Saturday, August 22, 2009

Genocidal bigot paid with U.S. taxpayer money to load the bombs that indiscriminately kill Muslim civilians

From "Blackwater accused of murder in 'crusade to eliminate Muslims'", The Times UK Aug. 6, 2009:
A series of allegations including murder, weapons smuggling and the deliberate slaughter of civilians have been levelled against the founder of Blackwater, the security company being investigated for shooting deaths in Iraq.
[...]
In one of the statements, John Doe 2, who worked for Blackwater for four years, alleged that Mr [Erik] Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that his companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”.
From "C.I.A. said to use outsiders to put bombs on drones," New York Times Aug. 20, 2009:
From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders [sic], according to government officials and current and former employees.

The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.
From "Do targeted killings work?", by Daniel L. Bynum, Brookings Institute, Jul. 14, 2009:
Killing terrorist leaders is difficult, is often ineffective, and can easily backfire. Yet it is one of the United States' few options for managing the threat posed by al Qaeda from its base in tribal Pakistan. By some accounts, U.S. drone activity in Pakistan has killed dozens of lower-ranking and at least 10 mid- and high-ranking leaders from al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Critics correctly find many problems with this program, most of all the number of civilian casualties the strikes have incurred. Sourcing on civilian deaths is weak and the numbers are often exaggerated, but more than 600 civilians are likely to have died from the attacks. That number suggests that for every militant killed, 10 or so civilians also died.
Say what you will about the "good war" in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the use of Predator drones, the fact remains that we are funding the fulfillment of this asshole's racist fantasies. They gave Erik Prince his dream job.