Blackwater Mercenary Captain Erik Prince Charged with Murder?

There was a news item all over the Indymedia (2.0) landscape and on MSNBC the last days that is too good to miss. In sworn statements of his own employee at Blackwater (currently renamed as Xe), the sole owner of the high-end mercenary company Erik Prince has been accused of murdering, or assisting in the murder of US state officials involved in the pending investigations into Blackwater. Erik Prince now faces the possibility of criminal prosecution for murder. Jeremy Scahill writes in The Nation that "The former employee also alleges that Prince 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe', and that Prince's companies 'encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'"
In his 2007 book 'Blackwater, The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army', Scahill describes the vast amount of crimes committed by this new privatised form of military forces. As just a few examples, in the aftermath of Katrina, Prince sent out his private army forces into Louisiana 24 hours before getting an official contract from the US government, and before the imposition of martial law in the state of Louisiana. Blackwater forces in Iraq have long been above either US or Iraqi law, making the mercenaries effectively free from any kind of criminal prosecution. US contracts with Blackwater in Afghanistan have only increased since Obama's presidency. Hopefully, this story will serve to renew public interest into this terrifying phenomenon.

Michael Parenti: US War on Yugoslavia

Simple and clear introduction into marxian critique of imperialism by Michael Parenti on "The U.S. War on Yugoslavia" given May 16, 1999 in Seattle. The rising confidence of the left in America at the time can be felt throughout this great talk, and much of the issues Parenti raises have a relevance now he could not have foreseen at the time.

The war on Yugoslavia and the subsequent war crime trials in the Hague have been universally distorted and quickly forgotten. During the war, Michael Parenti exposed the elaborate plan started in 1989 to split up Yugoslavia into right wing ethnically divided separate states; a country that was built on the pan-Slaves coming together into a viable socialist nation. This is not to say that politics in Yugoslavia was perfect, but the progress all the Slavic nations have lost is without a doubt astounding. The plan Parenti described seems to work out very well today. Funny how, unlike the plan for Iraq becoming a blossoming flower of democracy in the Middle East, this one worked out quite well.

Interestingly enough, the US still have large bases in Kosovo. One strategic reason is the competition with Russia over control of the energy infrastructure network in Europe and central Asia. Several thousands of US soldiers protect the pipelines through the Balkans that are necessary to link pipeline networks connecting the oil and gas from central Asia to the export ports and the European pipeline networks. Pipelines in the Balkans Pipelines in the Kaukasus

Michael Parenti is author of many books, including:

Contrary Notions, City Lights, 2007
The Culture Struggle, Seven Stories Press, 2006
Superpatriotism, City Lights, 2004
The Assassination of Julius Caesar, The New Press, 2003 (A great talk about Rome, Ceasar, history as a science and class bias of historians can be viewed here.)
To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, Verso, 2000
History as Mystery, City Lights, 1999

Documentary: A Place Called Chiapas

'A Place Called Chiapas' is a breathtaking Canadian documentary of first-hand accounts of the EZLN, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the south west Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

From The Real News: "'Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land' was broadcast on the French CBC on October 23, 2008, provoking a flood of complaints to the Canadian network. These complaints overwhelmingly took the network to task for running what they deemed to be a "pro-Palestinian" film, largely sidestepping the critically acclaimed 2004 documentary's explicit focus on how pro-Israeli pressure groups methodically influence American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

CBC management asked the network's Ombudsman to launch a full-scale investigation into the substance of the complaints and the central charge that the film was unduly biased.

On December 8, 2008, the Ombudsman released her findings. She issued a report concluding that Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land should not have been shown on French CBC at all."

The funny thing is that this film addresses the propaganda war in favour of the Israeli state, that uses strategies like creating an atmosphere of fear to keep journalists from stepping out of the official narrative that justifies the occupation. It is an analysis of the very practice this Ombudsman's report is an example of.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.

In light of the article I've just written and posted below, I think it'd be informative to link to a speech made by first Iraq war veteran and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter in 2007 on the anti-war movement and strategy. In it, he promotes his book Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Anti-War Movement. Enjoy the drill.

Funnily enough, there's also a British based organisation with the identical name: Waging Peace

Jeremy Scahill on the Obama Age

One of America's newly risen stars in investigative journalism, Jeremy Scahill discusses American military power and economic imperialism in the coming years, related to Obama policies. Scahill has reported from post-invasion Iraq; the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the 1999 NATO bombing; and from post-Katrina Louisiana. He is is a correspondent for Democracy Now, and is a frequent contributor to The Nation. Scahill documented the use of private military contractors in his award-winning book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

'Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army' and other books by Jeremy Scahill

Documentary: Secrets of the CIA

In this amazingly accessible documentary, the secret history of the CIA since its founding is covered case by case. It explains how the CIA pioneered, developed, manipulated prisoner abuse, sold drugs, changed regimes and killed millions of people worldwide to further 'security interests'. Very helpful as a first tip for people who are just doubting the stylised story that hides so much of political history after the Second World War.

