Iraqis Testify About Blackwater Shooting

"It Was A True Massacre, A Slaughter," One Iraqi Said Of The 17 Civilian Deaths.

(AP)  Three Iraqis, including the father of a slain 9-year-old boy, appeared Tuesday before a federal grand jury investigating a deadly Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad involving Blackwater Worldwide contractors.

The Iraqis were escorted to the closed-door session by federal prosecutors who are overseeing the U.S. investigation into whether Blackwater security guards illegally fired into a crowded Baghdad intersection, resulting in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

An Iraqi police major told The Associated Press in Baghdad that two of his officers were flown to the United States several days ago to testify. The major, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said they were expected to remain in the United States for two weeks.

It was not known whether the officers, one of whom was identified as Serhan Dhiab, were among the three men meeting Tuesday with grand jurors at the federal courthouse in Washington.

One of the three Iraqis was Mohammed Abdul-Razzaq, whose son Ali, 9, was killed in the shooting. He left court holding what appeared to be a child's plush toy and a family portrait.

After about three hours behind closed doors, the men did not talk to reporters. But before leaving Iraq, Abdul-Razzaq told ABC News he agreed to testify because he wanted justice for "a crime that needs to be punished."

"It was a true massacre, a slaughter," Abdul-Razzaq said.

ABC identified Hussan Abdurrahman as one of the officers brought to testify. He told the network in a separate interview that the Blackwater convoy never was in danger.

"There were zero armed men in that area," Abdurrahman said.

Grand jury testimony is secret but Iraqi witnesses to the shooting have described it publicly as an unprovoked attack in which the U.S. contractors killed motorists, bystanders and children.

Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats in Iraq, says its contractors were responding to a Baghdad car bombing when they were ambushed by insurgents, touching off a firefight.

The company is not a target of the investigation. The case has focused on as few as three or four guards and whether they acted illegally.

Over the past seven months, the grand jury has heard from Blackwater security guards, company managers and U.S. military officials.

The shooting enraged the Iraqi government, which originally sought to expel Blackwater and its 1,000 employees from the country, and strained diplomatic relations between Washington and Baghdad.

The shooting also raised questions at home and abroad about the U.S. reliance on heavily armed private contractors in war zones.

[tootall10142]

Why arent we atacking opec for monetary rape fraud illegal intrernational,global trade practices? these peple are casualties of WAR!.THere will be questionable killings just wait we have until december for the true killer to be ousted from the main frame.

[hungry1968]

This story neglects to mention that Blackwater was just rewarded with a brand new 5 year contract for over a billion dollars.

I wonder what that comes out to per civilian murdered?

[bluestardad]

THE WORLD COURT MUST START WAR CRIMES TRIALS AGAINST BUSH THE NEOCONS !

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[samrensho]

"I am really concerned about our government having what amounts to a really good start on their own private army."

Just look in major cities where many police functions are already outsourced to contract "security" firms who are not bound by the same rules as sworn police officers. It''s already gone too far. Just wait until you get your head broke by some ape in a rent-a-cop suit.

[patriot12436]

I would love to see bush try to do a coup. It would give us the legal right to remove him from ofice and from this earth.

[patriot12436]

Lets make all the Iraqui''s happy and bring all the Americans home.

[macaw60]

I am really concerned about our government having what amounts to a really good start on their own private army. Black Water and other groups like them frighten me. The potential for abuse is unlimited, in a worst case situation it''s not inconcieveable for a president to use a group like this to make him or herself a dictator, by staging a coup. I really wonder how many people inside and outside of our government have thought about this?

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by veteran72 at 01:12 AM

Blackwater is also headed up by a lunatic evangelical Christian.

[veteran72]

Making a Killing: America''s Private Army and the Business of War
by David Zlutnick

(excerpt)

"The scariest thing about Blackwater and other such companies is that they currently lie in a legal no-man%u2019s land, under no authoritative jurisdiction from any US or international law, nor the Geneva Conventions. In fact, when L. Paul Bremer%u2014whose personal bodyguards were a specialized Blackwater team%u2014was placed in charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), one of his first mandates was to make contractors immune from Iraqi law."


Mercenary Jackpot By Jeremy Scahill

(excerpt)

"This underscores the need for Congress to exercise real oversight on the runaway use of secret companies that have strong connections to the Bush Administration, for clandestine services all over the world," says Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, a leading Congressional critic of private military companies.

Shrub: "The Constitution is just a G*d*mn piece of
paper"!!!!

[feelfree4u]

Blackwater, Dyncorp, Triple Canopy, and other terrorist-for-rent organizations that are prostituting their disservices in a lie-based criminal war of aggression, is a despicable rime all on its own, regardless of how many civilians they have murdered, raped, and tortured so far.

FeelFree1

[harp1963]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml