U.S., Iraqis Review Blackwater Operations

(CBS/AP)  A joint U.S.-Iraqi commission reviewing American security operations after a deadly shooting of Iraqi civilians allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards met for the first time on Sunday, the U.S. embassy said.

The joint commission, chaired by Iraq's defense minister and the American embassy's No. 2 diplomat, expressed "mutual commitment of the Iraqi government and the U.S. government to work together to evaluate issues of safety and security related to personal security detail operations in Iraq," the brief embassy statement said.

The commission is expected to issue recommendations to both Baghdad and Washington on improving Iraqi and U.S. security procedures, with the "goal of ensuring that personal security detail operations do not endanger public safety" and prevent similar incidents in the future.

It is one of at least three investigations into the Sept. 16 shooting in which Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad. The Moyock, N.C.-based security company contends its employees came under fire first, but the Iraqi government and witnesses dispute that.

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times published an Op-Ed by a former U.S. official in Iraq who witnessed Blackwater operatives' brazen disregard for the safety of civilians, even children and the elderly. Janessa Gans, who was in Iraq from 2003, to 2005, wrote of her Blackwater driver careening through the streets and intentionally smashing a slower car driven by an older Iraqi man with a woman and three children off the road and into a barrier.

When she complained, her driver remarked that he has been trained to view anyone as a potential threat: "Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."

"Well, if they weren't terrorists before, they certainly are now," she replied.

A former Army captain hired by Blackwater to serve as a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. State Department in Iraq will take a break from his position to seek the Republican nomination for Congress in Indiana's 2nd District (a seat now held by Democrat Joe Donnelly).

Thirty-nine-year-old Chris Minor of Kokomo said he can't discuss Blackwater or the general use of contractors in Iraq; the terms of his contract with the company prevent him from speaking publicly about it.

Bombings Claim Nine Lives

Sunday's attacks in Baghdad started with an early morning explosion near a minibus carrying workers into central Baghdad. Three people were killed and four wounded in roadside bombing, which apparently targeted a police patrol, according to a police official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The inside of the mangled minibus was soaked in blood, the metal hulk was pummeled by shrapnel and the windows were shattered, according to AP Television News footage.

A half-hour later, in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, a second roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol missed its target, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding three others, police said.

And in the downtown commercial area of Salihiyah, a bomb planted in the back of a car parked near the Iranian Embassy exploded about 8:30 a.m., killing three Iraqi passers-by and wounding five others, according to police.

In Other Developments:

Two of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders agreed Saturday to end a bitter rivalry that has led to armed clashes in Baghdad and across the oil-rich south. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim have promised to "protect Iraqi blood and enhance cooperation between the two movements for the Islamic and national interests and to save the nation."

 On Sunday, five crossing points in Kurdish-run northern Iraq - closed last month by Iran to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian - were expected to reopen. By midday Sunday, at least one border point, about 80 miles from the northern city of Sulaimaniya, remained closed. About 300 Iraqi freight trucks were parked and hundreds more waited on the Iranian side. The U.S. military said the Iranian taken into custody Sept. 20 was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards alleged to smuggle weapons to Shiite extremists. The Iraqi government has asked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to release the man.

 Also Sunday, the leader of the self-governing Kurdish region spoke out in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal about new oil agreements with several international companies. The central government in Baghdad is upset about the deals, saying the Kurds should wait until the passage of a national oil law before signing any new contracts. But Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said the deals were "not an attempt to usurp the nation's oil resources" but rather to make "these valuable resources work for the people of Iraq." He said the Kurdish regional government has signed eight production-sharing contracts with international oil and gas companies since enacting its own law governing foreign oil investments in August and expected to sign two more "in the near future."

 Three suspected Shiite militia fighters believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of five British security contractors have been captured in a pre-dawn raid in Sadr City, the U.S. military said Sunday. The men, associated with a splinter group of the Mahdi Army believed to be backed by Iran, were detained Saturday, the military said, adding no shots were fired by U.S. forces during the raid. The four British security guards and a computer expert were abducted from the Iraqi Finance Ministry on May 29 by some 40 heavily armed men wearing police uniforms who took them in the direction of Baghdad's sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City. Four of the Britons were employed by Montreal-based security company GardaWorld and the fifth worked for McLean, Va.-based BearingPoint. Gen. David Petraeus said in June there have been several failed operations to rescue the hostages.

[justice571]

According to BBC World News: The US invasion of Iraq has effected the greatest civilian displacement in the Middle East since the Palestinian displacement caused by Israel''s founding. Interesting statistic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E08uwRZL8rw

[tucano2]

Obviously Blackwater''s armed employees have earned their bones. Bring them here to repel invaders with extreme prejudice all along our southern border.

[taotxzen]

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal
Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 8, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.

Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.


"I don''t think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."

[tbweb]

Posted by brianbwb at 01:21 AM : Oct 08, 2007,,,

The beauty of the United States Constitution is that its written so that everyone is accountable, everyone has a boss, no one and no branch of the U.S. Government can do its own thing without answering to something, someone, some Law. The U.S. President, U.S. Congress and U.S. Supreme Court are all equal branches of Government, all equal in power and serve as checks and balances against each other. In order for the United States to work the way its suppose to, each powerful branch of Government must not let any other branch get too powerful, upset the balance and thus take over. If there is a loophole or glitch in the U.S. Constitution that inherently allows one branch of Government to take control and upset the traditional balance of power the Bush administration has found it, and thats the power of the Executive Branch when the U.S. is at War, when the U.S. President has War Powers. Based on our experience with these War Powers and how they have been used or abused, take your pick, there needs to be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to prevent this in the future, the U.S. needs an "OFF SWITCH" when the majority of Americans want one and Vote for one!

[red164]

For some of you CBS newbies who may be thinking %u201Cwho is this demented seven-pesos person and why does he hate the South so much?%u201D: He%u2019s to be pitied, rather than debated, so please do yourself and all of us a favor and ignore him. Thanks!


Posted by robertkjjj at 11:10 PM : Oct 07, 2007

Most posers also are aware of you robertkjjj and after all the disgusting comments you made about Ron Paul yesterday you have no room to warn others about sevenpesos.

BTW, the thread about Ron Paul was removed after all the positive comments and support Paul received from voters of various political leanings right, left, middle etc, CBS was hoping for nothing but a bunch of robertkjjj commenting but it didn%u2019t work out because most Americans know Paul is a better choice than either Hilary or Rudy

[red164]

Ex-CIA Robert Baer Questions Use of Torture, Official 9/11 Story

You Tube
Saturday October 06, 2007

From last night''s Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

Robert Baer spent 20 years working for the CIA. He was a field officer in the Middle East and has seen it all. He says torture is useless - it leads to false confessions. And he doesn''t believe the official story about 9/11. If CIA agents are questioning 9/11, then maybe you should be too. Do you even know the story of Building 7? What about the military drills going on that day - can you name them? Don''t bother looking in the 9/11 Commission Report for this information. They conveniently left out all the many suspicious details that point to 9/11 being an inside job.

[l8c6]

I guess the video I downloaded was real after all...it sure appeared absolutely real. Wow, those sociopath government contractors shooting out of the back window of their small SUV were having fun killing other drivers while listening to some U.S. rock music. They were laughing and having the time of their lawless lives. Sociopaths don''t like laws which I suppose is why republicans have hated government. Privatize it and they can run the country in a corrupt state that enforces laws selectively....yes, Bush pointed out dictatorships are more efficient...and as he said "so long as I''m the dictator". How did this country sink so low?

[bareemperor]

Bu$h/Cheney''s Blackwater thugs are the lowest form of terrorist. Unfortunately, they are the top dollar earners in the Middle East. Our troops barely make minimum wage compared to the mercenary soldiers-of-fortune that work for Cheney. Scum is scum.

[brianbwb-2009]

Since the atrocities committed by Blackwater cannot be totally covered up, they will come to light. even the military can provide eyewitness accounts of human rights violations, and breaches of international law.

The problem is since Blackwater is "connected" and many of the investigators on both sides of the aisle have vested interests, or have received bribe money, or have been suitably informed of the personal consequences of probing too deeply, at best we will see a scapegoat or two get wrist slaps, but the real perpetrators will not even be mentioned, much less held responsible.

[condumism]

Posted by robertkjjj
Seven-pesos is a mentally disturbed person who, for reasons only known to him, hates the South.

Actuyally, most americans agree with Seven-Pesos, You Southern Fascists need to leave the USA and get your own country. After that you Scumbags will immediatley be declared the number on terrorist state on earth. Economic sanctions will soon follow.

Who is your real mommy, anyway? Perhaps a gorgeous slave girl raped by your great, great, great grand-daddy? You southern cons are not welcome in the USA! Get OUT. GOPigs!