Who ARE These Guys?
Let's see how deep this rabbit-hole goes.
I am getting pretty fed up with the media and their coverage of Katrina and the chaos in New Orleans. Will somebody just shot me straight and tell me how bad it really is? GWB and USAToday.would have me believe that things are getting better and we may soon be swamped with aid. This is only a few days after Newsweek told me that all was lost and no one had lifted a finger. While no one is surprised that the media still sucks, one thing did catch my eye.
I have had to resort to reading foreign newspapers because they seem more interested in actual news than the political spin. If I want to know what is going on there, I have to read what a reporter for the Sydney (Australia) Times has to say. What I read there worried me more than a little and made me even more angry at our media.
There is an innocuous little paragraph in this story that made a little light bulb come on in my head:
"Some homeowners have hired companies such as Blackwater USA, whose contractors protect Americans in Iraq at a fee of $US1000 ($1300) a day."
Blackwater USA? Private Contractors in Iraq? Are these the (in)famous paramilitaries running around in Iraq that our media never seems to mention BY NAME? These "private contractors" have been a mystery to me, and a concern, for awhile. And now they are going to New Orleans.
I am severely concerned about the government hiring privately trained mercenaries in Iraq, but I am even more troubled with the news that they are also being sent to New Orleans. As you can see from Blackwater's website, these guys are indeed highly trained military personnel who can carry out rescue operations, provide security, and then help rebuild (?!?!?!?!). But their continued existence as a business depends upon another insurgency or another war or another occupation or another disaster. It is bad enough when we use our military for purely economic concerns, but a privately owned military operated for purely economic profit cannot be a good thing. Let's hope our own media gives this some attention soon.
I am getting pretty fed up with the media and their coverage of Katrina and the chaos in New Orleans. Will somebody just shot me straight and tell me how bad it really is? GWB and USAToday.would have me believe that things are getting better and we may soon be swamped with aid. This is only a few days after Newsweek told me that all was lost and no one had lifted a finger. While no one is surprised that the media still sucks, one thing did catch my eye.
I have had to resort to reading foreign newspapers because they seem more interested in actual news than the political spin. If I want to know what is going on there, I have to read what a reporter for the Sydney (Australia) Times has to say. What I read there worried me more than a little and made me even more angry at our media.
There is an innocuous little paragraph in this story that made a little light bulb come on in my head:
"Some homeowners have hired companies such as Blackwater USA, whose contractors protect Americans in Iraq at a fee of $US1000 ($1300) a day."
Blackwater USA? Private Contractors in Iraq? Are these the (in)famous paramilitaries running around in Iraq that our media never seems to mention BY NAME? These "private contractors" have been a mystery to me, and a concern, for awhile. And now they are going to New Orleans.
I am severely concerned about the government hiring privately trained mercenaries in Iraq, but I am even more troubled with the news that they are also being sent to New Orleans. As you can see from Blackwater's website, these guys are indeed highly trained military personnel who can carry out rescue operations, provide security, and then help rebuild (?!?!?!?!). But their continued existence as a business depends upon another insurgency or another war or another occupation or another disaster. It is bad enough when we use our military for purely economic concerns, but a privately owned military operated for purely economic profit cannot be a good thing. Let's hope our own media gives this some attention soon.
posted by matt at 11:28 AM
1 Comments:
Thought you'd be interested--I found a little info about another of the private American security contracting firms working in Iraq: Zapata Engineering. Their website is here , but this site tells more. According to the article you referenced regarding the infamous paramilitaries, the Army arrested 19 of Zapata's employees in July for firing on them (YES, they fired on U.S. military personnel). Hmmmm.....
Post a Comment
<< Home