Erik Prince's Crusade

Remember Blackwater (or Xe, as they prefer to be called now--to avoid the deservedly negative connotation that Blackwater has)? The mercenary group that massacred 17 innocent Iraqi civilians in 2007? The people that were involved in nearly 200 (known) cases of "escalation of force" in an approximately two year period (and lied constantly about it)?

They are corrupt from the top down.

Two former Blackwater employees have made statements against Blackwater Worldwide and its founder Erik Prince, accusing the security company and its former CEO of murder and other serious crimes in Iraq, according to court documents filed this week.

The fish rots from the head, as they say.

"First, he views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe. ... Second, Mr. Prince is motivated by greed," says John Doe No. 2 [one of the anonymous employees]. "He sought every opportunity to deploy men to Iraq in order to earn more money from the United States government."

They've also tried to cover it up. (Read the full article; there's a lot that Blackwater has been doing.)

Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based on information provided to him by former colleagues, "it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct."

This is fucking unexcusable. These goons should never have been hired, let alone given the autonomy and authority that the Bush regime provided them. They break the law, murder innocents, smuggle weaponry, and not only do they encourage this behavior from the highest levels of the company, but they also cover it up by destroying evidence and silencing anyone who would speak against it. If it wasn't already abundantly clear that hiring private mercenary corporations to fight wars and placing them outside the rule of law is a bad idea, this is damning evidence to the contrary.

Now, it is true that there is currently not enough evidence to convict Prince and Blackwater of these crimes. However, given the other evidence and allegations against Blackwater in the past, there needs to be an immediate large-scale investigation into the company by the federal government. If (hopefully when) they find the evidence of these new allegations, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. War crimes are not something that should be ignored.