Blackwater's Youngest Victim

I am impressed by Jeremy Scahill's efforts to document the details of the Nisour Square massacre and other crimes committed by private security contractors. Thanks NARCELX for posting.

'Mohammed had just pulled away from his family's home in the Khadamiya neighborhood in his SUV. His youngest son, 9-year-old Ali, came tearing down the road after him, asking his father if he could accompany him. Mohammed told him to run along and play with his brothers and sister. But Ali, an energetic and determined kid, insisted. Mohammed gave in, and off the father and son went.

As Mohammed and Ali drove through Baghdad that hot and sunny Sunday, they passed a newly rebuilt park downtown. Ali gazed at the park and then turned to his father and asked, "Daddy, when are you gonna bring us here?"

"Next week," Mohammed replied. "If God wills it, son."

Ali would never visit that park. Within a few hours, he would be dead from a gunshot wound to the head. While you may have never heard his name, you probably know something about how Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani died. He was the youngest person killed by Blackwater forces in the infamous Nisour Square massacre.' --JEREMY SCAHILL, The Nation

Most families agree to Blackwater settlement offer

"Hassan Salman, who was wounded in the 2007 shootings, told CNN that 16 of the 17 families of the dead agreed to $100,000 lawsuit settlements from Xe, as Blackwater now calls itself. Those wounded were offered between $20,000 and $50,000 apiece, Salman said."

$100,000 seems to me a low figure for a family who lost a loved one because some guards got spooked. Keep in mind that Blackwater's revenue from its contracts in Iraq has exceeded $1 billion, and it turns out they have secret contracts with the CIA that are no doubt high-profit as well.

A 2009 US government audit found that Blackwater had violated terms of the contract and that "Pursuant to the contract, which has cost the government over $1 billion, such violations should have resulted in nearly $55 million in penalties to Blackwater."

Backwater agrees to pay compensation

But who is being compensated?

"The US security company Blackwater agreed today to pay compensation over the killing of Iraqi civilians by company guards accused of reckless disregard for human life.

The deal comes just days after a US court threw out the prosecution of five of those guards over a notorious slaughter of up to 17 people in Baghdad.

The settlement amounts to an implicit admission by the highly secretive company that some of its guards were responsible for a series of unjustifiable killings. Blackwater appears to have reached the deal in order to avoid a court hearing that threatened to force the company to lay bear what critics contend was a policy of shooting first as well as the involvement of its employees in an array of criminal activities."

Iraq files suit against Blackwater

'Iraq has filed a lawsuit against private security firm Blackwater in a US court and will file another in Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday, amid fury over an American court dropping charges against five Blackwater guards.

"The US justice department has protested against this decision," Maliki said, referring to the ruling last week to dismiss criminal charges against the guards, who were accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked attack in September 2007.

"For our part, we have formed a committee and filed a case against Blackwater in the United States and will file one here in Iraq," he told reporters in the holy Shiite shrine city of Najaf in southern Iraq.'

Another miscarriage of justice

A federal judge has dropped charges against Blackwater guards involved in the deaths of 17 innocent Iraqis two years ago. Iraqis are understandably angry.

The CEO of the company formerly known as Blackwater issued a statement praising a judge's decision to dismiss charges against five of his firm's security guards charged with fatally shooting 14 unarmed Iraqis.

"The company supports the judge's decision to dismiss the charges," said Joseph Yorio, chairman and CEO of the newly christened Xe Services, in a statement appearing in several US media.

"From the beginning, Xe has stood behind the hundreds of brave men who put themselves in harm's way to protect American diplomats working in Baghdad and other combat zones in Iraq," he said.

"Like the people they were protecting, our Xe professionals were working for a free, safe and democratic Iraq for the Iraqi people," read the statement released late Thursday.

