Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning
The Nation magazine headline was sensational: Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder. The article, written by Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
The two men claim Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince,* may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. One also alleges that Prince, quote, “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,†and that Prince’s companies, “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.â€
The significance was underscored in Scahill’s Aug. 4 remarks on MSNBC’s Countdown:
While the allegations are extremely disturbing, they are apparently not disturbing enough to warrant coverage in almost all of the nation’s leading newspapers. That, even though, as reported in Scahill’s book, amongst the first to arrive in the aftermath of Katrina — before the U.S. government and most aid organizations — were a contingent of 150 Blackwater mercenaries, “some with M-4 automatic weapons, capable of firing nine hundred rounds per minute”….
I checked the web sites for the Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today and the Washington Post. Aside from a link on the Los Angeles Times’ site to a Daily Kos piece, none of these corporate daily papers has provided so much as one word, critical or otherwise, of Scahill’s bombshell.
Surprisingly, the mainstream corporate press silence was broken by none other than Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. Go figure!
Of course, there are legitimate publication concerns. Although one Blackwater mercenary pleaded guilty and five more face charges relating to the infamous 2007 Nisoor Square massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians, to date the Department of Justice has neither filed formal criminal charges against Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince, nor confirmed (or denied) that Prince is the subject of a grand jury investigation.
The allegations come not from the government but by way of two sworn statements filed in a U.S. District Court civil action by attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (the “CCR”) — an action brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of the families of two Iraqis, Ali Hussamaldeen Albazzaz and Kadhum Kayiz Aziz, who, the CCR states, “were killed when Blackwater personnel opened fire on a crowd of Iraqi civilians in and around Al Watahba Square in Baghdad on September 9, 2007.”
The CCR further notes: “The lawsuit alleges that heavily armed Blackwater mercenaries, known in company parlance as ‘shooters,’ fired without justification and killed five civilians, including Mr. Albazzaz and Mr. Aziz. Mr. Albazzaz, the father of a newborn baby girl, was standing outside his rug store at the time he was killed; Mr. Aziz was guarding a government building. Numerous other civilians were injured in the incident.”
As is reflected by a memorandum [PDF]** filed by the CCR’s attorney’s, Blackwater filed a motion, seeking a “sweeping order” that would preclude the parties and their counsel “from speaking to the news media or making any other extrajudicial public statement concerning this litigation….†On Aug. 7 Olbermann reported that the court denied this “gag order” motion.
The sworn statements came from John Doe 1 [PDF], a former Marine who served as a Blackwater security guard in Iraq; the other from John Doe 2 [PDF], whom Scahill’s sources identify as a former member of Blackwater management. Both men say they signed anonymously because they fear for their lives.
The question arises: Would the nation’s leading papers have reported this story if the identical allegations were contained in an indictment? Should allegations made by private citizens in sworn affidavits carry less weight than those made by federal prosecutors or a grand jury?
I believe the answer to the first question is a resounding “yes,” especially since the allegations contain a salacious element that usually drives the corporate media to 24/7 coverage — sex scandals! Specifically, as recounted by Olbermann during an Aug. 6 segment of Countdown, allegations that Prince operated a wife-swapping sex ring here in the US, and that, in Iraq, Blackwater had “young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” John Doe 2 alleges that Prince visited the Man Camp but “failed to stop the use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men…†(John Doe 2 also alleged Prince and his associates engaged in money laundering and tax evasion; that Prince’s chief financial officer resigned, telling Prince he was unwilling to go to jail for him.)
There has been a long pattern of over-reliance upon “official sources” by the mainstream corporate media, often with disastrous results, as we saw in the run-up to the imperial conquest of Iraq. As Justice Hugo Black noted in New York Times vs. United States (the 1971 “Pentagon Papers” case):
In Moyers on America
As it turned out, it was the anti-war movement, marginalized and ignored time and again by the corporate media, which proved to be right all along. It is that same anti-war movement which continues to be marginalized and ignored as our national treasury is depleted and the blood of our youth continues to spill onto the oil-rich sands of Iraq and into the more desolate regions of Afghanistan.
