May 13, 2014

US War Dolphins, Blackwater deployed in Eastern Ukraine

May 13, 2014. Donetsk, Ukraine. Hostilities continue to rise in eastern Ukraine, especially after pro-Russian break-away provinces voted for independence this weekend. But US officials aren’t sitting still. Along with warships, the Pentagon has also dispatched units of Navy war dolphins and sea lions into the Russian-dominated Black Sea. And America’s most notorious taxpayer-funded private mercenary army has been observed operating in eastern Ukrainian cities.

While regular Americans may be surprised by every aspect of this story, Whiteout Press readers aren’t. Yes, the US Navy does employ teams of dolphins and sea lions to fight its wars. And yes, Wall Street’s corporations do have private mercenary armies stationed and fighting in countries around the world, including the US. One little-known fact is that midway through the Iraq War, America’s private mercenary army grew to be the largest military in that war, with 155,826 troops, compared to the US military’s 152,275. News reports from Europe now show that both the dolphins and the American mercenaries are currently deployed in Ukraine.

US Dolphins and Sea Lions deploy to Ukraine

In small and measured steps, various elements of the US Navy have been deploying to the Black Sea over the past five months. In February, warships from the US 6th Fleet were sent to the Russian coast under the auspices of helping with security for the Winter Olympics there. Then three weeks ago, it was revealed that the US is taking the highly unusual action of rushing teams of ‘war dolphins’ and ‘war sea lions’ to the Black Sea to take part in exercises that US officials would only call “war games”.

Skeptics around the world, especially in Russia and the US, are more convinced that the military moves are in direct response to the ever-heightening hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Veterinary experts have publicly stated that the mission with the dolphins and sea lions must be extremely urgent. The animals will be rushed by plane to Ukraine along with other US-NATO naval forces. Animal experts insist the rapid change in pressure, violent movements, and being in a plane for so long will all take a devastating toll on the mammals’ health and ability to function.

The US Navy isn’t the only one with a dolphin fighting force either. Russia’s war dolphins are most-likely already deployed in the Black Sea. With this being the first time the US dolphin force has ever participated in NATO exercises, the animals may actually come face to face with their Russian counterparts. RT News quoted the former commander of Russia’s Black Sea dolphin force who suggested something bigger was going on than being admitted by US leaders. “There must be a very good reason to make the animals travel over such distances in a plane,” Yury Plyachenko pondered, “We shouldn’t forget that a lot of money was invested into their training.”

The US Navy’s animal force includes a total of roughly 100 sea mammals, including bottlenose dolphins, sea lions and even beluga whales. For this particular deployment to Ukraine, the US Navy is sending 20 dolphins and 10 sea lions. According to US sources, the animals will take part in both old and new marine mammal combat tactics. Like in previous actions, the animals will seek out enemy mines and divers, alerting handlers prior to getting blown up or killed if possible.

But new uses are also going to be tested out by the US Navy for the first time in a real world combat scenario. One mission the dolphins and sea lions will embark on is finding and interfering with enemy sonar units, “disorienting” them according to officials. The animals will also test out specially created armor and surveillance equipment by actually wearing it the same way human divers do. Finally, the Navy animal force will train for the mission of locating and neutralizing the enemy’s own combat dolphins.

US mercenary army deploys to Ukraine

German media outlets, citing leaks from high-ranking officials in the country’s intelligence community, confirmed this weekend what was originally reported when it first occurred two months ago – US corporations have sent their private armies to fight against Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, International Business Times quoted sources within the German foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) who claimed the new national government in Kiev is working hand in hand with US intelligence agencies like the CIA.

The report claims an initial force of 400 US corporate mercenaries were flown into various hotspots to fight street battles against pro-Russian separatists in cities across eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian Officials reportedly admitted their own national and local police and military had either defected to the Russian side or were overwhelmed and outnumbered. Fighting fire with fire, or private army against private army in this case, Ukraine reportedly hired the US corporate mercenary army formerly known as Blackwater.

As far back as March, media outlets like the UK’s Daily Mail reported sightings of mysterious, well-armed, well-disciplined pro-US militia forces deployed in eastern Ukrainian cities. The report cites two videos posted to YouTube featuring pro-Russian protesters heckling masked, unmarked gunmen patrolling a section of the eastern Ukrainian, and pro-Russian city of Donetsk. The locals, who apparently are more knowledgeable about who their mercenaries are and who the west’s mercenaries are, repeatedly yelled, “Blackwater! Blackwater!” at the masked gunmen.

The videos show the hostile crowd shouting at the gunmen until they literally run away for their own safety. At the same time in Kiev, and official confirmed a force of 300 private security personnel had been hired and deployed to Donetsk. “These are soldiers of fortune proficient in combat operations,” Interfax quoted an anonymous government official explaining, “Most of them had operated under private contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other states. Most of them come from the United States.”

Sources confirm US coup, Wall Street army deployment

Hindsight is not looking good for the United States and the Obama administration. First, US State Dept communications were leaked showing that US leaders at the highest levels of government were about to stage a coup to overthrow the democratically elected, but pro-Russian, Ukrainian President. With vehement denials from the Obama White House, every word of the leaked recordings happened exactly the way they said they would – a popular uprising deposed the Ukrainian President who was forced to flee to Russia. Mysterious snipers opened fire on their own peaceful pro-west protesters to spark the coup. And it worked exactly as planned.

