Again.
Palermo:
...In 1968, when Kennedy was gaining momentum and piling up primary victories it looked as though he would win the presidential nomination. But before he could be safely ensconced inside "the bubble" of 24-hour federal protection he was assassinated. And his progressive challenge to the war in Vietnam and to poverty at home was stopped in its tracks.
In 2008, Obama is gaining momentum, and hopefully people inside his organization are cognizant of the fact that he constitutes a very real threat to the likes of Blackwater, Dyncorps, Halliburton, and the hundreds of other private companies currently profiteering from the Iraq occupation.
Blackwater, that reactionary private mercenary outfit headed by the right-wing Christian nationalist Erik Prince stands to lose big time with an Obama presidency. Under George W. Bush Blackwater went from a marginal company with about $27 million in government contracts to a behemoth currently receiving over $1 billion in federal largesse.
It was revealed after the massacre of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad by Blackwater mercenaries that the U.S. State Department cannot function in Iraq without the services of the well-connected private company. Blackwater has a lot riding financially on keeping the Iraq occupation going and a lot to lose if it is ended. (Please read Jeremy Scahill's book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.)
Under an Obama Administration Blackwater would no doubt be cut down to size along with Bush's other crony capitalist entities. The Blackwater Boys no doubt have close friends and ideological soul mates deep inside the federal security services.
In 1968, immediately following the killing of Robert Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order providing Secret Service protection to all viable presidential candidates. His decision came as a result of the RFK assassination. But it was too late to prevent a tiny piece of lead from disfranchising millions of American voters.
Let's hope that the Blackwater elements can be thoroughly flushed out of the federal security services. Let's also hope that the Secret Service does a better job protecting Obama in the coming election year than Pakistan's ISI did in protecting Benazir Bhutto who didn't live to see election day.
What must be done with Blackwater is what President John F. Kennedy said he wanted to do with the CIA following the Bay of Pigs disaster: Tear it up into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the wind. FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK are rolling in their graves at the privatizing of the armed forces that George W. Bush has rammed through. With privatization comes a lack of control on the part of the government over its own military and security services. Bush gave Blackwater and companies like it a free ride on the government's dime and they no doubt want the gravy train to continue. Obama promises to apply the brakes. He therefore has some well-armed and lethally trained enemies that stand to lose their livelihoods if he follows through on his promise to end the Iraq occupation...
Quoth the Dark Wraith:
"Social unraveling"? It looks pretty tattered already.
Not to sound all tinfoil, but if a criminal cabal (cough)Cheneyburton(/cough) wanted to, you know, postphone an election so it couldn't be prosecuted, the ideal way to do it would be to do what their boy Musharaff just did. To somebody.
If they played their cards right, they could declare martial law, cause an even greater amount of civil unrest, and install a certain VP until things "settled down". Which of course, endless war on terror being endless, it might never do.
If they played their cards right.
Not that I would suggest conspiracy theories here or anything.
Although given the lack of appeal of the current Republican front runner among the monied, and the distaste in the Village for him, perhaps there might be a more tactical advantage for the Company for a hit on the right.
There are other philosophical differences between the Kennedy brothers and what we're facing today. Evidence suggests when John Kennedy first assumed office, he was a big fan of Ian Fleming, and pushed the envelope of covert activity. Too late, he realized that letting a government agency pursue a secret agenda meant keeping secrets from him, too.
Sowing the wind, he reaped a whirlwind.
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