Blackwater Mercenaries Direct Kiev Regime’s Crackdown In Ukraine

Blackwater Mercenaries Direct Kiev Regime’s Crackdown In Ukraine
By Alex Lantier

WSWS.org

Hundreds of US mercenaries are directing the repression of pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine by the fascist forces of the NATO puppet regime in Kiev, according to German media reports.

They are employed by the firm previously known as Blackwater, a massive private military contracting firm founded by former US Navy SEAL Erik Prince. The firm was renamed Xe in 2009 and then Academi in 2011, trying to evade the infamy attached to its original name due to its massacres of civilians in US-occupied Iraq.

They are now coordinating the attacks by the fascist Right Sector militia, the Kiev regime’s National Guard, and groups of football hooligans that have led to hundreds of casualties across east Ukraine.

This information was communicated to the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top German officials on April 29. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) said that 400 Blackwater troops are supporting Kiev’s security forces in eastern Ukraine, including in Slavyansk. Der Spiegel wrote, “This information reportedly comes from US intelligence services and was communicated during a so-called Intelligence Situation meeting, a regular discussion chaired by Chancellery Chief of Staff Peter Altmaier (CDU). The Presidents of the intelligence services and of the Federal Criminal Office and the intelligence coordinator of the Chancellery as well as high-ranking government officials attended the meeting.”

Though the BND apparently did not say who had hired the Blackwater mercenaries now fighting in Ukraine, they are undoubtedly working closely with US intelligence. Prince himself said last year that after the US invasion of Iraq, his firm “became a virtual extension of the CIA.”

The German government reports confirm Russian Foreign Ministry allegations last month that hundreds of mercenaries from Greystone, a subsidiary of Academi, were leading Right Sector fighters and other pro-Kiev forces in Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that the presence and the activities of US mercenaries “threaten to trigger civil war.” It subsequently alleged that English-speaking fighters were seen coordinating the fascist thugs and football hooligans who carried out the May 2 massacre of dozens of anti-Kiev regime protesters in Odessa. (See: “Washington responsible for fascist massacre in Odessa”)

Significantly, US news media have completely blacked out both the German and the Russian reports of Blackwater involvement in Ukraine.

In a press release on its company web site, Academi tried to dismiss the latest reports based on German government sources as “rumors,” published by “some irresponsible bloggers and online reporters.”

“Such unfounded statements combined with the lack of factual reporting to support them and the lack of context about the company are nothing more than sensationalistic efforts to create hysteria and headlines in times of genuine crisis,” the firm stated.

Ludicrously, Academi also claimed that it “has no relationship with any entity named Blackwater or with the former owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince.” It added, “Erik Prince sold the company (which he had renamed ‘Xe’) in 2010 and retained the rights to the Blackwater name.”

Academi’s dismissal of reports by leading media outlets and state agencies in Germany and Russia as unfounded rumors is as absurd as its claim that it has nothing to do with Blackwater.

The deafening silence on Academi’s role in US media, which did not even report the firm’s denial of the German reports, is the surest proof that Academi is in fact active in Ukraine. Its role in Ukraine confirms that the Kiev government is a far-right, neo-colonial regime prepared to use the most brutal and bloody measures to suppress popular opposition.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/13/blac-m13.html