Seymour Hersh: Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations in a Dozen Countries, Including in Latin America
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir earlier this month when he said the Bush administration ran an “executive assassination ring” that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving,” Hersh said. Seymour Hersh joins us to explain.
AMY GOODMAN: Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir last month when he said the Bush administration ran an executive assassination ring that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. Hersh made the comment during a speech at the University of Minnesota on March 10th.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination wing, essentially. And it’s been going on and on and on. And just today in the Times there was a story saying that its leader, a three-star admiral named McRaven, ordered a stop to certain activities because there were so many collateral deaths. It’s been going in—under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.
AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday, CNN interviewed Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser, John Hannah. Wolf Blitzer asked Hannah about Sy Hersh’s claim.
WOLF BLITZER: Is there a list of terrorists, suspected terrorists out there who can be assassinated?
JOHN HANNAH: There is clearly a group of people that go through a very extremely well-vetted process, inter-agency process, as I think was explained in your piece, that have committed acts of war against the United States, who are at war with the United States, or are suspected of planning operations of war against the United States, who authority is given to the troops in the field and in certain war theaters to capture or kill those individuals. That is certainly true.
WOLF BLITZER: And so, this would be, and from your perspective—and you worked in the Bush administration for many years—it would be totally constitutional, totally legal, to go out and find these guys and to whack ’em.
JOHN HANNAH: There’s no question that in a theater of war, when we are at war, and we know—there’s no doubt, we are still at war against al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and on that Pakistani border, that our troops have the authority to go after and capture and kill the enemy, including the leadership of the enemy.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser. Seymour Hersh joins me now here in Washington, D.C., staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His latest article appears in the current issue, called “Syria Calling: The Obama Administration’s Chance to Engage in a Middle East Peace.”
OK, welcome to Democracy Now!, Sy Hersh. It was good to see you last night at Georgetown. Talk about, first, these comments you made at the University of Minnesota.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, it was sort of stupid of me to start talking about stuff I haven’t written. I always kick myself when I do it. But I was with Walter Mondale, the former vice president, who was being amazingly open and sort of, for him—he had come a long way in—since I knew him as a senator who was reluctant to oppose the Vietnam War. And so, I was asked about future things, and I just—I am looking into stuff. I’ve done—there’s really nothing I said at Minnesota I haven’t written in the New York Times. Last summer, I wrote a long article about the Joint Special Operations Command.
And just to go back to what John Hannah, who is—was—I think ended up being the senior national security adviser, almost—if not the chief of staff, deputy chief of staff for Dick Cheney in the last three or four years, what he said is simply that, yes, we go after people suspected—that was the word he used—of crimes against America. And I have to tell you that there’s an executive order, signed by Jerry Ford, President Ford, in the ’70s, forbidding such action. It’s not only contrary—it’s illegal, it’s immoral, it’s counterproductive.
The evidence—the problem with having military go kill people when they’re not directly in combat, these are asking American troops to go out and find people and, as you said earlier, in one of the statements I made that you played, they go into countries without telling any of the authorities, the American ambassador, the CIA chief, certainly nobody in the government that we’re going into, and it’s far more than just in combat areas. There’s more—at least a dozen countries and perhaps more. The President has authorized these kinds of actions in the Middle East and also in Latin America, I will tell you, Central America, some countries. They’ve been—our boys have been told they can go and take the kind of executive action they need, and that’s simply—there’s no legal basis for it.
And not only that, if you look at Guantanamo, the American government knew by—well, let’s see, Guantanamo opened in early 2002. “Gitmo,” they call it, the base down in Cuba for alleged al-Qaeda terrorists. An internal report that I wrote about in a book I did years ago, an internal report made by the summer of 2002, estimated that at least half and possibly more of those people had nothing to do with actions against America. The intelligence we have is often very fragmentary, not very good. And the idea that the American president would think he has the constitutional power or the legal right to tell soldiers not engaged in immediate combat to go out and find people based on lists and execute them is just amazing to me. It’s amazing to me.
And not only that, Amy, the thing about George Bush is, everything’s sort of done in plain sight. In his State of the Union address, I think January the 28th, 2003, about a month and a half before we went into Iraq, Bush was describing the progress in the war, and he said—I’m paraphrasing, but this is pretty close—he said that we’ve captured more than 3,000 members of al-Qaeda and suspected members, people suspected of operations against us. And then he added with that little smile he has, “And let me tell you, some of those people will not be able to ever operate again. I can assure you that. They will not be in a position.” He’s clearly talking about killing people, and to applause.
