Blackwater’s Hamburg Murder Mystery
The mission was called “Find, fix and finish” – find the target, draw a bead on him, finish him off. Parliament is now looking into American secret missions on German soil.
According to Vanity Fair magazine, the target of the mission was the Syrian-German Mamoun Darkanzanli, who lived in Hamburg. A financier and al-Qaeda terrorist network contact, Darkanzanli was to be eliminated on orders from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency – to be precise, eliminated by killers employed by the Blackwater mercenary organization on German soil. Starting Jan. 27, an internal parliamentary committee will begin investigating whether America’s shady military force actually targeted people in Germany.
“It could become a serious problem for the Obama administration,” American Blackwater expert and author Jeremy Scahill told broadcaster “Democracy Now.” The German government is starting to ask questions, and they aren’t the only ones. There are also differing opinions in the USA about this infamous mercenary force operating alongside the U.S. Army anywhere there’s money to be made from killing.
The Blackwater security firm was originally hired following the 9/11 attacks to protect soldiers in Iraq and the Hindu Kush. Over time, their mission was greatly expanded. According to the New York Times, cooperative ties strengthened between the Backwater mercenaries and the CIA.
Blackwater is one of the world’s largest mercenary forces. It reportedly has enough tanks, aircraft and munitions to go to war by themselves. Blackwater morphed into Xe Services, both operations headed by former U.S. Marine Eric Prince. Heir to a Michigan fortune, Prince got into the booming security business in the 1990s. The mercenary boss became a flashy figure that reportedly served as a model for many a Hollywood film scoundrel. Prince himself quoted testimony from several Blackwater mercenaries that “he saw himself as a Christian crusader with a mission to eliminate Muslims and the Islamic religion from the world.”
Several former employees have testified in U.S. Senate hearings that Blackwater employees had taken part in torture interrogations carried out in CIA prisons. Besides that, the mercenaries have been linked to numerous other dirty dealings, among them child prostitution, rape and illegal weapons dealings in Iraq. House Democrat Jan Schakowsky, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, recently said of the suspected Blackwater involvement in the Hamburg killing, “The mere fact that these charges have been made is enough to give an indication of the extent of Blackwater’s involvement in secret intelligence operations.”
According to Vanity Fair magazine, the target of the mission was the Syrian-German Mamoun Darkanzanli, who lived in Hamburg. A financier and al-Qaeda terrorist network contact, Darkanzanli was to be eliminated on orders from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency – to be precise, eliminated by killers employed by the Blackwater mercenary organization on German soil. Starting Jan. 27, an internal parliamentary committee will begin investigating whether America’s shady military force actually targeted people in Germany.
“It could become a serious problem for the Obama administration,” American Blackwater expert and author Jeremy Scahill told broadcaster “Democracy Now.” The German government is starting to ask questions, and they aren’t the only ones. There are also differing opinions in the USA about this infamous mercenary force operating alongside the U.S. Army anywhere there’s money to be made from killing.
The Blackwater security firm was originally hired following the 9/11 attacks to protect soldiers in Iraq and the Hindu Kush. Over time, their mission was greatly expanded. According to the New York Times, cooperative ties strengthened between the Backwater mercenaries and the CIA.
Blackwater is one of the world’s largest mercenary forces. It reportedly has enough tanks, aircraft and munitions to go to war by themselves. Blackwater morphed into Xe Services, both operations headed by former U.S. Marine Eric Prince. Heir to a Michigan fortune, Prince got into the booming security business in the 1990s. The mercenary boss became a flashy figure that reportedly served as a model for many a Hollywood film scoundrel. Prince himself quoted testimony from several Blackwater mercenaries that “he saw himself as a Christian crusader with a mission to eliminate Muslims and the Islamic religion from the world.”
Several former employees have testified in U.S. Senate hearings that Blackwater employees had taken part in torture interrogations carried out in CIA prisons. Besides that, the mercenaries have been linked to numerous other dirty dealings, among them child prostitution, rape and illegal weapons dealings in Iraq. House Democrat Jan Schakowsky, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, recently said of the suspected Blackwater involvement in the Hamburg killing, “The mere fact that these charges have been made is enough to give an indication of the extent of Blackwater’s involvement in secret intelligence operations.”