Brother of Donald Trump's Secretary of Education met with Putin ally to establish a communication back channel for the future president.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladi­mir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. 

The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. 

Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.

Wait, what?

The article goes on to point out that Erik Prince is the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and that he donated a quarter of a million dollars to Trump's campaign.

This is how a spokesman for Prince responded to this story:

“Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication. The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?”

Actually you know this seems to be potentially a hell of a lot more concerning than a simple terrorist plot. So I am good with the intelligence community pursuing this.

Here is a little something else to keep in mind from a report early last month: 

An alleged computer server connection between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, an influential financial institution in Russia with connections to both the Russian and Ukrainian elite, is still being investigated by the FBI, according to a new report by CNN. 

The FBI’s counterintelligence team, which is also looking into Russia’s suspected hacking of Democratic National Committee servers and the email account of her campaign chairman, is investigating why a computer server owned by Alfa Bank repeatedly looked up a computer server owned by the Trump Organization in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Eighty percent of the attempts to look up that Trump computer server were performed by Alfa Bank — 2,820 in total — with almost all of the rest being conducted by Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain for which Dick DeVos, the husband of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, serves as chairman of the board.

Paul Vixie, who designed the DNS system used by the modern internet, previously told Slate that the most likely explanation for the interactivity between the Alfa Bank and Trump Organization servers is that they “were communicating in a secretive fashion.” 

The explanation offered by Alfa Bank is that this was all probably due to spam, but it was discounted because it was only happening between these entities and was not widespread.

And just to add a little more fuel to the fire here, yesterday we also learned that two years ago Trump's former campaign adviser, Carter Page, had been recruited by Russian spies:

Two years before joining the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser, New York business consultant Carter Page was targeted for recruitment as an intelligence source by Russian spies promising favors for business opportunities in Russia, according to a sealed FBI complaint. 

Page confirmed to ABC News that he is the individual identified as "Male-1" in a 2015 court document submitted in a case involving the Russian spies. 

Page told ABC News he cooperated in the case, and felt the Feds "unmasked" him by describing him in January 2015 in a manner that would be known to energy insiders. 

"I didn't want to be a spy," he said in an interview early Monday afternoon. "I'm not a spy."

Okay can we just go ahead and state for the record that Donald Trump, and his team, were colluding with the Russians?

Or are we still not sure?

Things Blackwater needs to do its job in Afghanistan: Bulletproof vests, ammunition, strippers, prostitutes....wait what?

Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security company of defrauding the government for years by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes, according to court documents unsealed this week.

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.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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.

Joe Biden: Government not prepared to see Blackwater go unpunished.

Vice President Joe Biden has announced that American authorities will appeal against a court ruling dismissing manslaughter charges against five security guards from the Blackwater company accused of killing Iraqi civilians.

The charges stemmed from an incident in Baghdad in 2007 when the guards opened fire in a crowded square, killing 17 Iraqis.

The case was quashed because the judge ruled that testimony had been wrongly used by the prosecution.

After talks with President Talabani, Mr Biden said the Obama administration regretted the decision by a federal judge at the end of December to throw out the case against Blackwater.

Speaking in Baghdad, Mr Biden said his government was not prepared to see Blackwater go unpunished.

I hope Joe Biden is not just talking out of his ass. I was very frustrated to see the judge throw that Blackwater case out.

I heard rumors that Erik Prince was using threats of blackmail, concerning his associations with the CIA, to pressure the government to let him off. When he DID get off I assumed those rumors were probably correct.

But if Biden is right, that means the little shit may finally have to face justice for at least SOME of his criminal activities in Iraq.

Erik Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe." And he sent his mercenaries to Iraq and Afghanistan to do just that:

Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince's executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to "lay Hajiis out on cardboard." Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince's employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as "ragheads" or "hajiis."

I am going to be paying attention and I certainly hope that the Vice President is correct about this. Now that "W" is out of office we need desperately to earn our reputation back. And putting this hateful murdering piece of shit behind bars would be a very good start.

(I apologize if my language seemed a little raw, but I really dislike this son of a bitch.)

Iraqis angry that American justice allows Blackwater murderers to get off scot free.

Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.

The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge's decision as proof of what they'd long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law.

