Blackwater Guards Accused of Past Deaths

[goodhue]

Source: Associated Press

Blackwater Guards Accused of Past Deaths
By DEBORAH HASTINGS – 46 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP) — In the past year, employees of the Blackwater USA security firm have been involved in other incidents in which they were accused of killing civilians and security forces in Iraq.

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

The contractor had gotten lost on the way back to his barracks in the Green Zone and fired at least seven times when he was confronted by 30-year-old Raheem Khalaf Saadoun, an official in the vice president's office said on condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation.

The contractor fled after the incident. Eventually, he made his way to the U.S. Embassy, where Blackwater officials arranged to have him flown home to the U.S., said American officials.

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Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTsc4BJ3a9pujDSNcmcxpAT_sPiA

[tularetom]

1. Were those guys turned into crispy critters and hung from a bridge

Blackwater employees? Maybe they are a bit paranoid because of that. Or maybe these "contracctors" are just plain assholes.

[Roland99]

2. Yes, they were Blackwater. But, that happened about the time Abu Ghraib news leaked.

Perhaps retribution?

[Vincardog]

3. This is what the Iraqi government should do: start at the top and kick them out.

They should get a list of the mercenaries and war profiteers in their country and kink them out from the top down.

[ohio2007]

4. Iraq ends US security firm licence

The Iraqi interior ministry has cancelled the operating licence of a US security firm after it was involved in a shootout that killed eight people, a senior official said.

Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a ministry spokesman, said 13 people were wounded when Blackwater USA staff opened fire in a Baghdad incident involving an attack on a US motorcade.




"The interior minister has issued an order to cancel Blackwater's licence and the company is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq," Khalaf said on Monday.

snip

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DD807990-1CC9-410C-A67E-871454DFF64F.htm

It's a start in kicking the crutch out from under them

[Megahurtz]

5. Oh I'm Sure

they've killed plenty that we don't even know about. Evil murderous Thugs! :grr:

[superkia]

6. Most of the candidates have continued to fund them and the war.

Unless they have no idea that we pay all that money to those hired killers and if thats the case, shame on them! If America could really see how politicians play games with us, we could have change but until then we will have the same old thing! I notice allot of people supporting the candidates that voted for the war and continued to fund it and for some reason they give those candidates a get out of jail free card on the lives lost? I don't understand it?

Dennis Kucinich said back in 2002 that the war was for oil and he voted against it. If we could have more politicians honest about the situation, imagine the lives that would have been saved. Sad to look back and know that the war could have been avoided if they would have had courage to look at the facts without any agendas in their way.

[Ian David]

7. Let me guess... the media will be shocked... SHOCKED that this went on...

... even though the blogs have been BURNING with this stuff for YEARS and those lazy, complicit, lapdog nazi-enablers pretended not to notice.

[goodhue]

8. .

[Vidar]

9. Even when occupied by several foreign armies, the Iraqis are

bravely trying to hold these criminals accountable. A pity the US coudn't do as much. Kudos to the Iraqis.