In a December 2008 lawsuit, the former employees said top Blackwater officials had engaged in a pattern of deception as they carried out government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, also asserts that Blackwater officials turned a blind eye to “excessive and unjustified” force against Iraqi civilians by several Blackwater guards.
Ms. Davis also asserts that a Filipino prostitute in Afghanistan was put on the Blackwater payroll under the “Morale Welfare Recreation” category, and that the company had billed the prostitute’s plane tickets and monthly salary to the government.
She also said Blackwater management used a subsidiary company, Greystone Ltd., to double bill the government for plane tickets between the United States and Amman, Jordan, which served as a transit point for the company’s employees in Iraq.
I refuse to play along with Blackwater founder Eric Prince and use the name (Xe) he desperately created to rebrand his criminal organization. I think the name "Blackwater" is the appropriate name for a company that seems to have a black heart, a dark soul, and whose founder's connection to Evangelicals is carefully kept in the shadows.
Despite this connection to evangelical Christianity I am not at all shocked that Blackwater sees nothing wrong with double billing the US government to pay for strippers and prostitutes. Hypocrisy runs rampant through the evangelical movement, as we as with many of our Christian lawmakers, and Erik Prince and his people are in very good company.
Keith Olbermann also covered this topic today on Countdown.
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P.S. I should make the point that this post is certainly not directed at all Christians by any stretch of the imagination. Just the ones, like Erik Prince and the C Street Family, who hide behind their religion while cheating on their wives, pursuing a holy war against the Muslims, and double billing our government.
Oops. In the title, you left a T out of prosTitutes.
ReplyDeleteSpelling lesson aside,I share your outrage!
"Despite this connection to evangelical Christianity I am not at all shocked that Blackwater sees nothing wrong with double billing the US government to pay for strippers and prostitutes. Hypocrisy runs rampant through the evangelical movement..."
ReplyDeleteSo thousands—millions?—of Muslims all over the globe take up guns and explosives, kill innocent people, brutally mutilate and oppress women, subjugate entire nations, and the Left is constantly pointing out that _these_ Muslims are the exceptions and do not represent _real_ Islam and _real_ Muslims who are peaceful and kind and wonderful people. But every time ANY politician or businessman runs a stupid-ass con and proclaims himself or herself a Christian instantly the Left points and says that scumbag, or that handful of scumbags, is representative of all Christians and representative of the Christian faith overall. There has got to be a special place in Hell for people who attack Christianity like this. I’m sure God loves you and _wants_ you to be saved. But I’ve seen your blunt hypocrisy so often that my heart is hardened and I hope you experience something like justice rather than mercy. I hope I don’t go to Hell myself for saying and feeling that, but this is the kind of hatred these endless attacks on Christianity have created in me and in so many others.
They double-billed us for the prostitutes? That's chutzpah.
ReplyDeleteAmen to all that. I just don't understand the evangelicals/Christianists. How do you tolerate intolerance?
ReplyDeleteGryphen, terrific post.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the links in your post, I recognized the name of Christian Reformed Church when reading about Eric Prince's background.
Senator Scott Brown is also a member of the Christian Reformed Church.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Brown
Of course that doesn't automatically make Scott Brown a bad guy. Just saying...
anon@7:28 PM is a troll probably paid...
ReplyDeletewho is trolling Phil's site and here in a attempt to divert conversation about Paylin or the Right!
I'm really getting sick of these assholes who have nothing to offer and just spout their right wing faux news talking points. Beccky is that you????
Double the fun
ReplyDeleteDouble your Guns
Double your flights
I'll send ya a bill
I'll send ya a bill...
did I send you a bill? No? Oh let's correct that$$$
BLACKWATER is nothing more than an American made Co. of thevies!
No matter what good book they thump their hands on...CROOK and LIARS.
How is it that the govt has rules about not paying for abortions for poor Americans, but they will pay for Blackwater's prostitutes?
ReplyDeleteAll christians may not be wrong, or criminals, but I'd like to know what the "good" christians are doing to police their own, to clean up the acts of the hypocrites. Are you calling them out? Are you boycotting them? Or are you still taking your vacation in South Carolina with its adulterous Governor? If you christians are going to be activists, how about actively calling out Sarah Palin on her hate speech and racism? Or do you only criticize those who are not your co-religionists?
ReplyDeleteYou guys are a bunch of self-righteous, sanctimonious control freaks - why don't you do something about controlling your co-religionists before you whine about how put upon you are by criticism...and don't give me that hell bullshit. Hell is for children.
Doesn't surprise me one bit. I worked for a BIG government defense contractor for more than thirty years. We were held to excruciatingly tough ethics conduct, almost to the point (at times) of being unable to get the job done. And, it was a GOOD thing.
ReplyDeleteThen, guess what? ALL the big defense contractors started hiring former military/Pentagon employees with the hope and expectation of increasing their odds of winning a contract. When these people came into the business at very high levels, it bacame a disaster. They were clueless about working in a large corporation and had nothing but scorn for our ethical resonsibilities. One idiot even came up with the brilliant (NOT) idea to rent out our cafeteria for wedding receptions. And this was just after 9/11 when the whole site was on high alert and in virtual lock-down mode.
I could go on, but I won't. You get the message. I was extremely glad to be able to take early retirement.
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ReplyDeleteThat's privatization for you. Very exciting; even exhilerating. And remember cash is king. You never have to declare a profit; just send an invoice to the government, that way you never have to declare a dividend. "Sunshine and lollipops". Indeed. Another repub outrage.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible teaches that hell is the common grave. God does not build and rebuild people so they can live forever in torture. That is a satanic idea. Sorry about your loss of hell. Gehenna was a location of an actual garbage dump like our own garbage dumps. Fires burned there all the time. In contemporary times the fires at the local garbage dump at the Gehenna location have gone out. It's the pit/grave we are consigned to without being saved from it by being given as a gift the imputed righteousness which we could not earn but we must have faith in goodness, righteousness, an expressed desire for same. Being declared correct by God would be a huge gift wouldn't you agree. The mere lies told about Christianity does not constitute an authentic replacement of Christian truth. There's no need to lie about Christian tenets. Jesus also said "Do not be mislead". The vulgar religionists are not authenticated to "mislead" and we have been commanded NOT to ALLOW ourselves to BE MISLEAD. The previous regime's misleadership gave us the privatization of this contractor which has harmed America's worldwide reputation and made us more reprehensible because of abandoning our former alleged values in allowing this.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, Maeve! Hold on there. Please be careful where you point your outrage. I am a Christian, and I am working with Leah Burton to identify 2010 politicans/candidates who are over-the-top evangelicals in Virginia. I do not want the Bible on my ballot nor do I want Christianity to contaminate my Constitution. As I do not want ANY religion to do. I'm as sick as anybody with this shit about America being founded as a Christian nation. It was NOT!
ReplyDeleteSo, please hold your fire and don't paint all Christians with the same dirty brush. It's not fair, and it's not constructive.
How is it that the govt has rules about not paying for abortions for poor Americans, but they will pay for Blackwater's prostitutes?
ReplyDeleteJust watch Congress swing into action to make sure they don't pay for any abortions for the prostitutes.
Quite right. Democrats are sometimes Christians as well. One doesn't preclude the other. However, we are not just relionists.
ReplyDeleteDear Sunnyjane,
ReplyDeleteI will point my outrage where I like. Free speech and all that, ya know?
I didn't paint all christians with the same brush, if you'd only read my entire comment. I simply said you need to police your own, and I'm glad to hear you are doing just that - now where are the rest of the christians who should also be denouncing these thieves, liars and hypocrites?