Blackwater-Hating Congressman Turns Out To Be Not Too Picky About Ride Out of 3rd World Capital In Middle of Coup

I came across this at LoppyD's place earlier tonight and couldn't resist digging into some yummy schadenfreude.

Representative Alan Grayson, who assured anyone who'd listen that the GOP healthcare plan is to 'just have you die', also has been drinking copious amounts of the Blackwater Hater-ade.

However, while on Congrssional business to the African nation of Niger this month, Grayson (D-FL) had to be spirited out of the country when that country's military staged a coup in the country's capital of Niamey. Rep. Grayson was spirited from the US Embassy to the airport and onto a plane that landed in neighboring Burkina-Faso. As it turned out, the plane was registered to his longtime nemesis, XE Services LLC- formerly Blackwater USA:

"The flight was arranged through the State Department," spokesman Todd Jurkowski said. "The congressman did not know, and frankly did not care, who owned the plane."
"The congressman does not deny that there is admirable work being done by some employees of private contractors," Jurkowski continued. "However, he stands by his criticism of companies who have been found to cheat the American people, defraud our government, and unnecessarily risk the lives of members of our military, all in the name of making a profit.

My my....I'm all atwitter over Grayson's sudden and convenient concern over the safety of our troops overseas. I wonder if he was as concerned when the late John Murtha accused the Haditha Marines or indiscrimately slaughtering a whole village in Iraq or how his ultimately baseless accusations would play on Al-Jazeera or Al-Manar TV.

As amusing as Grayson's predicament is, do not forget that his rhetoric targetting Blackwater/XE and other private military contractors has been enthusiastically and repeatedly used by groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban when trying to deflect attention or blame away from their attacks on civilians.

BREAKING: Lazy, Inept Blogger Manages to Scoop The Washington Post

Not that I was trying very hard, mind you:

From the November 7th edition of the Washington Post website:

In Peshawar, State of Denial Over Market Attacks

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN -- When terrorists last week blew up the Mina Bazaar, a market for women and children, they detonated a car bomb so powerful it left more than 100 people dead and 15 missing in a nightmarish scene of scattered limbs, charred corpses and victims trapped alive under mounds of debris

The bombing crossed a new line of callousness, uniting Peshawar in grief and fear and unleashing a tide of anger. But most of the outrage expressed by survivors, witnesses, religious leaders and other residents this week was not directed at Islamist extremist groups, whom the government has blamed for the attack, but at the countries many Pakistanis see as their true enemies: India, Israel and the United States

It seems that until pretty recently, Pakistanis in general had no problem with their Taliban proxies killing foreigners in Afghanistan or Kashmir. Now that they've spent the last month or so biting the hand that fed them in the most brutal, brazen and public manner possible, it borders on amazing to see their benefactors work overtime to try and deflect blame from their Talibani proxies.

Oh yes.....and the Talibans' first-ever benefactors (the Pakistani military and ISI Directorate) have nukes.

Whee!

Any wonder why I refer to Pakistan as the world's first failed nuclear state?

Failed Nuclear State Watch: Week of Oct 25th

Just days after a car bomb tore through a marketplace and killed 117 people in Peshawar, Pakistan the Taliban has done an abrupt about-face and denied any involvement in the attacks. Instead, they took a page out of American leftist groups like moveon.org or Code Pink's playbook and blamed private military contractors Blackwater USA for the bombing [caveat- link is from Iran's state-run Press TV, although several Pakistani news outlets are reporting the same story].

Certainly the Taliban wasn't shy about taking credit for earlier attacks this month. I have to wonder what was so beyond the pale about the October 28th attack that they carried out this week that they decided to try and deflect blame to Blackwater [now Xe Services LLC]. This week's attack did coincide with a visit from Secretary of State Clinton, but I think that was meant for the Taliban to show the Pakistani government how powerless they were by staging a mass csualty attack while a high-profile VIP was visiting Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Army has launched an offensive in South Waziristan, sending seven brigades (approximately 18,000 troops) to cordon off and search the reigon for Tehrik-e-Taliban militants.