Mercenaries 1, Iraq 0, Next on Propaganda Agenda

Paul Krugman

Well, the Iraqis are learning quickly that democracy is fine in theory but messy in its application. They handed over all of their evidence against five Blackwater employees, who were charged with committing a massacre of unarmed civilians while working for the State Department as security guards. Today a federal judge dismissed the charges on procedural errors by the prosecution: "The judge dismissed the charges against the guards over procedural errors. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the US justice department had used evidence prosecutors were not supposed to have." The Blackwater employees could not be tried in Iraq because of an agreement someone with foresight made them sign, that no contractor could be charged for any crimes they might commit while in Iraq. This, quite frankly, created the mentality of being above any law, giving them a license to kill.

Of course, the Iraqis are pissed, and a bit bewildered by what they consider to be a bs legal loophole produced by the ruling judge. And, as explained by: "The commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, said the court's decision could create local resentment against other security firms operating in the country. "Of course we're upset when we believe that people might have caused a crime and they are not held accountable," Other American private mercenary companies may face some retaliation and get their contracts canceled and kicked out of the country, or they might wait until the resentment dies down and then its back to business as usual.

As an aside, two of the people killed in the suicide bombing at CIA base in Afghanistan were Blackwater employees. Blackwater had previously been contracted by the the CIA to hunt down and kill al Qaeda members, and its good to know that those bonds, as well as lucrative contracts, are still strong...
The CIA has their own paramilitary section that was beefed up when George Bush gave them the green light to go ahead into any country in the world and get rid of al Qaeda members, and especially try to find Osama bin Laden because he wanted to use finally capturing him as a good ending to his presidency. Bush also hired British commandos to go into Pakistan looking for bin Laden...

if it quacks like a duck...
The propaganda of tying the CIA planted, American born Imam living in Yemen with as many possible terrorists we have in jail is continuing, especially in the New York Times. The emphasis will be on combatting the Imams who have a presence on the Internet: "The apparent ties between the Nigerian man charged with plotting to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day and a radical American-born Yemeni imam have cast a spotlight on a world of charismatic clerics who wield their Internet celebrity to indoctrinate young Muslims with extremist ideology and recruit them for Al Qaeda, American officials and counterterrorism specialists said.


American military and law enforcement authorities said Thursday that the man accused in the bombing attempt, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, most likely had contacts with the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, whom investigators have also named as having exchanged e-mail messages with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting rampage in November at Fort Hood, Tex.

There's always the possibility that the Imam Alwaki is on the up and up, but his credentials are too good to be true, and the quotes from anonymous officials do a great job of building him up as someone dangerous: "... some of these clerics, like Mr. Awlaki, offer something much more sinister than just guideposts to radical Islam: a pipeline to Al Qaeda operatives in places like Yemen and the lawless Pakistan tribal areas.


“Awlaki is, among other things, a talent spotter,” an American counterterrorism official said. “That’s part of his value to Al Qaeda. If people are drawn to him, he can pass them along to trainers and operational planners. Abdulmutallab was cannon fodder, a piece snapped into an operation.”

And then there are the comments from Rep Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who is just parroting what he's been told to say, which I doubt he could follow the script, so I think he's just too dumb to know how he's being played: "Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee who participated in a classified briefing on Wednesday about the investigation, said his suspicions that there was some link between Mr. Abdulmutallab and Mr. Awlaki were strengthened by what he had been told.


Mr. Hoekstra questioned why these apparent links were not figured out before the attempted airliner attack took place." That's because these apparent links are fiction, but if we repeat it long enough, and loud enough, you might come to believe it is true. This is the same kind of disinformation that the Republicans use to discredit their opponents during political campaigns, lucky for us they are often too outrageous to believe...

meanwhile, the rebel Houthi forces in Yemen have petitioned the Saudi government for peace talks between the two, and have promised no more violence if this can happen. The Saudis may or not accept because they see themselves as being in the position of power here, and may just arrogantly scoff back...