Blackwater Executives Boast of Membership in

The Knights of Malta

‘What is particularly scary about Blackwater’s role in a war that President Bush labeled a ‘crusade’ is that the company’s leading executives are dedicated to a Christian-supremacist agenda…. Some Blackwater executives even boast of their membership in a Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a [Roman Catholic] Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending ‘territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems.’ The Order today boasts of being ‘a sovereign subject of international law, with its own constitution, passports, stamps, and public institutions’ and ‘diplomatic relations with 94 countries.’ The outsourcing of U.S. military operations in Muslim countries and in secular societies to such neo-crusaders reinforces the greatest fears of many in the Arab world and other opponents of the administration’s wars.” –Blackwater, xxv, xxvi.   

Joseph Schmitz: Knight of Malta

One Knight of Malta hired on at Blackwater is Joseph Schmitz, “appointed by President Bush to be the Pentagon’s Inspector General, the top U.S. official in charge of directly overseeing military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.” (Blackwater, 297), from 2002 to 2005. “On Schmitz’s watch, well-connected companies like Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, Fluor, Titan, CACI, Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and Blackwater made a killing serving the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. By June of 2005, the Defense had 149 ‘prime contracts’ with seventy-seven contractors in Iraq worth approximately $42.1 billion.” –Blackwater, 297, 298.

Senator Wyden: Iraq Like Dodge

City Before the Marshals Showed

 Up

“Its been like Dodge City before the marshals showed up,’ declared Senator Ron Wyden.” –Blackwater, 298. Under fire from Democrats and Republicans, Schmitz resigned, and “revealed his intention to pursue a career working for Erik Prince at Blackwater.” –Blackwater, 298. 

“General Schmitz,” Knight of

Malta, Blackwater’s Chief

Operating Officer

“Joseph Schmitz, like Erik Prince and other executives at Blackwater, was a Catholic and a Christian fundamentalist. Some would go as far as to say he was a religious fanatic obsesses with implementing ‘the rule of law under God.’ In numerous speeches given during his time as Pentagon Inspector General, Schmitz articulated his vision and understanding on the war on terror, employing the rhetoric of Christian supremacy…On his official biography, Schmitz proudly listed his membership in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta,  a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending ‘territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Muslims. The Order today boasts of being ‘a sovereign subject of international law, with its own constitution, passports, stamps, and public institutions’ and ‘diplomatic relations with 94 countries.’” –Blackwater, 299.

Schmitz sits “directly at Prince’s right hand as the Prince Groups’ chief operating officer and general counsel. In a press release announcing the hire, Erik Prince referred to him as ‘General Schmitz.’” –Blackwater, 300.

Schmitz comes from an ultra-radical Catholic family that has espoused the most radical Catholic causes.

A Frankenstein Experiment in

Military and Intelligence 

Outsourcing with Iraq the Laboratory

Some of these mercenaries’ armies can field battalion-sized armies. Blackwater in Iraq is bigger than Britain’s entire military contingent there. “’Each private firm amounts to an individual battalion,’ a U.S. government official told the Washington Post. ‘Now they are all coming together to build the largest security organization in the world. It became like a Frankenstein experiment in military and intelligence ouytsourcing, with Iraq as the laboratory.” [Blackwater, 158.] They are networking together.

Baghdad Alive with Mysterious

Westerners Draped with Hardware

‘’[T]he power of the mercenaries has been growing,’ Robert Fisk wrote from Baghdad in the summer of 2004. ‘Blackwater’s thugs with guns now push and punch Iraqis who get in their way: Kurdish journalists twice walked out of a Bremer press conference because of their mistreatment by these men. Baghdad is alive with mysterious Westerners draped with hardware, shouting and abusing Iraqis in the street, drinking heavily in the cities poorly defended hotels. They have become, for ordinary Iraqis, the image of everything that is wrong with the West. We like to call them ‘contractors,’ but there is a disturbing increase in reports that mercenaries are shooting down innocent Iraqis with total impunity.’” –Blackwater, 158.

$100 Billion Per Year Industry

They are extremely highly paid, and have the ear and support of the highest echelons of the US government. Money is flowing in a new gold rush as security is in desperate demand in high-risk areas. Massive infusion of taxpayers funds is flowing like a giant IV into these mercenary armies. It is now a $100 billion per year industry. [Blackwater, 158].

At one point recently in October 2006 there were almost three times the number of British armies in Iraq as there were British military – an estimated 21,000 private mercenaries as opposed to about 7,200 active British military.

New Wave of the Future –

Flooding the World With Massive

Numbers of SEAL-type Armies

Private militias are these mercenary armies. They are the new wave of the future. They are flooding the world with a massive number of expertly trained, Navy SEAL type private mercenaries used to working for vastly more money than active military, and who have no chain of command like the military, and operate with immunity from prosecution decreed by the ruling power in Iraq.

These men are trained to kill, men who are restless unless they have that continual rush of adrenalin from dangerous combat. I have spoken to these men. They are so trained to be killing machines that they have great difficulty adapting later to civilian life.

Men are pouring into these mercenary armies. I once spoke with a man I came across who had a large scar across his face. He told me that an African country having trouble with thousands of rebels threatening to overthrow of the government, hired a seventy [that’s 70] man miniature army to protect them from overthrow. He was part of the operation. The seventy-man team flew in giant Russian aircraft loaded with armored vehicles equipped with machine guns. They had excellent communications. Once in the country, they located where the rebels were, attacked the thousands of armed rebels with their superior firepower, overwhelmed the rebels, quickly won the victory and kept the government from collapsing.

Twelve Times the Pay 

Blackwater USA, at the foremost of the mercenary armies, offers no doubt the finest Special Forces type training in the world. Blackwater can field 25,000 men. It is the world’s most powerful mercenary army. It is like an army of Special Forces personnel, armed to the hilt with helicopters, heavy military equipment, and superb tactical training. Blackwater commands a price tag of up to $1,500 to $2,000 per day for each of its men in the field. Blackwater men make as much in a month as military men make in a year. Where then, would the finest military men choose to serve? The answer is obvious. They would go where they can make twelve times as much money. Therefore, Blackwater, by virtue of its incredible wealth, can command by far a far superior quality force of men, pound for pound, than the US Military.       

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