A suit brought about by families of four members of the firm once known as Blackwater was tossed by a federal judge today. The families are survivors of men whose high profile murder, mutilation, and public exposure in Iraq appalled Americans and led to the siege of Fallujah. Their lawsuit maintained Blackwater basically misled, misequipped, and mistrained its mercenaries. The firm's ineptness, the plaintiffs asserted, contributed to the death of the four employees.Blackwater symbolized much of what was wrong in the occupation of Iraq. The firm, led by the shadowy, Republican-connected Erik Prince (above), has since evolved into Xe. That company was later acquired by USTC Holdings, which has ties to Prince. In the eyes of many, Blackwater got away with murder in Iraq and elsewhere. The termination of the lawsuit, in which the families ran out of money to successfully pursue its case, suggests something important was lost. Instead, a creepy underground sort of power remains in our land, impervious to justice.
