Community | September 16, 2009 | 58 comments

Blackwater Offers Training To 'Faith Based Organizations'

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/blackwater-offers-trainin_n_289259.html#postComment

Image
Conniepae
Sad, sad, sad! Mercenaries training American 'Faith based organizations'? Something is wrong with this picture. What is he training them for? To fight in the name of God? Something is definitely wrong with this picture.

Do they think they are going to take back their country? Sorry, but it's OUR country too.

I think President Obama is the one who should worry about Blackwater showing up at his door. They aren't training for an invasion by another country. We have a standing Army for that. It's time to keep an eye on Blackwater. President Obama better work to start holding Blackwater accountable for their actions before it's too late.

Note: I used the wrong terminology when I used the word mercenaries, they are a 'Private Army'. My bad. I humbly apologize for the poor choice of words. But, 'Private Army' is actually what mercenaries are.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Politics,   Current Tonight
  2. tags:
    News,  Blackwater,  Inappropriate Monetization,  Overreaction,  1 more
  3.     
    |

58 comments // Blackwater Offers Training To 'Faith Based Organizations'

  • mirror
    • 0
      mirror  

    • There is a disease in the mind of americans. Its stems from belief and reaches the end of imagination. If only they were taught to examine thier own thoughts, the real sourse of evil.
      Whats the dirtiest part of the body, some say its your feet, some say your sex, I say its your mind.

    • 2 years ago
  • Mudboy16
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • Christian extremists are the real danger - they are the terrorist threat.

      Right now there is a whole army of home schooled Christian fascists getting ready to take back America.

      These people are dangerous.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • unimatrix0:

      Sad thing is, they are many times people we know and love who are believing them. I hear things, which I disagree with daily, but I really can't change their minds without appearing to be on the other side. I don't want to be on the other side from people I care deeply for.

      If tension keeps growing and you add Blackwater participation to the mix, we could be in real danger. I don't know why people don't see this as the most dangerous time in recent history? Terrorists are one thing, my fellow Americans is another. People in places of power are inciting things, which could get out of their control.

      Private Army, joining with those who are anti-Obama is scary. What if they think they can do to us, what they did to Iraqi's, on our soil?

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
    • 0
      hunzedog  

    • for somebody who doesnt want a war BO shure is training for it. What happens when they FIND all the drugs in Afghanistan.? Remember the war on drugs over here ?

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • Ragan
    • 0
      Ragan  

    • Magicians and slight of hand artists have existed for centuries, real miracle workers like merlin and Jesus Christ are just as fictional as Zeus and Mythra. The Blackwater group are indeed a private mercenary army and if the USA doesn't not stop them we could be facing another coup in the future. Unless there are such things as miracles I will have no future but I have to sympathize for the many young people who are so deeply brainwashed that this christian cult is embedded so deep they would die for a fictious Jesus, yet there are many innocent kids who could be saved from this ignorance and arrogance. I often have thought that the suicides atop the (Samara mesa?) and the suicide of Jesus Christ had a lot to do with the fanatacism of the religious Christians and too the suicides atop the mesa and the Palestinian suicide bombers are no different from each other. If Blackwater is involved I wouldn't be surprised to find them training Christian suicide bombers. The American people are not getting smarter just more ignorant and arrogant.

    • 2 years ago
  • aj727b
    • 0
      aj727b  

    • "Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain."
      A lot of so-called "Christians" try to act as if this commandment means that swearing is the worst of sins. The truth is that it means that using the Lord's name to cloak hatred, war, killing, and persecution in false and phony righteousness is the terrible sin that the commandment is warning against. To use Christianity as a vehicle for hatred, to use the name of the Lord in imprecations calling for violence against one's enemies, to take the Lord's name as the flag for one's own base ambition is the sin here. Setting up our own version of Madrassa-style training camps for paramilitary missionaries completely undermines our efforts to discourage the Islamist equivalent camps in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is not only wrong on it's face, but it is also harmful to the security interest of the United States and the world. Then again, destabilization and undermining of American security is one of the business model's for Blackwater. The more fear, violence, and religious sectarian unrest that there is, the more Blackwater can sell their services.

