Praise be upon our Free-booters:

Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan
By Jeremy Scahill
November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

Well, at least they laid off on the whole secret prisons thing…

Note: The about page has been updated with a passage of some significance relating to the new point of view en vogue around these parts… these days.

Am I the only one that thought Southland Tales sucked?

The Empire of Baksheesh

Public officials paid themselves.

Thus it has always been, and always will be…to some extent.