So, there we are. I don’t back off what I said. I wish I hadn’t said it ad hoc, because, like I hope we’re going to talk about in a minute, I spend a lot of time writing stories for The New Yorker, and they’re very carefully vetted, and sometimes when you speak off the top, you’re not as precise.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what the Joint Special Operations Command is and what oversight Congress has of it.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, it’s a special unit. We have something called the Special Operations Command that operates out of Florida, and it involves a lot of wings. And one of the units that work under the umbrella of the Special Operations Command is known as Joint Special Op—JSOC. It’s a special unit. What makes it so special, it’s a group of elite people that include Navy Seals, some Navy Seals, Delta Force, our—what we call our black units, the commando units. “Commando” is a word they don’t like, but that’s what we, most of us, refer to them as. And they promote from within. It’s a unit that has its own promotion structure. And one of the elements, I must tell you, about getting ahead in promotion is the number of kills you have. Of course. Because it’s basically devised—it’s been transmogrified, if you will, into this unit that goes after high-value targets.
And where Cheney comes in and the idea of an assassination ring—I actually said “wing,” but of an assassination wing—that reports to Cheney was simply that they clear lists through the Vice President’s office. He’s not sitting around picking targets. They clear the lists. And he’s certainly deeply involved, less and less as time went on, of course, but in the beginning very closely involved. And this is the elite unit. I think they do three-month tours. And last summer, I wrote a long article in The New Yorker, last July, about how the JSOC operation is simply not available, and there’s no information provided by the executive to Congress.
AMY GOODMAN: What countries, Sy Hersh—what countries are they operating in?
SEYMOUR HERSH: A lot of countries.
AMY GOODMAN: Name some.
SEYMOUR HERSH: No, because I haven’t written about it, Amy. And I will tell you, as I say, in Central America, it’s far more than just the areas that Mr. Hannah talked about—Afghanistan, Iraq. You can understand an operation like this in the heat of battle in Iraq, killing—I mean, taking out enemy. That’s war. But when you go into other countries—let’s say Yemen, let’s say Peru, let’s say Colombia, let’s say Eritrea, let’s say Madagascar, let’s say Kenya, countries like that—and kill people who are believed on a list to be al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-linked or anti-American, you’re violating most of the tenets.
We’re a country that believes very much in due process. That’s what it’s all about. We don’t give the President of United States the right to tell military people, even in a war—and it’s a war against an idea, war against terrorism. It’s not as if we’re at war against a committed uniformed enemy. It’s a very complicated war we’re in. And with each of those actions, of course, there’s always collateral deaths, and there’s always more people ending up becoming our enemies. That’s the tragedy of Guantanamo. By the time people, whether they were with us or against us when they got there, by the time they’ve been there three or four months, they’re dangerous to us, because of the way they’ve been treated. But I’d love to move on to what I wrote about in The New Yorker.
AMY GOODMAN: One question: Is the assassination wing continuing under President Obama?
SEYMOUR HERSH: How do I know? I hope not.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Sy Hersh. We’re going to go to break, and then we’ll be back with him, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. His piece in The New Yorker is called “Syria Calling: The Obama Administration’s Chance to Engage in a Middle East Peace.” Stay with us.
Democracy Now.org
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
Never Argue With An Idiot. They Drag You Down To Their Level Then Beat You With Experience.
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
Daniyal;1167467 wrote: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is calling for the indictment of President Bush and Israeli leaders on charges of war crimes. Addressing the Arab League summit in Doha, Chavez criticized the International Criminal Court indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in light of US-Israeli actions.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “This genocide that was governed by the United States for eight years after Bush ordered the bombing of Iraq, where thousands and thousands of children were killed and entire families, innocent men and women. Why don’t they go after Bush—he truly committed genocide—or the Israeli government, which also commits genocide?â€
Bashir is currently in Saudi Arabia in defiance of an international warrant for his arrest. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the former Jordanian Queen, Queen Noor, criticized Sudan’s actions in Darfur but said the US is guilty of double standards in supporting Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Queen Noor: “Were there not so many cases where Western pressure has been brought to bear on Arabs, but Israel’s, for example, disproportionate killing of civilians in Gaza during the recent and also in Lebanon in 2006, during the crisis there, if those cases had not taken place with relatively little Western outcry, you would find a very different attitude, I think, towards what’s taken place in Sudan.â€
Democracy Now.org
Looks like the pot calling the kettle black to me!!!
Ecuadorean troops take position close to the Colombian border
The president of Colombia has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of genocide. Alvaro Uribe said Hugo Chavez had been supporting Marxist guerrillas as they engaged in massacres
"Colombia proposes in the International Criminal Court to denounce the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.