Apparently "Xe" protects American diplomats by all means, even by killing innocent Iraqis. Why doesn't the company just admit their guys got spooked by a bomb a mile away and started shooting and accidentally killed a few innocent Iraqis? It's not the first time a security firm killed innocent Iraqis. If we're going to let a private security firm off the hook for killing innocent Iraqis, we might as well free these guys, who actually killed insurgents.

Blackwater bribed Iraqi officials

More corruption in the Iraqi government is revealed: " Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials."

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

'A former Blackwater employee and an ex-U.S. Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." '

Thanks Molly.

Blackwater era ends in Iraq

Blackwater, now Xe, era ends in Iraq

BAGHDAD, May 7 (UPI) -- The era of Blackwater Worldwide, now called Xe, providing security to U.S. personnel in Iraq is over as another firm took over duties in Baghdad.

Triple Canopy, of Herndon, Va., picked up the security contract after the U.S. State Department did not renew Xe's contract in January. Iraq did not renew the company's operating license following a September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad, CNN reported Thursday.

Blackwater to be kicked out of Iraq

Good news: State Department Cancels Iraq Contract With Blackwater

Thanks Molly for the heads up. I've posted a lot about Blackwater and I wondered why it took so long for the US government to act. I wonder if they would have done anything if the media (especially Keith Olbermann) had not put so much pressure on them. Still I suppose we should thank the State Department for doing something, even if it is a bit late.

Now I wonder if they will do something about Aegis, the British security firm whose employees did this in 2004:



Interesting that nobody complained nearly as much about Aegis as they did about Blackwater.

Update (2/2/09): I had to find a different source for the video, because YouTube has removed it due to a copyright claim by Aegis.

Blackwater guards face prosecution in US

Good news.

From The Times

August 19, 2008

Blackwater guards face prosecution over killing of 17 Iraqi civilians

( Ali Yussef/AFP/Getty Images)

A burnt car on the site where Blackwater guards opened fire

James Bone in New York

Six Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been notified that they could face prosecution in America for shooting dead 17 civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in an infamous incident that provoked fury in Iraq.

The Blackwater employees have reportedly been sent "target letters" by US prosecutors telling them that they could face charges for opening fire at the crowded intersection on September 16 last year.

The move was welcomed by human rights activists, who have long complained about US private security in Iraq.

"It's incredibly important that these incidents are not beyond the law. It certainly would be a step in the right direction if the US would go ahead and bring charges," said Jennifer Daskal, of Human Rights Watch, who has interviewed the traffic policeman on duty in Nisoor Square at the time of the shooting. "This is definitely the most high-profile case of contractor abuse in Iraq, but it's certainly not the only one."

Continued

Iraq's Sovereignty

Just when I thought things were improving in Iraq, I read a depressing article about another tragic shooting of Iraqi civilians by US troops. It makes it worse that it appears the soldiers lied about it:

The U.S. military issued a press release the day of the shooting. It said troops from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, were stopped on the roadside when "criminals" traveling the road fired on them. When the soldiers fired back, the statement said, the car crashed against a wall and "exploded." Two of the U.S. vehicles had bullet holes and a weapon was found in the burned car according to the military.

Meanwhile the Iraqi government and the US are negotiating a security agreement between them that would allow US troops to operate in Iraq as they please for many years ahead. Many people are worried about Iraq's sovereignty. Initially, US officials wanted US troops to have immunity from prosecution, but eventually dropped that demand. Now Maliki says for the first time he wants a timetable for withdrawal.

Blackwater and a few US troops have been responsible for some horrendous crimes against Iraqis. With continued senseless murderous attacks on Iraqi civilians, I can understand why Iraqis would be concerned about signing a security agreement that would allow such irresponsibility, the likes of which have happened before.

FBI finds Blackwater shootings unjustified

FBI finds Blackwater Iraq shootings unjustified, report says

Associated Press
Wednesday November 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


A Blackwater helicopter flies low over Baghdad. Photograph: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty
 

The shootings of 14 of the 17 Iraqi civilians killed by Blackwater security personnel in a September confrontation were unjustified and violated rules on the use of deadly force, according to a newspaper report.

