BAGHDAD, Sept. 17, 2007
Iraq To Eject Security Firm Over Killings
Government Official Says Blackwater USA Contractors Linked To Civilian Slayings
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The wreckage of a vehicle in which Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha died earlier this week in Ramadi. The most prominent figure in a revolt of Sunni sheiks against al Qaeda in Iraq was killed Thursday in the explosion in Anbar province. (AP)
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Blackwater USA employees receive instruction along a make-shift street scene before practicing a vehicle ambush response drill, in this Feb. 20, 2004, file photo, on Blackwater's land near Moyock, N.C. Blackwater has been linked by Iraqi officials to the deaths of eight Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Karen Tam)
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The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.
But the presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to to express her regret and tell him that the United States has launched an investigation into the killings, which occurred Sunday in western Baghdad.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire on civilians in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Mansour.
"We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities," Khalif said.
He said witness reports pointed to Backwater involvement but added that the shooting was still under investigation. One witness, Hussein Abdul-Abbas, said the explosion was followed by about 20 minutes of heavy gunfire and "everybody in the street started to flee immediately."
Jeremy Scahill, author of a book about Blackwater, told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin the incident was bound to happen.
"This is after four years of private security contractors running around Iraq in a sort of wild west atmosphere," Scahill said. "Finally the Iraqi government has stood up and said no more of this."
U.S. officials said the motorcade was traveling through Nisoor Square on the way back to the Green Zone when a car bomb exploded, followed by volleys of small arms fire that disabled one of the vehicles but caused no American casualties.
U.S. officials refused to discuss Iraqi casualties, nor would they confirm that Blackwater personnel were involved. They also refused to explain the legal authority under which Blackwater operates in Iraq or say whether the company was complying with the order.
The incident drew attention to one of the controversial American practices of the war - the use of heavily armed private security contractors who Iraqis complain operate beyond the control of U.S. military and Iraqi law.
The events in Mansour also illustrate the challenge of trying to protect U.S. officials in a city where car bombs can explode at any time, and where gunmen blend in with the civilian population.
"The Blackwater guys are not fools. If they were gunning down people it was because they felt it was the beginning of an ambush," said Robert Young Pelton, an independent military analyst and author of the book "Licensed to Kill"
"They're famous for being very aggressive. They use their machine guns like car horns. But it's not the goal to kill people."
Iraqis have long complained about high-profile, heavily armed security vehicles careening through the streets, with guards pointing weapons at civilians and sometimes firing warning shots at anyone deemed too close. And Iraqi officials were quick to condemn the foreign guards.
Al-Maliki late Sunday condemned the shooting by a "foreign security company" and called it a "crime."
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani described the shooting as "a crime about which we cannot be silent."
"Everyone should understand that whoever wants good relations with Iraq should respect Iraqis," al-Bolani told Al-Arabiya television. "We are implementing the law and abide by laws and others should respect these laws and respect the sovereignty and independence of Iraqis in their country."
Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi told Iraqi television that "those criminals" responsible for deaths "should be punished" that the government would demand compensation for the victims' families.
Despite threats of prosecution, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Alhurra television that contractors cannot be prosecuted by Iraqi courts because "some of them have immunity."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States had not been notified of any Iraqi government decision to revoke Blackwater's license and declined to speculate as to how that might affect State Department activities if it happened.
"The bottom line is that the secretary wants to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to avoid the loss of innocent life," McCormack told reporters in Washington.
In April, the Defense Department said about 129,000 contractors of many nationalities were operating in Iraq - nearly as many as the entire U.S. military force before this year's troop buildup.
About 4,600 contractors are in combat roles, such as protecting supply convoys along Iraq's dangerous, bomb-laden highways.
Blackwater, a secretive North Carolina-based company run by a former Navy SEAL, is among biggest and best known security firms, with an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq and at least $800 million in government contracts.
The company operates a fleet of helicopters in Iraq which gives it an edge in its ability to provide comprehensive security for high profile figures, including Ambassador Ryan Crocker and visiting U.S. Cabinet officials and members of Congress.
Four Blackwater employees were ambushed and killed in Fallujah in 2004 and their bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. That horrific attack shocked America and led to two major battles to regain control of the city, which had become the symbol of Sunni resistance to the U.S. military role.
Phone messages left early Monday at the company's office in North Carolina and with a spokeswoman were not immediately returned.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, private security contractors have enabled the U.S. military to overcome some of the problems created by the Bush administration's decision to limit the number of troops on the ground.
Private companies and nongovernment organizations also turned to security companies to provide protection when security collapsed in the Iraqi capital in 2004.
But many Iraqis deeply resent the fact that contractors operate here beyond the constraints of their law.
U.S. troops here are exempt from Iraqi law but are subject to prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. More than 60 U.S. troopers in Iraq have been court-martialed on murder-related charges involving Iraqi citizens.
But an order issued by the U.S. occupation authority in 2004 - and extended this year states that contractors "shall not be subject to Iraqi laws or regulations" in the terms of their contracts or the performance of their duties.
