DEA hiring Blackwater mercenaries
- added August 06, 2008
- 65 responses
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- bansheewail
- added this
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According to the Times, witnesses described the DEA agents as "removing computers, medicine and money, and using a steel cylinder battering ram to get into the upstairs bedrooms." When they left four hours later, all that remained was "trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied. ... An outdoor vegetable garden had plants uprooted, along with marijuana plants removed by the agents."
However, one particular photograph from the Times story has drawn more attention than anything else. That picture, which has now been widely reproduced at blogs, shows a long-haired man, wearing a Blackwater tshirt and with a pistol at his belt, passing a box marked "DEA Evidence" to other agents participating in the raid.
Blackwater, a private mercenary army often employed by the US government for security services and by local police forces for training, has drawn widespread criticism for its shoot-em-up tactics in Iraq and has recently aroused suspicion by its establishment of a private intelligence service and its growing role in global drug enforcement.
A medical marijuana website may have been the first to draw attention to the picture, noting, "We’re used to the DEA calling in help from various federal agencies and local law enforcement. But I guess none of their usual buddies were available yesterday because from the picture below, which appeared in the LA Times today, it looks like they had to resort to calling in Blackwater."
The next day, Tim King of Salem-News.com gave wider distribution to the story, writing, "Are members of a disputed mercenary killer group now working with the DEA? A photo from the LA Times shows proof of one of two things; either Blackwater members are now working for the Bush White House's Drug Enforcement Agency, or this semi-illegitimate band of rogue federal cops have worse discipline than any of us ever imagined."
The photo has since been taken down by the Times, but it has continued to circulate online. Although there has been no previous suggestion of a Blackwater role in domestic drug enforcement, the single picture was sufficient enough to set off furious discussion at both left-wing and libertarian message boards and blogs.
At Democratic Underground, posters generally acknowledged there was no proof of Blackwater involvement and some pointed out that tshirts of the sort shown in the photograph are available online.
However, others found the idea possible, citing Sen. John McCain's recent call for an Iraq-style approach to urban crime. One poster even claimed, "They were also used in raids in Humboldt County last month against the growers....Operation Southern Sweep. Can't find any news stories about it, but some people I know have said they were using Blackwater as well as DEA agents."
At Boing Boing, however, a more skeptical commenter suggested, "I'm willing to bet he's DEA. Blackwater probably wouldn't hire someone who looked that scuzzy, but DEA agents frequently look like dirtbags. Would YOU sell dope to someone who looked like a federal agent?"
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Storm Troopers with immunity. Sweet. That's all we need. Is this MCain's martial law plan for controlling urban areas as well as medical marijuna despenories?? Slippery slope, indeed.
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Shit is getting really scary!
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This is not my America. These "contactors" don't even have to be Americans to inforce American laws. They could be operating with diplomatic immunity. No rules apply. The question is, now, how do we stop them?
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Let's ask Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid how we can stop them? Let's demand those two impotent wimps resign and get out of the way of people that would enforce the laws, protect us and the constitution.
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Doesn't the DEA have better things to do then busting legal medical marijuana dispensaries? I think maybe a meth lab would be worth more time energy and money...
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I have been so excited to live behind a fence with crazed killers. Finally my dreams have come true!!!
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WHY do you think the government invaded Afghanistan??? The drug capital of the world. Why do you think that after 35 years of the "War On Drugs" and countless billions of dollars spent on it, and and all the busts, headlines, "progress" etc., drugs are STILL cheaper, and more plentiful than ever??? Ask any drug dealer if he can get drugs for you and see if he tells you "I'm sorry, government interference has made drugs too scarce and expensive to supply what you want."---nope---he'll say. "Show me your money, how much do you want?"
Some one is lying. And I don't think it is the drug dealers.
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- Wetdog
- 4 months ago
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Um, this is not okay.... Not even a little bit.
We really should not be sitting around allowing this to happen, what can we do?
I wonder if anything short of a complete overthrow of the current regime will do any good at all....
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Truly scary and likely to get worse before it gets better.
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New Orleans, remember?
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This needs more research. If it is true, then at very least Blackwater shouldn't be paid anymore than a federal agent. That in itself will keep them away. We do need an answer. Is our federal government hiring a private police force? If so, how much longer until they are called Black
Shirts and given swastika armbands? -
fascist military rule?
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The outsourcing of traditional government work is happening more and more frequently these days. This is what happens when an unpopular administration knows congress will not approve of further budget increases to the military and other government agencies. Instead of drafting people or scaling up the Surge in Iraq they just hire mercenaries with our tax dollars so the official numbers look good. Unfortunately these mercenaries at home and abroad make much much more than someone doing the same job within the government and they are not held accountable by we the people.
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Doesn't Blackwater have more than enough employment and deployment overseas?
I'm paying for this sh*t, too?!
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This story shouldn't surprise us... the past eight years we've been living with an administration that has set a precedent of "anything goes"... if this story is accurate, then we simply have another example of the fallout...
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- Bookshepherd
- 4 months ago
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Holy fucking shitballs.
As if the "raid" wasn't bad enough in itself. Although after hearing that they busted an ATM and took of all their money and computers, I'm betting that this was more a legal robbery than a drug bust.
I want answers. Why in the fuck is that guy wearing that shirt?
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The old school nazis would be smiling now
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- TexasPatriot67
- 4 months ago
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All they are missing is the arm bands. We are being surrounded by Blackwater forces. The Dept. of Homeland Security has contracted with them too. Our Military is busy overseas and won't be here to protect us from this attack from within. We are wide open to a take over. Our Chicken Shit Congress is afraid of them. The Military people that were pushing back on what is happening were forced to retire. It is happening.
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- Marilynn_Murray
- 4 months ago
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Hey, it's just like high school again. Over testosterone jocks beating up the stoners.
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- PWNtheVOTE
- 4 months ago
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This is shameful. Hired thugs, busting legitimate, voter approved businesses. Legal robbery indeed.
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- rightbrain
- 4 months ago
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Let us not fail when it comes to protecting our rights. I beleive the first time we get any altercation with blackwater contractors on US soil it will be a different tune then how "America" feels about whats going on in Iraq. This could be the biggest mistake our government has made.
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holy crap, this is really scary. These thugs are so backwards. Thank you for reporting this. People, let's figure out how to stop these scary bastards!
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The Corporate States of America...
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can beat em join em.
Im sure there is a recruiter down the street from you.
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Blackwater is a company that uses our tax dollars with little oversight from any body. They drain monies from the military by recruiting government trained people, and taking over military operations at a higher cost. Onechance is right - they're a corporate army! Their mercenaries are an SS army in waiting. Using them in the States for hurricane Katrina and in California is just sickening. :(
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- Denica_Cassandra
- 4 months ago
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