Comments (14)

Candyce wrote on October 2, 2007 11:51 AM:

Prince is just smirking through the whole hearing. There will be no consequences for their activities and he knows it.

What I want to know is why the government is paying 100,000 per person for Blackwater services. That's not low bid, it's not even reasonable. That kind of money just invites mercenary types, and we've all seen the youtube videos of the Rambos in action.

jimijazz wrote on October 2, 2007 12:06 PM:

I believe that George Bush specifically wanted Eric Prince and Blackwater for this kind of endeavor, and at the same time Eric Prince couldn't wait for the opportunity to take a bunch trigger-happy thugs to Iraq. And just because you're in a war zone does not give you the right to kill innocent civilians. He is smirking and being arrogant thru these hearings. But this is the climate and atmosphere Eric Prince grew up in his little backwards town in Michigan. They figure the ends justify the means. No matter how ugly they may be.

Martin Horn wrote on October 2, 2007 12:18 PM:

Let me get this right: "We fined him, then we fired him, so he and this situation is no longer our responsibility." Is this what he is saying?

If so, isn't the next question, "If he was no longer your responsibility, why did you arrange to get him out of the country?"

anonymouse wrote on October 2, 2007 12:22 PM:

Everything the president, congress, and ther Senate is doing is making it easier to wage (yes, I know it's not the Condstitutional way) and extend wars.

Congress has entirely given up it's mandate to protect "WE the People" from a rogue president by allowing wars to now be fought by proxy with hired thugs and "volunteer" armies.

We are in this mess because Congress can blame Bush for fighting the war and attacking Iraq. After all... they didn't dec;are war, so it's not their fault.

"We the People" are not out demonstrating to any great extent because there aren't drafted young folk fighting... they are volunteers.

Blackwatewr and other contracts have been given immunity (as well as anyone else who may be liable) so therte is no worry that Congress will retaliate .

What we now have is a totally exempt government who can attack any country the military industrial complex so desires.. without any penalty from its citizens... and as long as we continue to pour $400 billion per year into more weaponry, we are pretty much exempt from other countries mandates.

We are the rogue country in this point in history and we will be attacking more and more countries just because it is so easy to do.

And future generations of the world will look back upon us with contempt.

that is... if we don't blow it all up before history has a chance to record it.

CJR wrote on October 2, 2007 12:24 PM:

This guy can barely keep a straight face. Come on, these hearings are worthless.

Dave J. wrote on October 2, 2007 12:39 PM:

Odds are good that the guy who killed the Iraqi guard is now a security guard, cop, or employed in some similar capacity in the states. Question: what safeguards are in place to ensure that Blackwater employees (and employees of similar companies) who get into serious trouble in Iraq do not return to the states with clean records? Obviously that guy has a problem with alcohol and firearms, and it would be reassuring to know that he won't have similar opportunities back in the states. Given this crew's sneering contempt of "oversight," however, I'm not feeling really good about that.

foggylady wrote on October 2, 2007 12:47 PM:

does flying the murdering employee out of the country qualify Blackwater as an accessory after a crime?

foggylady wrote on October 2, 2007 12:49 PM:

does flying the murdering employee out of the country qualify Blackwater as an accessory after a crime?

jimijazz wrote on October 2, 2007 12:50 PM:

That's a very good point. What happens when the war is over and all these Blackwater "employees" start coming back to the states? Doesn't paint a very rosy scenario. But Eric Prince is basically a little fascist. His testimony is very similar to when Oliver North testified in the Iran-contra hearings.

Dee Illuminati wrote on October 2, 2007 1:24 PM:

My earlier posts indicated that the DOJ had legal jurisdiction over these contractors. Three things as a thought after watching the video, first the hanging of Saddam cell phone video that was on the internet leaves me wondering if the contractor would have received due process? (or the news report that a subsequent hanging decapitated the condemned?) Second, that the DOJ having an office in the green zone extends US domicile status to Iraq, (and that as a follow up to the 'Novel reasoning behind the wiretaps') and finally, that the contractor has been caught in the 'ultimate' finger pointing blame game and will eventually become the 'poster boy' for a policy gone off the reservation.

I also wonder in the absence of the contractor 'blackwater' would Dyncorp be any better? If you were to halt the contract to Blackwater, would all the employees of that contract just re-contract with another prime?

I guess if you put the US military under Iraqi control you put them under their legal control as well.

The protection that blackwater gives the DOJ and the DOS in Baghdad probably makes these agencies loathe to prosecute these guys, and the 'politics' and 'institutional image' of these agencies at odds with the realities of the circumstances in the Greenzone.

