The Blackwater DEA photo scrubbed from the LA Times
Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am | By: Radical Russ
(click for larger image)
NORML Daily Audio Stash
“We heard some noise outside, and then the door literally burst in, and the DEA came in in full combat gear, told everybody to get on the floor and put their hands behind their heads,” Carey said. “It was like, literally, an episode of “24,” when they bust in on a terrorist cell.”
That’s the description of the Culver City DEA dispensary raid I blogged about last Friday. Who knew that the “terrorist cell” description would have another frightening parallel. That agent unloading DEA evidence is wearing a Blackwater t-shirt.
Blackwater is the private “security firm” with millions of dollars in no-bid US government contracts in Iraq.
This is a photo published by the LA Times as part of its photo slideshow online accompanying the news story about the raid.
Or, it was published. If you click that photo slideshow link above, you’ll find that the seven picture slideshow has now been reduced to six. The Blackwater man is no longer there.
As of this writing, the photo is still online at the Times, but it’s an orphan (you won’t find links to it), along with the caption:
DEA agents remove evidence from Organica Collective after the business was raided by federal agents. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Now, maybe the LA Times took the photo down because the caption was inaccurate. If he’s working for Blackwater, he’s not part of “DEA agents”. But then why not just fix the caption?
Maybe he is a DEA agent and he just got the Blackwater shirt as swag at some convention, and the LA Times took the picture down to protect the identity of the hip young pony-tailed goatee-sportin’ undercover narc with a Robocop-sized gun on his hip.
It would be nice to know whether or not our federal Drug Employment Administration is outsourcing federal police duties to private mercenary armies like Blackwater. After all, they’ve done such a bang-up job with domestic policing in Iraq, like shooting up 17 unarmed civilians without provocation. The Iraqi government revoked their license and kicked Blackwater out of the country, but, of course, they’re still there.
The Iraqi government has learned what the California government has learned – when it is engaged in a war on nouns like “drugs” or “terror”, the US government will do whatever it damn well pleases.
Since we can assume a mickey mouse shirt generally signifies one of the following:
He’s a Disney employee and wears it because he has to.
He’s been to Disneyland.
He purchased it and wears it because he’s a Mickey Mouse fan OR likes the Disney corporation and their practices
He is a bum and found it in the dumpster, and has nothing else to wear.
Now he does leave us guesing about the last one, with his distended coiffure. However we can assume he’s not a bum.
At the very least we are wihin our rights to question the connection, considering the GOP candidate in the last election stated he would deploy US troops in cities to fight this “war on drugs” he would wage upon his constituants.
Legislaters love contractors like Blackwater for several reasons. It gives them an opportunity for kickbacks and corruption they don’t get with the publicly disclosed budgets of police and military. At least more of them. Moreover, it gives hem the ability to implement just stupid or oppressive policies at will, and have little personal accountability for their actions should the poop hit the fan with the results. Maybe it was a bad idea to invade a Muslim country and impose a western political system, and in keeping the people down you have to shoot 17 of them. Hey, Blackwater did it. Our policy wasn’t flawed to begin with.
As Americans we need to know that the people we hire to police our communities, are accountable to their boss.
Ultimately, in a societal way, that is us.
Would all this “Conspiracy” Blah blah blah be hgoing on if he had on a Mickey Mouse T Shirt?
Its a T Shirt People, you can order them on Ebay.
And as for his Uber Side Arm, that people think is a New Plasma Cannon…..Its a Glock Pistol with a tactical light attached…..nothing special.
You guys Kill me……get a life.
I don’t know if anyone is still reading about this but it saddens me. Despite the actions of some contractors in Iraq, the company (now known as Xe) does have many fine operatives. Conditions in Iraq were difficult and while I am not saying I condone the actions of a few (in fact, like you I severely condemn them), I think it comes back to it being easy to criticise from the comfort of your daily suburban lives. Blackwater operatives consistently received fire and were subject to IED attacks on a regular basis. A lot of what the public knows about Blackwater misconduct resulted from information released officially by Blackwater or individually by operatives who were concerned.
Moreover, Blackwater provides top notch training to many law enforcement agencies and has been involved in many activities other than Iraq many of which have not been publicised due to the confidential nature of the work. Basically, a lot of good work has been done too.
Law enforcement agents operating undercover (and there are varying degrees to this) are not given a costume, but merely wear what they own. Maybe this guy attended a Tactical Pistol course to help protect himself on the job and got a T-shirt while he was at it.
