Blackwater Seeks Shari'a Law Defense

I've gotta hand it to Blackwater Worldwide. They get more free publicity than John McCain. The latest news is courtesy of Voice of Mordor:

Erik Prince (prince in name, not in nature), brother-in-law to the leaseholders of the Michigan Republican party, is fighting a lawsuit against his mercenary business in Afghanistan, brought by widows of three American soldiers who died when a plane owned by a sister corporation to Blackwater, Presidential Airways [crashed].

The companies lawyers are arguing before a US federal court that Shari'a law should be applied, and not the current legal standard found in the United States of America.

Why is Blackwater seeking to hide under a burqa to have the judge apply Islamic law? Because Shari’a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work. Blackwater would be off the hook and could pocket even more money.

Oh, oh. Now they've opened Pandora's box. Or, as Attaturk at Firedoglake said:

Don't let too many Republicans know this, but Shari'a law is apparently great for business and bad for the most evil people on earth, not Al Qaeda silly, AMERICAN TRIAL LAWYERS. [...]

If this becomes well-known, the GOP's corporate base will become fundamentalist Muslims faster than you can say Mecca Oil & Gas.

(Cross-posted at BFM.)

Defense contractor loophole closed

According to the AP, President Bush closed a loophole yesterday that defense contractors had been using to avoid paying millions of dollars in payroll taxes. [emphasis mine]

Bush signed into law the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act, which provides tax relief for military families. Included in the legislation is a provision that would treat foreign subsidiaries of U.S. government contractors as American employers. That means they now have to pay the taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare programs. [...]

Lawmakers wanted to end the practice, which has become widespread among American businesses. The Senate Finance Committee estimates that thousands of companies have registered in the Caymans to dodge taxes. The losers, the committee said, are ordinary Americans who foot a larger share of the bill to pay for programs that benefit the elderly and the disabled.

In an example of how much tax revenue was being lost, the Boston Globe reported in April that Kellogg, Brown, and Root, which receives an estimated $16 billion a year for defense contracts in Iraq, avoided close to $100 million a year in payroll taxes by hiring workers through foreign shell companies. That's a large chunk of the nearly $846 million in revenues that The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will be brought in over the next 10 years by shutting that loophole.

I'm not sure if this will affect Blackwater Worldwide since they're headquartered in Moyock, N.C., but it should since they're violating IRS laws too according to Rep. Henry Waxman.

In a letter to Erik Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, Rep. Henry Waxman wrote:

"I have received documents which suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion. According to an IRS ruling in March 2007, Blackwater violated federal tax laws by treating an armed guard as an “independent contractor.” The implication of this ruling is that Blackwater may have avoided paying millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes for which it is legally responsible.

And according to McClatchy Newpapers:

Waxman’s staff looked at the most recent State Department contract and estimated that between May 2006 and March 2007, Blackwater avoided paying $15.5 million in Social Security and Medicare taxes and $500,000 in unemployment taxes.

That's a lot of tax money they owe the country, but Blackwater can afford it. Since 2001, they've been granted federal contracts worth more than $1 billion - contracts that are being paid for by taxpayers.

As Sen. John Kerry said earlier this year, "Failing to contribute to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name of short-term corporate greed."


(Cross-posted at Blogging for Michigan.)

Corporate Hall of Shame

Looking beyond the ongoing Democratic primary and the Kwame Kilpatrick drama, this is your chance to vote for the worst corporate abuser. Corporate Accountability International (CAI) has started a nationwide voting campaign to name and shame companies accused of abusive practices, including influencing elected officials, undermining democratic decision-making, endangering the environment and public health, war profiteering, and predatory lending. Some of the nominees were a surprise to me (Wendy's) and some weren't (Blackwater and Nestle). Last year more than 20,000 people took part in their poll, which named ExxonMobil, Haliburton, and Wal-Mart as the worst abusers in the corporate world.

Here are this year's nominees:

ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), for helping make Indonesia the world’s third worst contributor to global warming through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.

Blackwater Worldwide, for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush Administration to secure lucrative contracts.

Countrywide, for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers, and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees.

Mattel, for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated children’s toys, and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals.

Nestlé, for numerous labor violations — including child exploitation — contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies with its bottled water brands.

Toyota, for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions while hypocritically spending millions to advertise its environmental “leadership” and popular Prius hybrids.

Wal-Mart, for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.

