Makes one smile. The arrogant Prince of Blackwater just got nailed with a big fine from the same corrupt Federal government they contracted with. The "war on terrorism" is so profitable. What happened to all the hardware that ended up on the black market in Iraq? (Someone knows).

"Compliance challenges", he says. More like rogue operations. This is the same company that shoots whoever is in the area and quickly leaves, whose crimes even U.S. military personnel have reported. Dirty mercenaries are never held accountable for war crimes because they are independent contractors. This is the least the State Dept has on them, just the tip of the proverbial ice berg. Iraq wants to try them there.

from ABC:

A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned.

Yes, but will we melt the entire iceberg or just the token tip?

Probably just the tip:

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/6675CE02-1C4B-4FD4-96FB-FE2D9B93DE14/

Obama has been a passionate critic of the war industry and is the sponsor of the leading Democratic legislation in the Senate to bring more effective regulation and oversight to it. But he has stopped short of supporting Schakowsky and Senator Bernie Sanders's legislation seeking a ban on using Blackwater and other armed contracting companies in Iraq. One of his top foreign policy advisers told The Nation earlier this year that Obama "can't rule out [and] won't rule out" using these companies in Iraq.

Sounds like business as usual to me.

Excellent point TN. Now everyone else take your partisan blinders off and face reality in this new administration, and confront it instead of defending it if you want real "change".

I observe people are doing with Obama what the republicans did with Bush, circling the wagons upon every criticism. Partisanship blinds and it is time to bust Obama's "halo effect" with plain facts.

Party means nothing, policy and principle mean everything.

blueridge said:

Party means nothing, policy and principle mean everything.

That's why so many Republicans wised up and voted Obama.

It's okay to breathe now, Blueridge. The big, bad screwup daddy's boy lost the election. It's okay to just give the government the normal amount of common-sense scrutiny again, rather than staring in horror and holding on to your ass for dear life, wondering what maniacally-stupid decision the president will make next.

He is not yet gone. (I typed that to the music of the Monkeys. Change stations.)

That was deliberate. The Monkeys were the first "mercenary group" weren't they?