| April 9, 2007 Edition |
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A cheap shot at hired guns Blackwater By Jeremy Scahill Reviewed by Lewis Perdue This book aspires to be the definitive investigation into the growth of one of the largest private military firms in the world and an exhaustive catalog of its sins, especially as a tool for Bush Administration policy. It isn't. Rather it's a cobbled-together amalgam of the author's previously published articles, plus rehashed pieces by other "progressive" journalists, all embedded in a slurry of unattributed sources and one-sided quotations of politicos with an axe to grind. As such the book, subtitled, The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, fails miserably as anything other than a moveon.org playbook for the 2008 presidential campaigns. Instead of solid investigative reporting and a steady march of organized facts from multiple credible sources, this book offers layers of innuendo cast in obviously biased language. There are no smoking guns here or even warm barrels, just 452 pages of poorly documented, mind-numbing minutiae wandering about in search of significance and lacking in overall coherence. Blackwater was formed in 1997 to help train military and law enforcement personnel. Author Scahill early on attempts to indict the company for incompetence, or worse, by reconstructing the final days of the four Blackwater employees who were ambushed, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq. The indictment fails. And Scahill's cartoonish descriptions of the men makes them into bumbling buffoons rather than offering the reader a moving sense of tragedy and men betrayed. Trite, political-hot-button phraseology pervades the book. To Scahill, Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince is, "a radical right-wing Christian mega-millionaire who has served as a major bankroller not only of President Bush's campaigns but of the broader Christian-right agenda." Some facts would have been helpful: religious affiliation, personal net worth, dollar amount of contributions. Perhaps Mr. Prince is all of these, perhaps not. But only the facts would tell us. Scahill's lack of attribution destroys the book's credibility. He first writes that, Blackwater has more than $500 million in government contracts, noting that "as one U.S. Congress member observed, in strictly military terms, Blackwater could overthrow many of the world's governments." But which member of Congress? Observed to whom? When? All those pesky little details that a beginning journalism course requires for a C, along with any attempt at a balanced rational analysis, are notably absent in this book. I give it an F. [First appeared in Barron's - April 2, 2007 issue] |
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| QUOTE OF THE WEEK |
| But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. Umberto Eco |
| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
Britain's Humiliation -- and Europe'sIran has pulled off a tidy little success with its seizure and release of those 15 British sailors and marines: a pointed humiliation of Britain, with a bonus demonstration of Iran's intention to push back against coalition challenges to its assets in Iraq. All with total impunity. Further, it exposed the impotence of all those transnational institutions -- most prominently the European Union and the United Nations -- that pretend to maintain international order.You would think maintaining international order means, at least, challenging acts of piracy. No challenge here. Instead, a quiet capitulation. The quid pro quos were not terribly subtle. An Iranian "diplomat" who had been held for two months in Iraq is suddenly released. Equally suddenly, Iran is granted access to the five Iranian "consular officials" -- Revolutionary Guards who had been training Shiite militias to kill Americans and others -- whom the United States had arrested in Irbil in January. There may have been other concessions we will never hear about. But the salient point is that American action is what got this unstuck. Where then was the European Union? These 15 hostages, after all, are not just British citizens but, under the laws of Europe, citizens of Europe. Yet the European Union lifted not a finger on their behalf. Europeans talk all the time about their preference for "soft power" over the brute military force those Neanderthal Americans resort to all the time. What was the soft power available here? Iran's shaky economy is highly dependent on European credits, trade and technology. Britain asked the European Union to threaten to freeze exports, $18 billion a year of commerce. Iran would have lost its No. 1 trading partner. The European Union refused. Full Story Dutch Soldiers Stress Restraint in AfghanistanThe Dutch infantrymen stood on a ridge near the Baluchi Valley, an area in south-central Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban and tribes opposed to the central government.Whenever they push farther, the soldiers said, they swiftly come under fire from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. "The whole valley is pretty much hostile," said one, a machine gunner. But rather than advancing for reconnaissance or to attack, the Dutch soldiers pulled back to a safer village. "We're not here to fight the Taliban," said the Dutch commander, Col. Hans van Griensven, at a recent staff meeting. "We're here to make the Taliban irrelevant." Thousands of fresh Western troops have flowed into Afghanistan since last year, seeking to counter the resurgent Taliban before an expected spring offensive. Many American units have been conducting sweeps and raids. But here in Uruzgan Province, where the Taliban operate openly, a Dutch-led task force has mostly shunned combat. Its counterinsurgency tactics emphasize efforts to improve Afghan living conditions and self-governance, rather than hunting the Taliban's fighters. Bloodshed is out. Reconstruction, mentoring and diplomacy are in. American military officials have expressed unease about the Dutch method, warning that if the Taliban are not kept under military pressure in Uruzgan, they will use the province as a haven and project their insurgency into neighboring provinces. Full Story When Training Iraqi Troops Turns DeadlyNadia McCaffrey sensed something was amiss. In 2004, military officers told her that her son had been killed by insurgents near Balad. Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, 34, had been a combat lifesaver in a National Guard unit in Iraq for two months. But soon after his death, members of Patrick's unit told Nadia that there was more to the story of that day than a common ambush. For two years, she pressed the military to come clean, demanding to see autopsy and "after-action" reports. Finally, last year, a general arrived at her home in Tracy, Calif., with the real account: Iraqi troops turned their rifles on Americans in a joint patrol, killing Patrick and an officer. Now Nadia, 61, wants to travel to Iraq to see justice served.Her son's case is unusual. Thousands of U.S. troops are embedded as advisers in Iraqi units, and there are few incidents of violence against them. Still, with the surge plan calling for many more advisers to train Iraqis and patrol alongside them, some military officials worry they might become targets for rogue elements in the Iraqi military. "Ninety-nine percent of Iraqi security forces are in no way a threat to our transition teams," says Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, who overseas the work of U.S. advisers. "It's the 1 percent that you always have to be careful of." A scaling back of troops could actually raise the stakes, since advisers who'd remain in Iraq (up to 30,000, according to some drawdown scenarios) would no longer have the comfort of U.S. brigades stationed just down the road. "If you withdraw most of your force and you have 20 or 30 guys embedded with an Iraqi infantry battalion in Balad or someplace else, they're going to be at risk," says retired general Barry McCaffrey (no relation to Patrick), who commanded an infantry division in the 1991 gulf war. Full Story |
| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Fury as hostages sell storiesThe 15 British military captives who were released by the Iranians have been authorised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to sell their stories. MoD officials claimed that the move to lift the ban on military personnel selling their stories while in service was justified because of the "exceptional circumstances" of the case. The hostages are expected to earn as much as £250,000 between them. The story of Faye Turney, 26, the only female among them, is expected to be the most lucrative. She could profit by as much as £150,000 from a joint deal with a newspaper and ITV. The MoD bracketed the hostages' 13-day captivity in Iran - including appearances on state television by some to admit straying into Iranian waters - with winners of the Victoria Cross. This weekend relatives of victims killed or injured in the Iraq war and opposition politicians criticised the authorisation as "inappropriate" and "undignified". It comes only three days after their release and before they have given detailed evidence to an official inquiry.Full Story Pratfall in DamascusHOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said. Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda.Full Story No choice: Stay the course in IraqIRAQ IS BEING ripped apart by a low-grade civil war compounded by a dysfunctional, Shiite-dominated government. As many as 3,000 Iraqis are being killed or kidnapped a month, and American forces have suffered more than 27,000 killed and wounded. But we have little choice as Americans except to give our new military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and our new ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, the political and military support they need during the next 12 months. Failure in Iraq at this point could generate a regional war among Iraq's neighbors that would imperil U.S. interests for a decade or more. I just returned from a week in Iraq and Kuwait, visiting combat units in the field as well as senior U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials. I was sent by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where I'm an adjunct professor, to do a strategic and operational assessment of security operations there. I know that the problems we face are grim indeed, but Petraeus' strategy is sound, and the situation is not hopeless.Full Story Iraqi Insurgents Chastise Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda has overstayed its welcome among a powerful group of Iraqi insurgents. One of the most influential nationalist insurgent groups in Iraq has asked Osama bin Laden to remember his religious duty to his fellow Muslims and "bring in line" his organization in Iraq. An open letter from the Islamic Army in Iraq posted on its affiliated website, Al Badil, has demanded that the new al-Qaeda-led alliance reform its ways and stop its attacks on Sunni Muslims and rival jihadi groups. The letter comes at a time of upheaval inside insurgent circles in Iraq. In the fall, al- Qaeda created a new jihadi super-group called the Islamic State of Iraq to unite the disparate cells fighting the U.S. and Shi'ite militias in the country. Al-Qaeda demanded all insurgent groups swear loyalty to the new organization, but some of the most active Iraqi nationalist groups refused. These included the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution and the Mujahideen Army, all of which include many well-trained military officers of the former regime. These groups tend to shun sectarian warfare and are more focused on attacking the U.S. and the current Iraqi government with the objective of ending the occupation and restoring a Sunni-led regime.Full Story A Chat with General David PetraeusThere has been a dramatic change in America's strategy in Iraq. The new priority has become security of the people of Baghdad. America's fortress mentality is gone and there is a whole new feeling of partnership in the Multi-National Force-Iraq. While the situation in Iraq remains dire, we have finally adopted a strategy that has a chance of returning sanity to the people of Baghdad. It is still too early to determine if Fardh al-Qanoon (enforcing the law) will work. All the odds are against General David Petraeus, but if anyone can bring peace and stability to Iraq, it is he.Full Story |
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Suicide OffensiveThe village was in Taliban country, roughly 170 miles southwest of Kabul and more than an hour by foot from the main road. When a NEWSWEEK reporter walked in alone through the snow one cold February day, a guerrilla with an AK-47 was there to meet him. The visit had been arranged in advance through Taliban officials who have been consistently reliable news sources. Our aim was to speak to volunteers who had trained to be suicide bombers, hoping to shed light on their minds and motives. The guide led our reporter to a mud-brick house, where a boy of 10 or so hauled out something heavy in a flour sack. The Taliban man took the sack and slung it over his shoulder, heading toward another house. Then he told his visitor what was in the bag: a pair of suicide vests, stuffed with explosives. "If these jackets go off, anyone within 100 meters will be killed," the fighter warned, with a twisted smile. Fortunately the load on his shoulder killed no one at all that day. But Taliban leaders are counting on these weapons to drive America out of Afghanistan. In his latest propaganda video the murderous Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah Akhund brags of having 1,800 trained suicide bombers just waiting for orders to strike and kill. Other Taliban leaders question that figure, but there's no doubt that the rate of attacks is skyrocketing.Full Story Politics Collide With Iraq RealitiesThere are two Iraq wars being waged, according to military officers on the ground and defense experts: the one fought in the streets of Baghdad, and the war as it is perceived in Washington. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who took over as the top U.S. commander in Iraq in February, cited the disparity last week. "The Washington clock is moving more rapidly than the Baghdad clock," he said in a television interview. "So we're obviously trying to speed up the Baghdad clock a bit and to produce some progress on the ground that can, perhaps . . . put a little more time on the Washington clock." While Washington appears headed toward a political endgame on Iraq, with the White House and Congress sparring over benchmarks and pullout dates, the war on the ground is at an ebb tide. All sides -- including U.S. military strategists and Iraqi sectarian leaders and insurgents, as well as regional players such as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- are waiting to see whether the new U.S. approach to make the Iraqi capital safer will work. Soldiers on the ground tend to see the Washington debate as irrelevant, and the perspective of many politicians in Washington is that the military schedule is simply too slow. "The time scale to succeed is years," said John J. Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary, while "the time scale for tolerance here is 12 months for Democrats and 18 months for Republicans."Full Story The War You're Not Reading AboutI just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq since 2003 -- and my first since Gen. David Petraeus's new strategy has started taking effect. For the first time, our delegation was able to drive, not use helicopters, from the airport to downtown Baghdad. For the first time, we met with Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province who are working with American and Iraqi forces to combat al-Qaeda. For the first time, we visited Iraqi and American forces deployed in a joint security station in Baghdad -- an integral part of the new strategy. We held a news conference to discuss what we saw: positive signs, underreported in the United States, that are reason for cautious optimism. I observed that our delegation "stopped at a local market, where we spent well over an hour, shopping and talking with the local people, getting their views and ideas about different issues of the day." Markets in Baghdad have faced devastating terrorist attacks. A car bombing at Shorja in February, for example, killed 137 people. Today the market still faces occasional sniper attacks, but it is safer than it used to be. One innovation of the new strategy is closing markets to vehicles, thereby precluding car bombs that kill so many and garner so much media attention. Petraeus understandably wanted us to see this development.Full Story Mugabe's EnablersWhen the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community convened last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe, hopes among the Zimbabwean people ran high. President Robert Mugabe had recently extended his brutal efforts to crush dissent from his political opponents to include ordinary Zimbabweans. His ruling party left a trail of fractured bodies and two dead in its most recent crackdown. With the economy in shreds and the tense political situation posing a security threat not only to Zimbabwe but potentially to its neighbors, too, there was an expectation that African leaders would finally act. At the summit, however, the African leaders showed their indifference to the suffering that we ordinary people of Zimbabwe continue to endure. At the closing news conference, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete announced that he and his fellow heads of state were "in support of the government and people of Zimbabwe." "We got full backing; not even one [SADC leader] criticized our actions," Mugabe boasted after the summit.Full Story Warriors Home in WashingtonThe House has acted swiftly to deal with some of the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were discovered foundering in slum-like billets and bureaucratic neglect as outpatients. A measure creating a stronger system of case managers, counselors and advocates for the Army's war-wounded received unanimous approval from angry lawmakers. But so far there has been no comparable action in the Senate. There can be no higher home-front priority, as President Bush learned when news articles about the shameful state of the hospital embarrassed him into visiting Walter Reed recently to publicly apologize and promise to fix the problems. The House bill is a good start, particularly in its mandate to end the bureaucratic divisions between the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs in managing the wars'25,000-plus wounded troops. The chaotic way that medical records are transferred from one to the other, for instance, is unconscionable.Full Story |
| TACTICAL TRAINING & INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Humanitarian Conduct & Enhanced Operations: Specialized Training for Field Managers and Independent Contractors.The goal of this 2-Day certificate training program is to serve as a mechanism by which the IPOA Code of Conduct and other standards can be "operationalized" by contractors active in conflict and post-conflict environments around the world. Through interactive sessions and simulations, participants will be trained in essential areas such as international humanitarian law, NGO/IO interaction, cultural, gender & religious sensitivities and learn how to operationalize field guidelines, increase productivity levels and improve interaction with other actors in the field. For more information, please contact Derek Wright at dwright@ipoaonline.org or visit http://www.american.edu/sis/peacebuilding/security/traininginfo.htm.5.11 Tactical Series presents the 5.11 Tactical Pant 30th Anniversary Sweepstakes. Enter once a week to become eligible to win $511 of your choice of 5.11 Tactical gear and a chance at a six-day vacation in California. The all-expense paid trip includes visits to the Napa Valley Wine Country, Monterey, Yosemite National Park, and the 5.11 Tactical World Headquarters. One entry per person, per week. Previous weekly winners are eligible for the California Vacation but are eliminated from subsequent weekly drawings. Weekly winners will release their likeness to 5.11, Inc. for promotional materials. Sweeps Registration page: http://www.511tactical.com/index.asp?pageID=30yrsweeps Training Schedule Now Available for Blackwater North
Mount Carroll, IL – Blackwater USA’s newest facility, Blackwater North, is announcing its 2007 training schedule and enrollment instructions through its website. Students are now able to access the website and review a full training schedule and enrollment forms.
The website is available through www.blackwaterusanorth.com.