    • 2 years ago
  • CalgarC
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • Anyone remember Judas Priest "Let Us Prey"?

      p.s.----- "Moreover, any legitimate “faith based organization” that wants harmony with other faiths would be insane to work with this company".

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
  • hcice
    • 0
      hcice  

    • Wow, so how many of the comments before this one actually RTFA?

      "Faith Based Organizations" was in this quote: "a multi-phase course which is designed to assist Non-Government Organizations, Faith Based Organizations and Commercial Businesses by providing individual personal awareness and driver training for their personnel when deployed to unfamiliar environments."

      This isn't some conspiracy to "arm the crazy right-wing teabaggers." A lot of faith-based organizations send groups all over the world on short mission projects. My local church sends a group of engineers and doctors to Africa every year to help villagers clean up, repair, or build new wells, and to give them basic eye exams and dental work. Taking a course that is geared towards "providing individual personal awareness and driver training for their personnel when deployed to unfamiliar environments" would be a great asset to anyone going places like that.

      Heck, I would love to take a course like that just for better situational awareness in my everyday life.

      Finally, I am happy to see that apparently "faith-based organization" is "code" for ONLY Christian organizations. Jewish and Muslim charities (and other) groups don't count as faith-based organizations.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • hcice
    • 0
      hcice  
    • hcice:

      I am offering my opinion base on the actual facts presented in the article. If you want non-fact based opinions, look at the plethora of comments about how this training is nothing more than the "religious-right arming itself."

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • hcice:

      I don't want non-fact opinions, but history is also a fact and when the war in Iraq was being planned, people were stating facts. which were ignored. Later proven to be correct.

      I don't think we can afford to ignore facts today and wait for them to be proven wrong. There are people bringing guns to Town Hall Meetings, wearing T shirts about the Tree of Liberty. The religious right has aligned themselves with these gun toting radicals, who are talking about taking back their (MY) country.

      Blackwater really does have a standing army, who are accountable to no one. The head of Blackwater has several lawsuits filed against him. If he thinks he is going to be found guilty of crimes, do you think he is going to be ready for a revolution?

      This may be innocent? They may not be planning for civil war? They may not think they need to take back their (MY) country? They may support OUR current government? But, it doesn't look that way.

      I hope I am just afraid. I don't want to be right! But, to tell you the truth, I wish our religious leaders were working to calm the anxiety, not ratchet it up. I would much rather be sitting on my porch enjoying today, instead of sitting there FEARING tomorrow. The economy is bad enough. Civil war in un-thinkable. War on American streets, American against American is almost more than I can personally bear.

      Who would have thought we would have started 'Shock and Awe' on a country, which had not killed one American and was not openly threatening us? If they had been, we would not have been taken to war with the assistance of a forged document. I still can't believe it. Where were our spiritual leaders then and now? They are joining the radicals. They are not promoting peace! The lines are being crossed, they are becoming as political as spiritual. Heaven help us all!

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • yep...

      WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB ?
      WHO WOULD JESUS TORTURE ?

      "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side" - Aristotle

    • 2 years ago
  • hcice
    • 0
      hcice  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Which is why most national political candidates (from all political parties), especially candidates for President, suddenly "become religious" leading up to their campaigns. They know that the average American will question them less if they can invoke "but I'm religious and know best for you."

      Although Bush didn't suddenly become religious heading into his campaign, he definitely overused the "I've got God on my side so you need to trust me."

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • WhiteNoise:

      The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is; All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions. Tax the FUCK out of the churches ! - Frank Zappa

    • 2 years ago
  • 4and3and2and1
    • 0
      4and3and2and1  

    • These people are attaching Christ to their names because they know that the press will cover it. I'm sorry to tell yall but Christ was very liberal. Don't lump your mistrust and disgust for the Republican agenda with Christian beliefs. They don't match up... see the current healthcare for a potent example. Stories like this are pure trash.. Their sole purpose is to bring out the hate mongers on this site. So Take deep breath everyone it's going to be OK!

