Blackwater gets a kiss from Condi

Lewis Black always has a line to bring your attention to something like this. Let's see now, what would Lewis say? I know...

Jesusfuckingchrist!!!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered special agents from the State Department's bureau of diplomatic security to accompany every convoy guarded by Blackwater USA in Baghdad, department spokesman Sean McCormack said today.

Additionally, the State Department announced it would be deploying "dozens" of agents to supervise Blackwater operations in Baghdad.

Rice also ordered that all radio transmissions from convoys traveling outside the guarded Green Zone in Baghdad, which houses the U.S. Embassy, be recorded, and that video cameras be installed in every vehicle, McCormack said. All data will be archived.

Want to bet that when the next "incident" occurs the camera will be conveniently hit by a stray round?

Monitoring radio transmissions from convoys is a great idea. So far, the US military, Blackwater and the State Department in Iraq have proved that they can achieve new levels of isolation by not solving a radio and data communications interoperability problem. Everybody is on different frequencies and gee, no one seems able to manage the job of net-control.

Now, however, the State Department and US military have decided to fix that. How long has this war been going on?

So, in order to continue to give Blackwater USA and its Republican-connected chairman, Erik Prince, a nice juicy government contract in Iraq, the government will pay to have government security agents ride along with the private security agents which the government has hired to relieve government security agents of the task of protecting State Department personnel.

I don't want to say "redundancy and waste" too loudly, but how much sweeter a deal can Blackwater get?!

I know. I shouldn't have asked.