Colombia's accusation was the latest sign of a deepening crisis that had erupted between US-backed Colombia and its Left-wing neighbours, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Venezuelan troops were reported to have been moving towards the border. Colombia, which has armed forces twice the size of Venezuela's, has said it would not be provoked into mobilising troops in response.
George W Bush said he would "stand with Colombia" in a phone call with Mr Uribe. Afterwards, in his first comments on the crisis, the US president accused Mr Chavez's government of "provocative manoeuvres" against Colombia and vowed to oppose any act of aggression in the Andean region.
The crisis began last Saturday when the Colombian air force bombed a rebel camp inside Ecuador.
Raul Reyes, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was killed. Colombian authorities say computer files found at the site showed Mr Chavez had been funding the FARC and that Ecuador had close links with the rebels.
"We are continuing to find documents of vital importance that prove the direct links of the FARC with Ecuador," said Gen Oscar Naranjo, the Colombian police chief.
"I can also affirm that there was a payment for the FARC from the government of President Chavez of $300 million to support the terrorist cause."
Francisco Santos, the Colombian vice-president, speaking in Geneva, said information from the computers also showed the FARC had been trying to buy uranium to build a dirty bomb.
Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru have criticised Colombia's bombing raid. In Europe, Italy and Germany have also expressed their concern. Colombians, however, are squarely behind their president. A poll found 83 per cent of the public backed the attack on Reyes.
Mr Chavez has accused Mr Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and turning Colombia into "the Israel of the Americas".
This theme was picked up by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who began a five-nation tour of the region yesterday to mobilise support against Colombia.
"This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem," Mr Correa said. "Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."
Colombia is not just facing the diplomatic consequences of its killing of the rebel leader. Venezuela and Ecuador are also key trading partners with bilateral commerce worth £4 billion a year.
Venezuela is, after the US, Colombia's most important trading partner. Mr Chavez ordered the border closed and lines of lorries waited on the Colombian side in the vain hope it would open.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “This genocide that was governed by the United States for eight years after Bush ordered the bombing of Iraq, where thousands and thousands of children were killed and entire families, innocent men and women. Why don’t they go after Bush—he truly committed genocide—or the Israeli government, which also commits genocide?â€
Bashir is currently in Saudi Arabia in defiance of an international warrant for his arrest. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the former Jordanian Queen, Queen Noor, criticized Sudan’s actions in Darfur but said the US is guilty of double standards in supporting Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Queen Noor: “Were there not so many cases where Western pressure has been brought to bear on Arabs, but Israel’s, for example, disproportionate killing of civilians in Gaza during the recent and also in Lebanon in 2006, during the crisis there, if those cases had not taken place with relatively little Western outcry, you would find a very different attitude, I think, towards what’s taken place in Sudan.â€
Democracy Now.org
Looks like the pot calling the kettle black to me!!!
Ecuadorean troops take position close to the Colombian border
The president of Colombia has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of genocide. Alvaro Uribe said Hugo Chavez had been supporting Marxist guerrillas as they engaged in massacres
"Colombia proposes in the International Criminal Court to denounce the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.
Colombia's accusation was the latest sign of a deepening crisis that had erupted between US-backed Colombia and its Left-wing neighbours, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Venezuelan troops were reported to have been moving towards the border. Colombia, which has armed forces twice the size of Venezuela's, has said it would not be provoked into mobilising troops in response.
George W Bush said he would "stand with Colombia" in a phone call with Mr Uribe. Afterwards, in his first comments on the crisis, the US president accused Mr Chavez's government of "provocative manoeuvres" against Colombia and vowed to oppose any act of aggression in the Andean region.
The crisis began last Saturday when the Colombian air force bombed a rebel camp inside Ecuador.
Raul Reyes, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was killed. Colombian authorities say computer files found at the site showed Mr Chavez had been funding the FARC and that Ecuador had close links with the rebels.
"We are continuing to find documents of vital importance that prove the direct links of the FARC with Ecuador," said Gen Oscar Naranjo, the Colombian police chief.
"I can also affirm that there was a payment for the FARC from the government of President Chavez of $300 million to support the terrorist cause."
Francisco Santos, the Colombian vice-president, speaking in Geneva, said information from the computers also showed the FARC had been trying to buy uranium to build a dirty bomb.
Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru have criticised Colombia's bombing raid. In Europe, Italy and Germany have also expressed their concern. Colombians, however, are squarely behind their president. A poll found 83 per cent of the public backed the attack on Reyes.
Mr Chavez has accused Mr Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and turning Colombia into "the Israel of the Americas".
