THE EX-(POLICE) FILES

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SOVEREIGNTY, IMMUNITY, NATIONALISM

POWER, IMPUNITY, FASCISM

The New World Order Looks A Lot Like
The Old World Order


"All witnesses agree Blackwater fired first: Iraq police"

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"Police and the Interior Ministry are compiling a dossier of eyewitness accounts, which includes a video taken a few minutes after the shooting on Sunday last week in which 10 people were killed, the police officer said. 'The Blackwater guards opened fire on motorists without reason, they were never a target of a single shot or any attack,' the officer said adamantly. "
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"Iraqi PM: Shootings Threaten Sovereignty"

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"It is doubtful that foreign security contractors could be prosecuted under Iraqi law. A directive issued by U.S. occupation authorities in 2004 granted contractors, American troops and many other foreign officials immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Security contractors also are not subject to U.S. military law under which U.S. troopers face prosecution for killing or abusing Iraqis."
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"Maliki Accuses Blackwater of Challenging Iraq’s Sovereignty"

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"Tahseen al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Iraqi security forces, said that immediately removing Blackwater’s hundreds of armed guards could create a security vacuum in the capital, forcing American commanders to redeploy troops from elsewhere in the country. That, in turn, could leave other volatile areas thinly patrolled."
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"Outsourcing debate swells as contractors outnumber troops"

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"More than 180,000 Americans, Iraqis and nationals from other countries work under a slew of federal contracts to provide security, gather intelligence, build roads, forge a financial system and transport needed supplies in a country the size of California.

That figure contrasts with the 163,100 U.S. military personnel, according to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., the organization responsible for military operations in the Middle East. The Pentagon puts the military figure at 169,000. There are another 12,400 coalition forces in Iraq."
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"Private security firms’s sweeping powers come under scrutiny in Iraq "

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"However, given the close links between Blackwater and Washington officials responsible for contractor oversight - the company’s senior management includes former high-ranking CIA and Pentagon personnel - there seems little desire in Washington to investigate accusations of wrongdoing.

Founded by a former US Navy Special Forces soldier with strong links to the Republican Party, Blackwater has contracts worth about $750 million with the US State Department."
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In the Bad Old Days, we had imperial powers launching unprovoked attacks against weaker States, invading, occupying, taking over and running things without regard to the victim nations' sovereignty, laws or popular will. Holland, Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, Belgium and Denmark all established territories and colonies of one sort or another in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. They ran them as they saw fit, in spite of local customs, mores and morals, and extracted whatever they wanted.

Gold, silver, platinum, pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, marble, granite, limestone, silica, copper, iron, lead, zinc, nickel, tin, mercury, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, manganese, magnesite, tungsten, mica, cadmium, graphite, chromite, bauxite, tantalum, chromium, antimony, feldspar, asbestos, lignites, fluorite, lithium, columbite, gypsum, potash, soda ash, lime, lye, phosphates, nitrates, guano, coal, gas, oil, uranium, cobalt, germanium, radium, wood, rubber, sisal, jute, cotton, wool, salt, grains, spices, palm oil, cassava, manioc, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, citrus, casaba, nuts, peanuts, soybeans, fish, beef, mutton, pork, poultry, dairy, potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, corn, sorghum, sugar beets, sugar, cocoa, tea, coffee, tobacco, rum, opium, cocaine, human beings.

Sexual slavery and forced labor flourished among Christian nations, quotidian brutality and occasional mass murder were the usual ways of dealing with dissent even by democracies, and a racist ideology was expounded to allow pretty much anything to be done to those who were deemed less than fully human. Even the country born of anti-colonialism and representative democracy joined in, with the U.S. starting a war with Spain, and grabbing Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Well, everybody else was doing it . . .

Imperial and then Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, late to the table in the feasts of Colonialism and Imperialism, quickly caught up, attempting to devour whole continents, and the people living there. Communist Russia and China treated their own people, and their neighbors, pretty much the same way. Over a century of their crimes against humanity, even the least enlightened could see this was no way to run a civilization. These brutal practices were decried and campaigned against, leading to two World Wars and a seemingly endless regime of Cold War and national security crises. The good guys fought the bad guys, and the good guys won. Or so we thought.

Now that Imperial America has emerged as the sole super-power, for the moment, the Bad Old Days are back again. Big Oil has taken the place of United Fruit, and the Mideast has become our newest Banana Republic. Their sovereignty, their national integrity, their laws and customs, indeed their very lives mean nothing to us. We are on a new quest, a crusade to make the world safe for inherited wealth, crony capitalism and endless, mindless consumerism. We wave the bloody shirts of freedom and national security, but we risk both for control of the oil in the Middle East. We talk about democracy and the rule of law, but we forbid their true exercise, at home and abroad.

Perhaps our greatest crime is the establishment of new extra-national corporate entities which are immune to all laws, subject to no oversight, answerable to no person and no nation. They represent the shadowy interests that have heretofore been content to work the hidden levers of our governments to further their own interests. Perhaps democracy is too public, too querulous, too litigious, too scrupulous or too slow for them, now. They continue to use it to cover their actions, but their new instrument is the "off-the-shelf" private security company. Companies like Wackenhut and Blackwater provide all of the services of police, paramilitaries, covert ops, hit squads and personal bodyguards for the oil men and military contractors, ex-politicians, ex-diplomats, ex-military, and their complacent client-State counterparts. Call them the Ex-men filed under "X."

These new forces are not subject to U.S. law or Iraqi law. So far, they are above all laws. Since they were specifically created to carry out the illegal, immoral and impolitic policies of our corporatist government without anyone being held responsible for the consequences, it is unlikely that that the same government will seek to re-impose our sovereignty on them. So it is not just the Iraqi's who suffer this indignity, this injustice, these crimes. It is every American, as well. And it is being done in our names, misusing our icons of freedom and democracy, law & order and free markets. In fact, it is a betrayal of all that we hold dear, and damages us and our values in the eyes of the world.

It's not enough to scapegoat a few low-level Blackwater operatives in this latest mess. Their corporate masters will never be prosecuted in this. They may lose their precious contracts, but an identical corporate shell will replace them. We need to go after the Godfathers of this Mafia. It is time for a tribunal, to try Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their corporate beards for crimes against humanity, and treason against the United States of America. Even a Banana Republic would do as much.

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