezbollah into action against US interests and, for good measure, it might seek to punish Washington's long-standing friends in the region. A Bush attack on Iran would, therefore, be a tactical disaster and, in the long run, might not even advance objectives that Fallon says he shares with his commander in chief. Fallon is too good an officer to make clear his real feelings of the real reasons for his resignation.

Defense Secretary Gates, having said what a wonderful officer Fallon has been, has added that it is "right" the admiral retire. Why "right"? Senior US military officers do not normally resign when they are profiled in the media. It is clear what has happened. Fallon has resisted one last crazy play by the Bush administration and fed his views, on an off-the-record basis to a journalist. The hope should not be that in retirement, Fallon will not leave it too long before he adds his voice to the other retired senior US commanders who have lambasted this learn-nothing US administration for its ignorant and stupid international conduct. An attack by Washington on Iran would be a colossal continuation of that policy and one from which it might well be impossible to recover.

Time to check his medication.

Sharia law in UK ' unavoidable'
 
Rowan Williams 
The adoption of some aspects of Islamic sharia law in the UK 'seems unavoidable', the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Dr Rowan Williams said there was a place for finding a 'constructive accommodation' in areas such as marriage - allowing Muslim women to avoid western divorce proceedings.

Other religions enjoyed such tolerance of their own laws, he pointed out, but stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

He said it would also require a change in perception of what sharia involved beyond the 'inhumanity' of extreme punishments and attitudes to women seen in some Islamic states.

Dr Williams said: 'It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.

'We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances.'

He added: 'There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of other kinds of religious law.

'It would be quite wrong to say that we could ever license a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general.

'But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them.

'In some cultural and religious settings they would seem more appropriate.'

He said people needed to look at Islamic law 'with a clear eye and not imagine, either, that we know exactly what we mean by sharia and just associate it with ... Saudi Arabia, or whatever.

'Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states: the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women.'

There were questions about how it interacted with human rights, he said.

'But I do not think we should instantly spring to the conclusion that the whole of that world of jurisprudence and practice is somehow monstrously incompatible with human rights just because it doesn't immediately fit with how we understand it.'

The "teddy-bears" are f****d now.