WORLD & NATION
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
Blackwater employees convicted, company thrives
BY NICOLE ZELNIKER
Senior Writer
citizens for years.
"We see tiie security firms... doing whatever they want in
the streets/' said Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor in an
Fourteen dead. Seventeen to 20 wounded. Five on trial. interview with AP Television News. "They beat citizens and
On Sept. 16, 2007, contractors for the private company scorn them. If such a thing happened in America or Britain,
Blackwater opened fire in Nisour Iraq, killing both civilians would the American president or American citizens accept
and U.S.-Iraq relations. it?"
"My teammate's been firing wildly, and I don't want these Since the massacre, Blackwater has been sold, the name
kids to get shot," said turret gunner Matthew Murphy in changed to Academi and foimder Erik Prince has been
an interview with The New York limes. "(It was) the most steering clear of his former company.
horrible, botched thing I've ever seen in my life." "When people say Blackwater, they know," said Chair
Just this year, the five men who took more than a dozen and Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace & Conflict Studies
lives stood trial. Jeremy Pinker. "(Prince) knew he had a public relations
According to Murphy's testimony, the contractors began nightmare."
shooting even though there was no threat and were no Just this year, four of the five Blackwater contractors were
armed gunmen. They simply opened fire.
"Bladcwater was contracted through the U.S. government,
which meant that they were being held accountable to
the U.S. government as employees,"
said sophomore and Civil Air Patrol
member Ivie Norris.
Because Blackwater is a
private company, they are
not subject to the same
scrutiny that the U.S.
military is.
"They got a bunch
of contracts in Iraq for
protection, and they
were completely outside
accotmtability," said
Assistant Professor of
Political Science Robert
Duncan. "They were able to
do whatever they wanted."
As they were contracted
by the government, the
government often ignored
suspicious activity.
"The government would turn a
blind eye,to some, of the things that
they were doing," said Corporal Paulo
Hernandez in an email interview with The
Guilfordian. 'This would only later lead to the
slaughter of women and children."
Blackwater contractors had been abusing Iraqi
convicted: Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and
Dustin Heard.
"It was all buried," said IXmcan. 'The Bush administration
didn't want it to come out."
Though the verdict is certainly something to celebrate, it is
also seven years after the fact.
"It may be seven years too late, (but) we finally did
something," said Pinker.
Though Academi is supposedly inactive, there are other
private contracting companies that continue to brutalize
civilians like AirScan, DynCorp and Jorge Scientific
Corporation.
'There is a revolving door between the mihtary contractors
and the Pentagon to the point where the contractors are
actually doing the planning for the military's future," said
Christian Stalberg of Blackwater Watch.
For Erik Prince, these events were an opportunity to
develop not only a Blackwater video game but create
a new private contracting group called
Frontier Services Group.
"If the administration cannot
rally the political nerve or
funding to send adequate active
duty ground forces to answer
the call, let the private sector
finish the job," said Prince
in an interview with The
Intercept.
Iraq continues to question
the U.S. years after the
shooting.
"We were there to help,
free them from dictatorship
that had been established
and further a democracy,"
said Hernandez. "After the
shooting, it broke the trust
that the American government
had built."
Ultimately, Academi
continues to thrive, claiming
"best in class instructors" and
unparalleled facilities" on their website.
Their allegiance is not to the taxpayer
or Uncle Sam but to the corporations and their
bottom line, and that really stinks," said Duncan.
o
§
i
i o
2
2
O
2
8
2
oooxxx>x>xx>>oooooo>>ox>>>ox>xx>x>>x>oo>>oo>o>>>>ooc^xx>>>oocK>c^>o>x>>xxx>>x>>^^
“Using Photography
& Other Media
to Promote
»
A session by Meghan
Dahliwal, photo]ournalist
and multimedia producer
from the Pulitzer Center
on Crisis Reporting
Founders HaU
West Gallery
xxxxxx>
Nov. 12
3:45 p.m. to 5 p.m.
XX>0X>0X>X>X>X>>00X>X>X>>X>>C>XK>X>000X>&0K>!X>>C>>X>X>>X>X>X>XXXK>^^ li
Article Preview
US and other countries
unite to respond to ISIS
BY AMOL GARG
Staff Writer
"If the Islamic State (is) to
be characterized, it would be
as a revolutionary (or radical)
insurgent actor," said Yale Professor
of Political Science & Director,
Program on Order, Conflict and
'Sfiolence Stathis N. Kalyvas in an
article for the Washington Post.
"These groups project a goal of
radical political and social change;
they are composed of a highly
motivated core, recruit using
ideological messages and tend to
invest heavily in the indoctrination
of their followers."
The Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria, or Islamic state of Iraq and
the Levant, is an extremist group
that can be traced back to al-
Qaeda. Consisting of more than
30,000 Sunni jihadist fighters, this
extremist group has gained wide
recognition for its brutal treatment
of prisoners and success in plaguing
and conquering Iraq.
"ISIL is a terrorist organization,
pure and simple," said President
Barack Obama in a public statement.
"ISIL poses a threat to the people
of Iraq and Syria and the broader
Middle East — including American
dtizens, personnel and facilities.
If left unchecked, these terrorists
could pose a growdng threat beyond
that region, including to the United
States."
In an attempt to limit the progress
of ISIS, the United States has
conducted more than 150 airstrikes
in Iraq while actively working to
recruit nations to join the fight
against the terrorist group.
Currently more than 40 nations
have agreed to partake in a joint
response to end ISIS's reign of
terror. The involvement ranges
from training rebels in Saudi Arabia
to fight ISIS to providing military
offensive and strategic forces to Iraq
from Australia.
"We have to confront the menace
(ISIS), in a calm, deliberate way —
but with an iron determination,"
said British Prime Minister David
Cameron in an address to the nation.
"We cannot ignore this threat to our
security and that of our alHes."
Yet ISIS remains undefeated. So
the question now is this: where does
ISIS manage to gain all its support
and finance?
Read the fall article online!
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.CO