Monday, August 10, 2009

the sword shall never depart from thine house

Northanger has demanded that I say something about the court suit filed against Blackwater last Monday. The details are here and here If the Nation and TPM Site are reporting correctly, I’m shocked and appalled at the sheer sloppiness and bad faith of these charges. This, for instance, is pure catnip to the defense:

“The former Blackwater employee, identified only as "John Doe Number 2," claims that, "based on information provided to me by former colleagues, it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct."

You don’t have to have a tv cop show law degree to know that this charge is so ill defined, so based on hearsay, that it won’t stand up two minutes in court. I’m assuming that the Center for Constitutional Rights knows this, and this is a p.r. rush. But I can’t say I like this strategy. From the aspect of prosecuting a case, who cares if Prince is a Christian fascist? A courtroom is a terrible place to try to stage an investigation; it is a great place to press real, well formed charges in order to obtain a guilty verdict. Mixing those two things together almost always results in a ruling for the defendant.

I hope I am wrong. The whole point of the suit is, of course, to serve the clients of the lawyers. I’m not quite sure what allegations of child prostitution do to serve this end, since, as far as I can tell, none of the five civil suits concern injury for child prostitution.

Finally, I notice no activity whatsoever on the part of the Obama administration to prosecute Andrew Moonen for the murder of Raheem Khalif on Christmas day, 2006. Nor has there been any move to prosecute Margaret Scobey, the woman who, as acting ambassador, packed Moonen on a plane and sent him out of Iraq, as accessory; nor an investigation into who whitewashed Moonen’s record at the State department.

And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2Sa 12:2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
2Sa 12:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
2Sa 12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
2Sa 12:5 And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
2Sa 12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
2Sa 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
2Sa 12:8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.


1 comment:

northanger said...

you need to fix that first link.

anyway… you make excellent points. did you know Scobey told Alice Walker the Palestinians should be more like American blacks because our civil rights movement was successful? then can we treat Xe/Blackwater like Hezbollah/Hamas?

Mark 7:25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.