Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater

This is a journalist. Non-Real-Player options. More coverage of this on Democracy Now! tomorrow; I'll post that below tomorrow...

These mercenaries are literally and truly the Bush Administration's Praetorian Guard, as Scahill says. They deployed to New Orleans "to fight crime" after Katrina. (More here and here.) Who gave that order? I know Posse Comitatus is basically dead, but these mercenaries are not even part of the government.

This should scare the living shit out of anyone reading this. I realize this is nowhere near as important as the death of Anna Nicole Smith, but still, ya know, might be worth a few minutes of your time.

Scahill covers the ties of the founder, Erik Prince, to the Christian Right, James Dobson, Amway, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) (who fought with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan against the Soviets...I'm serious), as well as the rise of his company, Blackwater, the largest private army in the world (~25,000, but no one really knows), which is rarely mentioned in the "surge" pseudoevent-"discussion." Cuts too close to the bone, obviously.

Buy the book.

Learn more here.

Remember, the answer is always privatization and outsourcing, no matter what the question is. OK? OK. This is a mercenary army operating above the law, in our names. But not in our interests.

Rep. Henry Waxman, a pit bull of an investigator, uses Blackwater, among other contractors, like a chew-toy. Links to other docs can be found below the automatically-starting hearings video. (By the way, assuming y'all see Windows Media start up automatically lacking any control bar, too, just place your cursor on the video, right click, choose "Zoom">>"Full Screen" and you can fast-forward or whatever there. You can go back to the small screen by right-clicking again on the full screen video and choosing "Exit Full Screen," by clicking the proper icon, or simply by hitting the escape key.)

Kucinich, Waxman lace into Blackwater lawyer (from DN!, with commentary).

E-mail your love and support to Waxman & Co., congresspeople who do their jobs, here.

Part 2 on Blackwater coming tomorrow...

...and here it is in RealPlayer. Other options here.