This theme was picked up by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who began a five-nation tour of the region yesterday to mobilise support against Colombia.
"This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem," Mr Correa said. "Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."
Colombia is not just facing the diplomatic consequences of its killing of the rebel leader. Venezuela and Ecuador are also key trading partners with bilateral commerce worth £4 billion a year.
Venezuela is, after the US, Colombia's most important trading partner. Mr Chavez ordered the border closed and lines of lorries waited on the Colombian side in the vain hope it would open.
"If America Was A Tree, The Left Would Root For The Termites...Greg Gutfeld."
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
BTS;1167756 wrote: Looks like the pot calling the kettle black to me!!!
Ecuadorean troops take position close to the Colombian border
The president of Colombia has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of genocide. Alvaro Uribe said Hugo Chavez had been supporting Marxist guerrillas as they engaged in massacres
"Colombia proposes in the International Criminal Court to denounce the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.
Colombia's accusation was the latest sign of a deepening crisis that had erupted between US-backed Colombia and its Left-wing neighbours, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Venezuelan troops were reported to have been moving towards the border. Colombia, which has armed forces twice the size of Venezuela's, has said it would not be provoked into mobilising troops in response.
George W Bush said he would "stand with Colombia" in a phone call with Mr Uribe. Afterwards, in his first comments on the crisis, the US president accused Mr Chavez's government of "provocative manoeuvres" against Colombia and vowed to oppose any act of aggression in the Andean region.
The crisis began last Saturday when the Colombian air force bombed a rebel camp inside Ecuador.
Raul Reyes, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was killed. Colombian authorities say computer files found at the site showed Mr Chavez had been funding the FARC and that Ecuador had close links with the rebels.
"We are continuing to find documents of vital importance that prove the direct links of the FARC with Ecuador," said Gen Oscar Naranjo, the Colombian police chief.
"I can also affirm that there was a payment for the FARC from the government of President Chavez of $300 million to support the terrorist cause."
Francisco Santos, the Colombian vice-president, speaking in Geneva, said information from the computers also showed the FARC had been trying to buy uranium to build a dirty bomb.
Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru have criticised Colombia's bombing raid. In Europe, Italy and Germany have also expressed their concern. Colombians, however, are squarely behind their president. A poll found 83 per cent of the public backed the attack on Reyes.
Mr Chavez has accused Mr Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and turning Colombia into "the Israel of the Americas".
This theme was picked up by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who began a five-nation tour of the region yesterday to mobilise support against Colombia.
"This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem," Mr Correa said. "Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."
Colombia is not just facing the diplomatic consequences of its killing of the rebel leader. Venezuela and Ecuador are also key trading partners with bilateral commerce worth £4 billion a year.
Venezuela is, after the US, Colombia's most important trading partner. Mr Chavez ordered the border closed and lines of lorries waited on the Colombian side in the vain hope it would open.
Relax I Was Just Making A Statment Of The Hatred SOME Of You Here Have For Obama , Not That It Really Matter's . You Know This Way I Know Who -Who That's All ,
We're Not Talking About Pot's & Pan's Here Nor Color Here
. I Click On Your Link It Says Not Found . Any Way Anything Coming Out Of Mouth The New Babylon / US , Can't Be Trusted They Should Clean Up Their Own House Before Pointing The Finger's At Other .
Ecuadorean troops take position close to the Colombian border
The president of Colombia has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of genocide. Alvaro Uribe said Hugo Chavez had been supporting Marxist guerrillas as they engaged in massacres
"Colombia proposes in the International Criminal Court to denounce the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.
Colombia's accusation was the latest sign of a deepening crisis that had erupted between US-backed Colombia and its Left-wing neighbours, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Venezuelan troops were reported to have been moving towards the border. Colombia, which has armed forces twice the size of Venezuela's, has said it would not be provoked into mobilising troops in response.
George W Bush said he would "stand with Colombia" in a phone call with Mr Uribe. Afterwards, in his first comments on the crisis, the US president accused Mr Chavez's government of "provocative manoeuvres" against Colombia and vowed to oppose any act of aggression in the Andean region.
The crisis began last Saturday when the Colombian air force bombed a rebel camp inside Ecuador.
Raul Reyes, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was killed. Colombian authorities say computer files found at the site showed Mr Chavez had been funding the FARC and that Ecuador had close links with the rebels.
"We are continuing to find documents of vital importance that prove the direct links of the FARC with Ecuador," said Gen Oscar Naranjo, the Colombian police chief.
"I can also affirm that there was a payment for the FARC from the government of President Chavez of $300 million to support the terrorist cause."