In this lecture given by Michel Chossudovsky in 2003, in the early years of the neoconservative Bush administration and the war on terror, he blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on the US by "Islamic terrorists". As this speech is a few years old, we should of course add to it what we know happened afterwards. Through meticulous research, he has uncovered both a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and a cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration. According to Chossudovsky, the "war on terrorism" is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. But Chossudovsky does not fit the stereotype of 'truthers' who do nothing else then meticulously going over the details of the events of 9/11. In stead, he puts 9/11 in a wider context of geopolitics, one that allows insight in the shadow side of actual states. In this lecture, he argues that the "war on terrorism" is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to a "New World Order", dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex. September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington's agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.

Michel Chossudovsky is currently professor of economics at the Universtiy of Ottawa. He has taught as visiting professor at academic institutions in Western Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia, has acted as economic adviser to governments of developing countries and has worked as a consultant for international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme, the African Development Bank, the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, the United Nations Population Fund, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1999, Chossudovsky joined the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research as an adviser. Chossudovsky is the past president of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is a member of research organisations that include the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform, the Geopolitical Drug Watch and the International People's Health Council. He is an active member of the anti-war movement in Canada, and has written extensively on the war in Yugoslavia. After the September 11 terrorist attacks he has also been involved in highlighting the historical relationship between the US government, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. He is a frequent contributor to Le Monde diplomatique, Third World Resurgence and Covert Action Quarterly. His publications have been translated into more than twenty languages. His latest book is titled America's "War on Terrorism".

War and Globalisation and other books by Michel Chossudovsky

Report from Strasbourg

RTL 4 News Report on the Dutch International Socialist Demonstration

Below this report is a transcript in English.

Last weekend I joined the Dutch International Socialists to try and peacefully protest NATO and the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine in the French border city of Strasbourg. While no demonstrations were allowed inside the city, we agreed to try to get into the city as early as 4 am on Saturday, where we were met with extraordinary police repression. The gendarmerie immediately fired tear gas grenades at our manifestation the moment we were first spotted in the Strasburg suburbs. This encounter would set the tone for the entire day. Nonetheless we tried to reach the city centre, but had to back off when the riot police threatened to hopelessly split open our already decimated group of, at that moment, around 300 protesters. This is where Sanne, interviewed in the news clip, got hit directly in the face by an exploding tear gas grenade. She, some other comrades and I locked arms and got away as quickly as possible while we were trying to reach the retreating group, resisting the gas and grenade impacts. Many fellow protesters, me included, got hit by explosive grenades directly aimed at our bodies. In several cases this resulted in injuries. Inside the protected 'orange zone', we got trapped by lines of armed and armoured riot police, who refused to let us out to join the major demonstration. We were locked in at an intersection for several hours, Over time other split off groups of demonstrators joined our blockade, and so we slowly regained morale.

It took determination and a lot of pressure before the riot police let us cross the bridge to join the planned major demonstrations. The battle for the bridge started when a bigger group of several hundred people joined our group cheering. The police felt threatened and moved in to ram us away from the bridge. We stayed our ground, lifting our hands in the air, chanting: "We are peaceful, what are you?". The pressure mounted and we were forced to retreat, but the police apparently feared retaliation and returned to the bridge. It was at this time that the 'Black Block' started rioting. The Black Block are a radical group of anarchists who want to beat the system with violence. They got increasingly worked up, reacting with stones, clubs and eventually a few Molotov-cocktails to the police blockade and their continuous volleys of direct tear gas and CS grenade fire from launchers aimed with laser guidance. They also lobbed deafening and dangerous sonic grenades. An especially grim detail we witnessed was that a medic in uniform got hit frontally in the crotch by another directly aimed exploding gas grenade. As he was dragged to the side of the road by his colleagues, they got hit as well while treating their colleague's wounds. The police definitely seemed to single out the medics.

It started to look like we might be surrounded for real, when, at precisely the right moment, a thousand strong group of fresh Englishmen, Greeks, Italians, Turks, Frenchmen and others gloriously tipped the scales in our favour. When we finally broke through the bridge blockade the riot police moved to the side of the road and let us through to the main stage; the starting point for the official demonstration outside the city centre. But a few hundred Black Blockers turned right one street later than we did, where hundreds of riot police let them set fire to a hotel and a bank office before they felt the need to quell the riot. We suspect the fires were allowed to happen because, from our stage site, we saw smoke coming from the other side of a wall at least half an hour before we heard any serious grenade and rifle fire. When it hit, though, nobody knew what would happen to the planned demonstration - tension was definitely in the air.

The manifestation was quiet, while the widely spread frustration with the Black Block got confirmed one more time. Another bridge was occupied by at least two hundred fully equipped riot police now blocking a route to the city centre, but this time we could just have passed them by. In stead of ignoring the gendarmerie and following the normal route for the demonstration, the black mob chose to pick a fight anyway. This incident resulted in intense fire with rubber bullets, water cannons, and a suffocating amount of CS and tear gas. Disappointed with these irrational rioters, we decided it was time to go home to the Anti-NATO village and called it a day.