Blackwater North is a full service training center providing safe and realistic training environments on eighty acres consisting of seven flat ranges, a known distance range, an unknown distance range, a combat town range, a climbing/rappelling/shooting tower, a dismounted course, and a confidence course. Staffed by fully vetted and screened instructors with military and/or law enforcement expertise, Blackwater allows for the most comprehensive training for government, military, law enforcement, peace support operations, and qualified civilian customers.
Blackwater USA stands in support of security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.
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| FRANKS REVIEW |
Tactical Equipment EvaluationTru-Spec Multi-cam BDUsThe technology supporting our military servicemembers has been developing at a rapid rate across the past five decades. When you look at what is publicly known about the Land Warrior program it becomes glaringly obvious that millions if not billions of dollars is being spent to make sure that the American soldier is the best trained, best equipped and best supported fighter on any future battlefield. Even with all of that technology taken into consideration, the most valuable piece of equipment on the field of battle is still the PERSON in the uniform. A lot has changed in uniforms as far as design features, but the technology of camouflage has come a long way too. From OD Green to woodland camo to digital woodland and now... multi-cam. Multi-cam has been around for awhile and Tru-Spec now has Battle Dress Uniforms available in this versatile pattern.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/clothing/truspecmulticam.htm Recreational Equipment ReviewTTPOA 2007 Annual ConferenceI recently had the great pleasure of attending, and presenting at, the Texas Tactical Police Officers' Association annual conference held in Houston. Held March 30th through April 2nd, the conference sported more than 110 vendors and over 700 attendees. It was the first conference I'd attended hosted by a tactical officers' association and it was a great honor to present a program there about the evolution of police response, policies and tactics across the past four decades and then looking into the decade ahead at our greatest threats. Before I go any further I'd like to thank Shannon, Gary, Paul and many other great guys down there for having worked so hard to make this event the success that it was. The way that the board members of the TTPOA and all of the other officers working the event coordinated with the vendors made two things very obvious:
1) The event really was all about the attendees - even the exhibit floor time. Door prizes from each vendors booth gave to the community and spotlighted each vendor, and
2) "Southern Hospitality" is far from dead. The TTPOA really worked hard to make sure that breakfast and lunch was served each day of the exhibit portion of the conference from the exhibit floor, and that there were always "information" officers available to assist any attendee in need.
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| CHAPLAINS CORNER |
NEW LIFEThe life for which I sought when I abandoned old ways and entered into Law Enforcement took five and one-half years to be manifest to me. At that point I had been searching for about 15 years. I entered into the field of Law Enforcement because I wanted to make life safer for those who traveled our streets, roads and Interstates. I wanted to make a difference for good and stop the senseless killing that I had seen so very often among family, friends, young people and strangers.After five years of trying to do it with law, a badge and a gun I realized that something was missing from my personal life. I had every reason to be happy but I was not. I was so empty that it is indescribable... a weak description would be a hole big enough to drive a tractor-trailer through and not come close to touching the sides... I left Law Enforcement and went in search of that something... and I knew it had to do with God... but I could not find anyone in my vicinity who could help me make connection. I had tried but no success on my first duty station... and none at the second duty station either. In my youth I had attended church when I wanted to go... No one sent me nor took me. I had even gone to Easter Sunrise services to see if I could find it there when I was in my teens. I had not found it there... Nor did I find the connection in church... And the preachers and people that I questioned could not give me anything that worked for me... Until my search led me to a business meeting a little over six months after I left the Virginia State Police... Still looking for that connection that I had not ever been able to find. At this meeting I met a man whom I had known before while I was a Trooper... but he was not a man I wanted to talk with and be influenced by while I was a Trooper because he did not display any indication that he had anything his life that I might want. After I left the State Police and entered into the business field I was working for the same company that this man was working for. In the time since I had left the State Police I had heard some very interesting stories about how this man had changed and was often too busy to answer his telephone to give his Friday night reports because he was too busy in prayer meetings. There was even talk in the company of letting this man go because he had become too religious. After the first day of business my wife and I had dinner with this man and his wife. After dinner he and I went to my room for a personal meeting and I picked up the red Bible off the dresser and handed it to him. To him I said, "What I need is in here... Help me find it!" Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2007/article/040907chaplain.htm
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