blackwater question: did Erik Prince know they had immunity when he went before Congress?

[spanone]

is that the reason he came off like such a smug prick, or is that just the man?

it's unbelievable that congress was not informed of this.

[robinlynne]

1. OF COURSE would be my guess. BUt he also made it clear during his interview with charlie rose

that even if the individual men had no immunity, blackwater would not be legally liable anyway; the state department would. He said that contractually the state dept, not blackwater, bears all legal liability as the coordinators. Blackwater only supplied the men and the weapons. So is the state department, who is investigating, going to charge itself with criminal negligence?

[Spazito]

5. I find it somewhat ironic that prince would believe anything he was

promised by anyone connected to the bush cabal given their track record. If he and his company become a big enough political liability, he will be thrown out like the trash he is quicker than he can say "boo".

If his company's crimes jeopardize the goal of ownership of Iraq's oil and the future control of the Middle East by the US, he will find out quickly how disposable he is, imo.

[robinlynne]

6. Don't count on that. he is part of the cabal, not an outsider.

[spanone]

7. i agree, he's in the billionaire club. he knows where some skeletons are buried

[Spazito]

8. No, he is useful to the cabal but an insider, I don't think so

The real insiders, those who are to be protected regardless, are very few in number. The rest are only protected as long as their "assets" are greater than their "liabilities" as we saw with Gonzales, etc.

[DCKit]

9. Agreed. It would be poetic justice....

If anyone in this admin knew anything other than fart jokes.

The republican bus must be a seriously bone-jarring ride with all the speed bumps they keep tossing under the wheels.

[YOY]

2. He was probably promised it by the administration

If he fell off the face of the world it would be a better place hands-down...he and the rest of his scAmway kin.

I won't be surprised when they come back and are used to put Americans into line...jackboot thugs.

[malaise]

3. More importantly as I ask in my thread

Did Condi know before she went before Congress?

[spanone]

4. sorry, didn't see your thread....

seems like a pretty big deal to give people under the suspicion of murder immunity. she's lying if she says she didn't know. imho

your question is the more important question....did she lie to congress?

[malaise]

11. I watched part of the hearings and she said nothing

about immunity. She ducked questions re Blackwater screaming that investigations were ongoing.
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1570

[spanone]

13. she had to know....this was a big decision, i would think.

[malaise]

16. Well as Cafferty said it's even worse if she did not know n/t

[Didereaux]

10. Prince believes he is annointed by god, he don't need no steenking immunity! n/t

[seemslikeadream]

12. biblical laws trumps that of civic law

Theonomic Reconstructionism:
One God, One Vote:

"We protect the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Now, we protect the most sacred treasure we have, our secret ballot." -Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell, May 2002.

"My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives." -Howard Ahmanson

How does a fervent belief in the End of the World and a conviction that the Bible (King James only, thank you ma'am) is the actual revealed word of God factor into one's long-term investment strategies? A strange question to be sure, but one that must have been posed by at least a few of the eclectic crowd who believe in Theonomic Reconstructionism.

Theonomic Reconstructionism is a belief that the only true authority is God's, that allegiance to biblical laws trumps that of civic law and that the Kingdom of Heaven needs to be built on Earth before Jesus will come again. In addition to that, homosexuals should be put to death, women should be banned from civic office, apostates and heretics should be stoned to death and there is a great need for more Christian politicians.

Not content to philosophize about such things, the TR movement sprang into action. Funded by billionaires such as Howard Ahmanson and the Coors and Hunt families, Reconstructionists formed think tanks such as the Chalcedon Institute and the Rutherford Institute (the friendly guys that funded Paula Jones' lawsuit against Clinton) to give the Christian Right a philosophical base to draw from, and political action committees to finance their elections.


According to the Reconstructionists, Jesus would do what Howard Ahmanson did. Ahmanson inherited his money from his father, owner of Home Savings & Loan (during the S&L scandal of the Reagan years, Home's investors, mostly small family investments, lost over $150 million dollars. No one went to jail). In addition to funding PACs and think tanks, Howard Jr. parlayed his fortune into the majority stock of a business called American Information Systems (AIS) started by two enterprising brothers, Todd and Bob Urosevich. AIS later merged with Business Records Corporation (BRC) and became Election Systems & Solutions (ES&S). ES&S is the number one provider of touch-screen voting machines. Their website claims that their products were used in collecting 56% of the national vote in the last presidential elections
more
http://www.tabletnewspaper.com/politics/73_tftgk.html

[walldude]

14. He certainly did.. check Paul Bremers 100 Orders for the Occupation

Order #17 grants foreign contractors, including private security firms, full immunity from Iraq's laws.

[begin_within]

15. Bremer signed Order 17 on June 27, 2004. How could Prince not know about it, since

Order 17 is so important to all contractors that I don't see how Prince could not have been aware of it as of June 27, 2004. If he wasn't aware, then he's a dumbass.