Recent US Atrocities - The Role of PRT's

As in Afghanistan, the 'Provincial Reconstruction Teams' in Iraq were mostly a gimmick to make Americans feel good about the occupations. Their supposed successes are cloaked in double-speak and meaningless statistics. Statistical progress is not hard in nations whose infrastructures were destroyed by invasion and occupation, and where entire neighbourhoods have been leveled in the name of security. Brilliant article by Douglas Valentine here.

Douglas Valentine is author of The Phoenix Program as well as The Strength of the Wolf.

Blackwater Killers Walk Away Again

The charges pointed out that one of the guards told another that he wanted to kill Iraqis as "payback for 9/11," bragging about the number of Iraqis he had shot.

Federal Judge Urbina explained in his opinion that federal prosecutors were offered an opportunity during a three-week hearing that began in mid-October 2009 to prove that they had not made use of the defendants' statements in building its case and were unable to do so.

"The explanations offered by the prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions... were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility," Urbina said. Sounds like a good description of his own position. The Iraqi Government say they will pursue the murderers themselves. Good luck to them.