I have not thought very much about civilian armies. I know that the militia stories that circulated all over after Oklahoma City bombing were scary. Maybe we have all been anesthetized by the military entertainment complex churning out Rambos or Delta Force or television's 24 Hours or The Unit. But I grew up on a higher class of movie. More like The Manchurian Candidate or Dr. Srangelove.
The result of all of that is I don't always trust the government and I surely don't trust the creation of an army created precisely because they don't have to play by the rules of engagement. We have seen the results when America's forces step over the line: Abu Graib for example. Even when it was not intentional, like today's US Air Strike that hit an Iraqi school, it turns the non-committed into committed enemies. So, Blackwater's army lets us do the dirty work without taking the blame... except that everyone knows who these "contractors" are.
How difficult would it be to take that same Blackwater force and to start it operating within the US? That is where the television series would take us. We should not be hiring thugs to do what we don't want to have blamed on us. We should be wary of government officials who have anything to do with them.
It was easy to find direct connections between Blackwater and Rohrabacher. According to a story posted recently at Democracy Now, Prince once interned with Rohrabacher. There is no clear definition of exactly what he did for Dana, but there are plenty of examples of an ongoing relationship.
This is from the Democracy Now source:
But also, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater worked as an intern for Representative Dana Rohrabacher, another California Republican. In fact, when Blackwater was founded, both Dana Rohrabacher and Representative John Doolittle were brought out, at the company's expense, to be at Blackwater's grand opening. So these are deep Republican ties in California that Blackwater has.Those deep Republican ties also includes Duncan Hunter.
This is going to be an long story. Rohrabacher has left a trail behind him that should be easy to follow. For example, did he actually account for that trip to the big show by his one-time intern? The FEC filings do not show it and the other online source of records of Congressional travel American Radio Networks, does not go back before the year 2000. There is probably another story for someone who wants to go through all of those trips. I would bet you could like a few to the Taliban photo I have heard about.
2 comments:
Connections: Paul Behrends was a partner/lobbyist for Alexander Strategy Group, the lobbying firm that was founded by DeLay staffers, and that employed Jack Abramoff. When the four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah, Prince called Behrends and hired ASG. Behrends was once Rohrabacher's senior national security advisor and worked with Rohrabacher the same time as young intern Erik Prince. Also working with them at that time was Tony Rudy, Tom DeLay's former (convicted March 2006) counsel. This was all in the early 1990's, so they all have a long history together.
Behrends works for another lobbying firm now, but he took Blackwater with him.
I don't know if you already know all that or not, but it's all part of the tangled web.
Sorry that I did not get back to read this. I don't get an automatic feed of comments like I do on initial posts. Wish I did.
I knew most of that, but not the Behrends / Rohrabacher connection. Thanks.
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