In the words of I.F. Stone, “Governments lie.” The lies are not limited to matters of war and peace. Lies can sometimes be found in the language of a formal grand jury indictment. If you believe otherwise, you have not followed the sad saga of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
With all due respect, Lehrer’s concept that “unless an official says something is so, it isn’t news” reflects a corporate media-engendered idiocy. The fact that the allegations arose in former Blackwater employee statements rather than a formal indictment does not negate the fact that the Scahill bombshell is “news.” The media, corporate or alternative, is supposed to report the news!
That said, responsible journalism, irrespective of official or unofficial source, requires careful examination and presentation.
While both the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC should be praised for covering this story, MSNBC’s presentation fell a bit short.
During the Aug. 5 segment, Olbermann pointed out that Countdown had reviewed the sworn statements. He provided an on-screen excerpt from John Doe 2’s statement:
Olbermann verbally repeated those same words during the Aug. 6 segment of Countdown.
Olbermann neglected to mention that John Doe 2 prefaced this with “based on information provided to me by former colleagues, it appears Mr. Prince and his employees murdered….”
This was the most explosive allegation in either declaration. While both Scahill and Olbermann used words like “may” have and “alleged,” neither noted that this key accusation was based on hearsay. (The Wall Street Journal obliquely reported that the “murder” allegation came from “other sources.”)
This error in the presentation of this sensational allegation, however, in no way negates the two statements as items that are worthy of coverage.
John Doe 2 does offer personal knowledge, which, if true, makes his fear palpable:
Some key allegations may or may not be a powerful indictment depending upon whether they are based on personal factual knowledge or merely expressions of opinions. For example, John Doe 2’s alleges:
John Doe 1 provided an eye witness account concerning issues that have arisen in other investigations. As Scahill described it on Countdown, “One of the allegations is that Prince was using his private planes to bring weapons into Iraq without the US military being aware of it. They were wrapping them in some kind of plastic wrap and they were stored in dog food bags … John Doe #1 said that, right when he got there … one of the first things he saw in the Blackwater armory was people removing weapons out of dog food bags.”
Olbermann noted the next night that two former Blackwater employees, Kenneth Cashwell & William Grumiaux, pleaded guilty to arms smuggling.
It wasn’t just weapons. John Doe 2 said that Blackwater smuggled in “ammunition designed to explode after penetrating within the human body.” Scahill told Olbermann that “years ago, a Blackwater operative, Ben Thomas…shot an Iraqi in the buttocks and it killed him, and Ben Thomas described it as exploding the entire left side of his body…The military had not been authorized to use these weapons.”
Conclusion: The failure of the bulk of the corporate press to responsibly cover this explosive story is manifestly irresponsible. The ramifications of permitting a President to create a private, unaccountable army of mercenaries — one which was permitted to have a heavily armed presence inside a U.S. city, a presence that took precedence over saving the lives of Katrina victims — are truly frightening.
As Scahill astutely observed during his Aug. 5 appearance on Countdown:
We’ve seen how wealthy corporations are willing to fund, organize and transport wing-nut mobs whose task it is to shut down one of the oldest forms of American democracy — the town hall meeting. One does not have to have exceptional foresight to imagine a future, would-be dictator, with access to a heavily armed mercenary army made up of right-wing, religious zealots. Consider the history of Central America during the 1980s where unaccountable death squads, often led by zealots trained inside the U.S. at the School of Americas, murdered union leaders, teachers, priests — anyone standing in the way of the corporate oligarchies, and you begin to comprehend the real ramifications of Blackwater = Murder, Inc.?
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**In their opposition to the proposed gag order, the CCR’s attorneys noted that in the aftermath of the Nisoor Square massacre, Blackwater hired a PR firm that “specializes in repairing and protecting the public face of companies in a non-public and surreptitious manner” and “touts its skill at creating the illusion of a grass roots movement supportive of its clientele;” that Prince made multiple televised appearances to that end, yet was seeking to silence the First Amendment rights of Blackwater’s victims. Apparently, Prince and Blackwater believed they could escape infamy by way of re-branding. Blackwater formally changed its name to Xe.
Olbermann came up with a name change that seems more apropos. During his Aug. 7 broadcast, he posted a visual of the Blackwater logo, but the name he used was “Bloodwater.”
