Blackwater, the Christian-themed mercenary company has a new big nasty mess, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a Washington law firm on behalf of some 60 Iraqis or their estates, including some of those shot by Blackwater in a 2007 overkill incident in a Baghdad traffic square that left 17 Iraqis dead.

The Nation reports that lawsuit alleges that Blackwater founder Erik Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq.  The lawsuit claims that Prince views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe" and

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 of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.

So much of this is just so wrong on so many levels. And shows a surprising lack of  knowledge about the Templars and their history. The Templars were a bit more than warriors, they were international bankers and had  store houses of treasures. So far so good.

But they also have a very dodgy history that runs contrary to modern evangelical Christianity. And depending on on how conspiracy prone you are, the Templars were everything from secret Muslims and/or homosexuals, to pre-satanists, pre-Masons, and/or the guys who held the secrets of Jesus being a baby-daddy…