Wendy’s, for its contribution to the growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, and for refusing to meet nutritional labeling regulations.

Click here to vote. Each voter has three votes to cast on nominated corporations or for write-in candidates. Voters are also encouraged to post comments about specific corporations on the ballot. The top three vote-getters will be inducted into the Corporate Hall of Shame when the polls close on July 4th.

And just in case you wonder whether this kind of campaign does any good, here's a success story regarding Waste Management and another about Columbia/HCA. Public opinion matters, especially negative public opinion.

(Cross-posted at BFM.)

Blackwater's plans for New Year's Eve

Blackwater sure is intent on putting themselves out there as equals to our military. Yesterday, we learned about their paratroopers parachuting onto the field during halftime at the SDSU "Fleet Week" game and today there's more news. Go read my post over at BFM: Blackwater at New Year's Eve Armed Forces Bowl

But before you go, check out this YouTube video of a Blackwater parachutist landing on the field at the Fleet Week SDSU game (around the 2:45 mark). He's holding the American flag and his parachute is emblazoned with the Blackwater logo. Eisenhower must be rolling over in his grave.

Blackwater Mercenaries Honored as Veterans

San Diego recently honored mercenaries from Blackwater USA during their Fleet Week activities. Outrageous. They don't deserve this type of recognition.

Read my post, Our Soldiers and Blackwater Mercenaries are Not Peers, over at Blogging for Michigan and then give me your opinion.

DeVos speaks, MIGOP listens

Why are state Republicans still listening to DeVos?

Republicans who control the state Senate got a pep talk Tuesday from GOP businessman and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.

DeVos, who lost to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in the November election and is rumored to be eyeing another bid, spoke for 20 to 30 minutes during a Senate GOP caucus meeting at the start of session. [...]

DeVos said Republicans outside Lansing support the GOP's stance that significant structural changes in government must be made before there is any consideration of a tax increase.

I guess the party feels obligated because the man spent millions of dollars of his own money trying to unseat Gov. Granholm, but the fact that he was trounced should be a clue that the public finds him as irrelevant as George Bush.

Seriously. DeVos based his election on somewhat dubious, if not downright untruthful claims. He ran around crowing that, "49 other states are doing great. 49 other states are moving forward. 49 other states are adding jobs. And yet, Michigan is the only one lagging behind," and he placed the blame squarely on Gov. Granholm.

That's not how several papers saw it. As the Ludington News Daily said, "The near collapse of the Big Three is not the fault of the Legislature nor the governor. It’s in part the fault of the Big Three for failing to adapt to a global economy, work together with their unions to comply with that increased competition and changing consumer desires."

It wasn't how the voters saw it either. CNN reported that the economy nearly tied Iraq as the reason voters across the country came out to vote last November.

DeVos also ran a series of ads about our depressed housing market and the glut of homes on the market. The implication was that housing was doing great in 49 other states. Yeah, right. Foreclosures rates have been growing across the country since last spring, right about the time DeVos started running his first campaign ads.

From ABC News:

New data released this afternoon indicates that one in every 656 homes in the United States went into foreclosure during May. [...]

"The principal source of the slowdown in economic growth that began last spring has been the substantial correction in the housing market," said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech in late March. [emphasis added]

Michigan currently ranks eighth among states, with one in every 448 homes in foreclosure, but we're certainly not alone in our misery like DeVos wanted us to believe.

Aside from the misleading and disingenuous twisting of facts, why are state Republicans listening to DeVos on taxes? He supports the GOP's stance that structural changes in government must be made before there is any consideration of a tax increase, yet he and his family are willing to let taxpayers help build a new stadium for their basketball team in Orlando. If they don't see this as a double standard, shame on them.

And what about the millions of taxpayer dollars that benefit his brother-in-law, Eric Prince, owner of Blackwater Security? I've never heard DeVos raise objections about that money, not even when it came to light that Rep. Henry Waxman wrote Sec. Donald Rumsfeld requesting answers as to why taxpayers paid exorbitant prices for Blackwater's services. Waxman is still waiting for those answers (and so is the public).

And why are state Republicans listening to DeVos when they should be questioning him and his family about Blackwater's lack of transparency and accountability: Blackwater Heavies Sue Families of Slain [Fallujah] Employees for $10 Million in Brutal Attempt to Suppress Their Story.