UPDATE 08/11/09: Add the Boston Globe, Minnesota’s Star Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle to the list of corporate daily newspapers that failed to report the Blackwater = Murder, Inc.? story, although the San Francisco Chronicle did run an AP story about a British “security contractor,” who will face charges in Iraqi courts for killing two co-workers inside the Green Zone. The AP report noted that the Iraqi legal proceedings were the result of a lifting of “contractor immunity” — a change in legal status that was, in large measure, occasioned by Iraqi outrage over the Nisoor Square Massacre.
When will the AP realize that “security contractor” is an inept descriptor for a heavily armed mercenary?
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Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California State Bar since 1977 and has practiced in the fields of civil litigation and workers’ compensation at both the trial and appellate levels. He graduated cum laude from Southwestern University School of Law where he served as a student director of the clinical studies department and authored the Law Review Article, Executive Privilege: Myths & Realities. He received an MA in political science at Cal State University Northridge and a BA in political science from UCLA. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).
How fucking low have you gone ?
Imagine if some third world country allowed this type of mercenary army to operate …what would America say ?
This is disgusting ,we expect the cronyism ,we expect the corruption ,we expect the blind bias to Israels crimes but this is UN_FUCKING_BELIEVABLE.
And the worst part is EVERYBODY know ITS APPROVED BY YOU GOVERNMENT …police the world …fuck off start at home first.
Oh wait a minute Mick…
I agree with everything you said…BUT
Blackwater did police at home too. They murdered American citizens in New Orleans during Katrina.
That’s right …W Bush sic’d his personal right wing militia, paid for by OUR tax dollars on American citizens in New Orleans. I should add UNARMED American citizens who were hungry, homeless and stranded.
This is what our government has come to. Obama hasn’t changed anything about this…not anything I can decipher at least…FISA still in place, Homeland Security still has precedence…same old, same old. The fascist rhetoric is just smarter now and has a smiley face.
Awesome
Amen, Mick! America has become a multi-bazillion dollar banana republic. And the Abomina administration, by aiding and abetting, well… My instincts in 1990 were spot on, and I’m so glad I followed them and emigrated, as in time it was inevitable that I would become a refugee and would be fortunate to survive the ordeal. Life is lovely here in the heart of Europe, as I’m sure it is in New Zealand. Let’s hope they don’t decide to blow the WHOLE thing up…
I’m really glad that you ALWAYS monitor the “liberal media” (FAKE) coverage of the story, as well as the story. Good job!
The “liberal media”, you know, the one OWNED by non-liberal corporations, speaks for: the minority of super-wealthy, the military, and government…only when government is representing them. If government is NOT representing them, the “liberal media” attacks government because they’re doing something for the people, like health care reform.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlyb1Bx9Ic
David Brock, the reformed conservative noise-maker, on how the Right has sabotaged journalism, democracy, and truth.
As a young journalist in the 1990s, David Brock was a key cog the Republican noise machine. Writing for the American Spectator, a conservative magazine funded by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, Brock gained fame for his attack pieces on Anita Hill and President Bill Clinton. Then, in 2002, Brock came clean. In his memoir, Blinded by the Right, Brock admitted that his work was based on lies and distortion, and part of a coordinated smear campaign funded by wealthy right wing groups to discredit Clinton and confuse the public.
Since then, Brock has continued to expose the conservative media onslaught. In his newest book, The Republican Noise Machine, Brock documents how right-wing groups pressure the media and spread misinformation to the public. It’s easy to see how this is done.
Fringe conspiracies and stories will be kept alive by outlets like Rush Limbaugh, the Washington Times, and the Drudge Report, until they finally break into the mainstream media.
Media groups like Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center have spent 30 years convincing the public that the media is, in fact, liberal. As Brock says, it’s all a sham: “I have seen, and I know firsthand, indeed from my own pen, how the organized Right has sabotaged not only journalism but also democracy and truth.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/republican-noise-machine
http://mediamatters.org/
The “liberal media” speaks for the military industrial complex:
Pentagon Pundits – Blinded By The Right
http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/2009/05/pentagon-pundits-blinded-by-right.html
Blackwater is part of the military industrial complex. So, the “liberal media” ignores a factual story about them.
First of all, it’s not liberal. But, the whole SHAM wouldn’t work, if we weren’t told that it’s liberal. WHO is telling us it’s liberal? btw? You heard it your whole life!
