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U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad

Alex Constantine - May 27, 2007

cias - U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in BaghdadBlackwater Employees Were Involved in Two Shooting Incidents in Past Week

By Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post Foreign Service
May 27, 2007; Page A01

Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area. ...

Continued:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052601394.html?hpid=topnews

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  1. Hello Alex. I have been searching for weeks to find a way to contact you by email, but no luck. I hope okay to contact you through the blog and ask you to write me at gsrain at yahoo dot com
    You have a great blog and I often send out article info from it to my mailing list.
    A good week to you
    George

  2. Alex, I hope it is appropriate to send you this personal email as I can’t find another way to contact you. My email is gsrain at yahoo dot com.
    Gretings Alex, and I hope my letter finds you well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book on the “Covert War against Rock” which I have sent gift copies to several friends, shared with my wife and 3 children, and have circulated a link with recomendation to over 850 people in my mailing list. Having been very much involved in the political/social/cultural movements during the 1960’s, it was very apparent to me that there was an organized “silencing” of the voices that were opening up our mind portals to be aware of the puppet masters as well as offering us positive visions of co-creating a world without greed or violence.

    A brief intro of my family and me. I grew up in NC, went to college in Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina which at that time was a small island of consciousness in a very racist and ignorant state. Took my first acid in ’68 in 10th grade. Hitchiked to Haight Ashbury and later in that same summer of ’69 went to Woodstock. At college I was very much an anti war activists and went to demonstrations at DC several times. Moved to San Francisco, met and married my wife and have been together 30 years. Moved from Northern California awhile to a log cabin in the Rockies of Western Montana. Had my life threatened for journalistic efforts on behalf of ending clear cutting of forests while promoting hemp alternatives. For most of 20 years lived on the jungle side of Maui Hawaii. Enjoyed being around people of like mind but the creeping shadows of the US iron curtain had me looking at the world map for alternative living situations. Checked out Bali and Thailand and eventualy purchased a land base on a small island in Fiji called Koro. Several other friends as well have chosen to be living near us. Here is a web site: http://www.koroisland.com Before we make our move there, we decided to leave the US and bring with us my mother to her ancestral home in Greece where we lived as extended family along with my wife and 3 children. My mother passed away recently after her 100th birthday. Homeschooling and sharing experiences together.

    A couple of times a week I send out a mailing called “links by george” which reaches over 800 people and several blogs. I will send a sample copy as often it gets sent to the bulk file. If interested, let me know and I can put your email into the mailing list as well. I also have other mailing lists that I send out specific group mailings if interested. These are: psychedelic, spiritual, rainbow/hippie, political, and “dirty jokes”.
    Also I am pasting an essay I had written about Woodstock as well. And below is also a travel photo link.

    A nice week to you
    Love and Light
    George

    Our travel photos:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsrain/

    In Joni Mitchel’s lyrical homage to Woodstock, her words “and we’ve got to get ourselves back in the garden” do not mean falling into a static dead letter pile of unvital statistics, but an actual and eternal metaphor for freedom and true humanism. An awakened human whose mandala is enriched and nourished by the textures of art, music, spirit, love and passion. “Drugs, Sex, and Rock and Roll” were and are the anthem that needs not be distorted by the historic revisionists that want to eliminate the message of the 60’s. For us that have stayed sober to its meaning, we know that the flag we wave stands for the same traditional values that have represented the finest aspects of all higher cultures throughout thousands of years of time including Indian, Pagan, Greek, and the many, many Goddess and other earth friendly indigenous tribes and individuals.
    Woodstock is our tribe and the Aquarian Festival our own Mecca. A pilgrimage that continues with how we chose to act, react, think, and feel.
    At the time of the concert I was 17 and living in North Carolina. Along with 3 other friends we drove up just in time to be stuck in the mammoth traffic jam surrounding the site, but excited with the energy to walk the several miles to Max Yasgar’s farm among the other growing numbers of brothers and sisters heading for our magnificent family reunion. The first realization of different realities ahead was the crowd telepathy which prevailed on such a grand level. People were showing huge empathy with each other as well as in sharing whatever they could for accommodation. As we crossed the line designating the concert to be free, a fresh breath of responsibility shed off the veil of commodity exchange based relationships and in return there manifested true love and respect for each other and the community that we were a part of.
    As to my adventures at the concert, what experiences I do recall are similar to many other testimonies. Totally impressed by the bass player to Mountain, learning how to spell the “F” word by Country Joe, sleeping through most of the Dead set (even though many of the younger fans now would welcome stoning me alive for it), but waking up to see the Who drill their way through Tommy, Sly Stone’s family exuberance, and Grace Slick make us all feel at home with her greeting of “Good Morning People.” I shared the heroic experience of most in being able to stay awake for the 3 days of magic to witness the amazing finale of Jimi playing as the crowds slowly headed onward.
    A couple of months ago I went up to Wavy Gravy at a rock poster exhibition in San Francisco where I thanked him for turning my life around in so many ways. During an especially tortuous moment at the festival when the storms had ravaged our energies and the whispers of Nixon’s helicopters dropping poisoned candy bars as tainted “care packages”, the Hog Farm Commune was serving free food at its makeshift kitchen area. It was the first time I experienced granola and a health food attitude that opened up a better way of living for me. Other excursions into the forest behind the concert area were even more examples of political, spiritual, and artistic groups setting up information booths, educational outreaches, workshops, etc.
    Another part of the full experience of Woodstock not covered too well in the movie was the way the Yasgar family took advantage of the plight of the masses caught in the storm. Max’s speech about how great the crowd of young people was, is quite inspirational and sincere. But as soon as the area was washed out by the rains, his wife was setting up a water hose to fill up people’s containers with tap water at 50 cents a bottle. Good old Yankee ingenuity.
    At one point I felt illuminated to share the idea that we could pass around a huge box and if everyone there donated whatever money they could spare, we could have enough millions of dollars to buy the adjacent land and create our own “Woodstock Nation”. I dropped the idea after a few tokes and the reaction of enough people that I approached who told me that it was a silly notion since “the whole world would soon be like Woodstock”. Who in their right minds indeed would not want to live a life of peace, love, and happiness?
    So that brings me full circle in asking myself what did happen. Why did CSNY mean so much when they said “almost cut my hair” and “teach your children well?” Not wanting to violate the rights we learned to free ____expression, I do not wish to condemn or judge anyone else in my opinion. Perhaps my perceptions are painted by my own life strokes and do not fit into the script of other paths in life. What I do know though is that I felt a commitment and sacred trust with the many that had gathered at Woodstock to never compromise the values that we were sharing that day. For me it has been a wonderful journey of being as true to the lifestyle then as today. Okay so my beard is now white and I can’t see the song titles on the cds too clearly, but I sure am glad to be listening still to Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Havens and the rest of the troubadours of truth. And what is even more delightful is sharing the music wi
    th my children as well. Just like a work of art in a museum, a masterpiece remains timeless and is appreciated forever. Those days and the music the Muses inspired were not just shallow entertainment of the moment to fade among the fads of time, but to be respected and enjoyed as true blessings from above.
    Just as with the “Woodstock” movie that we have seen several times, what a joy last night to watch the “Song Remains The Same” with our daughters and to be air guitaring and head shaking as vigorously as ever. Unfortunenly a dark cloud came across too many of the people that at that time were at Woodstock or were influenced by it. Concern for others and the planet became a passing fad. Fear of not being able to pay credit card bills for useless junk rather than live out of the system, home school the children, still sit on the back fence of the farm playing music and singing with friends. Fear of this and fear of that have turned too many of our generation into today’s sheeple. I feel that if one still has a breath left, they can look in the mirror then close your eyes and remember what it felt to be alive at Woodstock. Take a stand. Don’t be a hippy-crite but a “born again hippie” my friend. It’s your one and only life so do it right for your sakes and for your children’s. Sit down and tell them the truth about those times. Tell them about how mushrooms can lead to inspiration as well as delicious pasta sauce. How good it feels to give and share rather than drop bombs and steal. Tell them what they can gain by hearing those interesting musical clues in the good songs we know so well. Tell them why it’s fine to let your hair drop freely down your back, wear old clothes and live close to nature and not be trapped by the 9-5 rat race. Oral tradition is an important need to be passed down through the generations. All you need to know was and is right there in Woodstock. I would cherish the opportunity to relive every moment of those days and feel it to be as true to who I am then as to who I am now.
    Awhile back I had the honor to meet Swami Satchidananda, the Indian holy man who demonstrated to the crowd on stage between a set change how to do yogic breathing. I jokingly told him that I had thought him to be a rock musician at the concert. Whereupon this saintly old man picked up a couple of rocks from the ground and kept banging them together while hopping around and singing “it’s true I was and am a rock musician still”. And indeed the Spirit does live on.
    Peace, Love, and Justice
    George Douvris

  3. Thank you for the notes. Over the years, I’ve shied away from e-mail exchanges due to the inevitable abuse that came with them, not to mention spooks, infiltrators, faux female admirers, cutthroats, killers, etc., etc.. There have been times when MOST of the people writing to me were not operating in good faith. And then there is the “We Must Change Alex’s Mind” crowd, who are set on convincing me that I’m mistaken about something they hold dear. These ne-‘er-do-wells argue at length, are persistent and never give up trying to program me. Anti-Semites are the usual offenders in this category. You can see the problem I have with e-mails – they are an open door to anyone out to subvert me. So I shy away from them to preserve peace and balance in my life. I’ve never explained my point-of-view on this, so I’m explaining now in the hopes that you will understand the difficulty I have with mail in general. I apologize, but have to protect myself. Toward this end, I am hermetically sealed from hidden or overt agendas and ultimately at peace with the world.

    – AC

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