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Gentlemen, We Shot a Judge and Other Tales of Blackwater, DynCorp, and Triple Canopys Rampage Through Iraq
By John Cook
Dec 13, 2011 9:38 AM
Every time a Blackwater centurion discharged his weapon in Iraq, the company filed a written report with the U.S. State Department. Blackwater shot Iraq to shit. Here are the reports.
Blackwater, the private mercenary firm that became synonymous with Bush-era war profiteering and reckless combat-tourism, announced yesterday that it has changed its name to Academi (after a previous incarnation as Xe Services) in a bid to distance itself from its history of wanton lawlessness. We've obtained a 4,500-page record of that history in the form of State Department incident reports documenting every time a Blackwater guard shot at an Iraqi between 2005 and 2007.
We got them in response to a Freedom of Information Act request we filed four years ago. They come from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which was charged with overseeing and monitoring the contractors hired by State to secure its diplomats and other VIPs in the war zone. While firms like DynCorp and Triple Canopy make frequent appearances, the reports are dominated by Blackwater, which was paid roughly $1 billion between 2004 and 2009 to provide "worldwide protective services" for State Department personnel. (It continues to surreptitiously weave its tentacles into various government contracts; hence the name changes.)
In Iraq, Blackwater's "protective services" consisted in large part of preemptively shooting any car that drove near its convoys. Page after page of the reports feature drivers (and occasionally boat pilots) who were fired upon simply because they drove "aggressively," attempted to pass, or didn't heed warnings to keep their distance. There was no routine mechanism for following up with the drivers to determine if they were injured or were actually hostile. Blackwater (and DynCorp and Triple Canopy) guards roamed Iraqi cities and highways, ignoring traffic rules and shooting at other drivers literally at will, and driving on. According to a 2007 investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [pdf], between 2005 and 2007 Blackwater operatives fired on Iraqis at least 195 times, or an average of 1.4 times per week. That included an infamous Baghdad firefight at Nisour Square that killed 17 civilians.
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leveymg
(36,418 posts)the veneer of respectable government service. It's an old spooks club for the worst of the post-9/11 forcibly retired CIA Counter-Terrorism Center managers, like Cofer Black, who were personally involved in the malfeasance of the CTC operation that resulted in the 9/11 attacks and the fiasco at Tora Bora that led to bin Laden's escape a few months later. Please, see:
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leveymg's Journal - THE CIA OFFICER WHO OVERSAW TORTURE: Cofer Black
journals.democraticunderground.com Discuss Journals leveymgCached
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Dec 23, 2007 Posted by leveymg in General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010) .... Bottom-line: Cofer Black was in immediate command of CTC at the ...
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Cofer Black knows. He was in charge of CIA CTC when the Flt. 77 ...
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May 16, 2010 Cofer Black knows. He was in charge of CIA CTC when the Flt. 77 hijackers were let in, and super-, leveymg, Oct-02-08 07:35 AM, #102 ...
Democratic Underground - So, you're calling leveymg a cospiracy ...‎
Democratic Underground - Cofer Black's 9/11 Commission testimony ...‎
Democratic Underground - The Tom Wilshire mystery - Democratic ...‎
CIA Counterterror Center Director Cofer Black also at meeting w/Rice‎
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Daily Kos: Erik Prince: American Bin Laden - CIA Asset, Money ...
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Dec 4, 2009 leveymgFollowRSS ... Before he headed a Blackwater subsidiary, Cofer Black was CIA Chief of Station in ... 1993-95 - Cofer Black and Bin Laden in Khartoum ..... The CIA/CTC had ten days to prepare surveillance, including ...
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Daily Kos: Reuters: Disappeared CIA Ghost Detainee Reported ...
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May 11, 2009 leveymgFollowRSS ... by leveymgFollow ... As CTC Director since 1999, Cofer Black set up and was in charge of the CIA's renditions and ...
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Bush, Richard Cheney, George Tenet, Cofer Black ... - The New York Sun
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Feb 19, 2008 The same figures at CIA-CTC who allowed the Flt. 77 hijackers -- al-Hazmi and ... Richard Cheney, George Tenet, Cofer Black by leveymg ...
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The Faces of Torturers: Cofer Black and Jose Rodriguez | MyFDL
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Aug 26, 2009 Initially, Cofer Black was in charge of CTC. Black ..... Here is an excerpt from a piece by leveymg re:waterboarding of Abu Zubaydeh: Why did ...
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Blackwater Director Let 9/11 Hijackers into US, then Killed ...
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Aug 22, 2009 Edited on Fri Aug-21-09 03:33 PM by leveymg ... Former CIA Counter-terrorism Center (CTC) Director Cofer Black also directed the ...
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Blackwater Managers Ran The CIA Unit That Allowed 9/11 Hijackers ...
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Mar 9, 2010 By leveymg | Democratic Underground. Cofer Black was CIA Chief of Station ... The CIA/CTC had ten days to prepare, and started surveillance, ...
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Blackwater Director Let 9/11 Hijackers into US, then Killed ...
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Edited on Fri Aug-21-09 03:33 PM by leveymg We learn today from NYT ... Former CIA Counter-terrorism Center (CTC) Director Cofer Black also ...
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Identity of CIA Officer Responsible for pre-9/11 Failures, Tora Bora ...
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Sep 11, 2009 Black is Cofer Black, the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center (CTC) and .... of the information from the bureau was approved by the CTC's leadership, ..... Comment by leveymg September 11, 2009 @ 12:52 pm | Reply ...