Hmmm lonely thread....
The new US Embassy is finally ready, after a seven month delay. Why do US forces keep taking fire, at their allegedly most secure point, their HQ, if "the surge is working"?
Quote:
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3463994
Embassy in Iraq cleared for occupancy
By TIM KAUFFMAN
April 04, 2008
Defects to fire protection systems in the new U.S. embassy compound in Iraq have been corrected, clearing the way for the State Department to declare the building ready for occupancy, a department official said this week. ....
....Shinnick, who became acting bureau chief in January, dispatched a team of department employees to Iraq last month to oversee progress in fixing problems that had been identified by bureau inspectors in a February report. Shinnick credited the architects, engineers, attorneys and contracting officers on the team with dropping everything and going into the war zone, especially as insurgents intensified their attacks on the area toward the end of March.
“These are folks often unheralded, some of them civil servants, and <h3>not always appreciated for their efforts in dangerous conditions. These people were out there and operating in the height of and in the direction of the fire and shelling of the Green Zone,” Shinnick said.</h3> “Despite that, they completed their mission and allowed the use of those buildings, even in advance of their formal accreditation.” .....
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...and the opening of the new US Embassy starts off with a nice big "fuck you" to the people of Iraq....are the diplomats even attempting to be diplomatic? Is it a smart idea to designate Blackwater, once again as State Dept. security, with the automatic anomosity the decision brings, and the added cost and hastle of sending a State Dept. "minder" on every trip outside the Embassy compound? Is there an ounce of brains in the entire Bush administration combined, or do a they all just middle fingers the size of.....you finish the sentence!
Quote:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinio...ckwatered.html
Last updated March 16, 2008 4:52 p.m. PT
Blackwater: Dubious claims
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Earlier this month, The Boston Globe reported that former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root uses offshore shell companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions in Social Security taxes and Medicare. To circumvent tax laws, the firm registers its American contractors in Iraq as employees of one of its two Caribbean shell companies.
And now a House Democrat is seeking a federal investigation into Blackwater Worldwide, a major war contractor. Rep. Henry Waxman says he has concerns that Blackwater's claims of business status, which he wrote in a letter sent out last week, "appear dubious." Indeed. Blackwater lists its security guards as independent contractors in order to be eligible for certain benefits, including federal small-business contracts.
How can a company that earns $1.25 billion in business contracts be eligible for $144 million in small-business contracts as well? Doing so, according to The New York Times, afforded Blackwater more than $31 million in avoided taxes. .....
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Quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23961119/
Blackwater gets new Iraq contract from U.S.
Deal is renewed for a year while FBI investigates fatal shootings
MSNBC News Services
updated 4:00 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 4, 2008
WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department has agreed to renew Blackwater USA's license to protect diplomats in Baghdad for one year while the FBI investigates a 2007 incident in which the company's guards are accused of killing 17 Iraqis.
Assistant Secretary of State Gregory Starr told reporters Friday that because the shooting of Baghdad civilians is still under investigation, there is no reason not to renew the contract when it comes due in May. Blackwater has a five-year deal to provide personal protection for diplomats, which is reauthorized each year.
Iraqis were outraged over a Sept. 16 shooting in which 17 civilians were killed in a Baghdad square. Blackwater said its guards were protecting diplomats under attack before they opened fire, but Iraqi investigators concluded the shooting was unprovoked.
A measure issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004 prevents foreign security contractors from being prosecuted in local courts. It is unclear whether they could be prosecuted under U.S. law.
After the incident, the State Department changed several elements of the contract, including tightening up rules of engagement, putting cameras on all convoys and having a diplomatic security officer ride along with the detail.
Starr said Blackwater was operating with the agreement of the Iraqi government and he did not know when the FBI's investigation of the incident would be completed.
Asked whether the Blackwater Baghdad deal could be scrapped if the FBI investigation found wrongdoing, Starr said: "We can terminate contracts at the convenience of the government if we have to."
"I am not going to prejudge what the FBI is going to find in their investigation. I think really, it is complex. I think that the U.S. government needs protective services," he said.
"Essentially I think they do a very good job. The September 16th incident was a tragedy. It has to be investigated carefully," he added.
<h3>"I am concerned (about the Iraqi response)</h3> and yet at the same time there have only been about three incidents, three escalation of force incidents, since Sept. 16," he said.
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Ya think?
Watch CNBC interview of John Cusack about his new movie "WAR INC."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=702430483&play=1
What do we need a movie like that for, John Cusack? You're just a liberal Hollywood actor trying to make trouble for The Bushes and Cheney:
Bush's brother Neil, his daddy, his uncle Bucky, Cheney and Giuliani have all made millions from the war...what's wrong with that?
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpos...0&postcount=22
Quote:
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/d...rld-nation.htm
Bush uncle benefits from war spending
By WALTER F. ROCHE JR. , Los Angeles Times
Date of Publication: March 22, 2006
WASHINGTON — As President Bush embarks on a new effort to shore up public support for the war in Iraq, an uncle of the chief executive is collecting $2.7 million in cash and stock from the recent sale of a company that profited from the war.
A report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that William H.T. Bush collected a little less than $1.9 million in cash plus stock valued at more than $800,000 as a result of the sale of Engineered Support Systems Inc. to DRS Technologies of New Jersey.
The $1.7 billion deal closed Jan. 31. Both businesses have extensive military contracts.
The elder Bush was a director of Engineered Support Systems. Recent SEC filings show he was paid cash and DRS stock in exchange for shares and options he obtained as a director......
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