Francisco Santos, the Colombian vice-president, speaking in Geneva, said information from the computers also showed the FARC had been trying to buy uranium to build a dirty bomb.
Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru have criticised Colombia's bombing raid. In Europe, Italy and Germany have also expressed their concern. Colombians, however, are squarely behind their president. A poll found 83 per cent of the public backed the attack on Reyes.
Mr Chavez has accused Mr Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and turning Colombia into "the Israel of the Americas".
This theme was picked up by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who began a five-nation tour of the region yesterday to mobilise support against Colombia.
"This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem," Mr Correa said. "Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."
Colombia is not just facing the diplomatic consequences of its killing of the rebel leader. Venezuela and Ecuador are also key trading partners with bilateral commerce worth £4 billion a year.
Venezuela is, after the US, Colombia's most important trading partner. Mr Chavez ordered the border closed and lines of lorries waited on the Colombian side in the vain hope it would open.
Relax I Was Just Making A Statment Of The Hatred SOME Of You Here Have For Obama , Not That It Really Matter's . You Know This Way I Know Who -Who That's All ,
We're Not Talking About Pot's & Pan's Here Nor Color Here
. I Click On Your Link It Says Not Found . Any Way Anything Coming Out Of Mouth The New Babylon / US , Can't Be Trusted They Should Clean Up Their Own House Before Pointing The Finger's At Other .Never Argue With An Idiot. They Drag You Down To Their Level Then Beat You With Experience.
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
Obama’s Blackwater? Jeremy Scahill on Triple Canopy, the New Lead US Mercenary Force in Iraq and Israel ...
The Obama administration has confirmed the hiring of mercenary firm Triple Canopy to take over Blackwater’s contract to protect US diplomats in Iraq. Part of the firm’s job will be to protect the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. We speak to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, who has also just revealed that the administration is using Triple Canopy to protect US diplomats in Israel
AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration has confirmed it’s hired the mercenary firm Triple Canopy to take over Blackwater’s contract to protect US diplomats in Iraq. Part of the firm’s job will be to protect the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. Blackwater, now known as Xe, that’s “zee,†lost its State Department contract in Iraq after the Iraqi government refused to grant the company a new license because of the September 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when Blackwater guards killed seventeen Iraqi civilians.
Meanwhile, independent journalist Jeremy Scahill has just revealed that the Obama administration is also using Triple Canopy to protect US diplomats in Israel. Jeremy’s article, called “Obama’s Blackwater?†appears on alternet.org. He’s the author of the bestselling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Democracy Now! correspondent, here in our firehouse studio.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
JEREMY SCAHILL: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what have you learned, Jeremy?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I’m starting to call a series of pieces I’m doing “Operation Rebranded,†because what we’re seeing unfold with the Obama administration’s foreign policy is basically continuing many of the worst parts of Bush’s foreign policy and sort of repackaging these policies. So, for instance, the Obama administration has dropped the use of the term "global war on terrorism†and uses phrases like “contingency operations†to describe the US occupation of Iraq. The latest news we have is that the Obama’s administration has decided on its mercenary firm of choice. Clearly, Obama did not want to continue at least a public relationship with Blackwater.
AMY GOODMAN: Even though they changed their name?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, yeah, they changed their name to Xe. It’s like—well, it’s like our friends in Nigeria used to say, Amy, it’s old Coke in a new bottle, or old wine in a new bottle. And so, Obama picked this firm Triple Canopy, which interestingly was founded in Chicago, in the home state of Barack Obama. And then in 2005, they changed their location to Herndon, Virginia, so that they’d be closer to the epicenter of US war contracting, though on the Israeli contract, that I’m going to talk about in a moment, they list their Lincolnshire, Illinois address as their primary address for the contract.
AMY GOODMAN: Who heads up Triple Canopy?
JEREMY SCAHILL: It was founded by former Special Forces operatives from the US Army. They were minor contributors to the Bush/Cheney campaign, but not real big political players. They clearly started the company as a result of the US invasion in Iraq. They started it in 2003. By 2004, they got one of the primary contracts in Iraq.
An interesting fact about Triple Canopy is that it was one of the big three US companies. Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and Blackwater shared this mother contract. Blackwater had the biggest share of it, to guard US officials in the Baghdad area. DynCorp had the north of Iraq. Triple Canopy had the south of Iraq.
Triple Canopy also, though, did a very lucrative business servicing other war contractors like KBR, and Triple Canopy was also known for being the company that brought in the largest number of so-called third country nationals, non-Iraqis, non-Americans. They hired, for instance, former Salvadoran commandos who were veterans of the bloody counterinsurgency war in El Salvador that took the lives of 75,000 Salvadorans, minimum. Chileans—they used the same recruiter, Jose Miguel Pizarro Ovalle, that Blackwater used when they hired Chileans. This was a former Pinochet military officer.
