Meet Ukraine’s New Army Blackwater

It seems evangelical billionaire, Erik Prince rebranded his US funded Blackwater mercenary army, Academi and has sold the army to Monsanto.   

Academi was created by Erik Prince in 1997, under the name Blackwater Worldwide. The company, of which some managers are linked to Evangelic churches financed by the Pentagon, played a role, in Afghanistan in Iraq, comparable to that which played the Order of Malta, during the Nicaragua War. It is presided by Billy Joe (Red), McCombs (347th US fortune), John Aschcroft (former US Attorney general) and the admiral Bobby R. Inman (former NSA director and deputy director of the CIA). Academi, which works mainly for the US government, participated in the Tripoli battle (Libya) and is currently recruiting combatants to do the Jihad in Syria.

Academi (ex-Blackwater), the world’s most powerful private army, reveals having been signed over, without indicating the name of the buyer, nor the amount for which it was bought.

Get that? Academi, the world’s most powerful private army, paid by the U.S. Pentagon, who participated in the Tripoli battle in Libya which deposed Gagdafi and has been recruiting combatants in Syria to overthrow Assad is now owned by Monsanto. 

And, it seems Monsanto has a financial interest in who will be governing Ukraine.  According to a 2013 article in Reuters:

May 24 (Reuters) - Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, plans to launch a non-GM (genetically modified) corn seed plant in Ukraine, one of the world's leading producers of the grain, the company said on Friday.

"Monsanto is planning to build a seed plant in Ukraine to produce conventional corn seeds," Vitaliy Fedchuk, corporate affairs specialist at Monsanto Ukraine, told Reuters in an email.

So, a year ago Monsanto announced they were launching a seed plant in Ukraine, one of the largest corn producers in the world, to produce conventional corn seeds.  Given their cash crops are genetically modified Frankenstein seeds, why are they investing $100’s of millions in a conventional corn seed production in Ukraine?

Ukrainian laws bar local farmers from growing genetically modified crops. Asked whether Monsanto expected changes in regulations, Fedchuk said:

"Indeed, in Ukraine only conventional seeds are allowed for production and importation, thus we will be working with conventional seeds only." (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Michael Roddy)

I bet with the new Evangelical Prime Minister backed by Monsanto’s army those laws won’t be a problem.  Imagine the damage to Russia if their close neighbor started having GM plants blowing pollen all over contaminating Russia’s food supply.

So anyway, Ukraine's elected governent rejected a trade agreement with the European Union and that provoked the Ukranian people to protest and remove an elected Prime Minister.  According to the New York Times:

KIEV, Ukraine — Yuri V. Lutsenko, a onetime field commander of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, looked out across the tens of thousands of people who gathered on Sunday to protest the government’s decision to back away from a far-reaching political and trade deal with the European Union…

At stake here is not just the fate of a free-trade pact but whether the hardball tactics of Russia, willing to use every bit of economic muscle — including trade threats and its stranglehold on energy supplies — to exert blunt force in negotiations, will prevail over the national aspirations of millions of people.

The effort to draw in Ukraine and other ex-Soviet republics is also crucial to Europe, which has invested heavily in it and can ill afford a humiliating defeat at a time when its stature is already being called into doubt by the continuing economic strains within the euro zone.

Yes, the deal the elected government of Ukraine rejected was a humiliating defeat for the US and EU.

 Who is Monsanto? 

Monsanto was created in 1901 and produced saccharine used by Coca-Cola.  Sacchaine was banned in the U.S. in 1981 due to being a carcinogen.

Banned in 1981, saccharin has long been considered carcinogenic because it produced bladder tumours in rats. Saccharin is now unbanned, with more than 100 countries worldwide legitimately allowing saccharin as a food sweetening additive1, a situation that warrants further comment.

Isn’t that odd?  A known carcinogen manufactured by Monsanto is now unbanned in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Monsanto also supplied uranium for the Manhattan project and agent orange, the carcinogen used to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam. 

What’s interesting, and I’m not sure if there’s a connection between Monsanto’s take over of Ukraine, is a lawsuit brought by injured veterans against companies that contaminated and poisoned military personnel and their families.

From the 1950’s through the 1980’s military service personnel serving at Camp Lejeune were exposed to toxic chemicals.  From the U.S. Department ofVeterans Affairs:

Camp Lejeune: Past Water Contamination

From the 1950s through the 1980s, people living or working at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals.

Veterans and family members who served on active duty or resided at Camp Lejeune for 30 days or more between Jan. 1, 1957 and Dec. 31, 1987 may be eligible for medical care for 15 health conditions.

Seems our veterans and their families are dying from rare cancers caused by chemical exposure.  The lawsuit is  currently winding its way through court.

Veterans injured by the drinking water at Camp Lejeune should know this information

Camp Lejeune is a U.S. Marine Corps base in North Carolina, and has been a crucial component of USMC training activities since 1942.  The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has concluded that from (at least) November 1957 to February 1987, soldiers and their milies living on-base at Camp Lejeune were exposed to contaminated drinking water.

Soldiers – and their families – that were stationed at Camp Lejeune are finding that they are getting sick at rates far higher than any national rates in the general population.

What Happened at Camp Lejeune?

The water at Lejeune is known to have toxic concentrations in excess of 240 – 3400 times what the government considers a safe level.  The following chemicals are known to have been used at Lejeune, with more and more discovered each year (the list now totals over 70 known toxins in the drinking water at Lejeune):

Tricholorethylene (TCE)

Perchloroethylene (PCE)

Benzene

Vinyl Chloride

The health impacts of this are staggering:  a statistically significant number of men stationed at Lejeune have developed breast cancer at rates that far outpace the national rate of breast cancer in men.  Birth defects in children have also resulted, including myoletic leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and other forms of cancer rare to children.

But there’s another lawsuit that is before the U.S. Supreme Court that, if found in favor of the Corporation against the people, will nullify the Camp Lejuene veterans’ case.  In an article in USA Today by Richard Wolf entitled “Government Straddles Both Sides in Toxic Water Cases”

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed a law in 2012 offering health benefits to thousands of former Marines and their families who were exposed decades ago to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

But in a related case headed to the Supreme Court in April that could bolster or block their claims for damages, Obama's Justice Department has argued that the clock has run out.

The little-noticed case could have profound implications for victims of hidden contamination at Camp Lejeune and other former industrial sites in states that set deadlines on damage claims.

Those lawsuits generally involve "enormous financial stakes — typically in the millions of dollars," according to a petition filed by the electronics manufacturer at the center of the high court case.

Yes, the lawsuits involve “enormous financial stakes for companies like Monsanto, but the Obama Administration has their backs.

The fact that some plaintiffs will be unaware of their claims until after the statute of repose expires is an inherent feature of statutes of repose," the government argued. Exposing polluters to greater liability could discourage voluntary disclosure and cleanup, it said, as well as pose a burden to industry.

The appeals court wasn't convinced. It sided with the 23 landowners seeking damages and remediation because their land had been contaminated with toxic chemicals from 1959 to 1985, when CTS Corp. ran an electronics manufacturing plant in Asheville. It wasn't until 2009 that landowners learned their water could cause liver and kidney damage, heart ailments and cancer.

Seems to me the argument that “exposing polluters to greater liability could discourage disclosure and cleanup” is a really lame argument good thing the court of appeals disagreed.  But now, the case is scheduled before the United States Supreme Court.

You know, it is starting to look like Putin is looking out for the best interests of Russia and that’s what a leader is supposed to do.  So let Putin handle his part of the world and let the people of other countries determine their own destiny without US backed, private armies like Blackwater deciding for them.

By Patricia Baeten