U.S. Offers Cash to Victims in Blackwater Incident

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

Family Members Of Some View Amount as Paltry

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 25, 2007; Page A19

BAGHDAD, Oct. 24 -- The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday began offering tens of thousands of dollars in payments to victims and families of victims of the Sept. 16 shootings in Baghdad involving security guards from the firm Blackwater Worldwide, according to relatives and U.S. officials.

Family members of several victims turned down the compensation, out of concern that accepting the funds would limit their future claims against the North Carolina-based security contractor and its chief executive, Erik Prince. Others said that the money being offered -- in some cases $12,500 for a death -- was paltry and that they wanted to sue Blackwater in an American court.

"This is an insult," said Firoz Fadhil Abbas, whose brother Osama was killed in a barrage of bullets. "The funeral and the wake cost more than what they offered. My brother who got killed was responsible for four families."

The offers of compensation, while a standard practice in the U.S. military, are unusual for the U.S. Embassy, reflecting the diplomatic and political sensitivities raised by the shootings, which sparked outrage in Iraq and the United States.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102401936.html

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Australian Headline:
US embassy offers blood money
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-embassy-offers-blood-money/2007/10/25/1192941241434.html?s_cid=rss_world

[Horse with no Name]

1. Ummmm....why ARE we paying for Blackwaters mistakes?

They are making billions...why can't they do their own payoffs?

[maddezmom]

2. they want the civil suits to go away

but looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon.

[Horse with no Name]

6. This goes against EVERY tenet of their argument for privatization

Every fucking one.
Their reasoning for contracting out stems from the idea that you pay a company for a service.
This company is responsible for providing the overhead for the service...the insurance, the salaries, the benefits, AND the liabilities.
This is OUTRAGEOUS that our tax dollars are going to pay for something that we essentially have ALREADY paid someone to do privately.:mad:

[ShortnFiery]

3. Yes our tax payer dollars being used for killings, corruption and now graft pay-offs for complicity

Perfect! :eyes:

[MorningGlow]

4. No wonder the rest of the world hates us

Sure, just throw money at the victims' families and they'll go away happy, right? :sarcasm:

[Drum]

5. OUR cash. nt

[frylock]

7. just throw the savages a few beads and trinkets..

how much money was given to the families of those crispy blackwater mercs that were paraded around Fallujah? Significantly more than 12G I'm sure.