    • 2 years ago
  • unimatrix0
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • 4and3and2and1:

      I posted this and I in no way want to bring out hate mongers. I want people who are 'afraid' of hate mongers to find their voices and start SCREAMING. People didn't scream loud enough before we went to war based on fixed facts and forged documents in Iraq.

      These same people are SCREAMING they want their (our) country back. I think you are trying to spin! Don't bother, I don't hate Christians, but I do hate the ones who are willfully misleading them - AGAIN! But now it's in OUR country!

    • 2 years ago
  • Healboy
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • Can Christianity be saved from christians ?

      A village can't reorganize village life to suit the village idiot !

      AMAZING INTERVIEW !
      STARTS AT 6:18...
      Frank Shaeffer nailed it on Rachel Maddow...
      http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#32886436

      "Today the Republican Party is rooting for doom. And since the Republicans are now anti-American members of an Obama-must-fail insurgency, lies become a self-fulfilling prophecy: talk doom, and keep the economy in a panic and we may get what we wish for.

      Don't conservative Republicans object to the lies? No, because the Republicans don't have any actual and traditional conservative followers left. The Republican base is now made up of religious and neoconservative ideologues, and the uneducated white underclass with a token person of color or two up front on TV to obscure the all-white, all reactionary all backward -- there-is-no-global-warming -- rube reality. Actual conservatives, let alone the educated classes, have long since fled.

      The Republican religious nuts are rooting for Jesus to "rapture" them, not for America, and the neoconservatives are rooting for war and the Israeli hard liners, not for America. Truth (and sanity) are out the window.

      So, what is the problem with lying to our faces, say, claiming that all American's taxes are going up when 95% of American's taxes are going to go down? Why not claim Obama is a socialist, even if he's not? Why not say anything at all to drive our country into a pit when losing is seen as winning? That, is all the Republicans have to offer America: more lies on a path to destruction from which the Republican "leadership" plans to resurrect themselves and "save" America from Obama."

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • People in America should be afraid, really afraid. Civil war in America would not be pretty, or easy. They miscalculated the consequences in Iraq. They thought they would be greeted with flowers. They were wrong then. They are wrong now.

      Can we afford to wait and become casualties in our own country? How many Iraqis became refugees due to the misjudgment of the past administration. Will this administration underestimate the consequences of letting this fester into an out of control war on American soil.

      Right now they are using words. What happens when they think it's okay to use guns? They are openly showing their guns at Town Hall Meetings, where is the line? When will our government consider the line crossed? After people die? Then it's too late!

      I support the Second Amendment, but I don't support using the Second Amendment to 'take back their (our) country from us. 'We The People' spoke in November, it's our country too. Every four years, 'We The People' can take back our country. We do it with votes in America, not bullets and weapons. The Second Amendment is being prostituted for the few radicals who are inciting violence and radical behavior, using religion and God as the means to justify their actions. Sad, sad, sad!

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • Yes, it is supposed to be the other way. No you didn't miss it, you are watching it today. The question is, will we watch it 'live on American TV'? Or, will it be stopped before it gets out of control? I think we need to remain vigilant and stop the madness before it happens. Will the majority of Americans remain silent, not wanting to offend Christianity? This is not Christianity, this is madness. Private Army training Christians? For what? Will Blackwater lend their weapons to the 'so called' radical Christians for them to take back their (my) country? Who do they plan to give it to, once they get it back? The ones 'We the People' voted out of office? That's a coupe (sp?).

    • 2 years ago
  • Kaotik
    • 0
      Kaotik  

    • So you're training "Faith based organizations" to To fight in the name of God... isn't that the same thing the terrorist are doing too....

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • All the spin about President Obama not being a 'real' American, makes it easier for some to accept the slander being used to demonize him and perpetuate the conversation of taking back 'their' (OUR) country. Those who lost the last election are spinning disinformation and hate! They are willfully misleading ordinary Christians, using God. God should not be a political tool. God should not be a tool (period). Christians should not take sides, along political lines!

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • Republicans left office armed and dangerous.
      Will corporate owned armies dictate & stage mankind's future for the wealthy's agenda ?

