As Looseheadprop just noted, Blackwater can’t seem to stay out of the news – or out of trouble. Along with smuggling silencers, some of their folks are also accused of smuggling arms to the PKK in Northern Iraq. With all this bad news for the mercenaries, perhaps a little oversight is in order?

So guess who George’s team will most likely use to provide that oversight? None other than Tim Spicer and his infamous Aegis private security firm. It seems the Pentagon has won an intramural battle to gain control over the State Department mercenary contractors and the Pentagon already uses its “Reconstruction Operations Center,” to track their own. Noah Shactman at Wired follows yesterday’s New York Times report with a bit more detail the NYT seems to have missed:

But here’s the interesting twist: The Reconstruction Operations Centers are themselves outsourced, through a recently renewed $475 million contract to the British firm Aegis. And Aegis is run by the infamous old-school gun-for-hire, Tim Spicer. He’s the guy, you may recall, who tried to use his mercenary army to launch a counter-coup for the government of Sierra Leone; his associate, Simon Mann plotted the overthrow of the authorities in Equatorial Guinea. Later, in Iraq, one of his ex-employees circulated online a rather nasty “trophy video,” in which contractors are seen shooting at civilians — to the sounds of Elvis’ “Runaway Train.” (video is above)

About time for some congressional action? You bet and it looks like some is on the way – Michael Roston over at Huffington Post has just reported:

Next Wednesday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) will introduce legislation to phase out the use of tens of thousands of private security contractors deployed on battlefields where American troops are present. The Stop Outsourcing Security Act intends to effectively put Blackwater and their ilk out of business.

“After 9/11 we thought airport security was so important that it shouldn’t be contracted out and we created the Transportation Security Administration,” said Peter Karafotas, a spokesman for the Congresswoman. “The writing’s on the wall that Blackwater needs to go, and contracting is on its way out.”

Several Senators are lining up a bill in the Senate – let’s make sure our representatives know that we want them to get on board these efforts. As Dahr Jamail reminds us, the problems with Blackwater and their buddies have gone on for way too long:

Salih Aziz who works with the Iraqi Group for Human Rights, an NGO in Baghdad, told IPS that Blackwater convoys, which usually comprise several large, white SUVs, have proven deadly for Iraqi civilians since the early months of the occupation in March 2003.

“Since the very beginning of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Baghdad streets have seen peculiar looking groups of men in armoured cars with black glasses, killing anyone who approached them,” said Aziz. “They were the first to be hated by Iraqis.”

While I have a feeling George likes to strut around the White House in Raybans playing tough guy merc, let’s hope the grownups like Sharkowsky can lead a real effort to finally stop these thugs.

(Go Donna!)