I Think We're Supposed To Be Upset About This

I Think We're Supposed To Be Upset About This

But it isn't working. From the December 10, 2009 New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.

The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees and current and former intelligence officers said.

I kept reading the article, waiting for the horrible, disgusting, criminal actions that are supposed to make me jump with horror about this. But the worst that they can come up with is the 2007 incident in which Blackwater guards in a firefight killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Tragic? Yes. Avoidable? I've read differing accounts and explanations of what went wrong. But I'm hard pressed to see how that incident is an argument against CIA contracting out services to Blackwater.

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress authority to grant letters of marque and reprisal--which is way more open-ended and Wild West than what is being alleged in this New York Times article. Please, explain to me what the problem is, besides the ever-present conspiracy theory by which Blackwater really pulls all the strings, starts wars, etc. to get rich.