Crusader Xe

On August 19th, The New York Times published an article by Mike Manzetti which claimed that Blackwater USA, now known as Xe, had been secretly directed by the CIA to locate and assassinate Al-Qeada operatives in Iraq in 2004.
Blackwater operates a private military and police training facility on 7,000 acres in North Carolina that trains up to 40,000 people per year. It is the largest such facility in the country. The founder and CEO of Blackwater is a former Navy SEAL named Erik Prince. Prince was an intern in the George H.W. Bush White House and is a massive GOP donor. He has also come under fire for his "Crusader Ideology." In one affidavit, a former employee says Prince, "views himself as a Christian Crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe. To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights Templar, the warriors who fought the crusades."
This Blackwater Assassination Squad isn't the only example of these men murdering Iraqis. On Febuary 6th, 2006, a Blackwater sniper opened fire on security guards of the state-run Iraqi Media Network, killing three. On September 16th, 2007, a Blackwater security detail opened fire on Iraqi civilians, killing 17. The FBI found that at least 14 were innocent victims, and that the security detail continued to fire into a group of fleeing Iraqis.
Yet, The Assassination Squad never actually killed anyone. The program, which was never revealed to congress, was started and cancelled by CIA director George Tenet. His successor, Porter Goss, restarted the program, only to have it "downgraded" by Michael Hayden. Then Leon Panetta, who was head of the CIA for months before he learned about the program, finally killed it.
However, Blackwater never had a contract for this program. Instead, CEO Erik Prince was personally involved in negotiations at a very high level. Illinois Representative and member of the House Intelligence committee Jan Schakowsky puts it as Prince being in, "the innermost circle, strategizing within the Bush Administration."
So the Bush Administration was paying Blackwater to assassinate Al-Qeada. Assassinations have been against stated American policy since the '70s, and mercenaries of any kind are illegal under the Geneva Conventions. The United States position is that Blackwater are only security detail, and perform "defensive" duties in Iraq. The Geneva Conventions make no distinction between offensive and defensive mercenaries. What is the operating legal framework here? What if Blackwater employees were captured by Iraqi officials? Murder charges or war crimes?
This is another example of Conservatives hating government. Military operations are one thing that most Americans can agree should be handled by the government, but the Bush Administration decided to outsource this duty as well. The claim that there are simply not enough troops to perform guarding our own diplomats and convoys only undermines their argument. Why are we undertaking such massive nation building efforts if we acknowledge that we don't have the troops necessary? What does this mean for Afghanistan? In recent polling, most Americans now question the usefulness of the Afghan war. Can we afford to have Blackwater in Afghanistan, or can we afford not to?