Citing civilian and military officials briefed on the case, the New York Times reported on its website last night that the US justice department was reviewing the findings of the FBI, which was continuing to investigate the incident in Baghdad on September 16.

No evidence supported assertions by Blackwater employees that they were fired upon by Iraqi civilians, the Times reported. continued

How to aggravate an insurgency

How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards

Witnesses Call Shooting From Justice Ministry Unprovoked, But State Dept. Cleared Its Security Team After a Brief Probe

By Steve Fainaru

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 8, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague's side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony.

Eight people who responded to the shootings -- including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander -- and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." The media network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation."

The U.S. government reached a different conclusion. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force," according to an official from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, to investigate.

The incident shows how American officials responsible for overseeing the security company conducted only a cursory investigation when Blackwater guards opened fire. The shooting occurred more than seven months before the Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians at another Baghdad traffic circle.

The Feb. 7 shootings convulsed the Iraqi Media Network, one of the prominent symbols of the new Iraq, in anger and recrimination.

U.S. officials and the security company, now known as Blackwater Worldwide, offered no compensation or apology to the victims' families, according to relatives of the guards and officials of the network, whose programming reaches 22 million Iraqis.

"It's really surprising that Blackwater is still out there killing people," Mohammed Jasim, the Iraqi Media Network's deputy director, said in an interview. "This company came to Iraq and was supposed to provide security. They didn't learn from their mistakes. They continued and continued. They continued killing."  continued

Conflicts of Interest

The investigations of reckless shootings by Blackwater should be done by independant investigators and not just by the government agency that hired Blackwater. 

 

Justice in Iraq

 

Questionable offers of immunity to Blackwater guards may hinder a U.S. inquiry into the deaths of 17 Iraqis.

October 31, 2007

Conflicts of interest are bad. Private conflicts of interest that damage the national interest are inexcusable. And the news that State Department investigators -- apparently acting without authority -- promised immunity from prosecution to Blackwater USA contractors being interviewed about their role in the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians is nothing short of scandalous.

The Blackwater case is rightly viewed in Iraq as a test of national sovereignty. Either Iraq is a sovereign state that has the right to see that murders committed on its territory are prosecuted -- no matter who the suspects work for -- or it is an occupied nation subject to "victor's justice."

Washington has promised Baghdad a full and fair investigation of the September shootings, followed by prosecution, if warranted, of the contractors who opened fire. The contractors must be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise. But the appearance of fairness and the objectivity of the U.S. investigation have been badly compromised by the rogue grant of immunity to potential suspects by an arm of the State Department, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. That bureau appears to have such a close relationship with the politically well-connected Blackwater firm that it should never have been allowed to conduct an investigation in the first place. Now FBI investigators, who were called in to take over from Diplomatic Security two weeks after the shootings, complain that promises of immunity offered to at least four Blackwater employees will make prosecutions more difficult.

continued
 

Gates better than Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld would have denied any wrong was done.

Gates takes swipe at security contractors in Iraq

Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:03pm EDT

 

By Sue Pleming and Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday criticized security contractors in Iraq as Baghdad piled more pressure on the State Department to pull the Blackwater firm out of Iraq after deadly shootings last month.

Gates said the work of security contractors was sometimes at odds with the overall U.S. mission in Iraq and their activities must be better coordinated with U.S.-led forces.

"There have been instances where, to put it mildly, the Iraqis have been offended and not treated properly," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. "Those kinds of activities work at cross purposes to our larger mission in Iraq."

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Blackwater should be pulled out of Iraq and held accountable for its conduct in a Sept. 16 shooting incident that killed 17 people and has enraged Iraqis.

"We would like .... Blackwater to leave Iraq, this is at the end their position, this is the State Department position," Dabbagh told reporters at the White House .

"There is an anger, a great anger among the Iraqis against Blackwater. They should be kept accountable, this is what the Iraqi government needs. It is a crime what they did in Baghdad, we have declared it," he added.