If taxpayer money provides funding for Blackwater Security, then taxpayers deserve to know if the company cut corners in order to maximize profit - and in the process jeopardized those mens' lives. Surely, Michigan's GOP believes in accountability and transparency, right?

Whatever their reason for listening to DeVos, there's an old adage they might want to consider: When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. They need to ask themselves if that's a risk they're willing to take. It hasn't worked out so well for many Bush loyalists and it just might not work out so well for them either.

Forget Blackwater, Stick with the National Guard

Something I read on Libby's blog - The Impolitic - caught my attention. She was talking about Kansas' crippled efforts to conduct a proper search and rescue attempt after their tornado because of their strapped National Guard units, and she concluded with this:

Our National Guard should be here at home doing the job they signed up for, rendering service on the homefront, rather than being sent thousands of miles of away for years on end in the name of imperialistic follies. Instead, when the next disaster strikes a major metro area, the taxpayer will be footing the bill for Blackwater mercenaries at ten times the price.

Libby may be onto something with her comment about Blackwater. Consider this article:

Increasingly a magnet for controversy, Blackwater USA has encountered a bumpy road implementing its national and international expansion plans.

The Moyock, N.C.-based private military company's plans to open an Asian branch in the Philippines have been scrapped and one stateside proposal has drawn considerable heat.

"We are no longer pursuing a facility in the Philippines," Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman, said this week. [...]

Closer to home, Blackwater's drive to open a West Coast outpost has run into a buzzsaw of public opposition. More than half the registered voters of a tiny rural community east of San Diego, the proposed site of "Blackwater West," have signed a petition opposing the project. [...]

Meanwhile, Blackwater's new northern base in Illinois - where the company had no local regulatory hurdles to overcome - opened quietly this week, offering a variety of courses in firearms use, law enforcement and military tactics.

It is curious that the company quietly goes around expanding their facilities when according to an article in the Metro Times they have an extensive training facility in North Carolina.

Blackwater has a private fleet of more than twenty aircraft, including helicopter gunships and a surveillance blimp division. Its 7,000-acre headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina, is the world's largest private military facility. It trains tens of thousands of federal and local law enforcement agents a year and troops from "friendly" foreign nations.

Maybe they're positioning themselves to be accessible as emergencies arise in the south, out west or in the heartland in order to secure government contracts like they did after Hurricane Katrina. Privatization is a big, big story, according to what Jeremy Schahill told Metro Times:

[...] "Blackwater is a company that's engaged to tell a much bigger story. We are living right now in the middle of the most radical privatization agenda in the history of this country," Scahill tells Metro Times. "The Bush administration has used the private sector to essentially double the size of the occupation using troops whose deaths don't get counted in the official death toll and are operating outside the official system of law."

Scahill was reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when he met several Blackwater "operatives" as he calls them. The company originally said its services were "donated" to the relief effort, but then it was awarded a no-bid contract with the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Services to defend reconstruction projects and several private businesses, Scahill reports. [...]

"I feel like Hurricane Katrina provided us a window into the future of what could happen in this country with natural disasters or national emergencies," Scahill says. "Training and putting arms into the hands of private contractors who are accountable to no one, to me, is a very disturbing trend in this country."

If you don't find that disturbing, consider this statement from Metro Times:

"As one U.S. Congressmember observed, in strictly military terms, Blackwater could overthrow many of the world's governments."

I don't have a problem with privatization if it saves the taxpayer money, provides equal or better service, and is bid on in an open and honest matter. I do have a problem with no-bid contracts that end up costing us more. In Blackwater's case, the company has cost the taxpayers lots more money as I've posted before, and here's another example from Metro Times:

In contrast to active-duty soldiers who are poorly paid, Blackwater's guards were given six-figure salaries. "Standard wages for PSD (personal security detail) pros [in Iraq] were previously running about $300 [per man] a day," Fortune magazine reported at the time. "Once Blackwater started recruiting for its first big job, guarding Paul Bremer, the rate shot up to $600 a day."

I'm not sure what Blackwater's motivation is, but we don't need their services. We have National Guard troops available to help us in national emergencies that could use an infusion of cash to replace their missing equipment. Oh, and if the Bush administration really wants to spend more money, give the National Guard members a raise. They need it more than Erik Prince, millionaire owner of Blackwater.

Two Views From Canada

Canada's equivalent of Donald Rumseld and Dick Cheney all rolled into one has the solution for our energy woes:

[Former deputy prime minister] Hellyer wants to use alien technology to eliminate burning fossil fuels. He pointed out to the Ottawa Citizen ... that alien spacecraft have to travel vast distances to reach Earth. So they must have extremely advanced propulsion systems that don't rely on sweaty little green guys shoveling coal into a flying saucer furnace. [...]

Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen, "We need to persuade governments to come clean on what they know. Some of us suspect they know quite a lot, and it might be enough to save our planet if applied quickly enough."

How about that? The solution has been right under our noses in Roswell, N.M. all this time! Would someone please tell Washington?

Moving along to a more sane (and chilling) point of view from Canada, The Old Bill recently wrote about evil and what it might look like. He concludes that it's likely to resemble Erik Prince (founder of Blackwater Security, a private mercenary army for hire that has the largest private military base in the world) or his father, Edgar, founder of the Family Research Council.

Old Bill is concerned about other member's of Prince's family too:

Erik's mom Elsa is a board member of Focus on the Family. His sister, Betsy, one time head of the Michigan Republicans, married Dick Devos, son of Amway - their foundation is a strong backer of Focus on the Family. His Freiheit Foundation funds numerous theocon/religious right groups.

What's Old Bill's conclusion?

Let's see, a major war-profiteer, mercenary army CEO. . . does that seem a bit at odds to the gospel? to the person/spirit/ethos of Jesus?

[...] having watched the rise of the religious/theocratic right in the US for almost 3 decades, I'd never considered the possibility of them creating their own army, I'd underestimated the wiliness of the devil. Yet here's a group that has created its own army, with the blessing of the Bush administration, and is amassing huge profits. Appears Corrie ten Boom was right. Sounds over the top, I know, but I think as Canadians we need to start asking what we will do if/when the US drifts/lurches into a fascist state, a theocracy. . . And as Christians, we need to start asking the questions Bonhoeffer asked, at what point must we give up our silence, our comfortable acquiescence? [emphasis added]

If you think Old Bill is overreacting, then consider this statement from Aaron, a priest-in-training at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida (built by Tom Monaghan, Domino Pizza billionaire):

Aaron argued that the United States can only be saved from moral perdition if it, like Ave Maria, embraces the magisterium as supreme. "We don't believe in the separation of church and state," he said, "and this country should orient itself toward Christ. The foundation of Western civilization rests on Christendom, which means that America owes its existence to the Catholic Church." [emphasis added]

Our country should orient itself toward Christ? A good starting point would be to end the war in Iraq, the one based on a lie.

Blackwater Security in the News

Last week we read that five civilians employed by Blackwater Security died in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the company. I've written about Blackwater and its Michigan ties before - here, here and here - so I thought I'd share a couple of articles I ran across, although you won't read this in any of Michigan's GOP-controlled papers.

The first article is from the Seattle PI and the only word I can use to describe it comes from the article itself - appalling:

Private security contractor Blackwater USA is seeking $10 million from the attorney representing the estates of four employees killed and mutilated in Iraq, arguing their families breached the security guards' contracts by suing the company for wrongful death.

Blackwater also has asked a federal court to move the dispute into arbitration, having failed so far in its ongoing efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Arbitration is necessary "in order to safeguard both (Blackwater's) own confidential information as well as sensitive information implicating the interest of the United States at war," attorneys for Blackwater Security Consulting, a unit of Moyock-based Blackwater USA, wrote in a petition filed December 20.

Dan Callahan, a California-based attorney representing the families, called the claim "appalling."

"This is a shock-and-awe tactic," Callahan said Friday. Blackwater's attorneys declined to comment.

The four families, represented by estates administrator Richard Nordan, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater in January 2005 in state court. Family members argue Blackwater broke contractual obligations and used cost-saving measures that ultimately led to the deaths of the four men.

Yeah, like telling the men they would provide armored vehicles, but then failing to do so. The company pocketed $1.5 million and those men lost their lives as a result.

The second article comes from Jeremy Scahill writing in the LA Times [emphasis added]:

Bush made no mention of the downing of the [Blackwater] helicopter during his State of the Union speech. But he did address the very issue that has made the war's privatization a linchpin of his Iraq policy — the need for more troops. The president called on Congress to authorize an increase of about 92,000 active-duty troops over the next five years. He then slipped in a mention of a major initiative that would represent a significant development in the U.S. disaster response/reconstruction/war machine: a Civilian Reserve Corps.