And this company has been around, you know, for five or six years. The Obama administration has hired them in Iraq, and many of the Blackwater guys are believed to be jumping over to Triple Canopy to continue working on in Iraq. Obama, though, is keeping Blackwater on, and the State Department has not ruled out that they’re going to stay on for much longer, the aviation division of Blackwater in Iraq, and also Blackwater is on the US government payroll in Afghanistan, also working for the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The news that I’m breaking on Triple Canopy, though, is that I obtained federal contracts that were signed in February and March by the Obama administration with Triple Canopy to act as a private paramilitary force operating out of Jerusalem. And this is also part of a very secretive State Department program called the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which was started under the Clinton administration as a privatized wing of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security division. Triple Canopy was paid $5 million in February, March by the Obama administration to provide, quote, "security services†in Israel.
In congressional testimony in 2007, Ambassador David Satterfield, who was an Under Secretary of State, said that he had been guarded by private security companies when he traveled in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Triple Canopy had the contract, has had this contract since 2005, the Obama administration continuing it.
I think that the Obama administration should be required to explain to US taxpayers, particularly with the atrocious human rights abuses that we’ve been seeing in Israel, why he’s using a US mercenary company to protect US officials when they potentially come in contact with civilians. And we’ve seen how deadly that’s been in Iraq. And before May 7th, his administration should be required to explain to the American people why he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are continuing the Bush administration’s policy of using deadly paramilitary forces in Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: The alternative?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, the alternative, as Representative Jan Schakowsky has said, is to not use these companies, to ban their use in the war zone and to scale down the scope of what you classify as civilians or diplomats in Iraq. I have long said that I think the Obama administration should destroy that monstrous US embassy that was built in part on slave labor in Iraq. I think that they should pitch a tent in the backyard of the Polish embassy and call it a day and pay reparations to the Iraqi people. Now, call me naive or call me silly, but the fact of the matter is, this is a—it remains an illegal occupation of Iraq, that’s destroyed the lives of millions of Iraqis, and the Obama administration should not have a policy that necessitates using mercenaries.
AMY GOODMAN: I was quoting you with the term you used, the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. How big is it? Why do you say “monstrous�
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, this is the size of Vatican City. And the Vatican has embassies in other countries around the world. I mean, this is a massive small city within Baghdad itself.
AMY GOODMAN: The largest US embassy in the world?
JEREMY SCAHILL: It’s the largest US embassy in world history, and there are already some 1,200 employees that are operating out of this embassy. And according to a recent Government Accountability Office report that I reviewed, the Obama administration is very likely to increase its use of private military companies like Triple Canopy. This is going to be a very lucrative arrangement for these companies. So concerned is the Government Accountability Office with this trend, that they’re actually asking Congress to inquire with the Obama administration as to what they intend to if five years from now they have not reduced their reliance on mercenary companies.
Obama has now made Afghanistan and the occupation there, where there are maybe 78,000 troops, US troops, by next year, along with all the contractors, and the occupation of Iraq—he’s made these two wars his war. And so, the honeymoon should be over now. Barack Obama needs to be held accountable for wars that he is continuing and aggressively escalating.
AMY GOODMAN: We don’t have much time, but I wanted to ask you about this latest lawsuit.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right, well, Blackwater has been sued repeatedly over the course of the past couple of years, But really, over the past month by Susan Burke of the law firm Burke O’Neil, who works for the Center for Constitutional Rights, she’s sued them for the killing of an Iraqi bodyguard to the vice president of Iraq, Adil Abdul-Mahdi. She’s suing them over the Nisoor Square massacre. And just yesterday, she filed a lawsuit against Blackwater for an incident in February of 2007 that you’ve reported on on this show, where three Iraqi security guards working for an Iraqi media network were allegedly killed by Blackwater snipers. She filed the lawsuit on behalf of their estates, their families. And really, Susan Burke has said that the Blackwater empire is responsible for so much death and destruction in Iraq that she’s looking to sue them in any way she can.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jeremy, I want to thank you for being with us. We’ll link to your article on our website at democracynow.org. Your article appeared at alternet.org. Jeremy Scahill, award-winning investigative journalist, author of the New York Times bestseller, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
Democracy Now.org
The Obama administration has confirmed the hiring of mercenary firm Triple Canopy to take over Blackwater’s contract to protect US diplomats in Iraq. Part of the firm’s job will be to protect the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. We speak to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, who has also just revealed that the administration is using Triple Canopy to protect US diplomats in Israel
AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration has confirmed it’s hired the mercenary firm Triple Canopy to take over Blackwater’s contract to protect US diplomats in Iraq. Part of the firm’s job will be to protect the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. Blackwater, now known as Xe, that’s “zee,†lost its State Department contract in Iraq after the Iraqi government refused to grant the company a new license because of the September 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when Blackwater guards killed seventeen Iraqi civilians.
