Blackwater Portrayed Out of Control

[NDNdancer]

Oversight! It took six years, damn it tastes sweet.

This is going to be messy when the Iraqis get hold of this report.

I think I might have to watch these hearings tomorrow.[/quote]

House Oversight Report on Blackwater (http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071001121609.pdf)

Here's from the AP
[quote]
Blackwater Portrayed As Out of Control

RICHARD LARDNER | October 1, 2007 08:41 PM EST | AP

WASHINGTON — Blackwater USA is an out-of-control outfit indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties, according to a critical report released Monday by a key congressional committee.

Among the most serious charges against the prominent security firm is that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.

Blackwater has had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, says the 15-page report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Just after the report was released, The Associated Press learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to investigate an incident that has angered the Iraqi government.

On Sept. 16, 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defense after the convoy came under attack. Iraqi witnesses have said the shooting was unprovoked.

The FBI team was sent at the request of the State Department and its findings will be reviewed for possible criminal liability.

The 122 personnel terminated by Blackwater is roughly one-seventh of the work force that Blackwater has in Iraq, a ratio that raises questions about the quality of the people working for the company.

The only punishment for those dismissed was the termination of their contracts with Blackwater, says the report, which uses information from Blackwater's own files and State Department records.

The report, prepared by the majority staff of the committee, also says Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005, or roughly 1.4 per week.

In more than 80 percent of the incidents, called "escalation of force," Blackwater's guards fired the first shots even though the company's contract with the State Department calls for it to use defensive force only, it said.

"In the vast majority of instances in which Blackwater fired shots, Blackwater is firing from a moving vehicle and does not remain at the scene to determine if the shots resulted in casualties," according to the report.

The staff report says Blackwater has made huge sums of money despite its questionable performance in Iraq, where Blackwater guards provide protective services for U.S. diplomatic personnel.

Blackwater has earned more than $1 billion from federal contracts since 2001, when it had less than $1 million in government work. Overall, the State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million between 2004 and 2006 for security work, according to the report.

Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single "protective security specialist," the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service.

Blackwater, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the largest of the State Department's three private security contractors. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs.

According to the report, Blackwater has had more shooting incidents than the other two companies combined.

The report is critical not only of Blackwater. In two cases, the State Department recommended Blackwater make payments to the families of Iraqis killed by its guards.

On Dec. 24, 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraq's Shiite vice president, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

The AP previously reported the contractor had gotten lost on the way back to his barracks in Baghdad's Green Zone and fired at least seven times when he was confronted by 30-year-old Raheem Khalaf Saadoun.

The guard was terminated by Blackwater. Within 36 hours of the shooting, the department allowed the 26-year-old contractor to be transported out of Iraq, according to the staff report.

An unnamed State Department official then recommended Blackwater pay the guard's family $250,000 as an "apology."

But the Diplomatic Security Service, the department's own law enforcement arm, said that was too much money and might prompt other Iraqis "to 'try to get killed'" in order to provide for their families, according to the report.

"In the end, the State Department and Blackwater agreed on a $15,000 payment," the report says.

The negative fallout from the event affected the relationship between the U.S. military and Iraqis, many of whom see little distinction between the private guards and American troops, the report states. Initial news coverage by Middle Eastern media of the killing said a "U.S. soldier" was responsible.

In a company e-mail obtained by the committee, a Blackwater employee said the mistake in the news "gets the heat off of us."

According to the report, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating.

In another instance, the department recommended Blackwater make a $5,000 payment after guards killed an "apparently innocent" Iraqi bystander, according to documents the committee examined. In this same case, the Blackwater personnel failed to report this shooting and "covered it up," the report states.

There is no evidence, the report says, "that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater's actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting incidents involving Blackwater or the company's high rate of shooting first, or detained Blackwater contractors for investigation."

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he has not read the report and could not comment.

The report was distributed to committee members on the eve of a hearing on private security contracting. Blackwater's 38-year-old founder and chairman, Erik Prince, will be one of the witnesses.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell had no comment on the specifics in the report.

"We look forward to setting the record straight on this issue and others tomorrow when Erik Prince testifies before the committee," she said.

In addition to Prince, the witnesses include David Satterfield, the department's Iraq coordinator; Richard Griffin, assistant secretary for diplomatic security; and William H. Moser, deputy assistant secretary for logistics management.

___

Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.

[Scorpion]

Blackwater is nothing more then an overpriced mercenary force. And mercenaries are the bottom of the military barrel. Shame on the State Department for hiring them and closing their eyes to Blackwater's criminal behavior.

In the most recent shootings I hope that the perpetrators are returned to Iraq to stand trial. It's all about accountability.

[NDNdancer]

Here's a couple of tables from the report:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/pspauld/termination.jpg


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/pspauld/blackwatercontract.jpg

[bobbylien]

They are out of control, absolutely. Hiring mercenaries might make the administration look good short term because they can say theres less troops and less American troop deaths but when it all gets down to it, the reason people go to Blackwater over the real Army is money. Blackwater soldiers care more about money than serving our country. I refuse to put military power in the hands of a corporation. Military industrial complex!

[1Samuel8]

the reason people go to Blackwater over the real Army is money. Blackwater soldiers care more about money than serving our country.Nothing wrong with that. What would you expect?? have them work for less pay than what the soldiers earn?

I refuse to put military power in the hands of a corporation. Military industrial complex!I agree. Unfortunately, our standard of living depends on cheap oil. Are you ready to see a tripling of the price of oil? Both you and I might be willing to acept that change but we would be in the minority -- most people would rather have cheap oil. That is the challenge we face.

Blackwater is nothing more then an overpriced mercenary force.Well, if you support the military actions in the middle East but there are not enough troops enlisted, how do you propose to handle the difference?

In the most recent shootings I hope that the perpetrators are returned to Iraq to stand trial. It's all about accountability.That is a peculiar request.
Who would hold the trial? Blackwater and its client (the US administration) are occupying the territory.

[NDNdancer]

17 dead...... Here's a report on the investigation

Published on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 by The New York Times

New Details In The Blackwater Shootings Don’t Mesh With Firm’s Version

by James Glanz & Alissa J. Rubin

It started out as a family errand: Ahmed Haithem Ahmed was driving his mother, Mohassin, to pick up his father from the hospital where he worked as a pathologist. As they approached Nisour Square at midday on Sept. 16, they did not know that a bomb had gone off nearby or that a convoy of four armored vehicles carrying Blackwater guards armed with automatic rifles was approaching.

Moments later a bullet tore through Ahmed’s head, he slumped, and the car rolled forward. Then Blackwater guards responded with a barrage of gunfire and explosive weapons, leaving 17 dead and 24 wounded - a higher toll than previously thought, according to Iraqi investigators.

Interviews with 12 Iraqi eyewitnesses, several Iraqi investigators and a U.S. official familiar with a U.S. investigation of the Sept. 16 shootings offer new insights into the gravity of the incident in Nisour Square. And they are difficult to square with the explanation offered initially by Blackwater officials that their guards were responding proportionately to an attack on the streets around the square.

The new details include these:

– A deadly cascade of events began when a single bullet apparently fired by a Blackwater guard killed an Iraqi man whose weight probably remained on the accelerator and propelled the car forward as the passenger, the man’s mother, clutched him and screamed.

– The car continued to roll toward the convoy, which responded with an intense barrage of gunfire in several directions.

– Minutes after that shooting stopped, a Blackwater convoy moved north from the square and opened fire on another line of traffic a few hundred yards away, in a previously unreported separate incident, investigators and witnesses say.

The car in which the first people were killed did not begin to closely approach the Blackwater convoy until the Iraqi driver had been shot in the head and lost control of his vehicle. Not one witness heard or saw any gunfire coming from Iraqis around the square.

As the gunfire continued, at least one of the Blackwater guards began screaming, “No! No! No!” and gesturing to his colleagues to stop shooting, according to an Iraqi lawyer who was stuck in traffic and was soon shot in the back as he tried to flee. The account of the struggle among the Blackwater guards corroborates preliminary findings of the U.S. investigation.

Still, although the series of events pieced together by the Iraqis may be correct, important elements could still be missing from that account, according to the U.S. official familiar with the ongoing U.S. investigation into the shootings.

Among the questions still to be answered, the official said, is whether at any time during the incident nearby Iraqi security forces ever began firing, possibly leading the Blackwater convoy to believe they were under attack and therefore justified in returning fire.

Blackwater has said that its guards were fired upon and responded appropriately.

The Blackwater convoy was in the square to control traffic for a second convoy that was approaching from the south. The second convoy was bringing diplomats who had been evacuated from a meeting after a bomb went off near the compound where the meeting was taking place.

The incident in the square began with a short burst of bullets that witnesses described as unprovoked. A traffic policeman, Sarhan Thiab, saw that a young man in a car had been hit. In the line of traffic, that car was third in line from the intersection where the convoy had positioned itself.

“We tried to help him,” Thiab said. “I saw the left side of his head was destroyed and his mother was crying out, ‘My son, my son. Help me, help me.’ ”

Another traffic policeman rushed to the driver’s side to try to get her son out of the car, but the car was still rolling forward, according to a taxi driver close by who gave his name as Abu Mariam.

Then Blackwater guards opened fire with a barrage of bullets, according to the police and numerous witnesses. Ahmed’s mother, Mohassin Kadhim, appears to have been shot to death as she cradled her son in her arms. Moments later the car caught on fire after the Blackwater guards fired a grenade into the vehicle.

The taxi driver was a few feet ahead of Mohassin Kadhim’s car when he heard the first gunshots. He was aware of cars behind him trying to back out of the street or turn around and drive away from the square. He tried frantically to turn his car but ran into the curb.

He pulled himself over to the passenger side, opened the door and crawled out, flattening his body to the ground. He said his left leg was shot.

Cars were struggling to get out of the line of fire and many people were abandoning their vehicles altogether. The scene turned hellish.

“The shooting started like rain; everyone escaped his car,” said Fareed Walid Hassan, a truck driver.

He saw a woman dragging her child. “He was around 10 or 11. He was dead. She was pulling him by one hand to get him away. She hoped that he was still alive,” he said.

“Some people were trying to escape by crawling, some people were killed in front of me,” said Jabber Salman, a lawyer on his way to the Ministry of Justice.

As Salman tried to drive away from the shooting, bullets hit his neck, shoulders, left forearm and lower back.

Iraqi investigators believe that during the incident, Blackwater helicopters flew overhead and fired into the cars from above. They say that at least one of the car roofs had bullet holes through them.

Minutes after the first shootings, a Blackwater convoy arrived at the other side of the square, where civilian traffic was also backed up, and shot into cars, according to an Iraqi official who is a member of the investigative committee set up by the Iraqi government.

“I found three people from that incident in Khadimiya hospital, one died and two were injured,” the Iraqi official said.

I watched the hearings and watched that smug bastard defend his company. He spoke at one point about the "corporation has no liability" regarding the actions of his employees.

[Drocket]

Well, if you support the military actions in the middle East but there are not enough troops enlisted, how do you propose to handle the difference?

The solution seems pretty simple: pay the troops what Blackwater mercenaries make. If people are willing to work as mercenaries for $X, it seems rather likely that most of those people would be willing to work as soldiers for the same wages. Oh, sure, as a soldier you don't get the fun of slaughtering civilians indiscriminately without any repercussions, but still...

[tony mitra]

Hi Kyi Yo,

I had mentioned a download link (http://homepage.mac.com/tonu/FileSharing18.html) on some other post, covering the issue of a mercenary army, as presented by David Kennedy at the Stanford University, on the topic of "International Security". It is still available at the link, the first file, on m4a format, which I think is a subset of the mp3 and can be played on iTunes and other systems and devices. Try it if you will. I will pull that file off the link eventually, because these are large files (nearly one hour of talk).

What I found interesting, was his comments nearing the end of the presentation, where he mentions the time when he and others met with President Bush and were discussing the topic of Iraq, private security personnel, the draft, and also about the legacy Mr. Bush was leaving behind. Apparently Mr. Bush got pensive and mused aloud, mentioning something in the line of : if he was forced to bring in the draft (e.g. if he did not have access to private firms doing part of the soldiers jobs), he thought he'd get impeached.

Mr. Kennedy ended his speed with the phrase (abbreviation) "Q.E.D.".

I suppose this is as honest as any comment you might get from Mr. Bush about Blackwater (although I doubt he named Blackwater in particular). Like it or not, the Q.E.D. demonstrated, in Mr. Kennedy's mind, that private mercenary armies, used by all imperial powers in the past, were, in the case of USA, serving a very important function - that of keeping the president from being impeached.

Does that answer part of the question, however unsavory it sounds ?

As long as there is a mercenary army doing the dirty work, the average American kid does not have to be put too much into harms way, and the discussion can remain academic, as to if firms like Blackwater should or should not exist. But, if they really did not exist, the question moves from academic debate, to something closer to an actual war where your brothers and sons might have to face inscrutable Arabs wearing checkered head gear and taking a potshot at them at every corner. The war, in other words, would then become too real and too close to home. It would stop being a video game.

I'd like to hear your comments on that.
Cheers my friend.
:)

[NDNdancer]

Tony,

I think that's part of it.

I also agree that the military has changed over time from a military that had recruits from all walks of life to a military that is mainly drawn from the lower economic and educational pools, with larger enlistment from ethnic minorities then ever before.

As long as it's men and women from those pools they are seen as more expendable and he's right, if there were a draft, Bush would be impeached.

A draft would hopefully be more balanced. I personally don't trust this administration to ensure that a draft is more balanced. When your leadership has used power and privilege to avoid combat in their pasts, it doesn't bode well for a military draft that won't be full of loopholes for the privileged.

Have a good one my friend!

[tony mitra]

Well, Blackwater is out of control.
The war on terror is out of control
The administration is out of control
The climate is out of control
The deficit is out of control
The housing market is out of control
The dollar is out of control

Perhaps we need to send the boy scouts out on a hunt to search for items that are still in control.

Cheers Kyi Yo.
:)

[PatrickHenry]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/16/dad.blackwater/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Haythem could only recognize his oldest boy from his tall and slim physique as well as what was left of his shoes. His son's head had been blown away, his body charred beyond recognition. His wife of more than 20 years was torn apart.

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/meast/10/16/dad.blackwater/art.family.jpg

Ahmed and his mother, Mahassen, were killed in the September 16 shootings in Baghdad.

"Only part of her neck and jaw remained," Haythem told CNN. The rest of her was covered by a body bag.

Choking back tears, he said, "Killing them was not enough, blowing up their skulls, they burned them and disfigured them."

Haythem's wife, Mahassen, and his 20-year-old son, Ahmed, were among the 17 Iraqi civilians killed and 27 others wounded in a hail of gunfire September 16 in Baghdad.

Guards working for private security firm Blackwater USA are accused of opening fire on the Iraqis.

The Iraqi government has said the Blackwater guards shot without provocation -- something the U.S.-based contractor has denied, saying the guards were in a firefight with gunmen.

An Iraqi government report has accused Blackwater of "premeditated murder," saying the company's guards randomly fired at civilians. An Iraqi panel investigating the shootings has asked Blackwater to pay the families of each of the victims $8 million in compensation.

"Money will not compensate us for what we have lost, even if it were piles of it," Haythem said. "No one can put a price on the lives of those killed."

Haythem, 46, a doctor who specializes in blood diseases, spoke from his temporary home in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood where he is living with his mother and two remaining children -- daughter Maryam, 18, and son Haidar, 17.

While he spoke, his mother sat in a corner of the room, moaning and sobbing, rocking back and forth on a couch. She wore all black.

All Haythem and the family know about the final moments of their loved ones is what two Iraqi police officers who witnessed the shootings have told them -- that Ahmed was shot as he was driving his car in Nusoor Square and his mother clutched him tight as he was bleeding.

"Those who witnessed the incident say that my son's head was scattered and my wife held him and hugged him," Haythem said. "She was screaming, 'My son, my son! Help me! Help me!' "

The car slowly rolled forward until Blackwater guards unleashed more shots that turned the vehicle into a fireball, according to the witnesses.

"They understood the call for help. They sprayed her with bullets," he said.

Blackwater has not discussed specifics about the case, saying the FBI is investigating the matter. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince told CNN Sunday one of the Blackwater vehicles was damaged by small arms fire and that his guards committed no "deliberate violence."

Haythem's wife also was a doctor and his son was attending medical school with hopes of becoming a surgeon.

"They destroyed my family and they killed my beloved wife, my better half," Haythem said calmly. "They deprived me of my eldest son who I have raised into a strong, young man. They deprived him of fulfilling his dream to be a doctor and a surgeon. They planted pain and misery in the hearts of my two younger kids."

His daughter and son live in fear that he too will be slain on the streets of Baghdad, leaving them as orphans.

Maryam sat with her father throughout the interview, not wanting to leave his side. She said she and her mother were close friends -- able to chat like sisters and share stories beyond most mother-daughter relationships.

"My friends would always tell me how much they noticed my mom's love for me. She used to always talk to me about my future and her dreams for me," she said. "I hope I live up to her expectations."

There has gotta be some justice...

[lily]

Well......the Iraqi trial is over. Maliki again said he wants Blackwater out. I wonder if he'll get another phone call and "change his mind". We want the Iraqi government to stand up and govern, but we've seen time and again, when Maliki says something, the next day after a phone call........he changes his mind. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/16/iraq.blackwater/index.html)



Iraqi adviser: Blackwater shooting unprovoked, guards must go


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked the U.S.
State Department to "pull Blackwater out of Iraq," after an Iraqi probe
concluded that the private contractors committed unprovoked and random
killings in a September 16 shooting, an adviser to al-Maliki told CNN.




But in Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the department
has received "no specific request" from Iraq to withdraw the company's
contractors.

Al-Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari told CNN the Iraqis have completed their
investigation into the shooting at Nusoor Square in Baghdad.

Al-Askari said the United States is still waiting for the findings of the
American investigation, but al-Maliki and most Iraqi officials are
"completely satisfied" with the findings of their probe and are "insisting"
that Blackwater leave the country.

[jafar00]

the reason people go to Blackwater over the real Army is money. Blackwater soldiers care more about money than serving our country.Nothing wrong with that. What would you expect?? have them work for less pay than what the soldiers earn?

I refuse to put military power in the hands of a corporation. Military industrial complex!I agree. Unfortunately, our standard of living depends on cheap oil. Are you ready to see a tripling of the price of oil? Both you and I might be willing to acept that change but we would be in the minority -- most people would rather have cheap oil. That is the challenge we face.


Do the lives of thousands of innocent people not matter at all as long as you have cheap oil to fuel your decadent lifestyle? Anyone who can support such a notion has had their heart blackened by Satan.

Blackwater is nothing more then an overpriced mercenary force.Well, if you support the military actions in the middle East but there are not enough troops enlisted, how do you propose to handle the difference?


By not biting off more than you can chew in the first place?

[lily]

I agree. Unfortunately, our standard of living depends on cheap oil. Are you ready to see a tripling of the price of oil? Both you and I might be willing to acept that change but we would be in the minority -- most people would rather have cheap oil. That is the challenge we face.

I do believe that has already happened........with no end in sight. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_price_increases_of_2004-2006)
The price of standard crude oil on NYMEX was under $25/barrel in September
2003, but by August 11, 2005, it had risen to over $60/barrel, through most
of 2006 showed a bumpy plateau, with a summer peak, falling for the early
part of 2007 to between $50 and $60/barrel, before rising again from May to
September 2007, to be traded at over $80 before closing at a high of
$83.90/barrel on September 20, 2007.

[tony mitra]

Well, oil had almost hit 89 dollars yesterday, though dropped eventually to 86 plus.

Wait for it to hit 200, and then to 400. We are then going to have some fun.
Cheers.
:)