Blackwater: No, Really, It's Not What You Think

If it's dead, it's VC Haji...

OK, where to begin? Erik Prince's arrogant, Shrubian-style damage control is as good a point as any:

"To the extent there was loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic"

Translated:
I could not care any less, so lets get the standard-issue, generic, sorta regret it statement out of the way...and quit bothering me.

Well, that's the diplomatic translation. One could easily make the case that Prince really meant "fuck you, pay me you pricks, and shove your questions up your ass."

Prince said there has been a "rush to judgment based on inaccurate information."

He disputed a congressional report's finding that Blackwater is an out-of-control outfit that's indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties. And he maintained that his guards were responding to hostile fire when they engaged in a Sept. 16 shootout while protecting a U.S. convoy. At least 11 Iraqis died as a result of that incident. Prince's contention about the nature of the gunfire exchange is hotly disputed by witnesses and the Iraqi government, and the incident remains under U.S. and Iraqi investigation.

To be honest, part of me's surprised the son-of-a-bitch didn't immediately demand a resolution from the full House and Senate offering apolgies for disrupting his busy schedule...and, sad to say, part of me thinks the vertebral-challenged Democrats might well join their jellyfish GOP colleagues in endorsing such a statement "on behalf of the management."

That said, you can still find the odd vertebra on Capitol Hill:

The Democratic staff of the House committee issued a scathing 15-page report on the company's conduct Monday, portraying the company as unchecked by the State Department.

Among the report's most serious charges was that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid -- with State Department approval -- the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.

Blackwater has had to fire 122 guards -- one-seventh of the personnel it has in Iraq -- over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct, and violent behavior, the committee report said.

...but it remains to be seen if anything remotely approaching an evolutionary trend can begin:

Blackwater has earned more than $1 billion from federal contracts since 2001, when it had less than $1 million in government work. Overall, the State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million between 2004 and 2006 for security work, according to the report.

Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single "protective security specialist," the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service.