This is a picture of a car destroyed by Blackwater corporate mercenaries on September 16 2007. The car contained three civilians: a mother, a father, and their baby. They, along with the car, were riddled with bullets and charred. They are dead.
CNN has revealed that the initial State Department report on the incident — the one that exonerated Blackwater of responsibility for the killing of this young family — was not written by an impartial, unconnected departmental auditor. That report was written by an employee of Blackwater.
Blackwater is not a politically neutral mercenary corporation. The corporation has received $800 million in contracts to carry out its mercenary work, but the money doesn’t just flow in one direction. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince has donated $221750 to Republican and conservative national political causes since 1998, in the following distribution:
Republican Party:
Republican National Committee
2000: $88,000
2001: $3,950
2004: $25,000
National Republican Congressional Committee
2005: $25,000
2007: $20,000
Republican Party of Virginia (under misspelling of “Eric Prince)
2006: $800
Conservative Political Committees:
Restoring the American Dream
1998: $5,000
1999: $5,000
Susan B. Anthony List
1998: $2,500
Principles Exalt A Nation
2006: $1,000
America’s Foundation
2004: $1,000
2006: $1,000
National Conservative Campaign Fund
2003: $500
Drake-Virginia Victory Committee
2006: $5,000
Republican Political Candidates:
George W. Bush
2003: $2,000
Spencer Abraham
1999: $2,000
Peter Hoekstra
1999: $500
2004: $1,000
2005: $1,000
Gary Hofmeister
1999: $1,000
Ted Poe
2004: $750
Jim Talent
2006: $2,100
Todd Tiahrt
2005: $1,000
Duncan Hunter
2004: $1,000
Jim Saxton
2005: $1,500
Tom DeLay
2004: $1,000
2005: $2,100
Mike Pence
2005: $2,000
2006: $1,000
Jon Kyl
2006: $2,100
Rick Santorum
2005: $2,100
Marilyn Musgrave
2004: $1,000
Max Burns
2004: $1,000
Tom Coburn
2004: $1,000
George Allen
2006: $2,100
Jim DeMint
2004: $1,000
Walter Jones
2002: $1,000
2004: $750
Jerry Lewis
2004: $1,000
Green Party:
Green Party of Luzerne County, PA
2006: $5,000
Then there are the contributions made by another member of the Prince household named Joanna. Mysteriously, this is not his first wife Joan, who died of cancer in 2003. But they are of the same address as Erik Prince in the FEC records. Is this Erik Prince using his child to make contributions? Seemingly, no; “Joanna” is listed as a “Homemaker” in occupation. Is Erik Prince’s second wife named Joanna? I cannot find any source for this information. Well, we know they are part of the same household, and as you can see by their pattern, they are not at all independent contributions:
Principles Exalt A Nation
2006: $1,000
Green Party:
Green Party of Luzerne County, PA
2006: $5,000
George Allen
2006: $2,100
Rick Santorum
2005: $2,100
Jim Talent
2006: $2,100
Adding in Joanna Prince’s $12,300 to the mix, that brings us to a total so far of $234,050 in campaign contributions.
What’s going on with those contributions to the Pennsylvania Green Party? An attempt in 2006 to prop up the Green Party candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, in the hope that the Green candidate would siphon away votes from Democratic candidate Robert Casey and thereby help conservative Senator Rick Santorum win re-election. The gambit didn’t work.
But wait, there’s more. Look at these contributions by those in Blackwater USA’s leadership. These are, again, not at all independent in their structure:
Justin Heiderich of the Blackwater Security Consulting branch contributed $1,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2006.
Gary Jackson, President of Blackwater USA, contributed $1,000 to Tom DeLay in 2004, $1,000 to Duncan Hunter in 2004, $1,000 to Jerry Lewis in 2004, and $1,000 to Mike Pence in 2006.
Joseph Schmitz, “Executive” of Blackwater USA, contributed $1,000 to Principles Exalt a Nation in 2006, and $1,000 to Rick Santorum in 2006.
That brings us to a total of $241,050 contributed by Blackwater individuals to Republican and associated causes. Not a bad investment for a $800 million return… but a very bad investment for the Iraqi civilians who have gotten in Blackwater’s way.
The next time you go out into public and you see a mother, a father and their baby, pause a moment to think of their counterparts in Iraq. It didn’t have to be this way. With the next election, let’s do what we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
(Sources: CNN October 2 2007; Federal Election Commission Database Search October 2 2007; National Public Radio September 25 2007)
Yes first and second wives have nearly the same name.