Bad news is putting it mildly. The military has investigated the two notorious September 16th shooting incidents by Blackwater “security guards” in Baghdad, and they are placing all the blame squarely on Blackwater’s “contractors” for the mayhem and death that ensued:
(cont.)
BAGHDAD, Oct. 4 — U.S. military reports from the scene of the Sept. 16 shooting incident involving the security firm Blackwater USA indicate that its guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force against Iraqi civilians, according to a senior U.S. military official.
The reports came to light as an Interior Ministry official and five eyewitnesses described a second deadly shooting minutes after the incident in Nisoor Square. The same Blackwater security guards, after driving about 150 yards away from the square, fired into a crush of cars, killing one person and injuring two, the Iraqi official said.
“It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong,” said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident remains the subject of several investigations. “The civilians that were fired upon, they didn’t have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP or any of the local security forces fired back at them,” he added, using a military abbreviation for the Iraqi police. The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, the official said. […]
Blackwater, whose primary task in Iraq is to protect U.S. diplomats, has been unwilling to share information about the incident with the U.S. military, the official said, adding that military officials went to Blackwater’s compound in the Green Zone but were denied access to company managers.
They fired grenade launchers and machine guns into people fleeing the scene? People who were not firing against the security guards? People running for their lives? No wonder they’re refusing to cooperate with the military’s investigation. Quite a contrast from the original government report written by a Blackwater employee, isn’t it?
A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page “spot report” on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy’s Tactical Operations Center. […]
Blackwater — which provides security to U.S. diplomats — says its employees responded properly to an insurgent attack on a convoy. The State Department “spot report” underscores that scenario and doesn’t mention civilian casualties.
What a shocker. No mention of civilian casualties. And no mention of the second shooting incident shortly after the first by the same group of security guards, and another related incident where a second team Blackwater security guards sent to “rescue” the first group engaged in an hour standoff with Iraqi police:
One group of Blackwater USA contractors was involved in two separate shootings on September 16, according to a senior Iraqi National Police official who contributed to a report detailing the second shooting.
The official also told CNN that a second group of Blackwater contractors on their way to assist the first group later engaged in an hour-long standoff with Iraqi police.
The first, widely publicized shooting occurred at Nisoor Square in Baghdad. …
The second shooting occurred minutes later about 550 yards (500 meters) from Nisoor Square, the Iraqi National Police official told CNN Monday. …
The second incident allegedly took place after a Blackwater convoy ran into a traffic jam caused by civilians trying to flee Nisoor Square, the official said.
When the Blackwater convoy tried to drive against the traffic flow, he said, an Iraqi police vehicle — its officers unaware of the Nisoor shooting — tried to open the road by stopping civilian vehicles from driving toward the convoy.
But the official said Iraqi police report found that the contractors opened fire at the police and civilian vehicles, wounding at least three civilians.[…]
Meanwhile, the official said, his team of police officers stopped a second Blackwater team that had come from Baghdad’s International Zone to back up the first team, which had become mired in traffic.
Believing the second team was actually the one involved in the shooting, the officers surrounded the contractors and engaged in a standoff with them for about an hour, the official said.
He said he asked the contractors to “hold fire or we will fire; and if we do, you will fire more, so please, I ask you to point your weapons upwards.”
No shots were fired and the Blackwater contractors returned to the Green Zone, he said.
One giant SNAFU to use an outdated WWII military slang term that somehow seems more appropriate when applied to Iraq in general, and Blackwater in particular. In fact, the corruption and cowboy attitude of Blackwater security forces in Iraq literally knows no bounds, apparently, as Zandar1’s new diary Blackwater: Three Kings, One Joker demonstrates, a tale of a corrupt official convicted by an Iraqi judge being sprung from jail by either Blackwater or Dyncorp (a competitor in the private army business), or both, not once, but twice! And that corrupt Iraqi official? He’s now living in Chicago, as we speak. You can’t write a Hollywood script better than this!
So, we have evidence that Blackwater is a group of corrupt, lawless, murderous thugs. Good thing Blackwater is owned by a powerful and wealthy fundamendalist Christian conservative, Eric Prince, and a source of major campaign contributions to Republicans. So much so that when he was called to testify before Congress about Blackwater’s performance in Iraq, Republican congressman labeled it essentially a partisan witch hunt!
Rep. Pat McHenry (R-GA) dismissed the Committee’s probe into the cost and accountability of government contractors (not just Blackwater) as the “liberal cause du jour.” […]
“’This is not about Blackwater,’ [Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)] stated during the hearing. “What [anti-war Democrats] couldn’t do to our men and women in uniform, they’ll simply switch targets.’”
Nice. Now one’s patriotism can be questioned by attacking the actions of mercenaries which belong to a private paramilitary company when said company is owned by wealthy and influential Republicans. Indeed, calling the actions of these thugs into question will elicit implied threats against your life, even if you are the Chairman of a Major House Committee:
“If Henry Waxman wants to go to Iraq today and do an investigation [of Blackwater], Blackwater will be his support team, his protection team. Do you think he really wants to investigate directly?”
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the level of Nazi tactics by leading Republican politicians, and no, that isn’t hyperbole. Threats of violence against political opponents. The association and defense of private paramilitary companies with the Republican party and its leaders. The employment of said companies to provide security within the United States “in times of crisis” by a Republican regime.
The company’s push to work on natural disasters in this country, however, has made some people edgy. Jeffrey Walker is a former Air Force attorney who is now a fellow at Georgetown University Law School. He raised the alarm about private security contractors like Blackwater more than a decade ago when he was working in the Pentagon. His issue, among others, is the lack of accountability.
“The only difference between Blackwater in Iraq and Blackwater in New Orleans is that they are mercenaries in Iraq and they are vigilantes in New Orleans,” Walker said.
“The only accountability these guys have right now is they get their contract cancelled, or if individual Blackwater guys go off the reservation, DOD or State Department has the right in the contract to have Blackwater order individuals home.”
It is that lack of oversight and accountability that has Walker and others concerned about Blackwater’s intention to take their private security operation domestic. The company has met with leaders in several states to offer their security services in the event of a natural disaster. In California, they have suggested earthquake relief. In New York, they offered help in case of terrorist attack. […]
Providing security after national emergencies is usually a function of the National Guard and local police. And during the Katrina aftermath, the Blackwater employees were paid $950 a day, or about eight times the salary of a New Orleans police officer.
How far have we as a country fallen down the rabbit hole to privatized fascism?
Way too far for me.