      BLACKWATER WATCH
      http://rebelreports.com/

      On July 31, the Obama administration extended Blackwaters Iraq contract, increasing Blackwaters payment by $20 million and bringing the total paid by the State Department to Blackwater for its aviation services in Iraq to $187 million.

      Meanwhile, according to federal contract data, on August 13, Blackwater was paid another $23 million on a $156 million security contract in Afghanistan with the US State Department.

      "To initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." -Nuremberg tribunal

      Congrad America on being a true apologist for straight up murder...

      One must appreciate the honesty !

      Meanwhile, humanity still has a problem with all that blood spilling in the name of the greatest intellectual fraud in history, mainly the concept of god & the 3 monotheist religions as a pusher of love & understanding !!!???

      It remains obscene by any stretch of imagination to have women & childrens entrails splattered around for mere profit, sorry ;)

      Meanwhile...
      "We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle

      "Politics is the showbiz of industry." - Frank Zappa

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Blackwater held a $1.2 billion contract for Iraq, where it employed 845 men.

      Private security guards working for firms like Blackwater and Dyncorp were earning up to $1,222 a day or $445,000 a year. By contrast, an Army sergeant earned $140 to $190 a day in pay and benefits, a total of $51,100 to $69,350 a year.

      Since U.S. taxpayers are underwriting private soldiers' paychecks, where's the savings? It is money from taxpayer's pockets that has made these shadow armies great.

      Federal Prosecutors Say Blackwater 'Specifically Intended to Kill' Civilians

      The US governments allegations back-up the explosive testimony of two former Blackwater employees. Govt says Blackwater shot Iraqis as payback for 9/11

      It is also significant that federal prosecutors reject any suggestion by Blackwater or the defendants in this case that the men at Nisour Square acted in self-defense in response to an attack by insurgent, as Blackwater alleged from day one.

      The Rise of Mercenary Armies: A Threat to Global Security
      Help White House Thwart Peace Movement
      By Sherwood Ross
      Global Research, August 31, 2009

      The growing use of private armies not only subjects target populations to savage warfare but makes it easier for the White House to subvert domestic public opinion and wage wars.

      Americans are less inclined to oppose a war that is being fought by hired foreign mercenaries, even when their own tax dollars are being squandered to fund it.

    • 2 years ago
  • imp_print
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • imp_print:

      No, no, no! We are not a backward country. We have the 'rule of law'. We must not turn into a country of intolerance. No one is above the law. Not even Christians. They just need to see the errors of their ways, before we are in a civil war.

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
    • 0
      ryan8566  

    • if these faith-based groups are part of any organized religion, they don't need any training in starting or participating in wars and violence.

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • lifestudentno83:

      We don't need to water the tree of liberty. We should respect liberty and the rule of law. If these people 'do' start crossing the line, Justice should be our guide. We have laws, which were enacted to protect us.

      If we don't have laws and lines, it's time to get some. Accountability would guide others, letting them know some things are unacceptable.

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • lifestudentno83:

      I just fear for a future where PMC's are making the Armed Forces obsolete. It's scary when you have a private military army that doesn't have to answer to the law (Because the Judicial system isn't forcing them to close down after numerous murder counts; sets a strange and eerie precedent).

      While Armed Forces are supposed to protect the people, PMC are supposed to do whatever job they're paid to do. Which is scary if the job ever became "subjugate the American populous".

    • 2 years ago
  • emarston
  • unimatrix0
  • bombastinator
  • lifestudentno83
  • Conniepae
  • DougChristian
  • aquamammal
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • aquamammal:

      Religion is NOT the problem. Man is the problem, using God as an excuse for abuse. All Christians should not be labeled with the radicals. But, if they (we) remain silent and let others do bad things? Who knows?

      It's sad when Christians are the ones who scare ya.

    • 2 years ago
  • GavinTheMother
    • 0
      GavinTheMother  

    • This is a tale of two religions. They are called by the same name, but one teaches love, forgiveness, and peace. The other teaches indifference, judgment, and fear. It's like starting a terrorist group named after Ghandi.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • I think it's more like they don't care. They don't want us to hate them. You're either with them, or you are against them. I'll bet if one was to check, they are the same ones who see no problem with torture.

