Confusion Over Baghdad Copter Crash

Iraqi Official Says 4 Americans Shot After Crash, But U.S. Denies Report

(CBS/AP)  Witnesses in the Fadhil neighborhood told the AP that they saw the helicopter go down after gunmen on the ground opened fire, possibly striking the pilot or co-pilot or both. Accounts varied, but all were consistent that at least one person operating the aircraft had been shot and badly hurt before the crash.

The helicopter was believed to have been flying escort above a VIP convoy on the ground as it headed away from the heavily fortified Green Zone to an undisclosed destination.

A report in the Washington Post, also citing unnamed U.S. officials, said one of the Blackwater victims was killed as he traveled with the convoy on the ground.

The Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors terrorism Web sites, said in a report on its Web site, that the Ansar al-Sunnah Army published photos of what it said were the U.S. Embassy badge, credit cards and dog tags of one of the casualties in the attack.

Among the dead was Arthur Laguna, a 52-year-old pilot for Blackwater who previously served in the Army and the California National Guard, his mother, Lydia Laguna, of Rio Linda, Calif., told the AP in a telephone interview Tuesday night.

She said she received a call from her other son, also a Blackwater pilot in Baghdad, notifying her of Arthur's death. Laguna said she was expecting to receive more details of the crash Wednesday.

Blackwater USA provides security for State Department officials in Iraq, trains military units from around the world, and works for corporate clients.

"These untimely deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary circumstances under which our professionals voluntarily serve to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people," the Blackwater statement said.

Katy Helvenston, mother of Scott Helvenston, a Blackwater employee who died in March 2004, said Tuesday's crash "just breaks my heart."

"I'm so sick of these kids dying," she said.

Helvenston was killed, along with Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, Wesley J.K. Batalona, and Michael R. Teague, when a frenzied mob of insurgents ambushed a supply convoy they were escorting through Fallujah. The insurgents burned and mutilated the guards and strung two of the bodies from a bridge. The gruesome scene was filmed and broadcast worldwide, leading the U.S. military to launch a three-week siege of Fallujah.

Before Tuesday's crash, at least 22 employees of Blackwater Security Consulting or Blackwater USA had died in Iraq as a result of war-related violence, according to the Web site iCasualties.org, which tracks foreign troop fatalities in Iraq. Of those, 20 were Americans, and two were Polish.

The crash of the small surveillance helicopter, believed to be a version of the Hughes Defender that was developed during the Vietnam War, was the second associated with the U.S. war effort in Iraq in four days.

A U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter went down Saturday northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 service members on board. The American military in Baghdad has refused to confirm a report by a Pentagon official that debris at the crash site indicated the helicopter was shot out of the air by a surface-to-air missile.

According to insurance claims on file at the Department of Labor, 770 civilian contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, through December 31, 2006. Additionally, 7,761 civilian contractors have been injured in the same time period, according to claims on file.

[valendug]

Those "contractors", or hired killers work for Halliburton, so the US government isn't blamed for hiring private executioners.

[tuckerndfw]

These "security professionals" are more correctly and commonly known as "mercenaries" or "hired killers."

They deserve no sympathy or support, they are murderers for hire.

[fleshmonger6]

It is a sad event when anyone loses their lives and I feel for the families of these individuals but there should not be a private army doing anything in the name of the U.S. anywhere in the world. It is the sole job of personel in the uniforms of the U.S. military to be doing for America any duty that involves carrying a weapon and this kind of activity can be nothing but bad for any freedom loving individual as it will one day prove itself to be. Mercenaries, and that is what these groups are, are not beholden to any single ideology except money or government as proven by the fact they take no solemn oath and it is this fact alone that should make them unsuitable for employment. If the U.S. has a job that our leadership thinks is too dangerous or too sensitive or too much a secret for the uniformed military to do, it is a job that should not get done. Hiring these groups makes it too easy to circumvent international law or the oversight of the American people. Niether of which, good government should want to do...

[bluestardad]

It is common knowledge that Iraqi units are infiltrated by all types of Insurgents, Terrorist, and Execution Death Squads members of Both Religions. Those people who support this Surge of Troops in Iraq are forcing American Soldiers to sleep with the enemy in small units exposing them to undue kidnap threat. Americans soldiers who are captured by these enemies are without mercy, tortured and mutilated beyond recognition by their captors. Still our political leadership are planning to send these Brave Men and Women in to this environment. If American proceeds with this deployment and breaks down small American Units to live and work with these Iraqi Death Squad Units our troops will be kidnapped and handed over to such beheadings, torture and captivity as has never been seen before on Cable, Internet, and National Television. If you support this surge in troops and the tactics it brings you are responsible for every one of these deaths.