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Scahill: Blackwater now in the private intelligence business
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Friday, Aug 1, 2008
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, is worried about the giant mercenary firm’s latest foray into private intelligence. “They’re marketing their services to not only foreign governments, but to Fortune 500 corporations,” he recently told an interviewer.
The forthcoming paperback edition of Scahill’s book on Blackwater, which appeared in hardcover in February 2007, will include 100 pages of new material, including a discussion of last September’s shooting spree in Baghdad by Blackwater operatives — which killed 17 Iraqi civilians but for which nobody has ever been charged.
“This is a company that has been accused of murdering Iraqi civilians,” Scahill pointed out, “of shooting the bodyguard to the Iraqi vice-president, of causing blowback attacks on United States troops, of hurting the morale of the United States military — that has cost United States taxpayers over a billion dollars for its operations in Iraq.”
(Article continues below)
However, Scahill’s greatest concern at present appears to be Blackwater’s venture into the private intelligence business.
“Blackwater started a private intelligence company,” he explained, “a private CIA essentially, called Total Intelligence Solutions. And the man running Total Intelligence Solutions is J. Cofer Black. He’s a thirty-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also was the guy who ran the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, the government-sanctioned kidnap-and-torture program.”
“His thirty-year CIA career, his network of contacts, his knowledge that was gained through his work in the most sensitive areas of the United States government is now on the open market for hire,” Scahill said sadly.
“This isn’t a liberal or conservative thing,” concluded Scahill. “You have a lot of traditional conservatives who are outraged at what they see as the degradation of the United States armed forces. … This has everything to do with the future of war-making and global stability.”
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15 Responses to “Scahill: Blackwater now in the private intelligence business”
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August 1st, 2008 at 6:31 am
There have always been private investigators in the United States, but now it’s a matter of sheer numbers, at every level of society, on every street corner (camera), in the neighborhood (Neighborhood Watch), in your home (schools turning your kids into spies)… and all in the context of diminishing, soon to be vanishing civil rights…
August 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am
Blackwater… Total Intelligence Solutions… What’s the difference? They’ll still be killing innocent people without consequence.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Im a CPS (certified protection specialist) trained by ESI in Colorado and most of my class went to work for blackwater and Dynacorp. I myself get the job-openings in my mailbox daily.
Most of the guys up there just do it becaue of financial difficulties. Improve the economical situation in America and the big flow of employees for these organisations will cease.
Don’t forget before you start name-calling that of these guys 1/2 to 2/3 still dont come back uninjured and they do most of the nasty jobs there so regular troops don’t get into trouble and casualty figures stay nice and low for the politicians back home.
No mater what brought them there the troops deserve our support, i dont see why these guys dont deserve the same respect.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:03 am
I cringe at the use or the term “intelligence.” How “intelligent” exactly are these folks within the “intelligence” community? How “intelligent” is it to be motivated strictly by money and profits? If the highest ideal a person stands for is their own wallet and their own orgasm, exactly how “intelligent” is that person and can the product of their intellectual exercises be called “intelligence”? Fascism has cooked into it the guarantee of its own destruction because by definition it snuffs out the fountainhead of innovation: dissent. So how “intelligent” is an organization or an individual who seeks to institutionalize fascism.
Conservatives are worried about the corruption of war-making processes? Ha! War-making cannot be corrupted. Period. There are no rules to war. None. So it cannot be downgraded. A noble warrior gains merit strictly from ruthlessness, which often comes in the form of the ilk of bravado or loyalty.
What “conservatives” should be worried about being corrupted is the “intelligence” community. I’m of the opinion we should cease calling it “intelligence” and call it the “intrigue/treachery” community, since that is now its raison d’etre.
The establishment of a worldwide enlightened democracy is the only means of improving the human condition.
Since we are all connected, one to another directly, one cannot improve one’s lot by seeking to destroy that of another. Any benefits from doing such will only be “perceived” and not actual.
To establish a worldwide enlightened democracy, the public at large must be enlightened. This means diverting resources from warfare to education, on a massive scale. Upon doing so, warfare will cease, localization will emerge, the creative spirit of mankind will be reborn, and inequity will disappear. Since the “intelligence” community seeks the exact opposite of this, the proliferation of inequity, warfare and ignorance, the push to a dystopic and feudal neo dark age, it is not an “intelligence” community at all but rather an “intrigue/treachery” community.
Ah, but force breeds resistence, does it not? By being what it is, the “intelligence” community gives birth to its foil. By forcing fascism on the people it guarantees the eventual absolute destruction of fascism. In short, love your enemy because it is through his transgressions that your righteousness is realized.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:05 am
Now corporations have their own Gestapo. Looks like the CIA has some competition, and neither one are subject to the rule of law.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
America is getting to look more and more like pre war Germany in the late 1930’s. I’d be concerned about that if I lived in the states.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Nescio said, “Most of the guys up there just do it becaue of financial difficulties. Improve the economical situation in America and the big flow of employees for these organisations will cease.”