Either way, it is sad to see the universal condemnation of all those affiliated with Blackwater and the continued publication of the face of an undercover law enforcement officer despite assertions from the DEA that he has never been a blackwater employee and their request to blur his face for the officer’s future security.
I may be perceived as biased but there is a long list of Blackwater contractors who died, never expecting to be mourned by the public and who were never given any concern by the media or mentioned in Government statistics like soldiers. Contractors did a job, and many fought and died for a paycheck and some even died for something good. That is the side of Blackwater that isn’t in the mind of the public, but it is something I will remember forever.
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Moreover, Blackwater provides top notch training to many law enforcement agencies and has been involved in many activities other than Iraq many of which have not been publicised due to the confidential nature of the work. Basically, a lot of good work has been done too.
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I think this is actually a large part of the problem. They (our law agencies) are being trained by warriors and killers to do warrior and killer activities intended for the enemies they face in warfare. Military training.
The problem is that there is no enemy for them to face here. Just peaceful free citizens. All their training is complete overkill and, frankly, immoral for use in most non war situations.
None of that military training is conducive to policing free America citizens. They essentially turn Andy Griffiths into a gang of armed thugs who harass citizens for money.
Instead of picking up a suspect peacefully, law groups that have this type of training look for every opportunity to use that “elite training”. They force dangerous situations that are not necessary just to get their adrenaline jollies off.
No sir. These people are not doing the world any good. I’d rather see police officers getting more community service training than elite combat training. More us for them training instead of us against them training.
You have a very good point. I too believe that police officers would benefit from an increased level of community service training. However, things are not so black and white with the rest of your argument.
Firstly, Blackwater does not conduct routine training of everyday police officers. They train officers whose jobs (and potentially even lives) depend on an extra level of training. And I can only infer from your comment that you have never participated in nor viewed a Blackwater training course which emphasises safety and proper conduct and could equally be argued makes officers using firearms even safer for the greater public.
Making generalisations about all Blackwater staff and contractors and now all police officers is always doomed to fail. Yes, there are bad apples, and the media likes to report on it and we all love to listen to the scandals. But day to day operations which result positively 99% of the time are rarely mentioned and therefore ignored by the masses who arrogantly judge people they have never met, operating in situations they could say how they would react in based merely on clips from CNN, ABC or FOX.
The fact is that any police officer that decides to use excessive force due to a prior bad experience with another civilian should be condemned for grouping the 2 individuals in the same category regardless of cause. Moreover, any civilian who decides to condemn a police officer or any other person based on a stereotype or the action of another officer should be condemned for doing exactly the same thing. And you sir are doing exactly that.
Policing is often a dangerous job requiring officers to deal with dangerous situations involving the worst our society has to offer. They have a duty to protect others and a right to protect themselves while carrying out their duties. We do not live in a world of sunshine and gumdrops and to imply that the world would be a safer place if police were unarmed, or perhaps worse, if they weren’t properly trained in handling firearms is ludicrous.
Please note that I do not dispute the courtesy and respect that should still be afforded to the average citizen.
I understand that police officers should be held to a higher level of accountability and should be punished more severely than a normal citizen for any infractions they commit. However, holding them to an unrealistic, impossible standard and ignoring the fact they are human is by no means any solution either.
The more us for them cannot be taught by textbook nor in a classroom. It can only be gained through daily interactions with people who provide mutual respect for one another. Unfortunately, by universally condemning police officers’ actions you are in some ways justifying the us against them perspective that some police officers may hold.
I’ll grant you a lot of concession with what you said there. And I’ll admit that the only information I have about blackwater training and participation in civilian police work is what I have read in print and seen on the news.
I still think they are representative of the larger problem, though. For example, you state that “They train officers whose jobs (and potentially even lives) depend on an extra level of training”
Suggesting that only SWAT officers who are dispatched in selective situations get this training. This is disingenuous. This training is showing up everywhere. Even prison security guards are getting this “shock and awe style training”
The beat cop pulling you over is highly likely to have some of that “elite military training”. This type of training is bad for civilian law enforcement. This is why we see old ladies being tazered on the nightly news and sheriffs stating that “the officers followed proper procedure” because she was mouthy.
Bullshit. This is gung-ho military style law enforcement. This is bad policy and training from the top down.
The other reality is that SWAT is being used more and more for everyday police work. Have a suspect you need to pick up on suspicion? Don’t do it peacefully. Get a no knock warrant and send out the SWAT. Create a dangerous situation where there was none.
In addition, once you trained one group they tend to pass that training on to others. Eventually it becomes standard training for all officers.
