Iraq Demands $136M Blackwater Payout
Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months and pay $8 million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed when the firm's guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.
The demands, part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press, also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.
CBS News has found the Iraqi witness accounts of the shootings are remarkably consistent.
They say a four-vehicle Blackwater convoy drove into a traffic circle but was blocked by barriers protecting a maintenance crew, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
The Blackwater guards threw water bottles, warning the cars to stop, but as one car continued to inch forward, Blackwater started shooting, instantly killing the driver.
The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square, which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.
Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings mark the most definitive Iraqi positions and contentions about the shootings last month.
The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad's Green Zone after a nearby bombing, while a second back-up team in four gun trucks sped into the square as a back-up team.
The Iraqi investigation charges the four Blackwater vehicles called to the square began shooting without provocation. Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first.
The government, at the conclusion of its investigation, said 17 Iraqis died. Initial reports put the toll at 11.
It said the compensation - totaling $136 million - was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country."
The U.S. military pays compensation money to the families of civilians killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts.
The FBI investigation is supposed to wrap up in days, not weeks, adds Palmer. But there is still a lot of work to do. CBS News' investigation turned up many witnesses who have not yet been interviewed.
The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in which to bring charges.
It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2, 2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June 2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a criminal code from 1969.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the diplomatic mission would have no comment on the report. Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the document was in American hands.
The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. The Iraqi government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those cases.
The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All were being reviewed as part of the comprehensive inquiry ordered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The demands, part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press, also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.
CBS News has found the Iraqi witness accounts of the shootings are remarkably consistent.
They say a four-vehicle Blackwater convoy drove into a traffic circle but was blocked by barriers protecting a maintenance crew, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
The Blackwater guards threw water bottles, warning the cars to stop, but as one car continued to inch forward, Blackwater started shooting, instantly killing the driver.
The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square, which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.
Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings mark the most definitive Iraqi positions and contentions about the shootings last month.
The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad's Green Zone after a nearby bombing, while a second back-up team in four gun trucks sped into the square as a back-up team.
The Iraqi investigation charges the four Blackwater vehicles called to the square began shooting without provocation. Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first.
The government, at the conclusion of its investigation, said 17 Iraqis died. Initial reports put the toll at 11.
It said the compensation - totaling $136 million - was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country."
The U.S. military pays compensation money to the families of civilians killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts.
The United States has not made conclusive findings about the shooting, though there are multiple investigations under way and Congress has opened inquiries into the role of private security contractors. Last week, the FBI took over a State Department investigation, raising the prospect that it could be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
The FBI investigation is supposed to wrap up in days, not weeks, adds Palmer. But there is still a lot of work to do. CBS News' investigation turned up many witnesses who have not yet been interviewed.
The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in which to bring charges.
It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2, 2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June 2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a criminal code from 1969.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the diplomatic mission would have no comment on the report. Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the document was in American hands.
The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. The Iraqi government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those cases.
The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All were being reviewed as part of the comprehensive inquiry ordered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
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Last letter from doomed Al Qaida chief: "We are so desperate for your help"
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/ss_iraq_09_30.asp
Iraq insurgency: People rise against al-Qa''eda
Damien McElroy spent a week in the heart of the insurgency in Anbar province in Iraq. In the second of seven exclusive reports he describes how peace and prosperity have returned to a town formerly riven by sectarian killings.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/08/wanbar308.xml
"The Iraqi''''''''s were given a chance at freedom, in the early days they were parading. Then a small percentage of radicals to turn the country into a cesspool. People make choices in life. The Iraqis choose to kill each other rather than embrace their new found freedom. Stop trying to blame the chaos in Iraq on us."
And I still stand by my orignial post, which is:
"Oh yes, that''s a sound argument. Hey, what if I came over and burned your house down? And then I said I''d help you rebuild it. But then once the process gets going, all I do is complain about how YOU''RE not working hard enough to rebuild the house I burned down.
Makes perfect, right-wing nutcase, sense to me.
Freakin'' idiot."
Now, you can''t cry that I took your comments out of context. So quit dodging the question, and answer me: tell me how we can have no blame whatsoever for the chaos in Iraq?
Posted by nexgen99 at 01:56 PM : Oct 09, 2007
This is what''s known as a lie...a crock of sh*it. No combat vet would blather on the way this troll has. If middleman8 had said the incident involved Navy Seals then this toad would have claimed to have been one of them instead. If he had said it was a CIA foul up then he''d claim to have been an operative with them. BS.
What a blathering brainless dolt you are. Having no common sense youself, you right away jump on the bandwagon to bash our country. While calling me a "pathetic Nazi" , it turns out that you''re a freaking lunatic. Look nutjob, you don''t think Saddam had anything to do with terror? You don''t think that they harbored and supplied terrorists? You think Osama is the only terrorist in the world? What a wacko. Did you forget when Bush addressed the country after 9/11 and said we were engaged in a war on terror, slappy? I''ll bet you were jumping up and down in your beer-stained boxers (when you heard that) and screaming that "Finally we were gonna kick some major a$$!" So knucklehead, that is the mission, sparky. Sieg Heil Bush? O.k., Osama, you''ve proven to the world that you''re a human punchline and it''s alright to go back on your Prozac-Lithium therapy and continue your plot to take over the last stall at the YMCA men''s room; where you can re-establish yourself as the dictator of Stuporville.
you are completley wrong.
The Iraqi were holding a peaceful demonstration for water and food when a tank machine gunner in the 101 airborne opened fire on them and killed 13. Thats
what caused every thing to start going wrong.
Posted by middleman8
=============================
Oh, Oh, I guess that''s why they decided to start eating each other. Huh!!!!. I guess that''s why they decided to bomb their schools, hospitals, police stations. That''s why the became suicide bombers and walk into markets and kill hundreds of women and children. I would have never guessed this most likely because I was a member of the 101st Airborne also and we are all such violent killers. Don''t you remember all the babies we killed in Vietnam. Thank you for your wealth of knowledge
an 11 yr old driving his parent''s suv
80 mph in a 60 zone, chased to 100 mph
busted, a man steals a donut at convenient faces 15 yrs, to top off our
overflowing prisons with more people who panick because we have scarry cops!
But the German citizen kidnapped
by the CIA chained to a plane floor
beaten and tortued six months had his
case nixed by the supreme court.
Is this a great country or what!
AT MSNBC I saw no mention of the mercenaries contract killers in IRAQ!
you are completley wrong.
The Iraqi were holding a peaceful demonstration for water and food when a tank machine gunner in the 101 airborne opened fire on them and killed 13. Thats
what caused every thing to start going wrong.
The Iraqi''''s were given a chance at freedom, in the early days they were parading. Then a small percentage of radicals to turn the country into a cesspool. People make choices in life. The Iraqis choose to kill each other rather than embrace their new found freedom. Stop trying to blame the chaos in Iraq on us.