Letter from America: Blackwater's
trigger-happy criminals

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Blackwater, which now goes by the name Xe, is again all over the news. Two of its guys were among those killed on December 30 in the suicide attack at the CIA station at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan. According to Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute, of the two Blackwater operatives killed at this bombing-one was a former Navy Seal; the other was an Army master chief sergeant-and that there was a third Blackwater operative that was wounded in the blast.
   This report proves that the notorious mercenary group is still heavily engaged with the CIA for many clandestine activities not just inside Iraq but also in other territories including Afghanistan. What is also quite revealing from this incident is that CIA had lied to us again when it said that it had stopped all connections with Blackwater or Xe a month earlier. As recently disclosed in a Democracy Now interview with Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a leading member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, such on-going collaboration with Blackwater, which is a repeat offender and known to have killed innocent civilians and committed war crimes, puts the very mission of the United States at risk, threatening and endangering the lives of the very Americans it is supposed to protect.
   
   CIA & Blackwater
   In his interview with the Vanity Fair magazine, CEO Erik Prince confirmed Blackwater's deep-rooted association with the CIA. Shortly after 9/11, Prince claimed to have assembled a team, a secret clandestine team for the CIA that trained not at any of the official CIA facilities, but at one of his homes in Virginia. He trained this team, and then they were deployed around the world. And they would go into countries, and, in some cases, the CIA chief of station in the countries that they went into wasn't even notified that they were going in there. They even went to Germany to hunt down suspected links to al Qaeda. The German government is embarrassed by such a revelation. Earlier this month, prosecutors in Germany announced that they had launched a preliminary investigation into a report that the CIA and Blackwater had planned a secret operation in 2004 to assassinate a Syrian-born naturalized citizen of Germany in Hamburg with suspected ties to al-Qaeda.
   In the last few days, two former Blackwater operatives - Justin Cannon, 27, and Christopher Drotleff, 29 - were arrested on murder charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the shooting deaths of two Afghan civilians and wounding a third in Kabul in May. These killings took place under the Obama Administration. This news surfaced just hours after it was revealed that Blackwater had reached a settlement with Iraqi victims of a string of shootings, including the Nisoor Square massacre, who had sued the company for the "senseless slaughter." Even a U.S. military investigation conducted soon after the massacre found that Blackwater was unprovoked when it killed Iraqi civilians in Nisoor. The company is reportedly paying $100,000 for each of the Iraqis killed by its forces and between $20,000 and $30,000 to each Iraqi wounded. The amount of compensation is pitiful by American standard. It is worth noting that Blackwater received $1.5 billion dollars from the US government for its security and other clandestine activities in Iraq. As noted by Scahill 90 percent of this company's revenue comes from the US government. For them to pay, two or three million dollars hush-money for their war crimes is nothing – only a bargain - basement sale price (Libya paid $10 million for each of the Lockerbie victims)!
   News of the settlement came a week after a federal judge in Alexandria, VA, dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater operatives involved in the Nisoor Square massacre that killed seventeen Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in 2007. The lawsuit was filed by 70 Iraqis. The shootings, in which the guards opened fire with grenade launchers and machine guns on civilians in a busy Baghdad traffic circle, have since then become a rallying point for Iraqi resistance and grievances against America. To many Iraqis, the massacre is a symbol of U.S. disregard for their lives. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina threw out the indictments because he found that prosecutors and agents had improperly used statements the guards had provided to the State Department with the understanding that the statements would not be used against them.
   
   Mockery of justice
   As is quite evident now, Condoleezza Rice's U.S. State Department had given immunity to those killers, which violated its own policy in that regard. The appropriate legal venue for the trial should have been Iraq and not the USA. To avoid any trouble inside Iraq, those Blackwater employees were secretly ferried out of the country in the dead of night by the State Department and Blackwater, taken to the US, where they then got off on murder-on manslaughter charges, on a technicality.
   Family members of the dead and survivors said that the judge's decision added a painful epilogue to the incident, making a mockery of the justice that the United States was supposed to bring to their country. The Iraqi government also protested the judge's decision. There is little doubt that the judge's decision would fuel anti-American rhetoric and may affect the outcome of the important parliamentary election scheduled for March 7.
   As noted by Scahill, there is yet another lawsuit filed by some other Iraqi victims against Blackwater in the state of North Carolina. The man who was perhaps the single most prominent witness to the Nisoor Square shooting was driving a vehicle right behind the first vehicle that the Blackwater guys shot. His nine-year-old son was shot in the head. His head exploded on a van, on his cousins and other people in the vehicle. That man has retained counsel in North Carolina and is suing. That could be a very problematic case for Blackwater, because they're not only suing Erik Prince of Blackwater, they're suing the individual shooters in state court in North Carolina. One can only hope that this lawsuit ends up actually going to trial.
   As hinted earlier, Blackwater's has been deeply involved with the CIA on a number of covert activities. The group was part of a covert program in Pakistan that included planning the assassination and kidnapping of Taliban and Al-Qaeda suspects. It is also said to be involved in a previously undisclosed U.S. military drone campaign that has killed scores of people inside Pakistan. Its operatives have been working under a covert program run by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the military's top covert operations force. As noted by Scahill, Blackwater operatives are effectively running the drone bombings for both JSOC and the CIA inside Pakistan. Not only that, the group is taking part in ground operations with Pakistani forces under a subcontract with a local security firm - Kestral. The operations have included house raids and border interdictions in northwest Pakistan and other areas. Not surprisingly, many in Pakistan hold Blackwater responsible for some of the worst bombings inside Pakistan. Blackwater personnel have also been accused of posing sometimes as aid workers. According to Scahill, JSOC has no regard for civilian population in its hunt for the so-called bad guys. Its drone attacks are known to kill more civilians than real 'targets.'
   
