Black(water) Ops

The living scandal based in my state, Blackwater, is caught in fraud again.

Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee. On at least one occasion, an individual claiming to work for the company evidently signed for a weapons shipment using the name of a “South Park” cartoon character. And Blackwater has yet to return hundreds of the guns to the military.

The Great Orange Satan adds:

This is not the first time Blackwater has faced allegations of diverted weapons. In 2007, company employees came under federal investigation for improperly shipping hundreds of weapons to Iraq, some of which are believed to have been sold on the black market and acquired by a Kurdish terrorist group.

And Jeremy Scahill reminds us that Blackwater has had over 20 alter-egos, shell companies, etc. and "is likely to win a new $1 billion Afghan training contract next month." This is really unacceptable. I realize that Blackwater is probably the only provider of mercenaries that is big enough to furnish the kind of manpower they need to supplement the seriously stretched military Bush left behind but it's all the more reason we should leave Afghanistan. Subsidizing their criminality is just plain wrong.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]