But State Department spokesman Tom Casey said no final decision had been taken on Blackwater and the department was awaiting the outcome of several investigations, including a top-level review of security contractors.

"The position of the State Department is that we have an ongoing investigation and a senior level team looking at it. We have not made a decision. They have not yet made their recommendations to the Secretary," he said, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
continued

"Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat"

Blackwater crushed car with three kids, old man to avoid traffic: former US official

John Byrne Published: Saturday October 6, 2007

Janessa Gans, a visiting political science professor at Principia College who served as a US official in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, opened fire on the private security contractor Blackwater in Saturday's edition of the Los Angeles Times.

"When the Iraqi government last month demanded the expulsion of Blackwater USA, the private security firm, I had one reaction: It's about time," she begins in an editorial.

Gans says she witnessed firsthand "over-the-top zeal" of the behemoth US mercenary force.

"We would careen around corners, jump road dividers, reach speeds in excess of 100 mph and often cross over to the wrong side of the street, oncoming traffic be damned," she writes. "I began to wonder whether my meetings, intended to further U.S. policy goals and improve the lives of Iraqis, were doing more harm than good. With our drivers honking at, cutting off, pelting with water bottles (a favorite tactic) and menacing with weapons anyone in their way, how many enemies were we creating?"

Gans describes a particularly "infuriating" incident where the lead Chevy Suburban in her convoy allegedly crashed into a sedan ferrying an older man, a young woman and three children.

"As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull over," she pens. "The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in dark sunglasses. The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but there was none. So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car, pushing it into the barrier. We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt."

"Where do you all expect them to go?" she allegedly cried. "It was an old guy and a family, for goodness' sake. Was it necessary for them to destroy their poor old car?"

"Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat," she says the driver, who she did not identify, replied. "You don't know who they might use as decoys or what the risks are. Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."

"Well, if they weren't terrorists before, they certainly are now!" she says she replied.

According to Gans, the Pentagon's rules of engagement and the private security contractor's seeming indifference created a stark contrast for local Iraqis, who saw the US military as a more responsible force. "Blackwater seemed to have no such rules, paid no compensation and, per long-standing Coalition Provisional Authority fiat, had immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law."

"As we do the work of bridge building and improving our host citizens' lives, if the people providing our transportation and security are antagonizing, angering and even killing the people we are putatively trying to help, our entire mission is undermined," she concluded.

Founder and president of The Euphrates Institute, Gans also keeps a blog, "Letters from the Sandbox."

State Dept ignored warnings

State Dept. ignored Blackwater warnings

Yuri Cortez / AFP/Getty Images

ACCOUNTABILITY: Complaints about Blackwater guards' behavior were acknowledged by some in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but received little high-level attention.

Diplomats had raised concerns about guards' endangering of Iraqi civilians, but the complaints got little attention.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 7, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The State Department, which is facing growing criticism of its policy on private security contractors, overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining U.S. efforts to win support from the population, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Ever since the contractors were granted immunity from Iraqi courts in June 2004 by the U.S.-led occupation authority, diplomats have cautioned that the decision to do so was "a bomb that could go off at any time," said one former U.S. official.
continued

New rules for careless cowboys

New rules for all cowboys.

U.S. Issues New Rules for Iraq Security Firms

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and JOHN M. BRODER

Published: October 5, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new security procedures today for American diplomatic convoys in Iraq amid continuing repercussions over the shooting of Iraqi civilians by employees of the Blackwater USA security company.

She ordered that special agents from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security now ride with Blackwater security details; the bureau more closely review incidents like the recent shooting, and the convoys communicate with American military units operating in the same area.

Ms. Rice acted a day after the House of Representatives voted to bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law.

The State Department did not say if its initial assessment of Blackwater operations had found fault with the security company or with State Department personnel working closely with Blackwater in Iraq. Rather, the actions announced today are intended "to improve operational accountability and control," Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman said.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security will begin to record radio transmissions from security convoys instead of just monitoring them, Mr. McCormack said. It will also mount video cameras in security vehicles and "begin archiving electronic tracking of movement data," he said.

Mr. McCormack said the steps were ordered because Secretary Rice "wants to make sure there is a management feedback loop." Despite his careful language, the steps announced today were an unmistakable signal that high State Department officials were disturbed by recent incidents involving Blackwater that left Iraqis dead under murky circumstances.

With Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The measure would require the F.B.I. to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing.
continued

Good News: US security firms now subject to prosecution by US courts

House OKs bill to prosecute contractors

(thanks Maury)

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - The House passed a bill Thursday that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. courts. It was the first major legislation of its kind to pass since a deadly shootout last month involving Blackwater employees.

Democrats called the 389-30 vote an indictment of the shooting incident there that left 11 Iraqis dead. Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to follow suit with similar legislation and send a bill to President Bush as soon as possible.

"There is simply no excuse for the de facto legal immunity for tens of thousands of individuals working in countries" on behalf of the United States, said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas.

The FBI arrived in Baghdad Thursday to investigate the Sept. 16 shooting, although administration officials acknowledge they are unsure whether U.S. courts would have jurisdiction in the case or others like it.

In a separate incident, a drunk Blackwater employee left a Christmas eve party in Baghdad and fatally shot the guard of one of Iraq's vice presidents. That contractor was fired, fined and returned home to the United States, but no charges have been filed.

continued

Trigger happy gunslingers need not apply

Iraq is no place for hired gunslingers

Robert Scheer, Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

"How did it come to be that the ostensibly best-educated and most refined representatives of the United States in Iraq are guarded by gun-toting mercenaries who kill innocent civilians? More urgently, why did State Department employees and their bosses in Washington tolerate - and pay to conceal - the wanton murder conducted on their watch? That's the real scandal of the more than $832 million the U.S. State Department paid Blackwater, under investigation this week by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, headed up by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles. The issue is not simply that of the Blackwater forces' horrid behavior but, more important, why the mayhem they unleashed upon innocent Iraqis was approved and covered up by the Bush administration. For example, why did a top State Department official initially suggest a payment of $250,000 of American taxpayers' money to conceal the uncontested fact that, as the House Committee report states, "a drunken Blackwater contractor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi"?

The State Department enabled the Blackwater shooter to be spirited out of the country within 36 hours, and although Blackwater subsequently fired him, he has never faced any criminal charges. Nor have any of the others involved in the 195 shooting incidents Blackwater officials admitted have occurred in the past two years, even though 84 percent of the time Blackwater contractors fired first. According to Blackwater's own documents, the congressional committee reports, "in the vast majority of incidents ... Blackwater shots are fired from a moving vehicle and Blackwater does not remain on the scene to determine if their shots resulted in casualties." During one trip that U.S. diplomats made to the Ministry of Oil, 18 different Iraqi civilian vehicles were smashed by the fast-moving motorcade. Those hit-and-runs were conducted in full view of the escorted State Department officials without any of them forcing a subsequent investigation.

Despite all the nonsense about a "liberated Iraq," one of Bush's favorite phrases, the Iraqis still lack the authority to prosecute American mercenaries occupying their country because of a law pushed through by former U.S. pro-consul L. Paul Bremer, who was also guarded by Blackwater personnel. Bremer awarded the original no-bid contract to a company run by a major Republican campaign contributor, Erik Prince, who has donated $225,000 to the GOP. Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, was Michigan's Republican Party chair and a Bush-Cheney "pioneer" who came through with at least $100,000 for their 2004 campaign.

But this is not yet another story about payoffs to the GOP faithful who have predominated in the Iraq occupation and are totally untrained for their assigned tasks in the restructuring of a country that they know nothing about. The Blackwater guards know their job all too well, which is to guard top U.S. officials by any means necessary - including the casual extermination of innocent Iraqis."

continued