Next, none other than the Director of the CIA was caught working in Kiev with the new pro-west government, itself frantically assembled and put in power without elections or the consent of the people. And now, just this weekend, media outlets and sources from two governments are confirming that US private corporate military forces are in fact deployed in eastern Ukraine in support of the new pro-West government in Kiev.

Who are they, really?

None of the accused secret US mercenary corporations have admitted that it’s their army operating in Ukraine, but that hasn’t stopped Russia, the break-away provinces, or even the global media from speculating as to who these mysterious, heavily armed, unmarked forces are. Local residents all agree that whoever they are, they’re not Russian or even pro-Russian. They insist the masked gunmen’s equipment, dress, behavior, mannerisms, ethnicities, and a host of other tiny indicators suggest they’re American.

One month ago, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement officially accusing US corporate mercenary forces of operating in eastern Ukraine. The announcement specifically named the American defense contractor Greystone Ltd, a former subsidiary of the notorious Blackwater Corporation, probably the most widely-known corporate mercenary army in the world. When asked about the Russian accusations, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the claim, “seems bogus to us.” The US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, said the report was, “rubbish.”

How many US private armies are there?

For 200 years, private armies were outlawed in the United States, for obvious reasons. America’s founders were so frightened by the thought that even the country’s own military is forbidden from deploying on American soil. That ended with the 2013 passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but that’s a story for another time. Our founders believed armies were for national defense and a standing army across America’s landscape would become the tool of tyrants, as it has in every country throughout history.

Showing just how subverted that one major national protection has become, there are so many mysterious US corporate armies operating in the United States today, even America’s largest national media outlets can’t seem to keep them straight. Some accounts peg the number of private corporate armies operating in the US right now at 60. Try to follow along and see if you can solve the identity of the mystery army operating in eastern Ukraine right now.

In 1997, a corporation called Blackwater was created by two former CIA agents who figured out they could get rich providing special forces and espionage training to the hundreds of thousands of US military and intelligence personnel, especially those stationed in hostile environments outside the US. Their first major contract came in 2000 after the USS Cole was bombed and Blackwater was hired to train 200,000 US Navy sailors.

It all begins with Blackwater

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Blackwater’s founders realized they could make billions of dollars in no-bid training contracts due to the multi-trillion-dollar war on terror. The following year, the corporation launched a sister company called Blackwater Security. The ‘security’ company was actually nothing more than the birth of state-sponsored private-corporate armies in the US. The first contract the new mercenary army was reportedly awarded came from the CIA in the form of basic security teams to guard clandestine CIA stations in the Middle East while the agents were busy hunting for Osama bin Laden.

Almost immediately, Blackwater Security forces were hired by the US Defense Dept to fight alongside US and British military forces in Afghanistan. Operating outside the chain of US military or legal responsibility, and literally exempt from any laws, the flourishing mercenary force grew from a few hundred at the start of the Afghanistan War to 155,826 corporate soldiers from as many as 50 private defense contractors at the peak of the Iraq War.

Greystone or Academi

In 2007, a force of Blackwater militia slaughtered a group of Iraqi civilians, killing more than a dozen and injuring even more. Hounded by international condemnation, Blackwater changed its corporate name to Xe Services in 2010. Under the Xe umbrella, the corporation rebranded its mercenary army and launched it as a subsidiary called Greystone under the leadership of a former US Navy Seal. Last month’s accusations from Moscow, along with follow-up coverage by ABC News, report that the active US mercenary army in Ukraine right now is from Greystone Ltd.

At the same time the private army was renamed Greystone, Blackwater’s founders sold off the half of the company that provided training to US military and private security forces. The original Blackwater was now two completely separate and unrelated corporations. Xe and Greystone had the global mercenary army. And the training academy was renamed Academi and focused solely on training.

After being repeatedly named as the corporate mercenary army operating in eastern Ukraine, the owners of Academi released an extremely frustrated press release assuring the world that their company has nothing to do with the old Blackrock, Xe or Greystone, or even the business of supplying private mercenaries. They insist their company has been completely independent since 2010.

The company’s March 2014 statement reads, “Those who understand the facts know that Erik Prince sold the company, which he had renamed Xe in 2010, and retained the rights to the Blackwater name. The new management of ACADEMI has made tremendous efforts to build a responsible, transparent company ethos, evidenced by the numerous awards ACADEMI has received for being among the most compliant companies in our industry.”

Germany confirms US corporate mercenaries in Ukraine

Just this weekend, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper confirmed that the mysterious mercenary army deployed in eastern Ukrainian cities is the one formerly known as Blackwater. While the outlet identifies the corporation as Academi, it’s apparent they’re actually referring to the mercenary wing called Greystone, not the training facility in the US named Academi. Regardless of the endless and confusing name changes, German intelligence officials insist its Blackrock.

As detailed by RT News two days ago, German media outlets quoting German intelligence officials confirmed that roughly 400 Blackrock “employees are involved in the Kiev military crackdown on pro-autonomy activists near the town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region.” The paper cited government officials who confirmed that on April 29th, Germany’s intelligence service notified Chancellor Angela Merkel that US corporate mercenaries were involved in the street confrontations in Donetsk.

The US corporate mercenaries have also been spotted fighting arm-in-arm with Ukrainian military forces sweeping the pro-Russian militia fighters out of many of their previous strongholds and barricaded government buildings. In one respect, the scenario with Blackrock hired to fight alongside the Ukrainian army looks eerily similar to Hezbollah’s being hired to fight alongside the Syrian army. And if America’s Blackrock is nothing more or less than another Hezbollah, that might be the biggest news of all.

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