HOW UTTERLY DISGUSTING!! To kill for money… it’s just disgusting.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
@ Trueblue
yeah the guys going up there just wanna go kill something, how shortminded can you be dude ?????
Talkin about guys with 3-4 kids that dont wanna be dead-bead dads and risk their lives guarding embassy personell and aid workers…..same rethoric as in Vietnam wont help healing the country when they come home.
You’d rather see ill trained 17 year olds fresh out of high school take on the difficult missions ?? At least these guys get properly paid for the risk and are all well experienced and trained.
Get informed about the subject before you start making comments like that plz.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
nescio wrote: “No mater what brought them there the troops deserve our support, i dont see why these guys dont deserve the same respect.”
Because our tax dollars aren’t meant for vigilantes and mercenaries in foreign nations AKA killers for hire (in case you don’t know the definitions).
nescio also wrote: “Don’t forget before you start name-calling that of these guys 1/2 to 2/3 still dont come back uninjured and they do most of the nasty jobs there so regular troops don’t get into trouble and casualty figures stay nice and low for the politicians back home.”
What a prick, but he’s right about one thing in the above statement: “…nasty jobs…so regular troops don’t get into trouble…”. In other words: the illegal shit that (as a BlackWater hireling) doesn’t fall under the UCMJ. Unfortunately, we’ve got these a**hole outlaws running around Iraq representing the citizens of the United States (because that’s who pays their salaries) in the most lowliest and detrimental light.
His ignorance and naivety are nailed straight on the head when he continues his statement “…and casualty figures stay nice and low for the politicians back home.”
Like a said, WHAT A PRICK.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
@ alienation
You need to differanciate between politicians and the situation the troops are in.
And no matter how you like to call them, without these guys alot of 17-18 year olds would come home in body-bags, maybe it would look better on tv and get this war finished faster ?? that what you want ?? Not worth it to me tho….
And if you think they will take on any mission regardsless of morality I bet you don’t know any of em, I ate worked and trained with these guys and hold them in very high esteem.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
nescio wrote: “I ate worked and trained with these guys and hold them in very high esteem.”
Good for you. I didn’t see any of your kind during Desert Storm and needless to say, you weren’t missed. The name “BlackWater” didn’t pierce my ears until well after my ETS date. As far as more 17-18 year olds coming home in body bags is concerned…that’s exactly how a dead SOLDIER is expected to come home with full knowledge of the fact before hand. If they wouldn’t have for all these years, your precious BlackWater wouldn’t exist in the U.S., it would be in Nazi Germany. For that, I hold them in very high esteem. Your BlackWater hirelings are exactly that: hired. What would they do to be put up in a barracks in the desert for 12-18 months without the financial incentives: COMPLAIN A LOT and LEAVE. Soldiers are self-sacrificing, BlackWater “employees” serve only the greenback. Enough of your rubbish – be gone.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 am
Short minded, Nescio? If I hired someone to kill you, I’d go to prison for murder. A hired killer is a killer, not a soldier.
Your defense of murderers is disgusting. Will
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 am
Dr. Jason Dodson is a Freemason cultist, fascist, and disinformation agent who trolls this website and reports bloggers to the National Security Administration.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Short minded, Nescio? If I hired someone to kill you, I’d go to prison for murder. A hired killer is a killer, not a soldier.
Your defense of murderers is disgusting.
you actually believe the left-wing propaganda that they are killers ?? They do the same as soldiers, and allthough i definetly agree that some of their missions are controversial, all of them are missions that otherwise would have to be done by lesser trained and underpaid people. And all that go already had their tour though the millitary.
Sorry i dont share your romantic opinion about soldiers dying for their country, I have seen my share it aint pretty. Id rather see guys my age take the heat of the storm than the young guppies they send right out of high-school. Most of them join the military merely because its the only way to move up and get out of their social situation and maybe, if they are lucky, go to college.I doubt that most join out of patriotism.
I never mend to offend people with my posts but if you read back all that i asked for is to give the guys with the boots on the ground some respect when they come home regardsless if they went thought millitary or private companies. In no way did I defend policy, or the private companies involved. Im no American but i feel for the guys over there….I have trained and worked in your country and always had sympathy for the American people, regardsless of my opinion on your government.
If you want to continue to call me names, sure, go ahead, ive been called worse….can’t say that i care tho
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
@ Nescio:
ESI ain’t shit. I know ESI and Blackwater, both. And, by the way, this “Total Intelligence Solutions” isn’t a brand new endeavor. They conduct training, primarily. Not only that,..but it’s mainly what they do. Been there, done that. You other people saying crazy shit about the Intel Community really have no friggin’ idea what you are talking about – you’ve watched too many movies. It’s a “Highly-Regulated” field. TONS of oversight.