Law enforcement self fulfills their own problems, too. The old saying “If you go looking for trouble you’ll find it” is true.
Bottom line, there have been a lot of law enforcement atrocities in the last few years of this new military style of policing. A lot of pets killed, teenagers shot, property vandalized. A lot of speeding tickets turned into deaths. All in the name of “proper procedure“. Never do we see these officers held accountable. The story always ends with “officer on paid leave for 90 days” or somthing to that effect.
Sad truth is that the warrior often finds it hard to find a place in a peaceful society. We need them for our wars but don’t want them in our streets, with guns, harassing our citizens.
Law enforcement might not be the best job for a combat trained warrior. Law enforcement requires more social skills than an ability to survive in combat.
I’ll close with one last thing. I was an MP in the army. I spent an additional 4 years after that in the national guard as an MP. While I agree that stereotyping groups is bad, based on my own experience, I’m going to hold to this statement as being generally true.
“Americas police officers have an us AGAINST them mentality towards the public they are suppose to serve. This mentality is top down.”
I found myself disagreeing with them so often that I changed career paths. Maybe 1 in 1000 actually has the right mentality to be a law officer. At least in my opinion. The rest are on a power trip or so jaded that they forgot what their job description used to be. I found myself feeling empathy for the people and disgust with my fellow officers.
I will never universally condem police officers as a profession. But I will codemn the training they get, the policies they adhere to, and the pre-requisites of the job.
I think we need more psychological reviews of our law officers to determine they are on this career path because they enjoy social services and helping the people. Not because they like guns, violence, adrenaline and power.
Outstanding reply, high east. You rightfully point out the issue is both a problem of some of the individuals, and the trends of the institution itself which the systemic attitudes breeds the problematic individuals.
James Hart, don’t take his position as an attack on each and every LEO including the percentage doing a good job for the right reasons. It is the bad apples, and the institution which is increasingly encouraging their development, which overshadows their fine work.
We are using paramilitary operations far too frequently, and it seems to me it is the work of those “got older/bigger but didn’t grow up” types that are the culprit. The ones that look forward to attending conventions where contractors showcase new weapons to sell to municipalities, they’re too oriented to blowing things up and that’s fine for the Army but if you really want safer streets you don’t look to combat crime, which leaves you fighting citizens- it has to be a relationship between the individual and society that starts at an early age. If we respect (rather than fear or treat with contempt) the law and those who enforce the laws society enacts, you won’t have people wanting to shoot at them when they come to the door.
“Blackwater style” training instills the idea that those the officers encounter are hostile combatants, prepares them for this and if you understand what “self fulfilling prophecy” means, then you must see why this is going to be problematic.
I never could imagine why anyone would take a shot at a cop serving a warrant. I like many was brought up respecting police as trusted members of the community, (I’m 47) was befriended by a few cops when I got into a few scrapes with the law as a juvenile, and saw they were people like anyone else. However now the attitude is different, and the fact even small towns have SWAT divisions is an indication of the divisive relationship they are now assuming with society.
This is what we end up with when we allow elected officials declare WAR on domestic social issues. The “us vs them” attitude inherent to such conflicts is not going to solve the underlying problems, and what is the end goal of war? It generally concludes only with the utter devastation of one of the participants. We are in a really bad economic situation, was that partially a result of the government of the US being at war with its citizens?
(as I mentioned in a previous post) Blackwater has, along with almost a dozen other contractors, been employed to work with the DEA overseas in interdiction activities that used to be done by US military personnel. Blackwater was used by the US government during Katrina, so don’t act like it’s such a preposterous notion. The shirt may not be proof of anything, but it’s more proof than your insistence is that it’s not.
You people are freaking idiots. The guy is simply wearing a damn Blackwater T-shirt. All you conspiracy theorist crack me up with this stuff. Get a life already, I know sitting in your cubicle from 9-5 is boring and you wouldn’t know what it’s like to serve a greater purpose than yourself. Go get a hobby, I hear there’s a pretty exciting computer game called World of Warcraft that will give you meaning and suck up hours/days of your life. Go have fun and leave it up to men of this country to do what you are not willing to do.
Dear Guy With Sense:
He’s WEARING a t-shirt with the BLACKWATER logo on it. He must, therefore, be a Blackwater employee. If a t-shirt doesn’t have the force of law, there’s a possibility that the Official Breast Inspector who detained me and my wife last week in Vegas was an impostor. I simply cannot accept that possibility.
John Dunn: I was in the Navy from ‘79-’83 and experienced firsthand the “zero tolerance” witch hunt.
If you parted your hair in the middle, you were fer sure a doper.