"Such a corps would function much like our military Reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," Bush declared. This is precisely what the administration has already done, largely behind the backs of the American people and with little congressional input, with its revolution in military affairs. Bush and his political allies are using taxpayer dollars to run an outsourcing laboratory. Iraq is its Frankenstein monster.

Already, private contractors constitute the second-largest "force" in Iraq. At last count, there were about 100,000 contractors in Iraq, of which 48,000 work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are an undeclared expansion of the scope of the occupation. Many of these contractors make up to $1,000 a day, far more than active-duty soldiers. What's more, these forces are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll.

The president's proposed Civilian Reserve Corps was not his idea alone. A privatized version of it was floated two years ago by Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, conservative owner of Blackwater USA and a man who for years has served as the Pied Piper of a campaign to repackage mercenaries as legitimate forces. In early 2005, Prince — a major bankroller of the president and his allies — pitched the idea at a military conference of a "contractor brigade" to supplement the official military. "There's consternation in the [Pentagon] about increasing the permanent size of the Army," Prince declared. Officials "want to add 30,000 people, and they talked about costs of anywhere from $3.6 billion to $4 billion to do that. Well, by my math, that comes out to about $135,000 per soldier." He added: "We could do it certainly cheaper."

We saw what "cheaper" cost those four men in Falluja, and we've seen Iraq go from bad to worse in spite of help from those private contractors. The only one gaining anything from this arrangement is Erik Prince.

This is What the Republicans Don't Want to Talk About

Michigan's Iraq casualties now number more than 100 as this map so graphically indicates. All those lives lost for what? Lies.

The public wants our troops home and the president claims he has a "timeline for Iraq," but this rhetoric is not accompanied by any change in strategy. The Bush administration has not imposed any consequences and there's been no mention of a drawdown of troops.

In the meantime, the war and all these senseless casualties are taking a backseat to campaigning. Here in Michigan, Dick DeVos keeps steering the discussion to jobs and the economy because he wants to deflect attention away from the fact that his brother-in-law Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater USA, a private security firm currently working in Iraq, is a war profiteer, and DeVos and his family are major supporters of Republican causes. Contrast that with Gov. Granholm who has worked [pdf file] to protect our soldiers' pay, ensure jobs for veterans, protect the parental rights of service women and men, and provide financial assistance to families of soldiers suffering financial hardships.

No, DeVos and the Republicans don't want to discuss the Iraq war because then the public might hear something like this:

An Iraq vet's thoughts on 100 dead Michigan troops.

Supporting the troops is not having a yellow-magnet ribbon on your car. It’s calling your congressman and complaining to them about why they decided to cut VA or TRICARE benefits for Soldiers. It’s making sure that they only go to war because it’s absolutely necessary, and when they do you complain to everyone if they aren’t given the resources to do the job! It’s taking care of the vets when they get home, and making sure they don’t end up broke and homeless. As of this writing over 500 OEF and OIF vets are homeless. Where is the outrage over this? Where are Hannity and Limbaugh, telling our Government to get their shit together and do something to help them? The only conclusion I can come up with is that they just don’t care. While they say “support our troops” they really mean “use our troops as an excuse to further our agenda.”

Supporting the troops is NOT about defending a political stance or an ideology.

Click on the link and read the entire post. This is reality. This is what the Republicans have done to our country and our children.

Update: Several veterans left notable comments at the link above that deserve your attention too.

Two Documentaries With Michigan Ties

This is a golden time for documentary films. Over the past several days, discussion has revolved around the ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11, and earlier this summer Al Gore's film about global warming, An Inconvient Truth, did well at the box office. I'm not surprised that filmmakers are producing documentaries about the war or climate change, but I was surprised to learn about two new documentaries that touch us here in Michigan. Even more interesting is the fact that both films touch the DeVos family.

Robert Greenwald's film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so. One profiteer the film focuses on is Blackwater Security, which was founded by Erik Prince. Erik's sister Betsy was the head of the Michigan Republican Party until early 2005, and she is married to Dick DeVos, Amway heir and Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate. There are numerous sources and articles about Blackwater, but you may remember the company's name because they're being sued by the families of the contractors killed in Falluja in March 2004. The DVD documentary goes on sale September 26 and grassroots screening is October 8th-14th.

