Mercenaries Are Bad Investment
Looking back into some old notes, I see on April 7, 2005 Brian Ross at ABC reported
Blackwater, apparently a mercenary company / defense contractor, was being sued by the mothers of some of it’s employees who were killed in Fallujeh during the first part of the war, I remember they were set on fire and hanged from bridges. It got a lot of airtime on Al-jazeera in the Muslim world, and over here it was used to prove the inhumanity of the enemy. A mother that was suing Blackwater claimed the company sent their sons (former special forces) out in unarmored suvs, only 2 to a car instead of 3 and she wasn’t necessarily interested in monetary damages, but she had to sue Blackwater just to get any records of what happened.
My old link to Brian Ross’s article is no longer operative, to borrow a phrase from the press corps, a but the latest thing I found on Google today was at CNN: Family’s Lawsuit Over Slain Contractors Stalls from April 21, 2005.
Why are private armies bad? First is cost, these kids were getting 600 dollars a day. If they had stayed in the army, they would make 1 / 15th that at best. And that’s not including overhead. Second, they are illegal. They don’t even meet the qualifications for irregular forces under the Geneva Conventions, and if they were captured by an enemy army, it could be legal to shoot them, they don’t qualify for POW status. Third, they are unaccountable, in Kosovo a ring of them was arrested for selling slaves. Seriously, selling slaves? Who does that?
Employees of DynCorp, a major U.S. defense contractor, that’s who.
But wait, It gets better. Blackwater is owned by Erik Prince, a former SEAL, who’s father Edgar prince, get this, a huge donor to the Republican party and co-founder of the Family Research Council. I did some research into the FRC, they aren’t listed on Guidestar like most non-profits, but they do publish their tax records at The evangelical council for financial accountability. The employees at this place are bringing in 90-100k per year. Not bad for a non-profit. Also, the 6 largest donors, who gave 200k to 1.2 million, aren’t listed by name, just that they are (persons) and how much they gave. I would like to know who they were. That has to be available somewhere, or maybe it isn’t. I am afraid that's where the trail ended for me but my feeling is that money given by the US government to the mercenary company Blackwater is then funneled into the Family Research Council, who then promotes republican / conservative political causes.
I am counting on you, the readers of this blog (both of you) to dig up something new on this so lets go !
Blackwater, apparently a mercenary company / defense contractor, was being sued by the mothers of some of it’s employees who were killed in Fallujeh during the first part of the war, I remember they were set on fire and hanged from bridges. It got a lot of airtime on Al-jazeera in the Muslim world, and over here it was used to prove the inhumanity of the enemy. A mother that was suing Blackwater claimed the company sent their sons (former special forces) out in unarmored suvs, only 2 to a car instead of 3 and she wasn’t necessarily interested in monetary damages, but she had to sue Blackwater just to get any records of what happened.
My old link to Brian Ross’s article is no longer operative, to borrow a phrase from the press corps, a but the latest thing I found on Google today was at CNN: Family’s Lawsuit Over Slain Contractors Stalls from April 21, 2005.
Why are private armies bad? First is cost, these kids were getting 600 dollars a day. If they had stayed in the army, they would make 1 / 15th that at best. And that’s not including overhead. Second, they are illegal. They don’t even meet the qualifications for irregular forces under the Geneva Conventions, and if they were captured by an enemy army, it could be legal to shoot them, they don’t qualify for POW status. Third, they are unaccountable, in Kosovo a ring of them was arrested for selling slaves. Seriously, selling slaves? Who does that?
Employees of DynCorp, a major U.S. defense contractor, that’s who.
But wait, It gets better. Blackwater is owned by Erik Prince, a former SEAL, who’s father Edgar prince, get this, a huge donor to the Republican party and co-founder of the Family Research Council. I did some research into the FRC, they aren’t listed on Guidestar like most non-profits, but they do publish their tax records at The evangelical council for financial accountability. The employees at this place are bringing in 90-100k per year. Not bad for a non-profit. Also, the 6 largest donors, who gave 200k to 1.2 million, aren’t listed by name, just that they are (persons) and how much they gave. I would like to know who they were. That has to be available somewhere, or maybe it isn’t. I am afraid that's where the trail ended for me but my feeling is that money given by the US government to the mercenary company Blackwater is then funneled into the Family Research Council, who then promotes republican / conservative political causes.
I am counting on you, the readers of this blog (both of you) to dig up something new on this so lets go !
posted by JC at 10:12 PM
1 Comments:
Update to post:
I did find Family Research Council on Guidestar, and also noticed on one of the 990 forms for 03 and 04 (I didn't check further back than that) where they are required to list any political donations, it turns out they have a group called FRC Action. FRC action is a 501(c)(4) which means donations to it are not tax deductable, because it's a political action or lobbying group. Family Research Council did not donate cash, only shared facilities and employees.
I looked up FRC Action on Guidestar, They are listed under "American Renewal" which is a former name, Guidestar doesn't allow me to access anything at all about them without paying, so I stopped there for now.
You may remember FRC Action did the "Justice Sunday" business a few weeks back, where a bunch of preachers and politicians got together on TV and told us how unchristian it was to filibuster federal judge nominees.
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