If you had a pierced left ear you were a doper. Or queer. If you had a pierced right ear it meant something else, can’t remember what. Both ears pierced, well I think that meant you didn’t have many lonely saturday nights?
LOL. I thought people with ponytails just don’t want their hair in their face.
Wonder what Ed Meese would look like with a ponytail…..
That’s a great find, man, and I salute you for posting it up. Thank you for the work you’re doing here.
Time to go Fallujah on these blackwater bastards.
The Blackwater DEA photo scrubbed from the LA Times…
“We heard some noise outside, and then the door literally burst in, and the DEA came in in full combat gear, told everybody to get on the floor and put their hands behind their heads,” Carey said. “It was like, literally, an episode of “24,” …
It’s well known that guys with pony tails are marijuana smokers. Want to bet this guy got some for himself?
“Instead of being suspicious, be positive and proud of what DEA does domestically and internationally.”
What the f*ck are you doing on NORML?
Apparently, you didn’t get the memo. NORML is an acronym for the national organization for the reform of marijuana laws. Reform the laws, not enforce the laws. Reform is the keyword here. The DEA stands for Drug Enforcement Administration – perhaps you should go back to their website and talk shop with your brothers in tyranny.
Newsflash: The DEA lost. Cannabis will be grown and used in large quantities throughout the known world – again – just as it has been for thousands of years. You cannot stop it. The DEA cannot stop it. The people will be free.
“be positive and proud of what DEA does domestically and internationally.”
Like helping their cousins from the FBI assist in the torture and murder of US citizens in our communities testing and deploying microwave harrassment devices from the JNLWP (joint non-lethal weapons project) based in Quantico?
Or perhaps playing cowboy in their paramilitary raids in California communities- where the majority exercised their democratic right and approved medical marijuana- in some infantile effort to stomp on anyone who dares to defy their authority. Municipalities have issued many complaints to the house judiciary committee about their gestapo like tactics and ridiculous misdirection of resources.
The very methods they use in raids- no knock, wearing clothing indistinguishable from a home invasion robber, meant to give residents no opportunity to flush the evidence, show an overzealous entity that have many members flat out of control. Seizing the evidence is more important than the family pet of even a family member’s life.
To the point though, your “explanation” is nothing but the same doublespeak we expect from sneaky bureaucrats, whether you are one or not isn’t really my concern. You don’t come out and say “that cannot be a blackwater employee because for a military contractor to do narcointerdiction against US citizens on US soil is against policy, therefore could not be funded so is impossible”.
You can’t say that because the DOJ has had contracts with about a dozen blackwater type corporations for several years, at about $750 million a year. You’ve heard of “mission creep”, and that’s what has been going on since the DEA issued that self serving money grab report in 2003 linking illegal drug use with terrorism.
As the other person commented, it allows politicians and their corporate cronies to skim the till, and avoid accountability for disaster.
There may be many honorable people in the DEA and its parent agency. I think they have missed that this “war on drugs” has become a war on their own people. Their overzealous pursuit of what becomes an ideology has desensitized them from the human aspect. They think it’s them VS us, and if you think the oommunities are being “cleaned up” by filling jail cells up for long terms for social crimes- a human weakness that every society in recorded history has indulged in- you have a pretty sad future in mind.
“Slippery Slope”… or “when they came for the comunists, I said nothing for I was not a communist” come to mind.
Quit looking at our little fuhrers heading our agencies and government (some are even foreign citizens, like the Gestapista head dogs at Homeland Security and Department of Justice, from, according to a recent global survey, the most despised nation on the planet – and no – it’s not the US, we came in a close second).
It has nothing to do with law, protecting the public or enforcing the law.
IT’S ONLY ABOUT MONEY. THAT’S ALL IT’S ABOUT.
Now how can a fascist regime extort and defraud the born again dumbed downs, affectionately called “American Consumers” (remember when we were citizens – now we’re cattle and chattel in an ever grow coral know as “Home Land Security”)?
Well you star by associating everything with a war on something or other. But really, the only war being waged is the war against our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. If they can be extricated, obfuscated by writ or act, then they are simply ignored and denied.
Blackwater is not only a way around the no soldiers as cops rule, it’s a big money maker for the oligarchs supporting the United States of Fascism. IT’S JUST ANOTHER WAY TO STEAL OUR TREASURE.
Remember the liquid bomb ruse in the UK. Well all those guys were found nonchargeable to the complaint. Further more, scientists reported to to even assemble a liquid bomb on a plane would require several bathtubs filled with ice and a trailer full of devices and compounds – basically to assemble a liquid bomb would take a fully quipped high school science class and about 10 hours. Where the fraud, you may be asking?
Well, Phoenix Arizona’s airport was the lucky recipient of a multi-million dollar liquid bomb xray project that was delivered so quickly after the UK arrests you’d think that those detained, but eventually not charged in the UK, had set up a security business in the US and received a 100 Million dollars to build such an xray machine – just in case – and then got conveniently busted just days before PAP got the xray!
Home Land Security spends most of it’s money building prisons and FEMA concentration camps. The xray machine tax dollar giveaways are just a sideline. As bad as it is to be busted by extralegal police – it’s much worse to get murdered or suicided by them. Look up “FBI Agent John Oneil”, “Deborah Palfrey”, “CIA Agent Roland Carnaby”, “Dr Iwins”. Patriots, one and all that met convenient deaths and suicides!
A was man would study the police. A recent article suggested that by design low IQ’s are preferred. A wise man would wear a Blackwater T-Shirt too!
Good news is there are more of us than them. According to some recent research, not more than 27% of humanity is predisposed for a Ziek Hiling authoritarian government of fascists and oligarchs. We could, if we put our hearts to it and embraced obligations under the Declaration of Independence anytime we wanted. There are lot’s of patriots in our military services and federal and state agencies that would stand with us. We could take our country back anythime we wanted. Question is, why ain’t we doing it now.
WRITE IN RON PAUL!
The link to the L A Times is going to “page not found”. Who da thunk
Readers, to put your mind at rest. There is no sinister shenanigans going on between Blackwater and DEA. The explanation is that there are several units DEA units that deploy to Afghanistan, Kabul and Iraq. They are called the FAST Team (Foreign Advisory Support Teams) who deploy to Kabul and Iraqu for 120 days and work with the local counterparts in fighting drug cultivation and train them in narcotics investigations. Significant amount of training is also provided to the counterparts. Many of the other agencies and companies that are in these war torn countries is BLACKWATER. DEA and these contract agencies, like Blackwater and Northrop and Grummond train the locals counterparts in investigations. As you know many retired federal agents are employed with Blackwater and Northrop and Grummond. Either the agent in the photo was part of the FAST Team or knew someone or is a reserve military soldier and merely received the shirt from someone employed. The agent wears it probably because it is black. Instead of being suspicious, be positive and proud of what DEA does domestically and internationally.
If you want to read more about the FAST Teams, go to this site. http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr111704.html -
Well Peter I’m glad you set the record straight. When this guy whose training and legal knowledge is unknown, and accountability (or lack of) IS known puts a bullet in some cancer patient running for the toilet I’m sure he’ll be much less dead than if he’d been sporting some REAL firepower.
(I got a fiver that says ole Pete has a FFL just so he can own a full auto weapon- though I could care less if he keeps it at home. Most don’t)
What’s with all the hoplophobia in these comments?
Sure, the DEA are a criminal agency and so are Blackwater goons assisting them, but the ridiculous comments about the size of the guy’s gun make us sound like gun-haters who only care about the rights that affect us – after all, why else would we even mention the size of his gun?
As it just so happens, it’s not even a large gun. His extremely “tacticool” (at least, it makes him feel cool) drop leg holster looks big and bulky, but he isn’t carrying an Auto-9 (Robocop’s gun), or even a Beretta 93r (the gun that the “Auto-9″ was built from) in his too-tacticool holster. In fact, it looks like a Glock.
Black Water was already deployed inside the states. There men were in New Orleans after Katrina. Last part of this video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8
Don’t know which is more disturbing, Blackwater brandishing huge side-arms in a DEA raid, or the LA Times burying the image.
Backwater? Isn’t that a code word for oil?
And yeah, these guys don’t have to follow the rules either. Don’t they have immunity for all their atrocities as a private contractor? sick
There is the Posse Comitatus Act that forbade the use of our military for domestic policing, but much of that has been eroded because of the “drug war exception”, so that National Guard and military have been used in certain drug operations. So would I be surprised if DEA is outsourcing to Blackwater? Under this maladministration, nothing surprises me. After all, if we can pay contractors ten times a soldiers’ salary in Iraq, why not pay a contractor ten times a DEA agents’ salary in the US? After all, it’s only taxpayer money borrowed from China…
IF this guy does work for blackwater isn’t that against the law or are we now outsourcing cops. If this is true he is blackwater what else will Blackwater be doing? Giving you a speeding ticket, parking ticket, knocking on your door to check your house for drugs? This is not good American’s