The second documentary with links to Michigan and DeVos I learned about from Zack @ Pohlitics. BELIEVE takes a satirical yet critical look at a fictional MLM company, Believe Industries and its devotees. And while the story is fictional, much of BELIEVE’s dialogue and events are based on the actual experiences of Loki Mulholland (writer and director), a former Amway distributor.

Zack recently interviewed Mulholland and asked him questions about DeVos, Amway and the gubernatorial election. Here's the exchange [emphasis added]:

POHLITICS: Since your film skewers multi-level marketing firms, do you see anything wrong with Michigan electing someone like DeVos as its next governor, considering that he used to run one of the largest MLMs on the planet?

LM: I’m an independent and I don’t tell people who I’d vote for but I can tell you who I wouldn’t vote for and that’s DeVos. Amway’s business culture is one of, in essence, taking advantage of people’s dreams and having them part with their money. When you have better odds of succeeding in Vegas than you do in multi-level marketing something’s not right. And, I think it’s fair to say, DeVos has been raised in that culture. You really can’t separate the two.

I think Amway and the DeVos camp have realized this and that’s why Amway has been airing their, “I am Amway” ads. If people are going to rightfully associate DeVos with Amway and 83% of the state has an unfavorable opinion of Amway they have to do something to change people’s opinions. It’s just like Bush and the War in Iraq. As the war goes, so goes Bush. As Amway goes… so goes DeVos.

That's the quote, folks, from a former Amway distributor.

If you're interested in seeing BELIEVE, they're doing a special screening in Lansing on the 21st of September. Then they're releasing the film October 13th in Detroit, Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids. Following it's debut in Michigan,the film will make a 20 city whistle stop tour of the country with a future release date in the Mountain West region in February/March. I BELIEVE I'll make it a point to see both of these films.

Mercenary Jackpot for DeVos Relative

All that money the DeVos family donates to the Republican Party is starting to pay off, especially for brother-in-law Eric Prince, the right-wing Christian founder of Blackwater USA. Here's the latest from Jeremy Scahill at The Nation [all emphasis added]:

While the Bush Administration calls for the immediate disbanding of what it has labeled "private" and "illegal" militias in Lebanon and Iraq, it is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its own global private mercenary army tasked with protecting US officials and institutions overseas. The secretive program, which spans at least twenty-seven countries, has been an incredible jackpot for one heavily Republican-connected firm in particular: Blackwater USA. Government records recently obtained by The Nation reveal that the Bush Administration has paid Blackwater more than $320 million since June 2004 to provide "diplomatic security" services globally. The massive contract is the largest known to have been awarded to Blackwater to date and reveals how the Administration has elevated a once-fledgling security firm into a major profiteer in the "war on terror." [...]

A heavily redacted 2005 government audit of Blackwater's WPPS [Worldwide Personal Protective Service] contract proposal, obtained by The Nation, reveals that Blackwater included profit in its overhead and its total costs, which would result "not only in a duplication of profit but a pyramiding of profit since in effect Blackwater is applying profit to profit." The audit also found that the company tried to inflate its profits by representing different Blackwater divisions as wholly separate companies.

The WPPS contract awarded in 2004 was divided among a handful of companies, among them DynCorp and Triple Canopy. Blackwater was originally slated to be paid $229.5 million for five years, according to a State Department contract list. Yet as of June 30, just two years into the program, it had been paid a total of $321,715,794. When confronted with this apparent $100 million discrepancy, the State Department could not readily explain it. Blackwater's two years of WPPS earnings exceed many estimates of the company's total government contracts, which the Virginian-Pilot recently put at $290 million combined since 2000. Six years ago the government paid Blackwater less than $250,000. [...]

While the WPPS program and the broader use of private security contractors is not new, it has escalated dramatically under the Bush Administration. According to the most recent Government Accountability Office report, some 48,000 private soldiers, working for 181 private military firms, are deployed in Iraq alone. Blackwater, now one of the most prominent and successful companies providing soldiers in Iraq, was relatively unknown until March 31, 2004, when four of its contractors were ambushed and killed in Falluja [see Scahill, "Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater," May 8]. In the days and weeks that followed, company executives hired ultra-connected lobbyists and were welcomed by powerful government officials as heroes, allowing the firm to solidify its role in the Bush Administration's foreign policy apparatus. [...]

This just goes to show you that huge sums of money can buy prominence and success - at the expense of taxpayers who get the shaft. No wonder Dick DeVos is in favor of privatizing public services here in Michigan. He wants in on some of those "pyramiding profits" too.