Well, just when you think you may have just ONE day in life where your snark can outdo reality, you find out how absurd the world has been made. And not in a good way:
The private military company Blackwater has cultivated a patriotic reputation, with its staff of retired military and former police officers, and the requirement that most of its workers swear an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.
Blackwater’s aviation wing recently filed a unique request in federal court, where the widows of three American soldiers are suing the company over a botched flight supporting the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
The company, based in Moyock, doesn’t want the case heard in an American courtroom under American law: it wants the case heard under Shari’a, the Islamic law of Afghanistan.
Don’t let too many Republicans know this, but Shari’a law is apparently great for business and bad for the most evil people on earth, not Al Qaeda silly, AMERICAN TRIAL LAWYERS:
The company argued that the lawsuit must be dismissed; legal doctrine holds that soldiers cannot sue the government, and Blackwater’s aviation wing was acting as an agent of the government.
Last year, a series of federal judges dismissed that argument.
In April, Blackwater asked a federal judge in Florida to apply Islamic law, commonly known as Shari’a, to the case. If the judge agreed, the lawsuit would be dismissed. Shari’a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work.
If this becomes well-known, the GOP’s corporate base will become fundamentalist Muslims faster than you can say Mecca Oil & Gas. James Taranto is wearing a burka already (he’s very confused).
Via Talking Points Memo.
(pic via sd-optimist)



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Jus cogens!
And What THE HELL?
What if anything is the basis of Presidential Airways’ claim that it was acting as an agent of the USG at the time of the crash, and not simply as a contractor of the USG?
Here is the motion that asserts the choice of law should be Afghanistan:
McMahon v. Presidential [Doc 145]
As for to “agent” v. “contractor” contention, I haven’t studied the case, but perhaps the opinion and order of the 11th Circuit illuminates the nature of the Presidential’s arguments.
http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/o…..615303.pdf
Next thing you know, Blackwater is going to have us wearing burkas!
Thanks as ever, cboldt! From the opinion, there seems to have been no compelling argument presented for their agent-not-contractor distinction. So good luck on changing the controlling law over to Shari’a, guys — still a pig ya got there.
New set of attorneys. The first set filed motions to withdraw in April, and the new set filed the “Sharia law” (second bite at the apple) 12(b)(6) motion.
The Sharia law motion is fully briefed (Motion – Opposition to Motion – Reply to Opposition). The reporter gets it wrong when he says Presidential wants the case tried in Afghanistan. Presidential wants NO TRIAL. It aims to get that result in a US Court, with a US Court saying that the widows have no claim for damages under applicable law; case dismissed with prejudice.
Outside the courtroom, the USGOV continues to favor Presidential with contracts.
Sharia law is not even Iraqi law! The only people following Sharia law in Iraq are some religious Shia and al Quida I’m not sure Blackwater wants al Sistani or Ossama deciding their trial.
So what is their angle on this are they stalling for time?
I think al Sistani is ok but after Blackwater fired into a crowd I don’t think he will be a nice judge.
Also doesn’t Islamic law apply only to Muslims and people living under Muslim law in which case then couldn’t the Muslims charge Blackwater under their own system with war crimes?
Because either Blackwater is 100% under Muslim law or this is just a one time stunt which will make things harder for the next President.
Also when does the accused have the right to pick what legal system applies to him?
The incident occurred in Afghanistan, not Iraq.
The suit is a civil suit for money damages. Both sides are free to argue “choice of law” issues, and “choice of law” can and does shift on a case by case basis.
The angle is 1) get out of court, but if that isn’t possible then 2) delay and 3) frustrate the plaintiff.
I just went to LGF to see what they’re saying about this. (I haven’t showered yet.) Funny thing, I couldn’t find a posting about it!
Good morning, pups. It’s Collins, Cohen and Kristof today. La Collins writes about a “Bad Day in the Rose Garden,” and says that President Bush has already created an intense national antipathy toward the Republicans, and the least he could do is stay put for John McCain to disagree with him. Mr. Cohen tells us about “The Muck of the Irish,” and that when it comes to sheer electoral crassness, forget George W. Bush. It’s hard to beat what the Irish have just done with the Lisbon Treaty. Mr. Kristof writes about “Strengthening Extremists,” and says if the U.S. and Israel had formed a Joint Commission to Support Hamas Extremists and Bolster Iranian Influence, they could hardly have done a better job.
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee and tea are ready, and I have some banana pancakes to share this morning. It will be interesting to see the reaction to Blackwater’s strategy at places like Little Green Pusballs. Don’t look at me — there’s not enough brain bleach in the world… Have a great day. 215 to go.
I owe you your beverage of choice! Maybe they’re not awake yet? Or they’re trying how to be wildly in favor of Shari’a law?
I know nothing of Shari’a law except what I’ve read in the coverage, and all that says is that under Shari’a law there is no standing to sue ‘the government’, which I interpreted (perhaps wrongly) as the Afghani gov’t. If that’s the only relevant limitation — and yes, I fully realize what a big ‘if’ that is — then it would seem that the same core question of whether at the time of the crash Presidential was acting as the Afghani government (i.e. had an agency relationship to it) would present. And since Presidential was clearly providing contract services to the USG at the time, not the Afghani gov’t, that still looks like a pretty tough row to hoe.
So much for bringing them all Democracy I bet Blackwater has a Special judge in mind if the case gets that far.
attaturk–i got a 404 on your ’not in a good way’ link……..
OT Shell just closed drilling in Nigeria according to Yahoo News. The maket should go down and oil prices up today.
They changed the address. I fixed it, should work now.
OT
Has any major pollster asked the American people the obvious question?
“Do you think the invasion of Iraq is mainly about oil”?
You’re conflating two separate arguments.
The “We (Presidential) were acting as the (US) government, and therefore have immunity” argument was shot down late last year, was appealed, and was shot down by the 11th Circuit.
New batch of lawyers comes in and argues, “Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint is governed by the law of Afghanistan, which does not recognize causes of action based on respondeat superior and indirect liability.”
Presidential is before a US District Court in the Central District of FL. They are stuck with the judge they have. They aren’t asking for the case to be transfered to Afghanistan – the reporter got that part wrong. They are asking for the case to go away, period, fini.
OT — I am NOT a happy camper. The Savannah Daily Disappointment informs me that Obama has endorsed my Democrat-in-name-only congresscritter John Barrow over Regina Thomas, who was here a few weeks ago to visit as a Blue America candidate. I’m composing a Strongly Worded Letter…
As an added bonus, the headline on the story is classic and symptomatic of why I call it the Daily Disappointment: “Obama Endorse U.S. Rep. John Barrow.” Grammar? Grammar? We don’t need no stinkin’ grammar…
Attaturk,
Every day I question weather I’m alive now or in a transient state of denial and actually live back in Nazi Germany during WW2. Our government starts wars of aggression, tortures,disappears people, shreds evidence and commits unanswerable murder. So,tell me please what beef we had with the German system?
Just in case anyone ever had any question about why we’re in Iraq the NYT explains it all for us.
The difference between German SS and blackwater, Bush’s secret army is……?
Coffee please. Cream, no sugar.
:-)
You got it!
Florida, Afghanistan Blackwater is wired into both governments thanks to Bush anyone else would get laughed out of court trying to argue for Islamic not Afghani law. Especially when America set up the government in Afghanistan to not be as oppressive to women a Sharia law was under the Taliban and Ossama.
thanks attaturk, i sent it on…….
i won’t be around for the local call-in show this morning, so, the host is going to bring it up..heh heh.
bbl
There’s a thing about the letter S that befuddles many–and me. Apostrophes where they should not be and not where they should be. The explanation for the first is hypercorrecting. If that were the case, why are they being removed elsewhere.
Perhaps the error in the headline was meant to distract from the error in judgment by the Presumptive Nominee?
If it’s any consolation, I find grammatical errors in the NYT all the time.
Now off I go to tangle with the grammatical errors in a piece for which I have no one but myself to blame.
See ya’all tmr. a.m.
Thanks for breakfast, Savannaharian Marion.
Morning everyone. I want to go OT for a sec to share what I learned here yesterday in case anyone missed it.
In an interview between Wolf Blitzer and Rep. Van Hollen on offshore drilling, VanHollen said that the oil companies already have leases to 80 million acres of land that they are letting sit idle. He said they should drill on those 80 mill acres before anyone should consider leasing them offshore land. Maybe I’m alone, but I did not know this and it is a perfect rebuttal to the latest request by Bush to explore offshore.
Why didn’t I know this and why aren’t more dems using this argument?
Shouldn’t Presidents remain above the fray and endorse whomever wins the Primary this could be a Holy Joe repeat.
Obama endorsed Joe and now Joe looks ready to endorse McCain not Obama even though the Democrats are likely to gain control of the Senate and kick Joe out still Joe is screwing Obama.
I wonder if John Barrow will go GOP now like Joe?
Helping people who hate you just makes them more determined to screw with you if they get the chance to because they have to reaffirm their own self worth.
The Blue Dogs hate Obama because well he’s Black. The Blue Dogs hate us because of our ideas.
Obama is wining because he champions many ideas we also like like racial equality, green power, rebuild the roads and bridges.
Obama can’t make friends with the blue dogs he can try but they like their GOP friends more than him.
You go to war-profiteering with the law you have,
not the law you want.
BTW, isn’t Prince some kind of Fundie?
Prince’s father co-founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer.
Good catch and it is good to see at least one Dem not accept GOP wisdom and have an answer ready for a change.
About the rest of the Dems not using this argument well I’m guessing their blue dogs and that they don’t want to fight with Bush on this issue, or on ending the war,or the economy.
We must replace the Blue dogs!
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E…..te_note-20
Good morning all. Actually they have been using that argument in the Senate and, I would assume, elsewhere. Sen. Durbin was talking about it yesterday and some Rep mentioned it the other day in the House.
Just as the agricorps have managed to create a world “food shortage” to argue for an increase in GM crops so have the oil companies artificially increased the price of oil and are using that as an excuse to get more oil leases. Nothing in those leases say they HAVE to drill for oil or lose the leases. They get them and hold on to them until…. whenever. Obviously the oil companies have no incentive to drill for more oil as they are making billions a day now so why lower the price by drilling more. Makes no sense.
I heard the number was 68 million . . . but what’s a few million more or less. If they are “under lease” but not producing, a million here or there doesn’t make any difference. AND, quite a few million acres under lease are actually off-shore. Also heard on a call-in show from an oilman (not an OILMAN) that the current practice among the biggies is to drill–and if drilling is successful–to cap (and wait for the market to go up). As for the undrilled (but leased), it appears if drilling began today, oil won’t flow for 2-3 years. That’s gonna go a long ways to reduce prices today, isn’t it?
IIRC the French resistance gave the SS fits. History has a habit of repeating itself when people ignore the past.
Morning all :)
Completely OT, but I just watched the Move-on ad against John McCain and his 100 yr war on CNN..Short and to the point..I love it..
This is interesting
Good morning.
A short celebratory OT.
The wine I ordered in NYC on Tuesday afternoon arrived at the country at 7:30 this morning!!!! A Friday delivery date was promised.
Now we’ll have a great FDL BBQ on Sunday!
This is great we need them to make a fight on this!
Good. Menendez also speaking out on the dormant leases.
Maybe they should be subject to losing their leases if they don’t use them within a named time frame. Then the leases could be auctioned and the money used by the govt [we the people, our common good] not the BushCo cronies.
Use the we gotta do it this way ’cause we’re at war argument right back at ‘em.
The email Q I sent into WJ is: If oil drilling began today, when would the first drop reach U.S. gasoline stations? The Rs are trying to intimate that drilling is a solution to the short run problem, whereas the lag is probably around 5 years.
Attaturk upstairs with news about oil leases.
If this gets played right we could end up with the oil companies fighting with the Rethugs. Inasmuch as the offshore drilling issue was brought up by the pols the oil companies will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They don’t want to do more drilling and they don’t want to build more refineries. Doing so would upset the “supply and demand” argument they’ve been using for years. As an aside, Crist here in FL has run up against a wall of opposition. The Chamber of Commerce, a real nest of neocons, is the only group supporting Crist, using the argument that lower gas prices will bring more tourists. Even if the beaches are oil slicks. Put these peoples’ brains in a thimble and they’d roll around like BB’s in a boxcar.
Heard a bit of interesting discussion, too, among some legislators regarding refineries. Oil companies have NOT spent money on new refineries; someone, thus, suggested that we (the people) have refining capabilities–a nationalized refinery, where WE could affect the outcome. An interesting proposition, no?