Media study ordered destroyed – “every last bit of it”!!!
Dan, I think “corporate” vs “alternative” provides a more meaningful description than “liberal vs. conservative” as applied to the U.S. media.
Consider the remarks of dissident novelist Zdener Urbanek to John Pilger during a 1970s interview inside Stalinist Czechoslovakia:
Where it is easy to spot the lies in a state run propaganda network, the pseudo-separation between the corporate media and the U.S. corporate security state allows for a more insidious (invisible) propaganda network.
From George Orwell’s 1984:
You do make an excellent point re David Brock & Blinded by the Right.
Ernest A. Canning
I think it is important that we all learn to refer to them as Blackwater/Xe or Blackwater-now-Xe or Blackwater, nee Xe… because they have renamed themselves — specifically, Erik Prince has renamed it — right along the lines of the nefarious Diebold renaming their rotten voting machine division. I think this because there seems to to be some sort of determination to keep using Murder, Inc. and they will begin being referred to as Xe after they think they’ve quieted the public outrage enough.
We’re not getting this in the MSM because Blackwater was so notorious that towns began preventing them from opening training camps and people started fighting them really hard. We should do our best to not let this fade into history while the same killers get to roam any streets on earth, including ours, as simply Xe, or Xe Company or Xe Services… whatever… a name without the heat attached. The heat has to stay on.
This is one of the few occasions in which you and I disagree Agent 99.
As I stated in the footnote:
Imagine if, in the wake of Pearl Harbor, Japan sought to escape infamy by re-branding itself as “Toyota.” It’s absurd.
As I also noted in the footnote, quoting a CCR legal memoranda:
To buy into this make-over by referring to Bloodwater, er, Blackwater, as Xe is to allow Blackwater’s PR firm to re-frame reality. That is why I relegated “Xe” to a footnote.
(Of course, the “creating the illusion of a grass roots movement” also has application to what is taking place at town hall meetings on health care).
Fond as I am of using vivid speech to keep my frustration manageable, to keep my brain from boiling, and I do certainly agree with your reasoning as described, my worry hinges on our government having exhibited a desire to keep using Bloodwater and the “mysterious” failure of the MSM to pick up Scahill’s rock-solid work. It means to me Prince will have a lot of help watering down the blood to his company’s credit. That is why I mention this… beside the disturbing trend of rogue companies renaming themselves to escape whatever amount of censure the move might buy them.
Maybe Bloodwater/Xe would suffice?
Anyway, just a thought.
Guilty as charged. You can see the look on his face.
non fiction 1984
“The unanswered questions surrounding the 9/11 attacks have always pointed to an Israeli factor, despite government secrecy and media complicity. In the weeks prior to September 11, 140 Israelis were detained as part of a suspected espionage ring. Nearly all had served in the Israeli army with specialties in either explosives or intelligence, although Carl Cameron of Fox News quoted a senior investigator as stating “Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified.’ ”
A govt. source told Fox News investigators: “Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is Classified”
The mainstream media’s primary role is to fixate on celebrities divert public attention from important issues. I think even any pretense of credibility mainstream media sourcs sucn as CNN has long vanished. Like the people of China, Americans have to find credible information on domestic issues from foreign news sources or from more reliable sources of information like BradBlog. The mainstream media’s only hope in continuing to disseminate corporate propaganda unobstructed is to end net neutrality and clamp down on internet activity as Iran and China do.
his punishment shall be complete only when he changes his name to Evil Erik Prince.
the media and the current administration feel he’s suffered enough since we canceled a few billion in contracts and made him look foolish in front of some bored congressmen once. what more do you want from him?
jeez, let him get back to work crackin heads and taking calls on his hotline to Evil Dick Cheney already.. those revolutions won’t start themselves you know.
Media ownership study ordered destroyed
No, no, I like Evil Prince Erik better….
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
… cann4ing said on 8/11/2009 @ 10:17 am PT…
Dan, I think “corporate” vs “alternative” provides a more meaningful description than “liberal vs. conservative” as applied to the U.S. media.
My exact point is: the CORPORATE media is what is called the LIBERAL media.
The CORPORATE MEDIA, the one we’re all told is the LIBERAL MEDIA, is in no way liberal.
I see what you’re saying, I think we’re saying the same thing, but from a different angle.