   Operations in Uzbekistan
   Blackwater has also been given responsibility for planning JSOC operations in Uzbekistan. The program has become so secretive the top Obama administration and military officials have likely been unaware of its existence.
   It is worth pointing out that the JSOC used to be headed by General McChrystal who has now been promoted and is the head of all US forces and NATO forces in Afghanistan. With such a development, one can expect more involvement from mercenary groups like Xe (or erstwhile Blackwater). It is not difficult to understand why more civilians have died from drone attacks in Obama's first year than the preceding eight years of Bush. This is a sad resume of a president who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize!

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE

Tamil party will be a big factor
in Sri Lankan polls

Jehan Perera in Colombo

The decision of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to endorse one of the two leading candidates with a real chance of winning the forthcoming presidential election has a significance that goes beyond those elections. The delay of the alliance in arriving at a decision itself suggests the importance of the issues at stake. There were three strong points of view expressed by the membership of the alliance which constitutes several Tamil political parties that had come together due to the pressures put upon them by the LTTE when it was the dominant power in the Tamil polity. Two of the options available to the party had already been exercised by some members of the alliance.
   One option was for the alliance to put forward its own Tamil candidate to contest the elections. The other option was to boycott the elections entirely. The problem was that both these options have been tried before but without yielding benefits to the Tamil people. The past experience of putting forward a Tamil presidential candidate in the past had only a symbolic value as the candidate got very few of even the Tamil voters to support him. The obvious inability of a Tamil candidate espousing Tamil concerns to obtain victory at such an election would have served to discourage Tamil voters from casting their votes for a sure loser. On the other hand, the experience of boycotts of elections by the Tamil people has proved to be even more disadvantageous to the community.
   In 2005, the LTTE ordered the Tamil people to boycott the Presidential elections that pitted the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa against the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. There is no doubt that the current TNA leadership was intimidated into going along for fear of LTTE reprisals. During his brief tenure as Prime Minister in the period 2002-4, Ranil Wickremesinghe had signed the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE. Although the LTTE withdrew from the peace talks that accompanied that ceasefire, Mr Wickremesinghe promised to restart them if he was elected President. This was a promise he could have fulfilled had he won the elections. The peace process he championed was backed by the international community and he would have been armed with the full complement of executive powers that he had lacked as Prime Minister.
   If the Tamil boycott had not taken place and Mr Wickremesinghe had won those elections with Tamil votes, the Tamil people might have been spared the destruction of war. The other example of a fateful boycott of elections by the Tamil people took place in 1931 during the British colonial period. The Tamil political leadership at that time called for a boycott of the polls as they wished a speedier programme of self-government for the country. The Tamil boycott led to the legislature becoming overwhelmingly Sinhalese, with the result that the ethnic minority voice in it became marginal. The negative fallout of this boycott decision carried over to the pre-independence negotiations with the British, which again worked adversely against ethnic minority interests.
   
   THIRD OPTION
   It was with this historical background in mind that finally the TNA exercised the third option. This was to take the decision to endorse one of the two leading presidential candidates, either incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa or his main challenger former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka. In making this choice the alliance has not only committed itself to taking one side of the political divide and running the risk of being at the receiving end of petty revenge if its choice fails at the election. It has also turned back the clock by over 35 years to give up on separatist politics and make the mainstream Tamil parties once again a part and parcel of national politics.
   The extreme suffering that Tamil people especially in the north and east of the country underwent during the decades of war have made it difficult for Tamil political leaders to join the government and preserve their legitimacy with the Tamil electorate. The issue of Tamil separatism would have been a psychologically hard one for the alliance to address. The failure of successive Sri Lankan governments to give the political representatives of the Tamil people a real decision making within the Sri Lankan system has given justification to this separatist sentiment. Due to the continuous breakdown in agreements reached with successive governments, Tamil parties such as the TNA took the position that the Tamil people could not expect justice from Sinhalese-dominated govern-ments in Sri Lanka.
   Today, it is in the large and powerful Tamil diaspora that the will to resist is greatest. However, with the exception of the Tamil diaspora, the will of the Tamil people to resist and to fight separately is sapped. Even the Tamil diaspora cannot be indifferent to the observable desire of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka to rebuild their shattered lives now that the LTTE is no longer there to fight on militarily. Although sections of the Tamil diaspora are espousing the ideals of a transnational Tamil government, and have been conducting elections of their own in the countries where they are currently domiciled, there are other sections of the Tamil diaspora that are willing to give the political process in Sri Lanka another try.
   The TNA's decision to neither boycott the presidential election or to support a Tamil presidential candidate was not the only one it had to take. They had also to decide on which of the two main presidential candidates they would support. On the one hand, at the outset of the election campaign, President Rajapaksa came across as the stronger candidate who would most probably win the elections. Given the increasingly brutal and ruthless nature of politics in the country over the past several decades, there would have been a reasonable apprehension that the price of retribution could be high to the Tamil people if the TNA failed to endorse the winning candidate.
   