"There is no justice," said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. "I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards who committed a massacre in Nisoor Square."

I had such high hopes for this administration and I find myself disappointed over and over again. These Blackwater (Or if you prefer Xe) mercenaries have demonstrated themselves to be trigger happy killers and yet we allow them to run roughshod over the people of Iraq after supposedly liberating them from an evil dictator.

Death is death to the people of Iraq, whether it is delivered with a bullet fired from the gun of Saddam's Republican Guard or from the weapon of a Blackwater mercenary.

Of course the people of Iraq never stood a chance of receiving justice so long as Erik Prince and his Xe "guns for hire" are currently conducting an illegal secret war in Pakistan alongside the CIA. Just imagine what kind of scandalous government secrets Eric Price has in his possession.

And if that wasn't enough to insulate Mr. Prince and his mercenaries against facing justice, we also learn from Frank Schaffer on the Brad Blog, that he has long standing ties to Christian fundamentalism.

Prince is the son of Edgar Prince. His vast wealth funded Dominionist organizations including the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family. I was connected to both groups, speaking often for Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson gave away 150,000 copies of one of my right wing “books” (A Time For Anger) in which I called for revolution against the “Left” and the “liberals.”

Erik Prince grew up with powerful leaders in the Christian Right. Prince quit a White House internship with George H.W. Bush. He said Bush was too secular. As a converted Catholic, Prince joined the Knights of Columbus. Today Prince sees himself as a Christian crusader, an armed one with a private army. Blackwater’s criminal torture of U.S. war prisoners has been documented so has employee intimidation and threats of violence. Prince sees his call to rid the world of Islam and make way for Christian hegemony.

Isn't it amazing how cozy the fundamentalist Christians in this country are with the murderers we send overseas to Muslim countries? One would almost think we were conducting Christian Crusades against our brothers in the Middle East, like the Europeans did back in the 10th century.

But surely somebody would notice if the United States were conducting a religious war, now wouldn't they?

The man who is supposed to be investigating allegations against Blackwater did not even know his brother served on the board of Blackwater. Uh huh.

The State Department has come under fire in recent months for its oversight of the embattled private security firm, which protects U.S. diplomats in Iraq. Blackwater was involved in a Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead, an incident the FBI is currently investigating.

Chairman Henry Waxman of California began the House Oversight Committee hearing by stating that "we have now learned that Mr. Krongard's brother, Buzzy Krongard, serves on Blackwater's advisory board."

The Inspector General immediately refuted the allegations.

"I can tell you, very frankly, I am not aware of any financial interest or position he has with respect to Blackwater," Howard Krongard said. "When these ugly rumors started recently, I specifically asked him. I do not believe it is true that he is a member of the advisory board that you stated. And that's something I think I need to say."

However, Democrats then produced a July 26 letter in which Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and CEO, invited Buzzy Krongard, a former top CIA official, to join Blackwater's advisory board, followed by a Sept. 5 letter in which Prince welcomed Krongard to the board.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told the inspector general that Buzz Krongard was even scheduled to attend a Blackwater board meeting earlier this week in Williamsburg, Va.. Howard Krongard then promised to recuse himself from Blackwater-related issues if his brother was a board member.

An hour later, after a brief recess, the inspector general did just that.

"During the break, I did contact my brother," Krongard said. "I learned that he had been at the advisory board meeting yesterday. I had not been aware of that. And I want to state on the record right now that I hereby recuse myself from any matters having to do with Blackwater."

Let me get this straight.

The man who is put in charge of investigating Blackwater, does not even know his own brother is on the board of Blackwater?

And apparently when his brother joined the board of Blackwater they were granted immunity from being prosecuted in Iraq. And this Krongard had nothing to do with that?

If this wasn't about the murder of innocent Iraqis it might even be funny that they thought nobody would discover their duplicity. But it is not funny, and I hope the Democrats put the screws to this Erik Prince and his company. And then they can go after whoever tried to cover for their murderous rampage.

Is Blackwater getting ready to go to war with the Iraqi government that the United States put in power? And whose side should our troops be on?

A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq's faulty justice system.

"We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis," Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad's Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.

"In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial. That is not the case right now," said Mr. Prince.