What EVERYONE refers to as the LIBERAL MEDIA, is the CORPORATE MEDIA.
Yes? No? Maybe so?
You’re saying (I think), the NON-CORPORATE MEDIA is the ALTERNATIVE MEDIA. I agree with that, if that’s what you’re saying.
BUT…RIGHTWING MEDIA is part of the CORPORATE MEDIA, as an aside to all this.
So, the so-called LIBERAL MEDIA and the so-called RIGHTWING MEDIA are all part of the CORPORATE MEDIA…those are my thoughts on the definitions of these things.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IS INDEPENDENT MEDIA – independent of corporate sponsorship.
Brad is “independent” or “alternate” media. Anyone have any thoughts on these definitions?
I consider rightwing media part of corporate media, and the so-called liberal media that isn’t liberal, is part of the corporate media, also. They’re both speaking for: the wealthy, corporations, the military, and government when government sides with THEM vs. US, “us” being the regular, average citizens, middle class, poor, etc… “The Public”.
Doesn’t it make sense, if the “liberal” and “rightwing” media, are all part of the corporate media, that they would be playing the game they’re playing, where the rightwing media is calling the (not) liberal media “liberal”, so we think it’s liberal? Does that make sense? It does to me. The real liberal media is the alternative/independent media.
Which is the “liberal media”:
– Democracy NOW! had extensive coverage of Blackwater.
– ABC, NBC, CBS nothing.
Same with Sibel Edmonds.
So, which is the “liberal media”?
If ABC, NBC, CBS are the “liberal media”, like we’re supposed to think, then what’s Democracy NOW!
Wait! Yer both all wet. It’s the fascist media! All popular media are fascist controlled, and this includes blogs of any political origins because once you get popular enough that you can make real money on advertising, you stop being of a truly liberal or independent bent, start making the compromises for popularity’s sake, start falling into line with the “mainstream” to keep your ratings. The mainstream is fluid, but it always arcs toward the fascistic mechanisms put in place by the big boys and girls.
We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
And, I fear, people being brutalized in emergencies and disasters by guys with “Xe” on their vests won’t know they have no authority to herd them and disarm them and order them around. Whereas, they do know not to take that shit from Blackwater.
It’s already scary enough they don’t know that posse comitatus is dead, if they ever knew it existed, don’t know that our own troops can’t be doing this shit either… but are already out “helping” with big car wrecks and stuff.
I’ve given up hope the people will rise against all these flagrant violations of the Constitution, or that Obama will do the first part of restoring us to conformance with it, and just hope they let us old farts die out naturally… peacefully grousing our scandalized heads off….
I think the average person who follows a bit of world news would know who blackwater is if you brought it up in conversation. I doubt they would know who Xe is.
Therefore I think calling them Blackwater/Xe is the better choice.
Congress knows who Xe is, and the media does too, but the american citizen probably doesn’t.
For example, although I knew they were renaming themselves a while ago, I didn’t know they were now called Xe until I saw Olberman’s coverage of it a few nights ago.
Corporate Media and Alternative media sounds like the best clarification. Remember, even right-wingers don’t like the corporate media because the corporate media tends to downplay issues like abortion and gun control which are hot-ticket items for the right-wing. Alternative media covers the full range, but doesn’t have a “bigger corporations are better” mantra driving it all.
The problem I have with accepting the name change for purposes of discourse is that you are extending to a corporation what you not extend to an individual.
Suppose, for example, that three weeks ago Charles Manson formally changed his name to John F. Kennedy.
When journalists covered the 40th anniversary of the Tate/LaBianca murders, would anyone seriously suggest they should refer to the convicted murderer as John F. Kennedy or Manson/JFK?
Of course not. The name Charles Manson is synonymous with the crime. We would always say that it was Manson who masterminded the murders irrespective of what Manson wanted to call himself.
Why should it be any different when it comes to an artificial entity like Blackwater? If Blackwater is guilty of the crimes its former employees alleged, the name, Blackwater, should be synonymous with the heinous crimes committed in the name of a 21st Century Crusade.
Ernest A. Canning
here’s a video of what really wrong in America…link
another example of govt corruption
If anyone read BCCI, this is the same situation.
What about DIEBOLD changing their name to PREMIER?