Human Events Takes Blackwater Critics to Task

Human Events reports that

The Iraq Veterans Against the War held their Winter Soldier II event this weekend at the National Labor College. The implied intent of this event was to give testimony to a myriad of claimed atrocities committed by the US military in Iraq.... Additional time was spent on the left’s obvious and expected platitudes: no blood for oil, Halliburton and Blackwater are evil capitalists, etc., nothing you wouldn’t expect to hear at a Code Pink den meeting.

Remember, this is the same organization to which Jesse Macbeth belonged, until his claims his unit routinely committed war crimes in Iraq were debunked when it was proved he never finished basic training.

Author Katie O'Malley explains

Not surprisingly, [the event] fell far short of its intent.... My conclusions after hearing and reading hours upon hours of the testimony? War is hell. Bad things happen. People get hurt. Sometimes innocents get caught in the fire. As to the specifics that IVAW members alleged, perhaps a few things were questionable and they should certainly be investigated. The rest of the anecdotal stories confirmed nothing more except that in war, unfortunate things happen. This was a collection of war stories, not the exposure of war crimes.

This methodology is to be expected, really. When you don't have an actual argument, the best way to give the impression of one is to throw out some stories, find some "eye witnesses" - even if they weren't witnesses to the events you're alleging - and dance around the subject long enough that those not paying careful attention will connect the dots in the way you want. Thanks, Katie, for seeing through the smoke and mirrors.

Why isn't Waxman going after non-performing contractor in his backyard?

Private contractors are wondering why Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) is so spun up about Blackwater, while he ignores the problems of a private contractor in his own political backyard.

So far he has singled out Blackwater and KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton that builds oil drilling facilities, pipelines, refineries and the like. The trial lawyer who asked Waxman to "investigate" Blackwater was open about the partisan nature of his attack, and KBR until earlier this year was associated with Vice President Dick Cheney, who used to be Halliburton CEO.

But what about Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, California? Parsons is located in the state's 29th congressional district - adjacent to the 30th, which Waxman has represented since before many of our soldiers were born.

Parsons is famous for being the recipient of Clinton Administration contracts to work disarmament projects in Russia.

Sources close to the Iraq contracting industry say that Parsons was "front loaded" a substantial amount of taxpayer cash to construct more than 120 medical clinics in Iraq. The sources say that Parsons completed only 20 of the clinics.

If true, that's a scandal. Nobody has accused Blackwater of failing to deliver on its contracts. And KBR has also built a great reputation in Iraq of doing what it has been contracted to do. Waxman chairs the committee responsible for government reform and oversight. He's been using it as a weapon against those he deems domestic political adversaries, while looking askance at allegations of failure to deliver among his partisan friends.

Parsons is one of the top political contributors in the construction sector. In the 2006 election cycle, Parsons Corp. gave slightly more money to Democrats than Republicans: 51 percent to 49 percent, according to OpenSecrets.org: a total of more than $472,000.

That's a lot more in one year than the Blackwater owner has ever given away to politicians.

Maybe someone should investigate Waxman. The House Ethics Committee would be a good place to start.