Blackwater USA™: Your One Stop Shopping Source For All Your War Profiteering and Paramilitary Needs... now with Espionage! (h/t Turkana):
The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government.
This is getting ridiculous. What will we learn next, that Blackwater might have illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that ended up in the hands of insurgents? (Oh, wait.)
Well, regardless, perception is reality, and Blackwater's PR shop - including Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) - has got to start doing a better job. Just look at these recent headlines and comments:
"Blackwater: Another Black Mark on U.S. Image"
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New Canaan News-Review editorial, 10/18/07
"Blackwater 'impeded' probe into contractor deaths"
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House Oversight Committee report, 9/27/07
"Report Depicts Recklessness at Blackwater"
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NY Times headline, 10/1/07
"Blackwater and other security contractors are undermining the military's efforts to win over Iraqis..."
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NY Times editorial, 10/3/07
"State Department Official Resigns in Wake of Blackwater Criticism"
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ABC News, 10/24/07
"Evidence of Tax Evasion by Blackwater"
- House Oversight Commitee report, 10/22/07
"You could call [Blackwater] Halliburton with guns, except Halliburton has some guns too."
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TIME Magazine, 10/4/07
"We shouldn't have mercenaries out on the streets doing the kinds of things that Blackwater's been doing. "
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Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), Tavis Smley Show, 10/15/07
"Blackwater is available to anyone who can write the checks. If there is a need to 'restore public order' in the next Presidential election - a power that the President now can define as he sees fit - Blackwater can be deployed. If the President declares an emergency, Blackwater can be deployed. And history shows us how very quickly citizen dissent and democratic processes close down when physically intimidating men - who are armed and not answerable to the people - are abroad in the land."
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Naomi Wolf on Firedoglake, 9/27/07
With a torrent of bad press like that, dinky little Congressional plaudits like these just won't cut it:
"Thank you for doing a perfect job"
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Chris Shays to Blackwater CEO Eric Prince, House Oversight Committee hearings, 10/2/07
"I know we absolutely need protective security contractors."
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Chris Shays, House Oversight Committee hearings, 10/2/07
Well, lemme ask you this. If everyone is criticizing [Blackwater], don't you think it makes sense for one of the people in the committee to thank them?
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Chris Shays, WSHU radio, 10/18/07
"It is amazing to me the number of men in Blackwater that have lost their lives and we never hear it on the other side of the aisle"
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Chris Shays, AP, 10/4/07
So c'mon, Chris. Let's hear a more full throated defense of this partisan paramilitary force run amok.
They're doing such a "perfect job" on the ground, after all - it's the least you could do.
(Cross-posted from My Left Nutmeg.)