      I think it may be far more sinister than like, or hate. If one thinks about it, it is truly scary. I'm tired of being scared. But, I'm too afraid if I remain silent, so will everyone else. This is the time to scream, just in case. After, or during the time they take back 'their' country it will be too late.

    • 2 years ago
  • MizPiz
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • While my husband was getting his turn at the computer, I took paper and pen in hand and started hand writing my next comment. I planned to write about 'guilt by association'. Employees of Blackwater have been charged with crimes. If I'm not mistaken, some of those charges included murder and torture? I was thinking about all the hoopla being made about ACORN. Anyone who supports ACORN is being spun into being guilty by association. Yet, Blackwater can train them.

      Then it hit me. Christian Coupe (sp?)? Who came first, the Christian leaders of today, the ones who pray for bad things to happen to President Obama? Or, Blackwater, the Private Army, accountable to no one? Blackwater has state of the art military equipment. They are 'REALLY' a private army, complete with weapons.

      Are the same type of Christians who followed along with the Iraq spin, the same ones who are utilizing Blackwater? Are buttons being pushed, which support a Christian Militia? Are ordinary Christians being manipulated into thinking 'they can take back their country'?

      What happens when Christians remain silent? Ordinary Christians remained silent, even after the facts were known, we were wrong to attack Iraq. Will ordinary Christians remain silent while Christian leaders and Blackwater plan to take back their country?

      I consider myself a Christian. I do not want to remain silent while Crazy Christians and a private army plan to 'take back their country'. I don't want to be a refugee! I do not want to live in fear! I do not want to see war in the streets of America. They were wrong about Iraq and many Iraqi's died. Are they willing to gamble with American lives on American soil? These are questions which scared the shit out of me. Guilt by association, seems minuscule in comparison. Christian militants with a private army should scare the shit out of everyone. They are bringing guns to Town Hall Meetings. What more do they have to do?

    • 2 years ago
  • idealist
  • DougChristian
    • 0
      DougChristian  
    • Conniepae:

      Part of me kind of hopes it does.

      I heard a joke by one of the Kings of Comedy about the difference between blacks and whites when showing up late to an event. The white guy says "oh I hope noone's sitting in our seats", while the black guy says "oo I wish a ** were sitting in our seats". I'm almost at the point of saying "I wish they would try something".

      The Army will annihilate these psychos and we'll never have to consider their insanity in our politics again.

      It could also finally wake America up about the truths of terrorism and muslims. These people are identical in every way to Al Qaeda. Is there any way we'd accept say Iran coming in and stopping this group? Of course not. We would all fight alongside our extremists against Iran. Only moderate Americans can stop them.

      Of course I hope nothing happens. I hope the radical right wakes up and has a "Grinch" moment. But I have absolutely zero faith in the hearts or minds of the radical Christian Right. They are firmly in the control of the "Devil". And in the end they are right: From time to time the tree of liberty DOES need to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants. They're just wrong about who's who. That quote was not said about the US rising up against Britain. It was said by Jefferson about the US Army crushing a rebellion.

    • 2 years ago
  • idealist
  • DreSandoval
  • carmalite
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • I just heard an interesting question on Rachel Maddow. Can Christianity be rescued from Christians? Some Christians are ruining Christianity with madness. Thank God my faith does not lie in the hands of man!

    • 2 years ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • Conniepae:

      People forget how corrupt and evil the Catholic church was with the selling of indulgences and the Spanish Inquisition.....................they assume the preacher or priest represents God. Foolish. Better to trust your own instincts about God.

    • 2 years ago
  • ocanada
    • 0
      ocanada  

    • Onward Christian Soldiers? Didn't Jesus heal the Roman who shackled him and marched him to his death and admonish his apostle who tried to defend Jesus with his life? If I recall the gospel of Christ was to turn the other cheek and let the man who has no sin cast the first stone. The Prince of Peace has no Affiliation with Eric Prince!

    • 2 years ago
  • Darevalo
more from Community:
from the community

top videos