Documents reveal that Blackwater has been busy
expanding its corporate reach by providing intelligence services for
agencies such as the Canadian Military, Netherlands Police and
corporations like Monsanto.
Blackwater is a private, mercenary army. They've
been called the 'shadow army,' and most notoriously worked for the
United States in Iraq, where the company courted controversy. Journalist
Jeremy Scahill, who wrote a book about Blackwater, wrote an exclusive
for
The Nation,
revealing general details of the extent of the Blackwater business
operations. Scahill managed to obtain documents that, according to
Scahill, show
"... entities closely linked to the private
security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and
security services to US and foreign governments as well as several
multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney
Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank
and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation.
Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was
contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder,
Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research
Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in
internal company documents, which show how the web of companies
functions as a highly coordinated operation."
A spokesperson for Monsanto, reached by Scahill, first denied the
relationship with Blackwater, but then admitted that Monsanto had paid
Total Intelligence for intelligence reoprts
"... about the
activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company
personnel or operations around the world which were developed by
monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information.
The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist
incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the
content of activist blogs and websites."
The spokesperson told Scahill he was told Total Intelligence was completely separate from Blackwater.
The news that Monsanto hired a Blackwater company for intelligence
reports is rocketing around the world via anti-GMO activists. Blogger
Rady Ananda summed up the relationship between Monsanto and Blackwater as
"... A death-tech firm weds a hit squad."
Citing the growing movement to destroy GMO crops, Ananda thought
Monsanto was hoping to be able to quell dissent through infiltrating
actvist groups that take direct action. Ananda concluded his article
saying
"... Monsanto, by hiring a mercenary army and former
CIA field agents, is deadly serious about protecting its deadly
products. Yet, this contract further discredits the company. The public
can now paint an even bleaker picture of the firm that brought us Agent
Orange, PCBs, rBST, DDT, aspartame and, now, hitmen."
Writing on
Above Top Secret, Airspoon commented on Monsanto's hiring of Blackwater, saying (sic)
"The
above quote is pretty scary and indicative of how corporate interests
are acting against our own, though most of us already knew that. For any
of the deniars who tried to refute that such tactics were used, one
need only look at the plethora of information coming out about Xe and
Blackwater due to the scandal in Iraq.
I think that the best thing that could be done, is to boycott these
companies as much as possible. Monsanto might be a little hard to
boycott for some folks, though the other companies shouldn't be. In
fact, Monsanto shouldn't be either for most folks.
Blackwater (Xe) is one of the most dangerous entities facing the
American people. It's like the enforcement arm of corporate interests
that does not have to operate under the same "restrictions" that
government enforcers have to operate under under. It's like a private
army for TPTB.
Americans and citizens of the world should be irate ove the very
existence of a company such as Blackwater and we should all stand
together against the Nazi-like tactics and the anti-freedom angenda of
such an evil organization."
The documents obtained by Scahill show that Monsanto paid Blackwater's subsidiary,
Total Intelligence a total of $232,000 for intelligence services provided in 2008 and 2009.
Aside from the brief statement provided to Scahill, Monsanto is keeping
quiet on the matter, as is Blackwater and the other organizations cited
in Scahill's article.
Scahill said the Canadian Military paid Blackwater over $1.6 million for
training, which was provided through Blackwater's subsidiary, the
Terrorism Research Center.
Blackwater violated some US export control laws, reported
Yahoo News this past August, violations which included the provision of training to the Canadian Military.
While the list of violations the
US Department of State found Blackwater guilty of is extensive, the company was only fined
$42 million.
The company name 'Blackwater' was changed to Xe (pronounced 'zee') in 2009, which
Source Watch called a 'rebranding effort.'
The company is now up for
sale.
AFP
reported Blackwater operatives were accused of killing 17 Iraqis,
wounding a further 22 in what was said to be an unprovoked attack in
2007. The company was later cleared of all wrongdoing. Blackwater was
ordered out of Iraq earlier this year because of that violent incident
said
CBS News.
Scahill is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute.
He recently wrote the book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most
Powerful Mercenary Army. Scahill is also an award-winning investigative
journalist and in addition to writing for The Nation, he is a
correspondent with Democracy Now!.
Scahill's article on Blackwater will be available in the October 4, 2010 print edition of The Nation.
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