Blackwater Buys Brazilian Fighter Jet

start of private armies?

LOL......... well. Well, heck. If i needed air support about to get my arse kicked haha.... I would want a fighter to. Just be careful an F 16 doesnt shoot it down. hahah.

upgrading eh?

Wikipedia says the company founded by former Navy Seal Eric Prince was founded in 1997. The New York Times says 1998.

The lengthy conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have given the company an even greater presence around the world, guarding diplomats and performing other security functions. In 2004, four of its employees were captured, killed and burned by a mob in the Sunni city of Fallujah. Pictures of their charred bodies hanging from lamp posts led President Bush to order a Marine assault against the city.
Iraqi officials have long complained about what they have called indiscriminate gunfire by private security forces hired by Americans. On Sept. 17, 2007, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry announced that the government had revoked Blackwater's license to operate in the country after gunfire from a convoy killed eight civilians.
The families of the four dead employees have gone through hell twice once for the deaths of their loved ones and second by the treatment of Blackwater lawyers. Stonewalled in their battles to finding information concerning the negligent actions of Blackwater. They have learned that Blackwater put those men in un-armored vehicles with no map on a road the military at that time would not travel without level five protection .
.
.The privatization of the military in my opinion is not in Americas best interest.

george wrote:

upgrading eh?

Yes they are adding to their leathality. And they will kill anyone anywhere with plausible deniability, and they are a business that will do whatever the highest bidder pays for(plus perhaps a little rabbit punch just for kicks).

well the interesting point is that wait until transnational organizations start having private armies. That's what's coming.NAFTA, WTO, etc.

Thia is my conjecture, born from a commen repeated in Toffler's "The Third Wave". He says that a US military general said to him that "the nation state is dead". This was at a cocktail party in the late 1970's-30 years ago!

Ron Paul and others say that the transnational organizations and global multinational organizations are supplanting our sovereignty .

should read "a comment"

After all we pay these companies as combat sub contractors and they turn around and spend the money on Brazilian fighter jets so obviously they are starting their own air force and they don't even buy Made In The U.S.A..

Um. Just read the story. That's not a fighter jet. That's a turboprop single engine (turbine engine propeller driven) two seat training plane. Basically an introductory trainer, a bit more powerful and faster than a typical light plane, about 350 mph top speed. The article said it could be fitted with two .50 machine guns, which might make it useful for light ground attack, but wasn't delivered with them. What we're looking at here isn't a F-16, it's an unarmed trainer. Blackwater could be thinking of using it for liason or observation, but hardly the beginnings of a private air force.
Used to work in the media many years ago, it's amazing how militarily and technologically ignorant the average journalist was. Obviously it hasn't changed much, even on Fox News.

Azjaeger wrote:

Um. Just read the story. That's not a fighter jet. That's a turboprop single engine (turbine engine propeller driven) two seat training plane. Basically an introductory trainer, a bit more powerful and faster than a typical light plane, about 350 mph top speed. The article said it could be fitted with two .50 machine guns, which might make it useful for light ground attack, but wasn't delivered with them. What we're looking at here isn't a F-16, it's an unarmed trainer. Blackwater could be thinking of using it for liason or observation, but hardly the beginnings of a private air force.
Used to work in the media many years ago, it's amazing how militarily and technologically ignorant the average journalist was. Obviously it hasn't changed much, even on Fox News.

lol ty for the clarity.

Azjaeger wrote:

Blackwater could be thinking of using it for liason or observation, but hardly the beginnings of a private air force.

Wouldn't an air force start with an aircraft just like a car collection starts with a car?

Uncle 'FAIR AND BALANCED' obviously likes to incite 'terror' by falsely denoting a prop-jet as a 'fighter jet'...

Come on, Rupert! Your weasels can do better than that...

zen

There was a 'situation' here, in CH, where 'someone' noticed that, in Chad or another African country, planes sold out of Switzerland (single or double engine prop planes) had been 'retrofitted' with bomb carriers, which violated the Swiss Gov't contract (based on their 'neutrality'); it created quite a scandal this last winter...

So if Blackwater wants to bomb FEMA camps, to destroy evidence of poisoned trailers, better get outta their way!!

ZENso

Azjaeger wrote:

Um. Just read the story. That's not a fighter jet. That's a turboprop single engine (turbine engine propeller driven) two seat training plane. Basically an introductory trainer, a bit more powerful and faster than a typical light plane, about 350 mph top speed. The article said it could be fitted with two .50 machine guns, which might make it useful for light ground attack, but wasn't delivered with them. What we're looking at here isn't a F-16, it's an unarmed trainer. Blackwater could be thinking of using it for liason or observation, but hardly the beginnings of a private air force.
Used to work in the media many years ago, it's amazing how militarily and technologically ignorant the average journalist was. Obviously it hasn't changed much, even on Fox News.

...just think about the future...if they can provide "security" over seas today. they can do it here in the good ole USA

When I first heard the name Blackwater my head turned. Blackwater is a CIA operation. We never spoke....

It's takes $250 dollars worth of food, clothing, and gear to outfit your average ground-level soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan. Balckwater security personel make $1000 per day on average in Iraq (this is the single operative take-home pay for an entry-level blackwater security detail operative.) When is the last time you made more than your boss? SO what does that tell us about what they really make? It is NOT good business to do business with Blackwater Security, as it never a good idea to do business with a private firm in place of the military you have specifically trained for the purpose of combat. If Blackwater wants to contract in Iraq, let them contract with the IRAQI government, they have plenty of oil money to foot the bill. The United States has a trained military force, and it does the job quite effectively, after all, it trained most members of Blackwater in the first place.

The Congress is at war with Blackwater, I do not blame them.

It's not about the money. Everyone gets caught up with money. Shhhhhhh Blackwater is a pipeline to divert funds to fight the real war.

We n-e-v-e-r spoke....

Blackwater is funded primarily by US tax dollars..that's you and me (unless you happen to be one of the top 2% of wage earners in this country). In fiscal 2006 they posted earnings of over 600 million dollars, and by some estimations, that figure is almost double in 2007.
I wonder what Blackwater pays in taxes. Probably the same as Halliburton, who actually received billions in tax breaks, also paid for on the backs of the American tax payer.
Being the ultimate in mercenary firms does have its advantages; at least when the firm’s CEO is so well-connected in Washington D.C.

Form one's own OPINION ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_314_...