As Strasbourg was my first demonstration at an international summit, I never expected this amount of violence. But neither did the more experienced members of the Dutch IS. We agreed to have a peaceful blockade before the main demonstration, something that is to my mind an act of perfectly legitimate civil disobedience to a refusal of right to free speech. However, it seemed that the police would not let a peaceful blockade happen. The police response combined with a Black Block that is immune to arguments of non-violence leaves little room for an honest and widely supported demonstration against NATO and the occupations in the Middle East. Still, we managed to win the sympathy of the local population in the city centre at least. We crossed a good part of the 'orange zone', and even got our message of peace and solidarity across two Dutch national television broadcasters. Reporting teams from the public news programme Netwerk (transmission Monday the 6th, 20:25) and RTL Nieuws (Saturday the 4th, 19:30) followed us in our attempt to cross the city.

I think our movement has two major problems that prevent it from spreading in the hundreds of thousands. The Black Block were in my view just as much a threat to our message as the riot police was to our right to convey it. Despite serious difficulties for peaceful protesters at this summit, we have reached more than a million of our countrymen who might see through the general picture of violent rioters as a result. I want to thank all the comrades who made our efforts a success in spite of everything with their courage, caring, solidarity, and clarity! THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!

Transcript:

(0m;0s) Suzanne Rosman: Compliments back and forth, Bastiaan, eh, outside people are apparently less happy."

Bastiaan Hetebrij: "You can say that again. There have been demonstrations in both Germany and France today, as was the case yesterday and the day before. Some fifty protesters got wounded in the process today, and colleague Jeroen Akkermans got up very early this morning to report from the demonstrations."

Jeroen Akkermans: "Columns of smoke over the NATO summit. Strasbourg is the scene of riots and fires despite the enormous security operation. A group of around 100 Dutch socialists is on it's way early in the morning, but time and time again they find the police in their way."

Maina: "Emm, look, this is also not what we are looking for, but we want to make our voices heard against the war and escalation here today. It's hard, but we do it nonetheless."

Jeroen Akkermans: "De police fears spontaneous action and ar present on every corner of the street."

Pepijn: "If it were up to us, then all those security measures, that whole 110 million would not be necessary, because we are not out to kill those world leaders at all, our intention is to forcefully make our voices heard."

Bart and the IS: "A! Anti! Anticapitalista! A! Anti! Anticapitalista!"

Jeroen Akkermans: "Next to Bart, disguised protesters are singing along."

Jeroen Akkermans: "That protesters disguise themselves. Is that okay?"

Bart: "Yeah, I think it's okay, but erm, I don't understand the reason for it. Because protesting I think is something you do in complete openness, to plead for ewaul rights, human rights, democracy, I don't do that in disguise, and I would like to ask everyone to do it without disguise."

Jeroen Akkermans: "Because?"

Bart: "Because we don't have anything to hide, literally."

Jeroen Akkermans: "But this is not the place nor the time where protest is allowed. Also the police without uniform sees more and more protesters join in."

Maina: "So, firstly, this is a good feeling that we are with so many, by the way I have to take some measures now, but this is an excellent... development..."

Jeroen Akkermans: "Because?"

Maina: "Because, eh, there's a line of, er, riot police coming towards us, and we are a little surrounded."

Jeroen Akkermans: "The police fires with tear gas regularly. The protesters are not impressed. They retreat, only to advance later. Afterwards rocks are being thrown. The police beat with t heir batons, and people get injured."

Sanne: "All of a sudden there was this kind of BAM, and then this thing had exploded in my face."

Jeroen Akkermans: "But do you think this is worth it?"

Sanne: "I don't understand, why in a city like, you know, Strasbourg, we don't have the right to peacefully protest, in that sense I think it's really true: 'This is what democracy looks like.'"

Jeroen Akkermans: "Finally the demonstration is allowed to start, far away from the NATO leaders.(2m:46s)

More Reports: G20 Demonstrators Get Interviewed by OneWorldTV in London

Watch OneWorldTV - Interviews from the G20 protests in London in News  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The Real News analyst Pepe Escobar on Obama's Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy: "There are many more strategic issues at play than meets the eye - and the President and his team's spin."

Playwright Harold Pinter's masterfully eloquent and flamingly critical Nobel Prize acceptance speech on anglo-american foreign policy since the second world war and it's surrounding 'tapestry of lies'.

Oil, Smoke, and Mirrors: an outstanding documentary on peak oil and how exactly oil as a strategic resource was one of the motivations for 'the war on terror'. The American agreement to leave Iraq in 2011 and the election of Obama puts the end of this documentary on the road to dictatorship in a somewhat new light, but understanding the psychological mechanisms that lead to repressive states remains important today.

Writer and activist Tariq Ali presents an inspiring tour d'horizon of international politics since the fall of the Soviet Union. On the rise of neoliberalism, the hollowing out of democracy in the West, and humanitarian militarism.