I'm not sure if the US public is ready to see US citizens executed in Iraq by Iraqi's as a consequence of our benevolent liberation. I don't think the people in the Greenzone want to establish that as a norm.

I will also add that the act of circling the wagons is common when things happen like this, I would imagine all the people in the greenzone are in the process of becoming more and more isolated from 'US society' and that that isolation creates a myoptic sense of right and wrong and loyalty to the ciircumstances that they find themselves in. From a HR perspective, these people are showing all the signs of making decisions that illustrate that 'alienation and isolation' from 'society' and a dependence instead upon each other whom share that common circumstance in the Greenzone. So that emphasis on inter-related trusts, in that environment, a trust once breached, a craddle to grave trust, life or death trust, is more important to those people than the 'incident justice' of the deaths caused by Blackwater. Your not going to see the CEO breach that trust as that is all that really holds a crew of people together under these types of circumstances and once violated can never be re-established.

I have seen high-traveling white collar positions, contract road warriors, ehibit the same types of behaviors (transient professional workers) and the long term consequences of the alienation, isolation, overdependence of social interaction within their co-workers, and the evolving 'unhealthy' loyalties created and group dynamics, and in those scenarios, the importance of trust issues.

Yeah this one contractor is gonna get his ass yardarm'd, but these hearings are not going to change the circumstances or the social dynamics involved, and hence the resulting policy.

You almost have to feel sorry for the poor S.O.B.. Similar to the sniper who shot himself after shooting his singer wife, he will probably commit suicide.

The question that should be asked is this: 'What is blackwater doing to monitor the mental health of it's contractors as some will eventually return to civillian society?' I know that DOS is aware that their foreign service personnel are suffering from PTSD, but then again: while there is an acknowledgement that the problem exists, an unwillingness by political leadership to change the culture.

So you have some alienated, isolated contractor on a US holliday drunk, in a foreign culture, with a firearm. Are you singing Kum-ba-ya yet? Wanna bet that all the empirical evidence suggests that this guy was exhibiting deteriorating mental health signs prior to this incident? Wanna bet that 'everybody in the greenzone' is doing the same? Wanna bet that the 'managers' and people with the excel spread sheets don't give a damn and that these folks are just resources?

One thing is for certain: Blackwater isn't going to provide and time and materials gallow to hang this guy in country. One thing is for certain: These hearings aren't gonna change the circumstances in the greenzone. And finally, the people in charge know that the personnel are isolated and alienated in these positions, and the greenzone cultural norms are not going to change nor will the policy, these people have schedules to meet irrespective of the HR burn rate.

BuckFush wrote on October 2, 2007 1:27 PM:

How much did he pay for that haircut? I hope not much.

schwza wrote on October 2, 2007 1:33 PM:

** Let me get this right: "We fined him, then we fired him, so he and this situation is no longer our responsibility." Is this what he is saying?

If so, isn't the next question, "If he was no longer your responsibility, why did you arrange to get him out of the country?" **

yeah, i was thinking this exactly. i thought the questioner did not do a good enough job pinning him down on this point, which is the central point.

most of her questions were basically her just complaining that the guy should've faced charges somewhere, but prince really has nothing to do with that. he can't explain why the DOJ hasn't done anything with the case. prince had been somewhat vague on whether blackwater had flown the guy out of the country and that's by far the most important thing that came up.

TheraP wrote on October 2, 2007 2:02 PM:

Despite the fact that the hearings seem to be accomplishing nothing, something tells me this is not gonna play well with the public down the road. People simply don't like to think that murderers get away with things, and are flown out, away from the crime scene.

Today, with u-tube, I simply don't think people will view this as being nothing.

Think of the anger of the troops, that the contractors can get away with things that would result in a court martial for someone in the military.

I don't think this is going to go away, any more than the DoJ problems went away. Gonzo made a fool of himself in hearings and he is gone-zo.

This guy, now clearly identified on tape as a republican, is not going to be a good poster boy for the republican party, let alone the war.

Sometimes things take on a life of their own, and this, I think, is one of them!

anonymouse wrote on October 2, 2007 5:18 PM:

"Despite the fact that the hearings seem to be accomplishing nothing, something tells me this is not gonna play well with the public down the road."

I believe you are probably right. However, I also believe that this behavior will only be getting worse as our democracy disintegrates.

The reason I believew this?

Unless we begin to punish bad behavior quickly, the thugs will make these behaviors permanent. At that time, it will not matter who is in office... there will be no accountability and the folks with the real power will get exactly what they want.

Oops... it has already happened, hasn't it...