So there exists the possibility that the Iraqis may decide to try and arrest the Blackwater guards they blame for killing their citizens, and that the Blackwater employees may use force to resist being arrested.

I literally thought that the Iraq situation could not possibly get any more volatile. And I am man enough to admit that I was very, very wrong.

Blackwater may be packing up for a trip soon.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad's demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.

I wonder who will escort them to the airport?

Can even having friends in the highest of places save Blackwater from its long overdue karma?

Blackwater security guards involved in a Baghdad shootout last month that left up to 17 Iraqi civilians dead were "obviously wrong," a senior US military official was reported as saying.

The unnamed official told the Washington Post newspaper that the US military reports from the scene of the September 16 incident suggested the US private security firm was to blame for the deaths, and that its employees in Iraq were trigger-happy.

"It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong," the official told the newspaper.

You know one of the problems with establishing a puppet government in Iraq is that sometimes they actually decide to hold the people responsible for murdering their citizens....responsible.

And that is exactly what the official Iraqi investigation has suggested: The official Iraqi investigation into last month's Blackwater shooting has been submitted to the government and recommends the security guards face trial in Iraqi courts, and that the company pay compensation to the victims, an Iraqi government minister told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The three-member panel, led by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, finished its work earlier this week and submitted the report and recommendations to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday, the government minister told AP on condition he not be identified by name.

So now let us see if the administration is willing to put their proverbial money where their proverbial mouth is. Will they allow this "sovereign" government to seek justice for its people?

If they don't it is just another lie that the Bush administration told the America and Iraqi people. Just throw it on the pile.

Oh this is a good idea.

When a team of FBI agents lands in Baghdad this week to probe Blackwater security contractors for murder, it will be protected by bodyguards from the very same firm, the Daily News has learned.

Half a dozen FBI criminal investigators based in Washington are scheduled to travel to Iraq to gather evidence and interview witnesses about a Sept. 16 shooting spree that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead.

The agents plan to interview witnesses within the relative safety of the fortified Green Zone, but they will be transported outside the compound by Blackwater armored convoys, a source briefed on the FBI mission said.

"What happens when the FBI team decides to go visit the crime scene? Blackwater is going to have to take them there," the senior U.S. official told The News.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on security measures taken by agents in Iraq.

"It makes absolutely no sense that the FBI will be protected by the very people they are investigating," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan). "But given how the administration runs this war, it's hardly surprising."

"So Mr. FBI Agent, do you believe our version of the events or are you planning to find your own way back to the Green Zone?"

The Bush administration and their cohorts are so arrogant they do not even TRY to hide their conflicts of interests.

George Bush did not seem to know who Blackwater was accountable to in 2006, I think it is time to ask him the question again in 2007.

What a pathetic response to an important question.

Blackwater guard turned weapon on comrades in attempt to stop the killing in Baghdad.

A Blackwater guard reportedly yelled at colleagues to “stop shooting” during an afternoon of chaos in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqis dead and called into question the accountability of all Western private security firms operating in Iraq.

The New York Times also quoted an unnamed US official as saying that one or more of the Blackwater guards had called for a ceasefire.

The word ceasefire “was supposedly called out several times ... They had an on-site difference of opinion,” the official said. Ultimately, a Blackwater guard “got on another one about the situation and supposedly pointed a weapon”, the newspaper reported.

This story demonstrates that at least some of the Blackwater guards knew that they were overreacting, but I have to wonder how these units are structured. Is there anybody in charge? Is there a chain of command? And when something like this happens does anybody face consequences?

I cannot help but flash back to a situation that happened in Vietnam that is eerily similar. Perhaps you have heard of it, it was called the My Lai Massacre.

Does this ring a bell? Flying high above the slaughter was helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson. Sickened by what he was witnessing, Thompson set down his aircraft and began to rescue the Vietnamese survivors. he ordered his machine gunner to open fire on any American soldiers who continued to shoot villagers.

Justice was not served in the My Lai investigation, since only one participant was found guilty of murder. I am afraid that there will be even less justice in this Blackwater case.

Somebody bought somebody off.

Iraq will not take immediate steps to expel U.S. security firm Blackwater, under investigation over a shooting which killed 11 Iraqis a week ago, a government security official said on Sunday.

The Iraqi government and U.S. officials have agreed to set up a joint inquiry into the work of private security companies like U.S.-based Blackwater, which many Iraqis see as private armies acting with impunity.

In what appeared to be a further softening of Iraq's response to the shooting, a government spokesman for Baghdad security said Blackwater and other private security companies were doing important work guarding foreign diplomats.

So there will be no justice for those murdered Iraqis?

I guess the bottom line is that there is an enormous amount of money flowing into Iraq, and neither the Americans nor the Iraqi "government" want to see it stop.

Is there no problem that American money cannot make go away?

Well we can't seem to buy ourselves a victory now can we?

Evidence against Blackwater now includes video!

Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in a shooting last week that left 11 people dead, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

I feel terrible for the families of these dead Iraqis, but someday they may be respected as the martyrs that finally ended the Iraq war.

Let's face it, without Blackwater providing security for the contractors, and with the United States military used up, this may be the end game for the Bush administration.

The Democrats should be all over this and demanding investigations into how Blackwater operates in Iraq and how they get paid.

Iran supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents? Doubtful. Blackwater doing the same? You betcha!

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

I have no doubt that these guys are more then likely guilty, and I will tell you why.

They are MERCENARIES! They are guns for hire. These guys are not serving their country, they are glorified bodyguards.

So if the opportunity presents itself for them to make even more money, why wouldn't they take it? Because of patriotism? Give me a break!

This is why you don't send paid killers into a war zone!

There is more and more evidence that Blackwater acted without provocation resulting in many Iraqi deaths.

Hasan Jaber Salman lies in Yarmouk Hospital, bandages covering gunshot wounds in his back.

Salman says he is a lawyer who was headed from a courthouse to the Ministry of Justice when he found his route blocked by four armored Blackwater SUVs.

The roadblock soon caused a traffic snarl, so armed Blackwater guards began waving at the drivers, telling them to turn around and leave the area.

"So we turned back, and as we turned back they opened fire at all cars from behind," Salman said. "All my injuries, the bullets are in my back.

"Within two minutes the security force arrived in planes -- part of the security company Blackwater. They started firing randomly at all citizens."

Blackwater, in a statement issued after the incident, denied that gunfire came from aircraft.

"The helicopters providing aerial support never fired weapons," it said.

The firm also said its employees "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack."

But Salman claims the attack was unprovoked.

"No one fired at them, they were not attacked by gunmen, they were not targeted by an explosion," he said.

The firing continued until Salman's car crashed into a police checkpoint and flipped over, he said, adding that eight bullets struck his car and four struck him.

"My left shoulder is broken ... and my arm is broken. I had a surgery. ... They opened up my stomach," he said. "I swear to God no one did anything to them at all."

In this hellhole it is almost impossible to determine exactly what transpires in these conflicts.

But wounds in the back are a little hard to explain away.

It is certainly not inconceivable that the Blackwater people felt threatened. However there is much evidence that these guys react with armed aggression to almost ALL situations that they encounter while on the job.

The real question is whether having armed civilians in a war zone providing security is a good idea. In my opinion it is not.

By the way even the military has issues with Blackwater. Huge issues.

Here is part of the story of a Blackwater employee who was about to get kicked out of his apartment and called the American military for help.

On June 22, Peters spoke with an Iraqi official who administers housing in the Green Zone and she gave him a week to vacate the apartment, since the Iraqi with whom Peters signed a rental agreement was illegal and was going to be evicted anyway.

Fearing the approaching deadline, Peters said he took his plight to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The advice he got was to go to Casey.

"I'm thinking, well let me call this guy, he's an American. It was recommended I call him for help and when I called him, he was worse than the Iraqi police," Peters said. "He says 'why are you over here?' He's yelling in the phone ... 'You're over here for the money. All you contractors are alike … I'm going to throw you out of the country, if I find you.'

"This is what I'm hearing from an American Army officer when I call him for help."

Who do you believe?

A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman’s call to stop, killing a couple and their infant.

The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants. The report said Blackwater helicopters had also fired. The Ministry of Defense said 20 Iraqis had been killed, a far higher number than had been reported before.

I do not have all of the facts yet, but if I were forced to choose I would probably side with the Iraqis on this one. Those Blackwater guys are a bunch of goons.