In Iraq, Blackwater Is Old News

Elizabeth Palmer: Blackwater Shooting Just A Drop In The Ocean Of Iraqi Civilian Deaths

(CBS)  This reporter's notebook was written by CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

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The shooting last month involving Blackwater security contractors remains big news in the United States. Not here though. Soon after the story broke, it faded from the front pages.

The truth is that no one in Baghdad was very surprised to learn that on Sept. 16 innocent civilians had been killed in a hail of American gunfire. They were more likely to be thinking, “Oh, not again.” Of course some were angered, but over the past three years too many like incidents like this one have dulled people’s outrage.

Besides, they have more pressing worries: how to run a household on two hours of electricity a day; what school will keep their children safe from ethnic bullying; which route home is best for avoiding kidnap. They aren’t outraged about these things either. With weary determination, they just find ways to carry on.

It’s true that the violence has abated somewhat. One set of statistics from Iraq’s Health Ministry -- which gets its figures from by counting up corpses in the country’s hospitals and morgues -- shows that the number of Iraqis who died violently dropped by almost half in September compared to August.

But people who live here believe that’s partly because the ethnic cleansers -- the gun-toting militia thugs -- have succeeded. Frightened Shi’ites have moved from their homes in mixed neighborhoods to new accommodation among other Shi’ites, where they find some safety in numbers. Sunni families have done the same.

Anyway, these new, improved low-death statistics still mean that, on average, almost 30 Iraqi citizens died violent deaths every single day in the month of September.

As many as 17 of them were shot to death on the 16th when the Blackwater security guards opened up with automatic weapons in heavy traffic. We have tried to do our own detective work around the incident. From Iraqi witness statements, we now have some idea what people saw and heard, but we’re nowhere close to knowing what really happened, in what order, and who is to blame. That’s a job for the FBI and the joint Iraqi-American investigative task force.

Our inquiries, though, have exposed once again how tragedy is layered in this deeply dysfunctional city. One of the witnesses to the shooting -- let’s call him Ahmed -- was himself the manager of an Iraqi security company. He was driving as fast as he could through the clogged traffic of Nisour Square that day, trying to follow an ambulance.

A few minutes beforehand, a car bomb had exploded (the same car bomb the Blackwater convoy was responding to), injuring one of his employees. The ambulance loaded the man onto a stretcher and sped off to nearby Yarmouk Hospital.

At least, that’s where the attendants said they were going. But sometimes, kidnappers use ambulances to collect victims. The patient/hostage simply vanishes somewhere between the scene of the accident and the emergency ward.

So Ahmed, concentrating on the safety of his employee, suddenly drove into a barrage of gunfire. Terrified people were diving behind cars that gave no cover at all from the large caliber bullets -- and flinging themselves, facedown, into the dusty road.

The shooting went on for seconds … maybe minutes. Then the Blackwater convoy drove away. So, eventually, did Ahmed.

In America, this shooting has turned out to be a sort of Perfect Storm that continues to rage. At last, it’s front page news that no security contractor has ever faced prosecution for the numerous killings of innocent civilians in Iraq. Finally, the politicians are paying attention.

Here in Baghdad, though, it was just one more calamity. The victims are buried. Their families had to line up for a long time to buy enough gasoline to attend the funerals. Now they’re wondering how big a bribe they will have to pay to get proper death certificates, or any kind of compensation.

Ahmed found out that his employee had indeed been delivered to the emergency room. However, he is in a coma with severe head injuries in a hospital controlled by a Shi’ite militia. He probably won’t live. Everyone else will somehow carry on.

[toldyouso21]

Hidden in this story, but no less significant that the Official death toll numbers are severely skewed. In 2005, Newsweek printed information concerning the "requirements" to any confirmation of a civilian death (this was after not counting those deaths for 2 years)

This information is really appalling:

1. Victims must have documents proving their ID
2. only victims taken to approved morgues or hospitals can be counted, and those who bring the victim in must also have ID
3. Victims must prove that the death was actually caused by US weaponry and msut provide evidence
4. Despite no sanitation in many parts of Iraq and little food--no deaths due to disease or starvation can be reported or tallied
5. bodies without heads or with no documents could not be counted
Max comp for killing any 1 person--600.00 or less. Maximum for destroying a home: 1200.00

So when bombs go off, imagine having to drive the bits and pieces to only the approved places and imagine looking through the rubble for birth certs, then imagine having to have or find the shrapnel or bullets or bomb bits...

And we think Iraqis should be grateful for all we have done TO them and should help us more in being successful in what we are doing TO them.

[bassnotfish]

All of you are acting like "idiots, renecks and Yanks"

Or did I miss something?

[lochlan-2009]

"almost 30 Iraqi citizens died violent deaths every single day in the month of September" - Are you kidding me. Did anybody read this? Who defends this?

[prinzowhales]

jowand--The Pelosis are too busy enjoying the proceeds from deals involving closed bases and prime real estate to cross the Chimp. She has refused to impeach...

I hope no one takes Reid and Pelosi seriously as opponents of the ongoing genocide in Iraq...they are simply part of the charade to convince the dullards who aren''t in the Bush camp that the Democratic Party is representing their anti-war sentiment...despite the evidence coming after the 2006 elections.

Reid is the Senator of the great State of Casinos... that''s Mob Land...

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover050107.htm

He partnered up with Bonanno crime family figures in land deals...That this animal runs the majority party is the Senate is testimony to the culture of corruption that permeates both parties... Do you hear the strumpets roar?...Hillary has nothing to say... Edwards is busy slicing sky pie for the muddled Democratic masses...Obama? He''s never said anything in his life. Americans need to take a hard look at America''s mainstream parties--they are the stuff of hog lagoons, running sores and toe tapping corruption.

Its time to bring the troops home and clean up Washington.

[tnt1954]

and another thing, osama bin looney laden on
the f.b.i. most wanted list since 1993. 8 years
before 9/11/01. laden with cares? seek the looney
bin. osama is a fine medication. take with
goats milk. and enjoy the nut cutlets at shrublands.
its so privatized. off to the privy. as pirates
rove the high seas with karl rove who loves roving.
his next venture to go a roving with roving eyes to
find a sea roving rover in dover. a female rover.
so that he can rove.

[tnt1954]

patriots for peace. armaments manufacturers
for more war, constant war. they create a nice
enemy to fight and then they say its trite to fight.
they make money selling weapons to the enemy and
to the u.s.a. send in the provacateurs, start
a civil war in the usa between peaceniks and killerniks. sell weapons to both sides. and to
the law and order groups who have to separate them.
have a huge ''riot industry'' by cobra verde. then
throw in some private armies to really make people
mad, then cause a revolt and sell weapons to all
of them too. they won''t use nuclear weapons, because
those would kill them and the whole planet would
lose, it just would cease to exist. most are
simply amazed and marvel every morning when they
wake up, that they are still ''here''. alive. that''s
a case for the supernatural realm, that can interfere
with the natural realm.

[sgtrds]

Blackwater is nothing more then the most psychotic of mercenary private armies. I for one hope that they all get caught by insurgents and get their heads sliced off, slowly, with dull knives. Good riddance to bad garbage.

[myidoncbs]

Great response, william824. I think this one scenario summarizes the whole mess:

The neocon-loving redneck shouts out in a desperate plea, "What are those Iraqis doin'' with OUR OIL under THEIR SAND?"

[myidoncbs]

jowand, ever the Liar, claims that Progressives "get orgasmic about hoping were are losing in Iraq."

Now, let me clarify this for you, mo-ron:

- Nobody is getting "orgasmic" about Iraq except the sick b@st@rds who love death and destruction... and that group definitely does NOT include progressives!

- No progressives want us to lose in Iraq. We simply have our EYES OPEN TO REALITY: This war has already been lost.

- The war was lost before it began. The evil re-tards who "planned" this war never intended it to end. There is no "victory" to be had, only endless occupation, murder and death, and ever-shifting rationales for the bloodshed, while we steal the Iraqis'' oil.

If you can''t see that this is true, then you are blind and du-mb, jowand.

[william824-2009]

Lets see. What happems if private security firms travel our county and shoot whomever they wish and it happens often and with no legal recourse for the victims whatsoever?
Think that would go over well with anyone here?
Who knows. Maybe that''s the next step in this illegal war. Just hire Blackwater and their ilk to kill anyone that disagrees with the remaining rednecks that have not figured out yet that this war violates every treaty we ever signed, the constitution, the bill of rights and all that we have all pledged allegence to. Don''t matter does it. As long as the dead are not white with a different religion and have our oil under their sand.