Meanwhile, independent journalist Jeremy Scahill has just revealed that the Obama administration is also using Triple Canopy to protect US diplomats in Israel. Jeremy’s article, called “Obama’s Blackwater?†appears on alternet.org. He’s the author of the bestselling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Democracy Now! correspondent, here in our firehouse studio.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
JEREMY SCAHILL: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what have you learned, Jeremy?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I’m starting to call a series of pieces I’m doing “Operation Rebranded,†because what we’re seeing unfold with the Obama administration’s foreign policy is basically continuing many of the worst parts of Bush’s foreign policy and sort of repackaging these policies. So, for instance, the Obama administration has dropped the use of the term "global war on terrorism†and uses phrases like “contingency operations†to describe the US occupation of Iraq. The latest news we have is that the Obama’s administration has decided on its mercenary firm of choice. Clearly, Obama did not want to continue at least a public relationship with Blackwater.
AMY GOODMAN: Even though they changed their name?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, yeah, they changed their name to Xe. It’s like—well, it’s like our friends in Nigeria used to say, Amy, it’s old Coke in a new bottle, or old wine in a new bottle. And so, Obama picked this firm Triple Canopy, which interestingly was founded in Chicago, in the home state of Barack Obama. And then in 2005, they changed their location to Herndon, Virginia, so that they’d be closer to the epicenter of US war contracting, though on the Israeli contract, that I’m going to talk about in a moment, they list their Lincolnshire, Illinois address as their primary address for the contract.
AMY GOODMAN: Who heads up Triple Canopy?
JEREMY SCAHILL: It was founded by former Special Forces operatives from the US Army. They were minor contributors to the Bush/Cheney campaign, but not real big political players. They clearly started the company as a result of the US invasion in Iraq. They started it in 2003. By 2004, they got one of the primary contracts in Iraq.
An interesting fact about Triple Canopy is that it was one of the big three US companies. Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and Blackwater shared this mother contract. Blackwater had the biggest share of it, to guard US officials in the Baghdad area. DynCorp had the north of Iraq. Triple Canopy had the south of Iraq.
Triple Canopy also, though, did a very lucrative business servicing other war contractors like KBR, and Triple Canopy was also known for being the company that brought in the largest number of so-called third country nationals, non-Iraqis, non-Americans. They hired, for instance, former Salvadoran commandos who were veterans of the bloody counterinsurgency war in El Salvador that took the lives of 75,000 Salvadorans, minimum. Chileans—they used the same recruiter, Jose Miguel Pizarro Ovalle, that Blackwater used when they hired Chileans. This was a former Pinochet military officer.
And this company has been around, you know, for five or six years. The Obama administration has hired them in Iraq, and many of the Blackwater guys are believed to be jumping over to Triple Canopy to continue working on in Iraq. Obama, though, is keeping Blackwater on, and the State Department has not ruled out that they’re going to stay on for much longer, the aviation division of Blackwater in Iraq, and also Blackwater is on the US government payroll in Afghanistan, also working for the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The news that I’m breaking on Triple Canopy, though, is that I obtained federal contracts that were signed in February and March by the Obama administration with Triple Canopy to act as a private paramilitary force operating out of Jerusalem. And this is also part of a very secretive State Department program called the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which was started under the Clinton administration as a privatized wing of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security division. Triple Canopy was paid $5 million in February, March by the Obama administration to provide, quote, "security services†in Israel.
In congressional testimony in 2007, Ambassador David Satterfield, who was an Under Secretary of State, said that he had been guarded by private security companies when he traveled in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Triple Canopy had the contract, has had this contract since 2005, the Obama administration continuing it.
I think that the Obama administration should be required to explain to US taxpayers, particularly with the atrocious human rights abuses that we’ve been seeing in Israel, why he’s using a US mercenary company to protect US officials when they potentially come in contact with civilians. And we’ve seen how deadly that’s been in Iraq. And before May 7th, his administration should be required to explain to the American people why he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are continuing the Bush administration’s policy of using deadly paramilitary forces in Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: The alternative?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, the alternative, as Representative Jan Schakowsky has said, is to not use these companies, to ban their use in the war zone and to scale down the scope of what you classify as civilians or diplomats in Iraq. I have long said that I think the Obama administration should destroy that monstrous US embassy that was built in part on slave labor in Iraq. I think that they should pitch a tent in the backyard of the Polish embassy and call it a day and pay reparations to the Iraqi people. Now, call me naive or call me silly, but the fact of the matter is, this is a—it remains an illegal occupation of Iraq, that’s destroyed the lives of millions of Iraqis, and the Obama administration should not have a policy that necessitates using mercenaries.