Many of the contractors have been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys, but none has faced charges or prosecution.
On Christmas Eve, an inebriated employee of Blackwater USA shot and killed a security guard for an Iraqi vice president, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. The contractor made his way to the U.S. Embassy where Blackwater officials arranged to have him flown home to the United States, according U.S. officials who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The contractor has been fired and Blackwater is cooperating with federal investigators, said company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell.
In other developments:
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 111 CommentsThat''s why G.W. has a hard time pronouncing words,he always has a bad taste in his mouth :P
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/faqs/
I agree. We need to kick out the storm troopers and if there is a legitimate reason to be there, then let our military do their jobs.
So, it seems, not even the good General trusts our troops to keep him safe? Must do wonders for troop morale...
Can this administration lower our standing in the world any further? Can we hang our heads any lower?
One call from Cheney will get this reversed.
We shouldn''t be outsourcing our military anyway. It''s a sign of weakness in the political system to use mercenaries. Machiavelli advised against it almost 500 years ago, for the same reason, and it''s as true today. If you can''t get your citizens to joint the military in sufficient numbers, or commit enough of your own armed forces to do the job, you need to question the entire mission. No war should ever be waged without the reinstitution of the draft. It is the purest test of whether the mission is worth doing in the first place. Unless every American family is liable to send its sons and daughters to war, the rest of us cannot ask a few to go in our place.
I believe that the company shown in this video is Aegis not Blackwater.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1013-01.htm
I believe the alleged ''*** slave and child porn ring'' was brought to court in the U.S. and dismissed (!).
"In Bosnia, employees of DynCorp were found to be operating a ***-slave ring of young women who were held for prostitution after their passports were confiscated. In Croatia, local forces, trained by MPRI, used what they learned to conduct one of the worst episodes of "ethnic cleansing," an event that left more than 100,000 homeless and hundreds dead and resulted in war-crimes indictments. No employee of either firm has ever been charged in these incidents."
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11119
I will try to find if there is a judicial decision. I thought that international travel for child *** was illegal?
From the article:
"Incredibly, the CID case was closed in June 2000 and turned over to the Bosnian authorities. DynCorp says it conducted its own investigation, and Hirtz and Werner were fired by DynCorp and returned to the United States but were not prosecuted. Experts in slave trafficking aren''t buying the CID''s interpretation of the law."
Write to your Congressional representatives and demand that Blackwater be put out of business, along with all the other security "contractors."
The Soldier who was convicted of premeditated child rape and murder in Haditha will be eligible for parole in only ten years. See Fox: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug04/0,4670,ArmyRapeSlaying,00.html
Here is a summary of some other criminal cases as reported by the BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5105284.stm
These activities deeply harm U.S. interests and we have to take steps to correct what is becomming a systemic problem.
Watch for Bu$h and fellow Republicans to do whatever they can to stop the Iraqi government from ousting Blackwater. This firm has deep connections with Bu$hco.
I have studied corruption a bit, and when there is little or no enforcement good people can become corrupt. Now add millions (billions?) of dollars of missing cash, large scale weapons diversions (e.g. Iraq weapons in Turkey), drugs (from ''go pills'' and meth to Heroin in Afghanistan), PTSD, quick bucks, and even peer pressures. Small groups can form, like the child rape/slay group. Also, there is Gang activity (bloods/crips as well as neo-nazi types).
Also, it is apparent there will be a wave investigations. It is not unlikely that corrupt individuals will go to extreme lengths to cover up.
Look what happened to Donald Vance: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/24/22411/1187
It appears he was imprisoned and tortured by corrupt elements within the U.S. for reporting illegal weapons diversions (probably to militias).
Btw, this is why we have Habeas Corpus - we cannot tolerate a U.S. legal system that allows Americans to be ''Disappeared''.
Furthermore, I believe we will scale back Iraq operations soon -- so, many contractors will be losing their jobs and comming home. Companies will lose very lucrative contracts. A misguided individual or group could possibly stage a fake terrorist act (remember Anthrax).
They certainly have access to the weapons...
For background on Blackwater check out:
Blackwater: The Rise of the World''s Most Powerful Mercenary Army By Jeremy Scahill
Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. Its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the %u201Cglobal war on terror,%u201D with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 soldiers at the ready. Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater.
Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror.
"We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities," Khalaf said.
Consider the huge run-up in defense stocks in the past few years. War financiers will lose lots of $$ if peace breaks out (watch Carlyle stock as a measure of insider sentiment).
Consider the benefits of *not* spending another $500 Billion on Iraq. We could have a ''peace dividend'' with a real tax break for regular people not just for billionaires. Reducing the U.S. Debt provides real support for the markets. The balloning debt and negative international opinions are driving U.S. dollar devaluation. Bush is proposing yet another Debt ceiling increase (he raised it to 9 Trillion only 2-3 years ago). The ecomonic consequences of Bush mismanagement are a disaster for Americans.
We don''t even need Iraqi oil because non-polluting alternative energy is already cheaper for some purposes and continues to drop in price.
American companies would probably have better contracts without this war. Oil is a commodity anyway, as Citizens we care about consumer price -- not Exxon profits. I don''t mind buying from BP or a non-US company.
Listen to Greenspan: 1. War was for oil (duh), and 2. U.S. dollars will be replaced by Euros as international currency / ''petrodollar''. Item 2. is particularly bad news for U.S. economic interests.
"U.S. troops are immune from prosecution in Iraq under the U.N. resolution that authorizes their presence, but Khalaf said the exemption does not apply to private security companies. "
I think a lot of these contractors are mismanaged businesses that will go under when war funds are no longer flowing at the rate of billions of dollars per week. They know this and will do whatever it takes to pump up business.
dnc are like john adams and want to give the jihadist their lunch money hoping they will leave us alone....
gop are like thomas jefferson and want to spend their lunch money on weapons and go kick the jihadists in their arses.....
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
Thomas Jefferson knew about fascist nazi islam..... he killed plenty of them....
In 1786 Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli''''s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves. Jefferson reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:
The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan07/jeff_quran.htm
muslim justifies slavery and piracy%u2026
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7
This is very good news for Iraqis, but bad news for us, if these mercenaries remain free to continue their atrocities in the U.S. The terrorists-for-rent at Blackwater claim to be exempt from U.S. law, from Iraqi law, and from international law. I am very happy that they will no longer be torturing and murdering Iraqis, but now we must face the threat of these amoral terrorists on our own streets.
Let''s keep in mind that these Christian crusaders were seen threatening and terrorizing the people of New Orleans, following the Katrina disaster.
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091005A.shtml
This will be a great opportunity, however, to bring the criminals of Blackwater before a judge, and to seize and liquidate their assets, in order to establish a reparations fund for the despicable and illegal war against Iraq.
If Congress forced Bush to withdraw the military from Iraq, he would increase contractors like Blackwater and privitize the occupation.
At least these people have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. All y''all do is HIDE behind a KEYBOARD and whine. Probably never saw the outside of your 18th floor apartment in the middle of Chicago, NYC, or LA. Probably to big to fit through the door.
...or your ground floor cell.
This will be a struggle to the death, the human race versus these monsters, these brutal secretive murderers funded by the big banks as part of no government. There will be no prisoners, no quarter given, as with all things corporate they are motivated by sheer hate of America and our way of life, which to them is wasteful and inefficient and we must die to sate their lust for corporate dominance.
Lars is right, there is an evil force in this world that is out to destroy America and everything we stand for. They are indeed fanatics driven by their hate for the middle class and for employees with rights and human dignity. They consider us waste, inefficiency, and it will be them or us standing at the end.
Like Lars says, there is no middle ground, there is no compromise, the guns of Blackwater point at America as well as Iraq, they are international murderers who commit infamy at the request of banks, without checks and balances, without a code honor, without ethics or decency.
I declare a cut and paste jihad against all jihadies that jihad against Bush''s global jihad. Nazi islamofascist jihadies!
SHE SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH TREASON ALONG WITH THE KLINTOONS AND THE DNC,,,
Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno blocked investigators%u2019 efforts at the Justice Department,,,
More than 100 people connected to the fundraising scandal fled the country,,,
Many of the Chinagate donors were successfully prosecuted even though Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno blocked investigators%u2019 efforts at the Justice Department. More than 100 people connected to the fundraising scandal fled the country, however. Norman Hsu seems to be following their lead.
http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/2007/09/hillary_donor_flees_like_china.html
Posted by Larrs08 at 01:53 PM : Sep 17, 2007
Thanks for acknowledging that bush is a follower of ISLAMIC RADICAL "MULLAH JESUS", who opposed HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS'' OF MARRIAGE, and hence is fighting a global jihad against AMERICANS by giving US TAX DOLLARS in the name of "REBUILDING IRAQ" and US WEAPONS in the name of "ARMING IRAQI SECURITY FORCES" to an IRANIAN-BASED ISLAMIC RADICALS "MALIKI" for the killing of the US troops deployed there, who turned one of the most SECULAR COUNTRY( whose FOREIGN MINISTER "TARIQ AZIZ" was a CATHOLIC and had females in the government) into best ALQAEDA TRAINING CAMP and part of RADICAL IRAN.
HUGE!
--- We have over 180,000 security contractors in Iraq not responsible to either our military nor the Iraq government.
... It''s another example of how we lost Iraq''s War of Roses & the "Hearts & Minds of the People"
SharnCedar,
That was very good. You are in top form.
The Russians and the rest of eastern Europe should have said they were revoking Atilla the Hun''s "license." The effect would have been about the same.
roger_inkart,
Re: "This is not good. If we don''t fight Blackwater over there we''ll have to fight them here in the US."
Nice! Give that man a cigar!
Everyone, everywhere, has every right to defend themselves against the amoral terrorist-for-rent mercenaries from Blackwater, and other private terrorist groups.
If they are returning to the States, this is reason enough to stock up on weapons and ammunition.
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