WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2007
Dems Blame Blackwater For Fallujah Carnage
House Oversight Committee Staff Says Contractor Sent Security Guards Woefully Unprepared
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Report: Blackwater Negligent
A House committee has found that Blackwater was negligent in sending four contractors on a dangerous mission into Fallujah where they were killed and dismembered in 2004. David Martin reports.
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A U.S. Humvee is on fire after a U.S. convoy was attacked by Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, on March 25, 2004. (AP)
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The private security company, one of the largest working in Iraq and under scrutiny for how it operates, also is faulted for initially insisting its guards were properly prepared and equipped and for impeding the inquiry by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has been warning about the dangers of relying on private contractors since early in the war, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
“They didn't have enough personnel. They didn't have proper weaponry. They didn't have proper vehicles. They didn't have enough armored vehicles. They didn't even have proper road directions,” Singer said.
The results of the staff inquiry come less than a week before Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and Blackwater's founder, is scheduled to testify before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a longtime critic of Blackwater.
The March 2004 incident involving Blackwater was widely viewed as a turning point in the Iraq war after images of the mutilated bodies of the four guards were seen around the world. Four days after the Blackwater guards were killed, a major military offensive, known as the Battle of Fallujah, began.
The combat lasted almost a month in Fallujah, which is 40 miles west of Baghdad. At least 36 U.S. military personnel were killed along with 200 insurgents and an estimated 600 civilians, according to the congressional investigation.
Blackwater called the committee's account of the mission "one sided," reports Martin.
In a statement, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the committee has documents that show the Blackwater team was "betrayed" and steered into "a well-planned ambush."
The report does not acknowledge "that the terrorists determined what happened that fateful day in 2004," Tyrrell said. "The terrorists were intent on killing Americans and desecrating their bodies."
But one of the company’s own employees described its Baghdad operations as "flat out ... sloppy," reports Martin.
Blackwater’s director of operations in Baghdad sent an e-mail to his headquarters, saying: "I need new vehicles. I need new (communications gear), I need ammo. I need (weapons). … ground truth is appalling."
Yet the next day, Blackwater set out to escort a convoy through Fallujah - a mission another private security firm had turned down as too dangerous.
Donna Zovko, whose son, Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, died in the Fallujah incident, said she hopes the staff report will lead to more oversight and more discussions about the use of contractors.
"Congress can't change anything for my son. He is gone and nothing can bring him back," Zovko said. "But let's see what they can do for the others out there because someone needs to care for these contractors. Blackwater cares about nothing but the mighty dollar."
The families of the four killed contractors filed suit against the company in January 2005, saying that Blackwater's cost-cutting measures led to the deaths. That lawsuit is still pending as a federal judge tries to determine whether it should be heard in arbitration or in open court.
Blackwater has argued in court that it is immune to such a lawsuit because the company operates as an extension of the military and cannot be responsible for deaths in a war zone.
The results of the probe cast Blackwater in more negative light. On Sept. 16, 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.
The State Department, one of Blackwater's largest customers, has opened an investigation into the incident. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told Congress Wednesday that the incident in Baghdad was tragic, but called private security companies such as Blackwater essential to operations in Iraq.
© 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 76 CommentsAn influential group of conservatives convinced President George W. Bush that it was in America''s best interests to conquer Iraq as a first step toward dominating the oil-producing nations in the Middle East. There was no "exit plan" because we never intended to exit. The plan was, and is, to build military bases in Iraq and stay there forever. Our leaders see Iraq as a place to make money. So Bush & Co. have set up their friends to cash in on the rebuilding of Iraq.
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No, the real classic is your exquisite Archie Bunker routine. Relax, pal, you are at least one generation behind the times. Your country today is the same one which realized it had been screwed by Johnson and Nixon on Vietnam and never forgot it.
Neither did you, apparently, still hoping Nixon will be exhonerated. And like Bush, you stay up late at night, expecting light at the end of the tunnel.
Here is your new nightlight-- Bush is the consumate opportunist whose own political career dishonors the Constitution he claims to serve. In November, 2005, in Washington, DC, Bush, facing an assembly of his own party members critical of his NSA spying program, bristled like a teenager caught drinking after curfew-- "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It just a GD)((#@*! piece of paper!"
Is this figure, who claims to be president of the United States, the same who pledged an oath to "protect, preserve and defend" the document he calls a "GD)((#@*! piece of paper"? If Clinton is guilty of a single Newt Gingrich, Bush screwed the entire country-- and ran up a debt our grandchildren must pay, while doing it.
As it turned out, mercenaries and their conduct has jeopardized gains made in community relations by nearby US troops. Blackwater probably recruited more insurgents than it killed.
If they had looked into the doings of this mercenary Walmart, they might have been able to find exactly why proper procedures weren''t followed and they were sent in their SUVs, without armour, without the kind of high-powered weaponry that would have been proper procedure and without the requisite number of team members for such a dangerous and appallingly stupid assignment...It was almost as if someone wanted to create an incident. The Congress could have stood up for the families of these men--but they didn''t stand up for anyone--just OIl and Israel....Oil and Israel...Oil and Israel...
Yet they take Zero responsibity for anything.
I offer our 100th Do Nothing Democrat Congress as proof.
Let''s vote these Democrats out of office in November 2008!
The perception among Iraqis is : US security contractors can act with impunity -
Has engendered widespread resentment
Hitlers Storm Troopers and the - Nazi SS - Did the same thing.
To study Hitler - is to - Predict Bush
To understand the German Nazi Party - Is to Understand
The Republican (Nazi) Party
Blackwater is the firm mentioned as being suspected of
smuggling weapons into Iraq illegally.
Criminal Corporate (Nazi) America
Has supplied Weapons and War materals to every Country who has ever
been an Enemy of the United States. In order to Kill American Military
in every War - Since WWII
Sen. Prescott Bush and Friends Who shipped War Materials
and Weapons to : Nazi - Germany. To kill American Soldiers in Europe.
The same organization shipped War Materials and Weapons to
North Vietnam. To kill American Military in Vietnam
The same organization now Supplies War Materials and Weapons to :
Iran. To Kill American Military in Iraq
Profound act of : Patriotism - To North Korea - Syira - Libya and Iran
Demonstrated By : Criminal Corporate (Nazi) America
The Republican (Nazi) Party
"Treason" - was once a - Criminal Act ! ! !
Lastdance
The truth is, we need to pack the House and Senate with more Democrats so they can overcome the Repugnant Ones'' filibusters and The Chimp''s vetoes.
re: Blackwater-- Mercenaries are the lowest form of life on this planet, with one exception, the Evil Ones who hire them!
No! This isn''t Archie Bunker. This is the guy who moved in next door to Archie!
The subsequemt mass-murder, use of chemical weapons, and other war crimes and atrocities against the people of Fallujah, following the deaths of the Blackwater mercenaries, was not the responsibility of the dangerous goons from Blackwater.
The responsibility for these atrocities lies with "our troops", and with the Democrats and Republicans who placed them in this illegal and disgraceful war of aggression, and refuse to end our involvement in it.
Re: "They didn''t have enough personnel. They didn''t have proper weaponry. They didn''t have proper vehicles. They didn''t have enough armored vehicles. They didn''t even have proper road directions,%u201D Singer said."
On the bright side, that''s 4 less amoral terrorists-for-rent around to have to worry about.
This is pretty typical of our "leaders" to focus on the deaths of these Blackwater scumbags, rather than to even pretend to care about the misery and death that they continue to deliver to the people of Iraq.
Yet they take Zero responsibity for anything.
I offer our 100th Do Nothing Democrat Congress as proof.
Let''''s vote these Democrats out of office in November 2008!
Posted by perception5 at 07:30 PM : Sep 27, 2007
Hmmm....
The 100th Congress 1/3/1987 to 1/3/1989
Senate 55 Democrats
45 Republicans
House 258 Democrats
177 Republican
The 101st Congress 1/3/1989 to 1/3/1991
Senate 55 Democrats
45 Republicans
House 261 Democrats
174 Republican
You have to give people weapons and train them if you want them to attack you so you have a reason to invade the country they live in, even Bushy_baby knows that!!!!
Posted by badaxmofo at 09:03 PM : Sep 27, 2007
You are so right, badaxmofo! Imagine small-minded posers critizing everyone and everything from behind the safety of their keyboards. Hummm, who do we know sounds like that? Oh, I know. YOU! LOL.
Just kidding you, baddie. Wouldn''t want to get on your bad side, seeings how rough you make it on us liberals...I mean THEM liberals.
:)
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Why should they "take responsibility" for Bush''s mistakes? Had you been paying attention, you''d have noted the Dems do take action to investigate and fix problems-- the investigation is spelled s-u-b-p-o-e-n-a and it has revealed GOP scandal after scandal.
Fixing the problem, however, requires GOP support in the Senate. Therein lies a little problem-- Bush has instructed his party to stonewall as much as possible. This is called gridlock.
Bush also told his staffers to stall subpoenas or pretend loss of memory, as in the great Gonzales tradition. Bush also said he would veto measures he did not like, knowing the Senate lacks the votes to overcome his veto.
So, forward progress in a nominally Democratic congress is a casualty of gridlock. A good example is the recent US Senate vote on extending healthcare insurance to several million American children who cannot obtain it-- many of your fellow GOP bozos voted against the measure. They did so, they claimed, because the bill was politically incorrect!
So, the ball is in your court. Instead of whining to the Dems about political correctness, get off your foundation and work with Dems to do something constructive, for a change! As your GOP party leadership is well aware, from Iraq to healthcare insurance, it will take both parties to break the congressional gridlock.
ground truth is appalling....
ground truth is appalling....
ground truth is appalling....
ground truth is appalling..........
... 3,800 KIA now for Bush''s vanity in a war that didn''t have to be fought ---- Saddam Hussein was making arrangements to surrender with our nation before Bush waged war
I totally agree with you . It will take both parties to work together and try to solve these issues. They just seem to focused on placing blame to one side or the other and not really accomplishing anything. Just more political theater.
Posted by badaxmofo at 05:46 PM : Sep 27, 2007
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WOW!!! badassMF crawls out of his slimey hole to go trolling--twice!!
LOL!!!
Given the country you live in, your statement is what you should be ashamed of.
That war over there in the Middle East isn''t being fought by just Republicans. The dead that come home in caskets while you sit at home in safety typing your degrading statements, those dead are not all Republicans. What happened to "Support Our Troops", you little snott, or is it support only the Republican troops.
I am a liberal who has served this country with honor and pride. I am a liberal who believes in freedom of speech and equality for all of us, not just Republicans and those who kiss their rich buttts. I am a liberal who drives a smaller vehicle by choice so that other people''s kids will have a cleaner environment, I am a liberal who loves God and stands with raised chin when the Anthem of this country is played, my Anthem, not just the Republican''s Anthem.
You and these other posters who *** on half the citizenry of your own country should be ashamed, it is you who break the independence of a melting pot nation into "we are good" bits and "they are bad" bits, when both of us know, you and me, that you aren''t no 100% saint, and I cannot be 100% devil.
America has enemies Outside our borders, and snobbs like you creating dissention Inside our borders. How does that help your country?
Exactly -
A matter of Written Record ! !
We - Did Not - Sell War Materials and Weapons to the Enemy
As an act of - Aiding and Abetting the Enemy
We - Did Not - Sell War Materials and Weapons to the Enemy
as an act of - Treason
We - Did Sell - Them - War Materials and Weapons as a - Business Venture ! ! !
We Sold - Them - War Materials and Weapons for Money ! !
A matter of Written Record ! !
The same Excuse is Offered up each Time
American Military have been Engaged in Combat since : WWII
Profound act of Patriotism to : North Korea - China - Syria - Libya - Iran
Each Country Hostile to the United States
Demonstrated to you by :
The Republican (Nazi) Party - Criminal Corporate (Nazi) America
Lastdance
You had everyone''s attention right up to the word "Bush", then all the Bush supporters quit reading when they realized you weren''t going to praise him. You had everyone else''s attention until they got to "mistakes", then you lost all the religious right and Guiliani. You lost more at "paying" cause you know how tax cuts is the preferred lanquage among conservatives, and even more at "attention" because once you say something that even suggests facts, many loyal posters here suddenly have a toaster to fix.
And after that, it was us 3 nasty liberals reading on to see if you would provide any good nasty secrets for us to continue our nasty campaign against the Red, White, and Blue.
Is the wonderous Bush presidency over yet, because I can''t take much more of his Benign Greatness and the Flowery Love of his Hairy Chrishna followers. LOL.
Bush sitting smugly behind his desk beliveing he''s done something devine going into the 5th year of the biggest catrastophe to our nation in it''''s history ---- A war that didn''''t have to be fought,,, Saddam Hussein was in the process of surrender.
Since you are so knowledgeable about the COMMANDER IN CHIEF can you tell me WHY he gathered up OSAMA BIN LADEN''S RELATIVES from NYC and Kentucky right after the 9/11 attacks and SMUGGLED THEM OUT OF THE US BACK TO SAUDI ARABIA when NO CIVILIANS - especially foreign could fly?
Why DIDN''T he keep them as BAIT to insure they handed over their RELATIVE OSAMA instead of allowing further SAUDI support AFTER the attacks.
Could it be OIL BONDS are thicker than AMERICAN BLOOD?
Maybe it was George''s "Harkin Oil Problem" buyout?
Maybe there was a little "family" time between the Bushes and Bin Ladens.
What the heck the BIN LADEN''S are BILLIONAIRES what''s a little kissing up to money like they have.
Which option is it?
Republicons: clearly the PARTY of the American FASCIST!
Are they still using that crazy color system along with duct tape and plastic?
Maybe THAT''S WHY all the economic news is indicating the economy is COLLAPSING.
Didn''t they REMEMBER being told that unless it''s CODE RED they''re supposed to get out there and SHOP TO SAVE AMERICA!
So what if they can''t pay their trick filled mortgage because they got sick and had NO health insurance.
Run up the CREDIT Peasants for your GOD GWB and your COUNTRY.
Financial exhaustion is NOT an excuse!
How else do you expect to fund HALIBURTON and BLACKWATER MERCENARIES that get paid up to 10 times as much as our troops.
Oh, BTW we''re putting a STOP to the troop loss by PASSING ANOTHER LAW so our troops will be PREVENTED from serving and then moving into those mercenary spots.
Gotta keep those troops neglected while the CONTRACTORS get rich off them and move to their new Middle Eastern Tax Havens. ;-)
Singer forgot to mention that they shouldn''t have been there in the first place...
The perception among Iraqis is : US security contractors can act with impunity -
Has engendered widespread resentment
Blackwater is the firm mentioned as being suspected of
smuggling weapons into Iraq illegally.
A matter of Written Record ! !
We - Did Not - Sell War Materials and Weapons to the Enemy
As an act of - Aiding and Abetting the Enemy
We - Did Not - Sell War Materials and Weapons to the Enemy
as an act of - Treason
We - Did Sell - Them - War Materials and Weapons as a - Business Venture ! ! !
We - Did Sell - Them - War Materials and Weapons for - Money only ! !
A matter of Written Record ! !
The same Excuse is Offered up each Time
American Military have been Engaged in Combat since : WWII
Profound act of Patriotism to : North Korea - China - Syria - Libya - Iran
Each Country Hostile to the United States
Demonstrated to you by :
The Republican (Nazi) Party - Criminal Corporate (Nazi) America
Lastdance
Posted by RingADing3 at 02:29 AM : Sep 28, 2007
Do you have an identical twin named screen ident? You sound a lot a like!
"Dems are quiters and will ruin the country if they are elected!"
Republicans are traitors and have not only ruined this country, but numerous others.
As for Blackwater, they are nothing but mercenaries for hire and deserve what they have brought to Iraq - death.
smuggling weapons into Iraq illegally.
Lastdance"
I think this is very unfair to them. The truth is that these weapons were used as a bait:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092301431.html
There is no such article in the Washington Post
How long have you been a Blackwater Employee ?
Lastdance
Hmmm..gee...any of you liberals think for a second that maybe the terrorist insurgent thugs in fallujah are to blame for the violence and killings there?
Posted by lastdance2 at 09:01 AM : Sep 28, 2007
hahaha,,, what is the matter haji,,, your fascist nazi terrorislam cleric did not teach you how to open links,,, hahaha
U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With ''Bait''
Snipers Describe Classified Program
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.
"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092301431.html
Although the Senator was vague on the details of her plan, she seemed most enthusiastic about her future ideas for helping her "red sisters and brothers".
At the conclusion of her speech, the Tribes presented the Senator with a plaque inscribed with her new Indian name - Walking Eagle. The proud Senator then departed in her motorcade, waving to the crowds.
A news reporter later inquired to the group of chiefs of how they come to select the new name given to the Senator.
They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of *** it can no longer fly.
LMAO
Later they came upon another homeless man. The democrat, not wanting to be outdone, reached into the republican''s pocket and took $50 and gave it to the homeless man and then told him where the welfare office was located.
LMAO
"I think this is very unfair to them. The truth is that these weapons were used as a bait:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092
301431.html"
Indeed. Heck, just the other day, I was witness to a bank robbery.
The bank robber was cunningly disguised as a little old lady, complete with gray hair and a hump that any hump back would be proud of.
I was a bit dubious at first, but then it became perfectly clear when she stopped in front of a bank and picked up a dime that had been conveniently "placed" there by her accomplice.
Lord knows how many accomplices were involved in this dastardly and daring crime in the middle of daylight.
Of course, I prayed for a group of heroic policemen to shoot her down in a hail of bullets - just so this crime spree would come to an end.
Qaeda warns of attacks ''worse than 9/11''
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070530102648.wuwa6k96&show_article=1
Hizbullah Deputy Sec-Gen Sheikh Naim Qassem: We Have Jurisprudent Permission to Carry Out ''Martyrdom'' Operations, Fire Missiles on Israeli Civilians From Ayatollah Khomeini
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD154907
Switching Sides: Inside The Enemy Camp
But then in 2000, well before his arrest, something happened which would make Abas question everything he believed in: a fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by Osama bin Laden.
"It should be understood that killing Americans and Jews anywhere found are the highest act of worship and the highest form of good deeds in the eyes of Allah," Simon quotes bin Laden.
Abas and his fellow commanders were ordered to read the fatwa to their men and make sure they carried it out. The others obeyed, but Abas refused. It was his moment of truth. He firmly believed that jihad was to be fought only on the battlefield in defense of Islam; he had always been taught that the killing of civilians had nothing to do with holy war and that it was forbidden.
The fatwa justified killing non-Muslim civilians everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/60minutes/main2761108.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2761108
American Al Qaeda Member Threatens Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/29/terror/main2865282.shtml
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