UPDATES I – IV  on Blackwater and the accuracy of these reports below the fold.

I have long thought Blackwater was one of the scariest and most subversive institutions the Bush regime established within the US.  Highly armed, lethally trained, militantly Christian at its top, and replacing the Army in many things, in my view Blackwater provided the core of a private army willing to do the dirty work of Christian dominionists if and when the opportunity arose.

Now it turns out its founder, Erik Prince, may also be a murderer.    Not only that, a murderer who killed or facilitated the deaths of men who “knew too much” about his operations.

Stay tuned.

I have heard people are having difficulty accessing the story.  Here is another access point.

UPDATE
Correction: Blackwater was founded in the 1990s to
provide training to military and law enforcement people.  It’s
expansion into a private army came under Bush.    That said, nothing
else is changed in this post.

UPDATE II
One commentor in the
responses suggested the problem was disgruntled employees.  Maybe, but
that is also standard operating procedure for corporations seeking to
discredit whistleblowers.  I have looked around a little bit more, and
the Nation article reported the following:

This is not the first time an allegation has surfaced that Blackwater
used dog food bags to smuggle weapons into Iraq. ABC
News’s Brian Ross reported in November 2008 that a “federal grand
jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial
private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and
silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food.” Another former
Blackwater employee has also confirmed this information to The
Nation.

ABC also reported

Another former Blackwater insider who talked with ABCNews.com said
company executives made the decision to smuggle the weapons and
silencers in the dog food “because it’s a war over there and our guys
need them.”

Silencers
are useful for assassinations, not guard duty which is what Blackwater
allegedly was in Iraq to perform.  M-14 are assault weapons and so were
officially denied to Blackwater.  The ABC report reported Blackwater as
saying they owned no M-14s that in Iraq.

That would seem a
pretty definitive statement, except that according to ABC’s report, “US
Army officials told ABCNews.com earlier this year, at least one
Blackwater M4 weapon was discovered during a raid on an suspected
insurgent location in Iraq.”

So Blackwater has a record of
lying abut these kinds of issues – and of acting contrary to its
contracts with the government, in ways that suggest it is involved in
increased levels of violence and killinhg.  I for one am not surprised.

To the normal sociopathy of corporations we need to keep in mind the special kind of dementia assciated with the religious right.

UPDATE III
Another report, with more details on alleged murders and the affidavits, is available from the Michigan Messenger.

UPDATE IV
Sometimes even bad guys might be innocent of some things.  Mark Kleiman over at The Reality Community has some hard questions for those sure that Prince is guilty. This story is still filled with uncerytainties.  What appears certain is Blackwater’s illegal activity, its militant Christian leadership, its ruthlessness, and its danger to us as a private army.