Blackwater is a private contractor straight out of the Bourne Trilogy

I am a huge fan of the Bourne Trilogy. In my humble opinion Jason Bourne kicks James Bond's ass any day of the week. For those of you that don't know: Jason Bourne is an American CIA agent/assassin who loses his memory after a hit gone wrong (for more go see the movies). He is part of what is labeled Operation Treadstone. This operation is very top top hush hush secret and has been created so the CIA could assassinate enemies of the US or its allies.

Yesterday the New York Times reported that the CIA had been involved in something similar to Operation Treadstone. The CIA had made plans to kill the leaders of Al Qaeda. But instead of using their own well trained CIA operatives they hired mercenaries who worked for the private contractor Blackwater. Blackwater has many former Navy Seals, Green Berets, etc amongst its ranks, ready to go in and do some damage, all the while being paid a salary men who fight for the US government can only dream of.

When Blackwater employees were involved in shootings that cost the lives of 17 Iraqi civilians, the company became a bit too hot to handle. It subsequently was kicked out of Iraq by its government, and the US did not sign any new contracts. But some contracts have not yet ended, and so it turns out that Blackwater is still involved in both Iraq and Afghanistan for a total of over $400 million. After all the bad publicity, Blackwater changed its name to make a fresh start. Ironically this is exactly what the bosses of Operation Treadstone did.

For those of you who want to know more about Blackwater, I highly recommend the book Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. Scahill will be a guest of Bill Maher this coming Friday during his television show Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.