"Most of the laws passed by Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of Iraq under US occupation, remain in force. Some of these laws violate Iraqi sovereignty, including a law that prevents Iraqis from prosecuting any American or any individual who cooperates with America or the coalition authorities, whether civilian or military," Abu Abdullah, an Iraqi lawyer, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Following the recent incident in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki threatened to revoke Blackwater's licence. What he later discovered was that the company was working in Iraq without a licence. The Americans weren't impressed by Al-Maliki's uncharacteristic boldness. "We'll revoke Al-Maliki's licence before he revokes Blackwater's licence," a US official quipped.

But as bad as Blackwater's activities in Iraq may be, it's the potential use of Blackwater and other private security companies as privatized paramilitary forces back in the US of A which should cause us even more concern. At least, that's the opinion of Naomi Wolf, noted author in her book The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot, portions of which are excerpted in her blog post at Firedoglake today:

In little noticed news, Blackwater, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Arinc were recently awarded a collective $15 billion — yes, billion — from the Pentagon to conduct global counter-narcotics operations. This means that Blackwater can be deployed to engage with citizens on a whole new level of intimacy anywhere around the world — including here at home. What is scarier than scary is that Blackwater’s overall plans are to do more and more of its armed and dangerous ‘security’ operations on U.S. soil. [...]

Blackwater is available to anyone who can write the checks. If there is a need to ‘restore public order’ in the next Presidential election — a power that the President now can define as he sees fit — Blackwater can be deployed. If the President declares an emergency, Blackwater can be deployed. And history shows us how very quickly citizen dissent and democratic processes close down when physically intimidating men — who are armed and not answerable to the people — are abroad in the land.

Those who read history should understand what we are more and more likely to see — now that a paramilitary force answerable to Bush and corporations like Halliburton but not to the people’s representatives is in place. Mussolini and Hitler began to deploy their paramilitary to patrol key public spaces early — when Italy and Germany were still parliamentary democracies and neither leader had yet seized power. These leaders deployed their paramilitary groups in the halls of Parliament and the Reichstag when these were still functioning representative democracies, thus intimidating the people’s political leaders. Then the paramilitary groups were deployed to violently contain opposition protests — again, in what were still open, if fragile, democratic societies at the time. [...]

... I was sad but not at all surprised when a horrified friend who works in downtown New York City told me that armed private contractors — who look like members of the NYPD but who are not answerable to any government entity — have been placed around the U.S. stock exchange. I went down to check it out. Indeed, Wall Street and the entire periphery of the Stock Exchange was like a militarized zone in the hands of what was not evident to onlookers as being in fact a private army: there were barricades; three immense trucks parked to deter and investigate pedestrians; armed dog handlers with their big dogs on tightly held leashes — all of this looks like government security but it isn’t. The company, hired, the guards said, by the stock exchange itself, is neutrally called `T & M.’ (More investigation of such companies is called for.)

I went up to a guard and, chatting sweetly, established from him that, indeed, none of these men were NYPD or even US government agents.

“That’s really big gun,” I remarked admiringly of his massive firearm, encased in leather. “What kind is it?”

“It’s a Glock,” said the contractor, with shy pride.

“Heavens!,” I said. “What kind of guidelines does the company give you for shooting?”

“Use our discretion,” he said. I thanked him, my heart racing. [...]

... As Blackwater or other renamed versions of paramilitary contractors, sometimes with intimate ties to this administration and to Halliburton, start to patrol the streets of our nation, without our debate or consent, we can easily wake up to find that we have a National Guard that is supposed to be answerable to governors, and a Congress that is supposed to oversee the military — but it’s too late anyway; the guns in our streets are already in the hands of people who are answerable to those writing the checks — and no longer answerable to the now-vulnerable American people.

The title to Naomi Wolf's blog post is " Blackwater: Are You Scared Yet?" Well, I'm not scared -- I'm terrified. And I think we all should be, frankly. For when mercenaries (and let's not quibble, that's what Blackwater and their ilk are) become just another arm of the US government, or the Republican party, or whoever chooses to pay their bills for "security services" we are in very dangerous and uncharted waters.

The closest we have ever come to private militias before in our history were the "Pinkertons" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were employed primarily by the large monopolistic corporations of the "Gilded Age" to break up unions with whatever force they deemed necessary. That force usually resulted in dead and wounded striking employees and union organizers.

I think that Blackwater and the other security companies that have multiplied like cockroaches since 9/11 are far better armed, far richer, far more powerful and far more extensively employed by both the federal government and private corporations than the Pinkerton Agency ever was. And they give anyone who can afford their services the means to shut down dissent, intimidate political opponents and/or assist a sufficiently ruthless political leader with installing a fascist government, one that could rival the worst excesses of past dictatorships.

Still think it can't happen here? The means are already in place, and with these private armies now available to the highest bidder it could happen at any time. The next terrorist attack on US soil. The next large protest against, say a military attack on Iran. Or perhaps the next "disputed" election. Unless we act now to eliminate this risk we will face the consequences of permitting these private armies to multiply and acquire wealth and power. Count on it.