AMY GOODMAN: I was quoting you with the term you used, the “monstrous†US embassy in Baghdad. How big is it? Why do you say “monstrous�
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, this is the size of Vatican City. And the Vatican has embassies in other countries around the world. I mean, this is a massive small city within Baghdad itself.
AMY GOODMAN: The largest US embassy in the world?
JEREMY SCAHILL: It’s the largest US embassy in world history, and there are already some 1,200 employees that are operating out of this embassy. And according to a recent Government Accountability Office report that I reviewed, the Obama administration is very likely to increase its use of private military companies like Triple Canopy. This is going to be a very lucrative arrangement for these companies. So concerned is the Government Accountability Office with this trend, that they’re actually asking Congress to inquire with the Obama administration as to what they intend to if five years from now they have not reduced their reliance on mercenary companies.
Obama has now made Afghanistan and the occupation there, where there are maybe 78,000 troops, US troops, by next year, along with all the contractors, and the occupation of Iraq—he’s made these two wars his war. And so, the honeymoon should be over now. Barack Obama needs to be held accountable for wars that he is continuing and aggressively escalating.
AMY GOODMAN: We don’t have much time, but I wanted to ask you about this latest lawsuit.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right, well, Blackwater has been sued repeatedly over the course of the past couple of years, But really, over the past month by Susan Burke of the law firm Burke O’Neil, who works for the Center for Constitutional Rights, she’s sued them for the killing of an Iraqi bodyguard to the vice president of Iraq, Adil Abdul-Mahdi. She’s suing them over the Nisoor Square massacre. And just yesterday, she filed a lawsuit against Blackwater for an incident in February of 2007 that you’ve reported on on this show, where three Iraqi security guards working for an Iraqi media network were allegedly killed by Blackwater snipers. She filed the lawsuit on behalf of their estates, their families. And really, Susan Burke has said that the Blackwater empire is responsible for so much death and destruction in Iraq that she’s looking to sue them in any way she can.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jeremy, I want to thank you for being with us. We’ll link to your article on our website at democracynow.org. Your article appeared at alternet.org. Jeremy Scahill, award-winning investigative journalist, author of the New York Times bestseller, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
Democracy Now.org
Never Argue With An Idiot. They Drag You Down To Their Level Then Beat You With Experience.
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
Daniyal;1168359 wrote: Obama’s Blackwater? Jeremy Scahill on Triple Canopy, the New Lead US Mercenary Force in Iraq and Israel ...
Democracy Now.org
Do you work for democracy now........now?
Most of your spiel is from the "unbiased site" it seems
Democracy Now.org
Do you work for democracy now........now?
Most of your spiel is from the "unbiased site" it seems
"If America Was A Tree, The Left Would Root For The Termites...Greg Gutfeld."
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
BTS;1168645 wrote: Do you work for democracy now........now?
Most of you is from the "unbiased site" it seems
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Thank You :yh_shhhh:yh_clap:yh_clap
Most of you is from the "unbiased site" it seems
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Thank You :yh_shhhh:yh_clap:yh_clap
Never Argue With An Idiot. They Drag You Down To Their Level Then Beat You With Experience.
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
Five Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi Civilians
During the NATO summit in Strasbourg, European allies rejected President Obama’s request to send more combat troops to Afghanistan as part of the US escalation of the war. Instead, NATO nations will send 3,000 soldiers to assist in securing the national elections scheduled for August and 2,000 military trainers to help the Afghan army. Outside the NATO meeting, some 30,000 people took part in protests along the French-German border condemning the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Police arrested 325 people. At least three buildings were set on fire, including a hotel and a border post.
Democracy Now .Org
Democracy Now .Org
Never Argue With An Idiot. They Drag You Down To Their Level Then Beat You With Experience.
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving:
When An Elder Passes On To Higher Life , Its Like One Of The Library Have Shut Down
To Desire Security Is A Sign Of Insecurity .
It's Not The Things One Knows That Get Him Or Her In Trouble , Its The Things One Knows That Just Isn't So That Get Them In Trouble
When you can control a man's thinking you don't have to worry about his action ...:driving: