U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad (Blackwater)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area.

Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly.

Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq, and its employees operate in a perilous environment that sometimes requires the use of deadly force. But last week's incidents underscored how deeply these hired guns have been drawn into the war, their murky legal status and the grave consequences that can ensue when they take aggressive action.

Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052601394.html?hpid=topnews

[TwilightGardener]

1. Freedom, on the march. Winning hearts and minds. Yada yada.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. "Let Freedom Reign!"

[reprobate]

45. Not to be picky, but I believe the original statement was: "Let Freedom Ring"

It referred to the Liberty Bell.

[Erika]

2. Paid U.S. mercenaries

for global profits.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Yep. nt.

[Amonester]

27. Mercenaries paid by the taxpayers (plus interests), global profits...

cashed in by war-profiteering cronies.

That's the ticket... uhh... sorry (not!)... the Racket.

[ptolle]

31. speaking of rackets

All this makes one wonder what Smedley Darlington Butler would have to say. He was outraged enough when it was official government troops, specifically his gyrenes, doing strongarm work for the corporate oligarchy.My greatest fear is that someone- either the mercs or our regulars- is going to precipitate an incident that causes the populace to rise en masse against the occupiers and as vulnerable as our troops have been shown to be against isolated guerrilla actions we couldn't transport body bags to the country fast enough.

[MetaTrope]

36. US mercenary: "I want to kill somebody today"

It's not just Blackwater in the mix

On the afternoon of July 8, 2006, four private security guards rolled out of Baghdad's Green Zone in an armored SUV. The team leader, Jacob C. Washbourne, rode in the front passenger seat. He seemed in a good mood. His vacation started the next day.

"I want to kill somebody today," Washbourne said, according to the three other men in the vehicle, who later recalled it as an offhand remark. Before the day was over, however, the guards had been involved in three shooting incidents. In one, Washbourne allegedly fired into the windshield of a taxi for amusement, according to interviews and statements from the three other guards.

...
The only known inquiry into the July 8 incidents was conducted by Triple Canopy, a 3 1/2 -year-old company founded by retired Special Forces officers and based in Herndon. Triple Canopy employed the four guards. After the one-week probe, the company concluded that three questionable shooting incidents had occurred that day and fired Washbourne and two other employees, Shane B. Schmidt and Charles L. Sheppard III.

[stillcool]

3. Now that I find odd...

not that it happened, but that it's reported.

Making a Killing: America’s Private Army
and the Business of War
By David Zlutnick
Fault Lines
March 25, 2007
http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/military/0325makeakilling.htm
On January 20th the Iraqi resistance shot down a Blackhawk helicopter killing thirteen American soldiers. Three days later, just hours before Bush would give his State of the Union address, a Little Bird helicopter was shot down, killing five more Americans—but this incident didn’t make nearly the amount of news as the former. While the five men died in combat, they were not members of the US military. They were employees of Blackwater USA, the shining star in a new breed of corporation specializing in private soldiers—also known as mercenaries. These private companies are part of a huge surge in the outsourcing of war, which is extremely evident in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, Colombia, Haiti, and numerous other countries. Private contractors are the second-largest contingent of the “Coalition of the Willing” with a ratio of about one armed contractor for every two American soldiers. This is up from a ratio of one to sixty during the first Gulf War. The Pentagon estimates the number of contractors at around 100,000—but this is only an estimate because after four years in Iraq the military is only now beginning a survey to find the size of its contractor force.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For political purposes it is in the interests of the US government to build a large army of private soldiers. Even though 770 contractors have been killed in Iraq and 7,761 have been injured, they are not included in the official US death toll. Perhaps even more have been killed but the Pentagon doesn’t track contractor deaths, citing military regulations as the reason for this lack of oversight. Figures have to be deduced from insurance claims filed through the Depart- ment of Labor. Plus, if contractors are used for missions that are not quite legal or want to be distanced from official policy, their actions are completely deniable as they are not employees of the US government. This is the case along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where American forces are not allowed to venture into Pakistani territory.

With the job being so risky, what would attract so many to private companies? Well, Blackwater has been known to pay its employees $365,000 per year, compared to the $36,000 an average US soldier makes. No wonder so many former military personnel are signing up with a private employer instead of re-enlisting. Blackwater is able to pay its soldiers so much because they have received $505 million in contracts from the US government since 2000. Three hundred twenty million of this has been since June 2004 alone, when they received a no-bid contract to guard diplomats and staff in Iraq. With this amount of money the company has been able to build the largest base for a private military in the world, acquire a fleet of 20 aircrafts (including helicopter gunships, a Boeing 767, and even a zeppelin), develop its own armored vehicle called the Grizzly, and build up a force of 20,000 soldiers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KBR’s CEO Bill Utt said they plan on increasing the size of their force in Iraq in response to Bush’s announcement of sending more troops. The company now has over 500,000 resumes on file for people seeking employment in Iraq, Kuwait, or Afghanistan. With every troop “surge” the private military business gets an extra boost as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 21,500 combat troops Bush is sending into Iraq will have to be supported by 28,000 additional US military men and women, a government assessment recently concluded. This makes the actual number of US soldiers being deployed around 50,000 at a cost of $27 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Exactly how many more contractors will arrive in Iraq as a result has yet to be determined, but with the current ratio of nearly one contractor for every soldier, we can expect it to be a significant number.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/military/...

Mercenaries' to Fill Iraq Troop Gap
By Brian Brady
Scotsman
February 25, 2007
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2007/0225mercenariesfill.htm
Ministers are negotiating multi-million-pound contracts with private security firms to cover some of the gaps created by British troop withdrawals. Days after Tony Blair revealed that he wanted to withdraw 1,600 soldiers from war-torn Basra within months, it has emerged that civil servants hope "mercenaries" can help fill the gap left behind. Officials from the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence will meet representatives from the private security industry within the next month to discuss "options" for increasing their business in Iraq in the coming years.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A senior official from one of the biggest PSCs already operating in Iraq last night claimed firms had been told to expect increased business opportunities in areas such as personnel protection, highway security and the training of Iraqi police and soldiers. "It is not entirely surprising that they recognise PSCs still have a value in Iraq," the source said. "But them wanting to meet us demonstrates that they have accepted just how valuable the industry can be. "No one is saying PSCs can take over all the jobs of regular military, but the British forces have not been doing regular military work recently. If there is a need to protect people and supply routes and areas, there are a lot of specialised private-sector companies that can do that perfectly well."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The size of the private-security companies market is difficult to determine, but an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 private security contractors are thought to be working in Iraq. At a conference of British private-security companies last month, delegates said that the industry had increased about tenfold over the past decade and was worth the equivalent of about $4bn (£2.04bn) a year.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the end of 2006, the Labour Department had quietly recorded 769 deaths and 3,367 injuries serious enough to require four or more days off the job. The contractors are paid handsomely for the risks they take, with some making £50,000 per year, mostly tax-free - at least six times more than a new Army private.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contra...

[Kagemusha]

6. Seems the only story is the interior ministry being less willing to just suck it up

So they blabbed to the media about it.

Honestly I see little discrepancy between "fired upon for coming too close" and "the attack was unprovoked". Both can easily be true, from the POV of the people saying the statements. To one side driving too close is a fatal provocation; to the other it isn't.

[Solly Mack]

5. extension of America's criminal government

[Decruiter]

8. Nuff said. n/t

[Dover]

9. AND to add insult to grievous injury...WE, rather than the corporations who profit

from these illegal invasions, pay for these mercenaries. The corporations are getting a free ride on our blood and money. And our corporate funded politician 'representatives' continue to sign off on it.

Why that hasn't created massive resistance among people is just beyond me.

The power elite know that the days of volunteer armies and just causes is about over, and with our economy sinking I doubt they'll have too much trouble getting private hired guns here or some third world nation. Problem is, that when money (rather than love of country, etc.) is the only glue holding an army together, corruption only increases and it has a way of backfiring and becoming harder to control. It becomes a very sinister thing.

[greyghost]

37. Damn, you said...

a mouthful.

That's EXACTLY where this is heading. The MIC will use all assets within reach to advice their criminal agenda.

Not unlike ancient Rome.

[blitzen]

10. "Kill Them All. Let God Sort Them Out"

sorry, but i feel no sympathy for the latter-day crusaders

http://www.specialforces.com/store/catalog/special_category_728_Special_Categories_Kill_Them_All__Let_God_Sort_Them_Out_page_1.html





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
In July 1209 the crusaders captured the small village of Servian and headed for Béziers, arriving on July 21. They invested the city, called the Catholics within to come out, and demanded that the Cathars surrender. Both groups refused. The city fell the following day when an abortive sortie was pursued back through the open gates. The entire population was slaughtered and the city burned to the ground. According to the Cistercian writer Caesar of Heisterbach, one of the leaders of the Crusader army, the Papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, was asked by a Crusader how to distinguish the Cathars from the Catholics. He answered: "Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" — "Kill them ! Surely the Lord discerns which are his."<1> Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between seven and twenty thousand. The latter figure appears in Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope. The news of the disaster at Béziers quickly spread and afterwards many settlements surrendered without a fight.

[RC]

11. Religion is such a good thing -

NOT!

Aggressive Governments need a military that pushes religion in the ranks to foster the idea of an afterlife, so as to up the number of "Heroes" that think they are protected by their god and therefore be less afraid of dying because they also think they will be rewarded for their heroic actions in an afterlife even if they do die.

[Straight Shooter]

38. "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

Blaise Pascal. (1623-1662)

[tom_paine]

12. Usually, there is a news blackout onthe activties of our Hessians

I wonder what the ulterior motive is for allowing this story be be printed in Amerikan State-Controlled Media.

You KNOW that few things, especially as they have to do with Busheviks or the Hessians that work for them, are allowed to be printed in State-Controlled Media without an ulterior purpose.

The option is still there that this is an honest reportage that finally broke through the self-censorship of Amerikan State-Controlled Media, but anyone who has live under this new and "mild" (from a physical danger perspective) totalitaraianism knows the liklihood of that is very low indeed.

[jhain]

14. Well said...

and, my immediate thought also.

Why DID we hear about it? This serves a purpose in some way, I am quite sure.

Hoping to recruit more 'freedom fighters', Dick? The action packed thriller, produced by Mel Gibson, will be out in time for the 4 th of July.

[Marnieworld]

22. thumbs up

I was agreeing with everything that you wrote and then it ended with a Gore endorsement. Yep. You know what your talking about. Clark would be a great running mate. I personally would weep at the choice of Feingold but with "taking the wheel in mid-skid" you want a driver with the experience of Clark. May I have your permission to borrow that graphic?

Have you read The Assault on Reason yet? I have it but haven't started yet. I've been busy catching up on my Gore Tivo-ing. From his comments on Larry King I have more confidence that he does intend to run but I am an optimist. His thoughts about the unnecessary length of the election cycle said a lot to me. If he runs he will run his way, re-inventing what campaigning is and I think we are seeing that now.

[zippy890]

13. $109 million of our tax dollars to these mercenaries

good for the NYT for this report- maybe Congress will hold some hearings on it

[OwnedByFerrets]

23. Sorry to be so cynical, but......

LIKE THAT WOULD HELP ANYTHING!!! We seem to be unable to get congress to do anything but threaten subpoenas that get ignored.

[conspirator]

15. The New World Order Army AKA Blacwater first assignment: control Iraqi oil nt

[SemperEadem]

16. these Blackwater mercenaries

do not operate under nor do they recognize the Geneva Conventions; they are not accountable to the US Military; they can basically murder Iraqi civilians and not be held accountable for it. They have complete free reign to do as they list and no military body has jurisdiction over them and they know this.

[Sic-Semper-Tyrannis]

19. You are so right

Two of my fellow military officers had an incident with a Blackwater mercenary here in Afghanistan - he rammed their vehicle, ran them down, pinned their vehicle in and threatened them. They had to draw pistols on him and put him on the ground to control the situation. Result: they were charged with criminal conduct against HIM and very narrowly avoided a court martial. Both were given career-ending letters of reprimand. Both now wish they had just shot him. I have also had run-ins with Blackwater convoys - they actively try to run everyone else off the road and threaten other vehicles with weapons, including ours. We had a vehicle-to-vehicle shouting match with them as they tried to ram us. Fortunately it ended with us shooting birds instead of bullets, but it was close. We absolutely despise them. They do untold damage to the Coalition's efforts here every time they interact with the locals. And they know they answer to absolutely no one.

By the way it's not just the DoD - the State Department contracts them to provide security at the embassy and transport their people around.

[classof56]

28. Thanks for posting this and welcome to DU.

Be safe!

[annabanana]

30. Welcome to DU! When you have a sufficient # of posts

to start a thread, this post deserves a thread of it's own. We always need information here, from as many different perspectives as possible.

[Barrett808]

33. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[BeHereNow]

41. The mercs pose a major danger to US troops.

Because they answer to and operate under no law, I would wager
that their actions are responsible for much of the blowback
directed at the troops- no?
Welcome to DU.
Stay safe- we support you and all others in the service, but not the people
who sent you.
We hope you get to come home as soon as possible.

BHN

[SemperEadem]

43. Welcome to DU!!!

Have you read the book "Blackwater" by Jeremy Scahill? He was on C-SPAN's "Afterwords" program a few months back talking about this book and it was a riveting interview about just exactly what this Blackwater company is about.

From C-SPAN's site:

http://www.booktv.org/ram/afterwords/0307/arc_btv033107_4.ram

Description: Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill examines Blackwater U.S.A., a private company that provides military assistance to the U.S. government. Mr. Scahill recounts the development of this corporation and gives his analysis on its current involvement in U.S. national and foreign affairs. The author discusses his book with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

[cyberpj]

21. Plus they get top end equipment, armour and pay while our kids still suffer lack of all three. nt

[19jet54]

32. CIA?

... things are not always as they appear!

[EFerrari]

34. And they argue that they can't be sued in civil court because

they are indistinguishable from our military.

Above the law.

[leftchick]

17. they are still working under CPA orders?

omg....

The Interior Ministry, which regulates security companies for the Iraqi government, has received four previous complaints of shooting incidents involving Blackwater in the past two years, according to Hussein Kamal, undersecretary for intelligence affairs. But in an interview before last week's shootings, Kamal said Iraqi authorities have been hampered by a Coalition Provisional Authority order granting contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process.

[DemoTex]

18. Blackwater: Cheney's Viagra surrogate.

Nothing like having your own personal, killing mercenary army to give a psychopath a woody in the morning. That, and the smells of napalm and the sounds of torture.

[Herman74]

20. Blackwater -- Even its Name sounds Evil n/t

[OwnedByFerrets]

24. As far as I am concerned, they are lawless

hoodlums, paid my OUR tax dollars. We are paying them to kill, rape and mutilate. How many of the 700,000 dead do you think they are accountable for. I would hazard a guess that its the majority.

[acmavm]

25. Blackwater, an organization of hired killers or killer wannabes. The big

irony is the families of Blackwater employees suing the company when their husband/father/whatever ends up being killed.

[valerief]

26. Baghdad today, Boston tomorrow. nt

[EFerrari]

35. Potrero, SoCal is where they want to be. Blackwater West. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

29. i'm surprised this was reported

the Black Operators from Moyock are usually pretty skilled at keeping their latest happenings out of the media...

I wonder what's going to happen when our friendly neighborhood mercs make enough cash to buy their own tanks, fighter planes, etc...I'm REALLY curious to know what will happen when they make enough money that they no longer care about securing pentagon contracts...

[thunder rising]

39. Just keep trying to defund and they'll be coming to a town like yours.

In fact Bu$hCo's private mercenary army is just in training for the real battle. I know that's tin-hat materail ... isn't it?

[whistle]

40. With $80 billion these guys can pretty much plunder all of Baghdad

...at will.

[Sirveri]

42. Blackwater fun times. why go DoD when you can make 10x more.

The Blackwater military compound out in North Carolina provides training to large numbers of military personel. In two weeks there is a good chance I could be going out to see them all. Should make for some interesting sights and sounds. Other than this post I'm going to keep this info on the down low though, so anyone who sees this, expect some sort of post in about a month.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

44. Armed civilians in a foreign war zone are considered to be spies

and are usually executed, according to the Geneva Conventions.

No wonder they have tried to ditch the Conventions.