Blackwater Vets Gearing Up for an Info-Free Hearing
The Senate Armed Services Committee right now is in a brief recess, but the likelihood of getting information out of two invited witnesses formerly employed by
Jul 31, 2020184.1K Shares2.7M Views
The Senate Armed Services Committee right now is in a brief recess, but the likelihood of getting information out of two invited witnesses formerly employed by Blackwater is already looking pretty slim. One of them, Brian McCracken, a Raytheon employee who used to be an executive with the Blackwater arm known as Paravant, parried with Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) for nearly five minutes about whether, strictly speaking, he was right to describe a 2008 incident in which a Blackwater employee rode a moving car “like a stagecoach” and accidentally shot a comrade as an “authorized” training exercise. And a former Paravant program manager, John Walker, eschewed an opening statement by saying he had questions* for the committee* and then had difficulty speaking into the microphone.
We’ll see if this gets any more illuminating when the panel reconvenes. Like for instance: What became of those hundreds of weapons Blackwater took from U.S. military weapons depots — depriving the Afghan Army of them? Levin told reporters yesterday Blackwater “misrepresented the facts”when the committee asked if all the guns had been returned. So where are they?