   TRACK RECORD
   Prior to deciding whom to endorse, the TNA leadership met with the two front runner, President Rajapaksa and joint opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka. According to media reports the TNA's meeting with the President had been a disappointment to them. The President had declined to make concrete commitments to the TNA and instead requested them to wait until the end of the election and the commencement of his second term. This would have required the TNA to put their trust in the President's word when their experience of the past, and the experience of others who believed they had reached agreement with the President, suggested otherwise.
   The second disappointment that the TNA reportedly had was that the President reportedly took their concerns lightly and not with the seriousness that they expected. The problems that the Tamil people have been experiencing in the past few years have been very weighty ones, ranging from thousands of missing persons to tens of thousands of hopelessly displaced persons. During his recent visit to Jaffna, President Rajapaksa was shown to be a skilled politician who rubbed shoulders with others and plucked little children from the arms of their amazed parents. The President's inability to take the concerns of the TNA seriously may stem from an abiding suspicion that they continue to be separatist and agents of the LTTE.
   By way of contrast, opposition candidate General Fonseka was much more responsive to the concerns of the TNA. Shortly after meeting with them he made a declaration of what he would do to address the problems of the Tamil people. These included dismantling the high security zones which had resulted in Tamil people being evicted from thousands of acres of land and in expediting the release of LTTE suspects through a legal process. The TNA and many Tamil people appear to see General Fonseka in the light of a professional soldier who executed his mission with success. But now they see him as a politician who will do what is necessary to reap the benefits of peace. In addition, the TNA's decision to support the candidacy of General Fonseka reflects the trust and confidence that members of the ethnic minorities have in the UNP leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
   Much before the TNA took its decision to endorse General Fonseka, members of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka and abroad had expressed the view at different forums that they had greater confidence in Ranil Wickremesinghe than in any other Sinhalese leader. As Prime Minister in the period 2002-4 he showed himself to be aware and of the view that a peaceful end to the ethnic conflict was necessary for the country to reach its full economic potential. He took steps to deliver on his promise but was thwarted by a combination of LTTE recalcitrance and oppositional politics. But the commitment he demonstrated at that time gave him and his party credibility that is helping General Sarath Fonseka's election campaign as the common opposition presidential candidate amongst the ethnic minorities today.

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE

Brian Padden

At his annual briefing to journalists last Friday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa says his country is enjoying enhanced diplomatic status following its successful presidential election last year. And he says with this new status also comes new responsibility.
   "Indonesia has transformed itself for the past years, to not only become the third largest democracy in the world," noted Natalegawa.
   "It is a status of great importance therefore and we are now potentially reaping the benefit of that democratic dividend, but it means therefore our foreign policy will have to better reflect our internal domestic concerns. We have to be on the right side of the debate in terms of various issues and also in terms of process. It has to be more inclusive in terms of foreign policy making. So all in all I think our democracy is one of our key assets." In the past year Indonesia also faced threats, conflict and crisis. The July bombing of two hotels in Jakarta, which killed nine people, was the first significant terrorist attack in Indonesia in five years.
   A separatist movement in Papua remains active. Police blamed rebels for shootings at a U.S.-owned mine in July, and in December a separatist leader was fatally shot while fleeing police.
   And two devastating earthquakes killed thousands, testing the government's ability to respond to natural disasters.
   Natalegawa says these crises have not overshadowed Indonesia's democratic progress and stable economy. One of the keys to Indonesia's success, he says, has been its ability to find common ground with diverse ethnic and religious viewpoints. Now he plans to apply these lessons internationally on such issues as climate change, economic development, and potential energy and food crises.
   "We should be seen as being part of the solution to many of the world's ill," he said. "We are not interested in accentuating differences. That is easy to do and others may want to do that. We want to be playing the role of bridge building, part of the solution, voice of moderation. The best is yet to come in Indonesia's foreign policy."
   Indonesia will take on a more vocal individual role in international matters, he says, but it will continue to work through international organizations such as the United Nations and regional groups.
   - Courtesy: VOA

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE