The End of the American Century?

[dungeonbaby]

Politics seems to be playing a major role in the investigation process. In this case, Republicans seem to put the blame on the Obama administration for the Benghazi tragedy. Finger pointing should be set aside in favor of an objective investigation as to why there was a failure in intelligence.

 

this NY Times report has been dismantled by a simple fact check. and blaming the Republicans for making a so-called ruckus over 4 dead americans, including an ambassador? laughable in the light of the findings of a bipartisan senate inquiry headed by a Democrat.

 

there was no failure in intelligence. there was a failure to act on the intelligence.

 

(actually, i shouldn't say laughable. i should find more serious adjectives for such glaring misstatements.)

 

you'd think there would be a shame-faced retraction by now, but no.

 

 

 

 

be careful who you believe.

Edited January 20, 2014 by dungeonbaby

[maxiev]

this NY Times report has been dismantled by a simple fact check. and blaming the Republicans for making a so-called ruckus over 4 dead americans, including an ambassador? laughable in the light of the findings of a bipartisan senate inquiry headed by a Democrat.

 

there was no failure in intelligence. there was a failure to act on the intelligence.

 

(actually, i shouldn't say laughable. i should find more serious adjectives for such glaring misstatements.)

 

you'd think there would be a shame-faced retraction by now, but no.

 

 

 

 

be careful who you believe.

Thanks for the clarification Ms. Dungeonbaby. The point I was making or trying to make is that the issue of whether or not there was a failure of intelligence or whether there was failure to act on the intelligence is being exploited by politicians to advance their cause. Finger pointing is always used by politicians to discredit their political opponents. It's not like they really care about the fate of those who were killed. What really counts is they had the opportunity to expose the weaknesses of their political opponents hoping that they will be elected next time around.

 

This is the way politics works round the world. One only needs to read the way New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie was publicly criticized by a mayor belonging to the Democrat party because Christie allegedly closed down several lanes of the George Washington Bridge on the first day of school last September resulting in traffic gridlock. Politics is a dirty business round the world. No wonder politicians are always criticized by the very people they represent.

[Ryuji_tanaka]

America as corpocracy:

[dungeonbaby]

Thanks for the clarification Ms. Dungeonbaby. The point I was making or trying to make is that the issue of whether or not there was a failure of intelligence or whether there was failure to act on the intelligence is being exploited by politicians to advance their cause. Finger pointing is always used by politicians to discredit their political opponents. It's not like they really care about the fate of those who were killed. What really counts is they had the opportunity to expose the weaknesses of their political opponents hoping that they will be elected next time around.

 

it sure does seem that way sometimes. so many inquiries, but what comes of these efforts? is anyone ever fired? put in jail? or are officials simply moved around, or given a cushy retirement?

 

very frustrating for the people.

Edited January 20, 2014 by dungeonbaby

[sonnyt111]

it sure does seem that way sometimes. so many inquiries, but what comes of these efforts? is anyone ever fired? put in jail? or are officials simply moved around, or given a cushy retirement?

 

very frustrating for the people.

You need not look too far. Just think Estrada, Enrile and Revilla. They are charged with plunder and yet they remain free while Napoles is locked up.

 

Extremely frustrating for the people.

 

 

 

 

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

You need not look too far. Just think Estrada, Enrile and Revilla. They are charged with plunder and yet they remain free while Napoles is locked up.

 

Extremely frustrating for the people.

 

 

 

 

Seems Senator Bong Revilla has drawn first blood in his attempt to clear his name in the PDAF scam. But it was a bit off tangent I would say since he focused his defense by accusing the Administration that they were "coerced" to impeach former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Now what does that have to do with his affiliation with Janet Napoles and his alleged involvement in the PDAF scam?

 

If you noticed, both the Administration and the Opposition have been extremely quiet regarding the PDAF scam these past couple of months with neither side accusing the other of involvement. Why? Because both sides are guilty. If Administration politicians had nothing to do with the PDAF scam, they would have had the moral high ground to condemn opposition politicians linked to the scam. They would have taken this opportunity to slam the opposition and retain power during the next election. Did the Administration press the issue? Did it condemn the acts of Revilla et al? No. It remained deafly silent. Because they themselves are involved. You don't throw rocks at the house of your enemy if your house is made of glass.

 

Well, it seems that Revilla doesn't realize this. He has upset the conspiracy of silence by throwing rocks at the Administration. Silence had worked for both sides so far and Revilla seems to want to start a war just to clear his name. He never did confront the charges but rather focused on CJ Corona's impeachment which is rather silly. Neither have Estrada nor Enrile come out with any concrete evidence to prove that they are innocent of the plunder charges leveled against them. All they've done so far is deny the charges and provide red herrings in an attempt to deflect the evidence against them.

 

Will the Administration take up the challenge of the Opposition? Will they finally start slinging mud at each other over the PDAF scam? For the sake of the Filipino people I hope they do. Let the chips fall where they may.

 

A house divided cannot stand. It's time for that house to come crashing down. It's time for the truth to surface.

 

 

 

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

Seems Senator Bong Revilla has drawn first blood in his attempt to clear his name in the PDAF scam. But it was a bit off tangent I would say since he focused his defense by accusing the Administration that they were "coerced" to impeach former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Now what does that have to do with his affiliation with Janet Napoles and his alleged involvement in the PDAF scam?

 

If you noticed, both the Administration and the Opposition have been extremely quiet regarding the PDAF scam these past couple of months with neither side accusing the other of involvement. Why? Because both sides are guilty. If Administration politicians had nothing to do with the PDAF scam, they would have had the moral high ground to condemn opposition politicians linked to the scam. They would have taken this opportunity to slam the opposition and retain power during the next election. Did the Administration press the issue? Did it condemn the acts of Revilla et al? No. It remained deafly silent. Because they themselves are involved. You don't throw rocks at the house of your enemy if your house is made of glass.

 

Well, it seems that Revilla doesn't realize this. He has upset the conspiracy of silence by throwing rocks at the Administration. Silence had worked for both sides so far and Revilla seems to want to start a war just to clear his name. He never did confront the charges but rather focused on CJ Corona's impeachment which is rather silly. Neither have Estrada nor Enrile come out with any concrete evidence to prove that they are innocent of the plunder charges leveled against them. All they've done so far is deny the charges and provide red herrings in an attempt to deflect the evidence against them.

 

Will the Administration take up the challenge of the Opposition? Will they finally start slinging mud at each other over the PDAF scam? For the sake of the Filipino people I hope they do. Let the chips fall where they may.

 

A house divided cannot stand. It's time for that house to come crashing down. It's time for the truth to surface.

 

I apologize for posting my views here. I realize that this should have been posted on the Sen Jinggoy and Sen Bong sub-forum instead. I'm sorry for being off topic. Just got carried away by the post of sonnyt111.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ryuji_tanaka]

 

*Jordan's

 

You forgot open borders for the illegals and instant citizenship for the anchor babies.

[maxiev]

http://news.yahoo.com/trial-sought-sc-boy-14-executed-1944-172035983.html

 

New trial sought for SC boy, 14, executed in 1944

 

Associated Press

By JEFFREY COLLINS

January 21, 2014 12:23 PM

 

SUMTER, S.C. (AP) — A 14-year-old black boy executed nearly 70 years ago is finally getting another day in court, and his lawyers plan to argue Tuesday for a new trial, saying his conviction was tainted by the segregationist-era justice system and scant evidence.

 

George Stinney was found guilty in 1944 of killing two white girls, ages 7 and 11. The trial lasted less than a day in the tiny Southern mill town of Alcolu, separated, as most were in those days, by race.

 

Nearly all the evidence, including a confession that was central to the case against Stinney, has disappeared, along with the transcript of the trial. Lawyers working on behalf of Stinney's family have gathered new evidence, including sworn statements from his relatives accounting for his whereabouts the day the girls were killed and from a pathologist disputing the autopsy findings.

 

The novel decision of whether to give someone executed a new trial will be in the hands of Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen. Experts say it is a longshot. South Carolina law has a high bar to grant new trials. Also, the legal system in the state before segregation often found defendants guilty with evidence that would be considered scant today. If Mullen finds in favor of Stinney, it could open the door for hundreds of other appeals.

 

But the Stinney case is unique. At 14, he's the youngest person executed in the United States in the past 100 years. Even in 1944, there was an outcry over putting someone so young in the electric chair. Newspaper accounts said the straps in the chair didn't fit around his 95-pound body and an electrode was too big for his leg.

 

Stinney's supporters said racism, common in the Jim Crow era South, meant deputies in Clarendon County did little investigation after they decided Stinney was the prime suspect. They said he was pulled from his parents and interrogated without a lawyer.

 

School board member George Frierson heard stories about Stinney growing up in the same mill town he did, and he has spent a decade fighting to get him exonerated. He swallowed hard as he said he hardly slept Monday night.

 

"Somebody that didn't k*ll someone is finally getting his day in court," Frierson said.

 

In 1944, Stinney was likely the only black in the courtroom. On Tuesday, the prosecutor arguing against him will be Ernest "Chip" Finney III, the son of South Carolina's first black chief justice. Finney argued Tuesday there shouldn't be a new trial because the evidence was lost with the passage of time, not destroyed.

 

"Back in 1944, we should have known better, but we didn't," Finney said.

 

Finney has said he will conduct an investigation if a new trial is granted, but what that might find is not known. South Carolina did not have a statewide law enforcement unit to help smaller jurisdictions until 1947. Newspaper stories about Stinney's trial offer little clue whether any evidence was introduced beyond the teen's confession and an autopsy report. Some people around Alcolu said bloody clothes were taken from Stinney's home, but never introduced at trial because of his confession. No record of those clothes exists.

 

Relatives of one of the girls killed, 11-year-old Betty Binnicker, have recently spoke out as well, saying Stinney was known around town as a bully who threatened to fight or k*ll people who came too close to the grass where he grazed the family cow.

 

It isn't known if the judge will rule Tuesday, or take time to come to her decision. Stinney's supporters said if the motion for a new trial fails, they will ask the state to pardon him.

[maxiev]

It seems not all Republicans are against Obamacare. Here's one clear exception.

 

Why I’m Republican and Love Obamacare

 

Money Talks News

By Maryalene LaPonsie

5 hours ago

 

OK, Money Talks News readers, I’ve psyched myself up, and I’m ready to upset a whole bunch of you. Yes, I am ready to out myself as an Obamacare lovin’ Republican.

 

I know some of you think MTN is shilling for Obama, but let me assure you if there is an editorial directive on health reform, I haven’t seen it. However, I have seen your reaction to posts by Stacy Johnson and Karen Datko on the subject and, as a freelance contributor to the site, I asked if I could add my perspective.

 

To be clear, the comments in this article are my opinion and mine alone and should not be construed as representative of the site in general.

 

I’m also quite sure some of you have your fingers hovering over the R-I-N-O keys so let me start by giving you my Republican credentials and political views.

•I’ve never voted for a Democrat in my life other than maybe when I was 18, didn’t know what I was doing and voted for people based on how patriotic their names sounded.

•I’m worried our entitlement programs have turned into a handout and not a hand up. Without better accountability measures, I think our current system traps families in a cycle of poverty.

•I would love to be able to invest my own Social Security money because with the government in charge, I don’t think my money is going to be waiting for me at retirement time.

•I’m concerned with our punitive tax system. We say it’s the American dream for everyone to make it big, but if you succeed, by golly, we’re going to take your money away and give it to someone else.

•I think less government is better government, except in cases of life and death (which is where I think health insurance falls).

 

So that said, this is why I love the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is so affectionately called by some.

 

I love that it will help ensure everyone has access to care

 

I’ve been reporting on health reform since before the law passed, and in the early days, there was a lot of concern about government death panels deciding who would get care and who would be left to die.

 

Well, we already have our own version of death panels: It’s called health insurance. If you have coverage, you get treatment. If not, well, tough for you.

 

True story: When my husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, the parting words of the doctor who did the endoscopy were, no joke, “I hope you have health insurance. Because you’re going to need it.”

 

Boy, was he right. When I called the cancer center for general information, they asked for our insurance information. When I made the consultation appointment, they asked for our insurance information. When we showed up, they checked our insurance information. In the middle of the consultation, we met with a finance guy who, that’s right, checked our insurance information.

 

And then get this. We show up for the first chemo visit, my husband is hooked to the IV and the nurse says she needs to wait a minute before getting started. When my husband asked why, she said it was because they needed to reconfirm our insurance coverage. My husband asked what happens if the insurance company says they won’t pay, and the nurse told him they would probably pull us back to meet with a financial adviser and they might need to change the treatment plan.

 

In other words, if you don’t have health insurance, you get sub-par treatment.

 

That brings me to the next reason I love Obamacare.

 

I love that it gives new options for those with pre-existing conditions

 

If you have only ever had insurance through your workplace, you probably think the health insurance system is great. I know I did when I had group coverage. But if you are one of the 5 percent of Americans who buy their own insurance, it’s a different story.

 

One huge difference is how pre-existing conditions have been treated under the law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 limited the ability of group insurance plans to exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions. However, no such protection was extended to those buying individual plans. If you had a pre-existing condition and needed to buy your own health insurance, you were up the proverbial creek and without an oar.

 

Here’s my real-world example – one that helped change my view on health insurance. In the summer of 2010, in anticipation of leaving my office job, which provided our family insurance, I received a quote for individual coverage that was $800 a month with a $7,000 deductible. And that was the good plan out of multiple choices.

 

My husband was diagnosed with cancer a few months later and then our options dwindled down to exactly zero. Fortunately, a 1986 federal law – the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) – gave me the right to continue to buy my former workplace policy for 18 months. It cost $1,300 a month but, hey, what else are you going to do if you need coverage?

 

Then after 18 months, thanks to that same federal law, our insurance provider was required to offer us an individual insurance plan. This mercifully dropped our premiums to $800 a month but gave us a $5,000 deductible. However, we were grateful to just have insurance since my husband’s pre-existing condition meant no one else would cover us.

 

You may be thinking there were high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions, right? Well, in our state, you needed to be uninsured for six months to be eligible. That’s not much help to people who have immediate medical needs.

 

It may also be crossing your mind that people could just get a job or they should have gotten health insurance earlier or it’s such a small percentage of people affected that we shouldn’t bother changing the system. Maybe or maybe not, but again, we’re talking about people’s lives here. I find the attitude of “too bad for you” to be disturbing, particularly when it comes from my fellow Christian Republicans.

 

I love that it focuses on preventive care and essential services

 

On a different note, I love that Obamacare is requiring insurance companies to provide free preventive services and cover essential services.

 

I know mandates go against the pro-business party line, but as a Republican, I appreciate the fiscal soundness behind this strategy. It makes more sense to pay $6,000 a year to help someone manage their diabetes than it does to have them develop end-stage renal disease, which can cost upward of $70,000 per year per patient.

 

Same thing goes for mental health services which, prior to the passage of Obamacare, were not covered by 1 in 5 individual health insurance plans. Under the law, mental health and substance abuse services are essential health benefits and must be covered by all new health insurance plans.

 

Does mandating mental illness coverage increase our health insurance premiums? Perhaps, but I can’t believe our costs will go up more than the estimated $200 billion we are already paying annually as a result of untreated mental illness. And that doesn’t include the emotional price we pay when someone’s untreated mental illness leads to tragedy.

 

In the short run, paying for preventive services and essential health benefits might cost us a little more. However, after crunching the numbers, I like to think my fiscally conservative friends would agree, in the long run, paying for preventive care simply makes sense.

 

I love that it gives premium assistance to working families

 

So many government assistance programs are geared toward people living at or just above the poverty limit, and I love that Obamacare is extending some financial love to the working middle class.

 

Many people work long hours to make ends meet and stay off the welfare rolls. If the government is going to be doling out money – and we all know it is – I’m glad these families are finally getting a piece of the pie.

 

Plus, as with preventive care, I would rather give working families a couple hundred dollars a month to supplement their premium payments and keep them covered rather than have us pay for their emergency room visits.

 

I love that it’s a start … but I’m not convinced it’s the answer

 

Finally, I love that Obamacare is getting the conversation started. It’s not perfect by any means, but it has moved what is, quite frankly, a life and death issue to the forefront.

 

That said, I am not convinced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the answer to our health care problems. These are my concerns:

• Constitutionality. Despite the fact I was secretly rooting for the bill, I was shocked when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it constitutional. While I understand the reason for requiring everyone to get health insurance, the mandate seems like overreach of government authority. My hope would be that if affordable health insurance becomes widely available, everyone would be smart enough to take advantage of it without a government requirement.

• Government incompetence. My second concern is that the government may simply not be up for the challenge. Despite having three years’ advance notice, the online marketplace was and is a mess. It took at least 10 hours of my time to get my application in and, in the end, a technical difficulty preventing me from even being able to view my plan choices. Instead, I had to rely on a phone operator who had a questionable level of knowledge to explain the available plans. Couple that with all the people having trouble accessing their benefits, and I’m starting to wonder if the government is causing more harm than good.

 

So the law isn’t perfect in my mind, but at least it’s moving our health care system in the right direction — a direction that ensures we don’t leave marginalized people to die.

 

There you have it: That’s why I’m Republican and love Obamacare. Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

 

This article was originally published on MoneyTalksNews.com as 'Why I’m Republican and Love Obamacare'.

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS LOTS OF PROFANITY. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY PROFANITY.

 

This YouTube video was made in reaction to the recent arrest of Justin Bieber in Florida for DUI, possessing an expired license, and resisting arrest (without violence).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2014 by oscartamaguchiblackface

[Bugatti Veyron]

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS LOTS OF PROFANITY. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY PROFANITY.

 

This YouTube video was made in reaction to the recent arrest of Justin Bieber in Florida for DUI, possessing an expired license, and resisting arrest (without violence).

 

 

 

I don't think this guy likes Justin Bieber. Seriously, I think he's got anger management issues which he apparently is proud of since that's not the only YouTube video he uploaded.

 

Hopefully his bark is worse than his bite.

 

As for Justin Bieber, I hope this case against him will knock some sense into him. He's been acting like a spoiled brat from day one.

 

 

 

[maxiev]

This is too true to be funny.

 

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think

about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

 

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that into some perspective in one of its releases.

 

A.

A billion seconds ago…

it was 1959.

 

B.

A billion minutes ago…

Jesus was living on earth.

 

C.

A billion hours ago…

our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

 

D.

A billion days ago…

no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

 

E.

A billion dollars ago…

was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans...

 

It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) was asking Congress for250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans.

 

Interesting number... What does it mean?

 

A.

Well... If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child) you each get $516,528

 

B.

Or... If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787

 

C.

Or... If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012

 

Washington, D.C.

 

HELLO!

Are all your calculators broken??

Building Permit Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Driver’s License Tax

Federal Income Tax (Fed)

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Tax

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service charge Taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes!!!

 

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

 

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...

And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

 

We had absolutely no national debt...

We had the largest middle class in the world...

And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

 

What happened?

 

Can you spell ‘politicians’?

 

And I still have to press '1' For English!

 

What has happened to our country?

 

I hope this goes around the USA

at least 100 times

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

This is too true to be funny.

 

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think

about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

 

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that into some perspective in one of its releases.

 

A.

A billion seconds ago…

it was 1959.

 

B.

A billion minutes ago…

Jesus was living on earth.

 

C.

A billion hours ago…

our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

 

D.

A billion days ago…

no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

 

E.

A billion dollars ago…

was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans...

 

It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) was asking Congress for250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans.

 

Interesting number... What does it mean?

 

A.

Well... If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child) you each get $516,528

 

B.

Or... If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787

 

C.

Or... If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012

 

Washington, D.C.

 

HELLO!

Are all your calculators broken??

Building Permit Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Driver's License Tax

Federal Income Tax (Fed)

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Tax

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service charge Taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes!!!

 

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

 

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...

And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

 

We had absolutely no national debt...

We had the largest middle class in the world...

And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

 

What happened?

 

Can you spell 'politicians'?

 

And I still have to press '1' For English!

 

What has happened to our country?

 

I hope this goes around the USA

at least 100 times

It's only when you put in proper perspective that one realizes the enormity of the number 1 billion. And yet US debt is already in the trillions. A trillion is a thousand billion dollars.

[Larry]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/19/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-war-on-terror-has-become-too-big.html

 

When the war on terror has lost the founder of Blackwater, counterterrorism efforts could be in real trouble. Why Erik Prince thinks the national security state has become too big.

Erik Prince is not the kind of man one expects to make the case for slashing U.S. intelligence and military budgets. After 9-11, his company, Blackwater, expanded exponentially, winning contracts to protect diplomats and politicians in Iraq and to train and work with CIA paramilitary teams hunting terrorists.

 

In an interview Monday, Prince said the national security state he once served has grown too large.

 

“America is way too quick to trade freedom for the illusion of security,” he told The Daily Beast. “Whether it’s allowing the NSA to go way too far in what it intercepts of our personal data, to our government monitoring of everything domestically and spending way more than we should. I don’t know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible ‘cause that country would look more like North Korea than America.”

 

Today Prince is out of the contracting business and is promoting a book telling his side of the Blackwater story. To be sure, he accuses Democrats of abusing state power to wage a political war on him and the media of aiding and abetting that campaign.

 

 

 

Prince’s new book, Civilian Warriors, recounts in detail the battles Prince waged in the last decade over his company. He writes, for example, about a conversation at one point with his accountant, who claimed an IRS auditor told him that he was never under such pressure to get someone as he was in the case of Prince. He takes shots at the left-wing lawyers who brought civil suits related to the incident at Nisour Square, a traffic circle in Baghdad where Blackwater contractors killed 11 Iraqis. Prince says the evidence shows the incident was a firefight and not, as his critics alleged at the time, a massacre of an unarmed crowd. And he complains that the media coverage of Blackwater was biased and often wrong.

 

But despite attacking Blackwater’s many critics in the book, Prince also sounds a bit like them when discussing what he considers President Obama’s counterterrorism policies.

 

131118-lake-prince2-embed

Erik Prince at Blackwater's offices in Moyock, N.C. (Gerry Broome/AP)

“I am all in favor of killing terrorists,” Prince said. “But the fact that [Anwar] al-Awlaki was killed and his 16-year-old son, born in Colorado, was killed with no due process other than that he got on the ‘k*ll list’ is troubling to me.” The Obama administration has claimed that Awlaki, an American citizen who was killed in a drone strike in 2011, was an operational leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.

 

Prince said he believes al-Awlaki’s son was deliberately targeted in a second strike after the one that killed Awlaki. The Obama administration has said that strike was not targeting Awlaki’s son, but someone else.

 

"I don’t know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible ‘cause that country would look more like North Korea than America.”

Prince also said the over-reliance on drone warfare in the Middle East and South Asia would likely reap “a bitter harvest,” because of the scale of collateral damage from drone strikes. He said it was wiser to send in small teams to such denied areas to find and target terrorists, or outsource this kind of work to local surrogates.

 

Prince was most animated on the subject of the military and intelligence budgets.

 

“The left wants to protect social programs, the right wants to protect defense and intelligence spending and all the rest. I say the defense and intelligence world will be better off with a smaller budget. They would be less encumbered by bloat and able to maneuver the way they used to be able and not trip over themselves,” he said.

 

Prince said the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national who nearly blew up an airplane full of passengers on Christmas Day in 2009, illustrated this case. “If it wasn’t for a sweaty groin, that airplane would have blown up,” Prince said. “His father warned the CIA station in Abuja, they ignored intercepts, State Department never did a thing with his visa.” Prince said that despite $80 billion a year in spending, U.S. intelligence had nothing to do with thwarting the Nigerian national.

 

Today, Prince said, he is focusing his business on expanding markets in Africa. He said he will never work for the U.S. government again. When asked if he would run for president, Prince said there was no chance that he would. For now he is not that focused on presidential politics at all. But when that election cycle does roll around, Prince said, “I will support vigorously whoever commits to reduce the size of government the most.”

 

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interesting read

 

whether it's the rant of a businessman who's losing business, a lot of it still rings true.