Cover Up

Report Says Firm Sought to Cover Up Iraq Shootings

'...The committee report places a significant share of the blame for Blackwater's record in Iraq on the State Department, which has paid Blackwater more than $832 million for security services in Iraq and elsewhere, under a diplomatic security contract it shares with two other companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

Blackwater has reported more shootings than the other two companies combined, but it also currently has twice as many employees in Iraq as the other two companies combined.

In the case of the Christmas Eve killing, the report says that an official of the United States Embassy in Iraq suggested paying the slain bodyguard's family $250,000, but a lower-ranking official said that such a high payment "could cause incidents with people trying to get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family's future." Blackwater ultimately paid the dead man's family $15,000.

In another fatal shooting cited by the committee, an unidentified State Department official in Baghdad urged Blackwater to pay the victim's family $5,000. The official wrote, "I hope we can put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly." '

Praying for a permanent downward trend (Insha Allah)

Civilian deaths in Iraq decrease significantly in one month

'The number of civilians killed in Iraq last month decreased by more than 50 percent from the number in August, while 64 U.S. military personnel died in September, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006, according to figures compiled by the U.S. military, the Iraqi government and The Associated Press.

The sharp decline in death tolls signaled a U.S. success, if a temporary one, in bringing down violence in Baghdad and surrounding regions since Washington completed its addition of 30,000 troops on June 15.

The figures for civilian deaths were dramatic, falling to 922 last month from 1,975 in August, a decline of 53.3 percent. Iraq's ministries of health, interior and defense said that 844 civilians and 78 police officers and Iraqi soldiers were killed in September. In August, AP figures showed that 1,809 civilians and 155 police officers and Iraqi soldiers were killed in sectarian violence.

The civilian death toll has not been so low since June 2006, when 847 Iraqis died.

In a joint statement released Monday, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander here, commended Iraq's security forces and its citizens for the decrease in violence.'

Published: October 1, 2007

Blackwater shot first 80% of time

Blackwater faces Iraq deaths probe

The spotlight has fallen on Blackwater's Iraq operations after the deaths of 11 civilians [AFP] US security contractor Blackwater was involved in nearly 200 shooting incidents in Iraq over the past two years and opened fire first in most of them, a US congressional report has said.   Blackwater is under investigation after some of its troops shot dead 11 Iraqis on September 16. The private contractor in Iraq hired by the US state department has been the first to fire in more than 80 per cent of shooting incidents in which it has been involved according to a memorandum released on Monday, Henry Waxman, a Democrat, said. The report said the company had been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005. continued

The Peace Core (with muscles) in Anbar

The Peace Corps with Muscles

(thanks Maury & RhusLancia)

'Lieutenant Davies rode in the front passenger seat.

"What exactly are we delivering this morning?" I said.

"Rice, flour, cooking oil, baby formula, and Beanie Babies," he said.

"No Beanie Babies," said the gunner.

"No Beanie Babies," said the lieutenant.

"We got Beanie Babies!" said the driver.

"Ok, Beanie Babies," said the lieutenant. "We're basically following the Iraqi Police at this point. They know who in the area needs help the most. Ever since the insurgency was beaten the economy has flourished. Shops have opened up everywhere. It's definitely a good sign. But unemployment is still really high and lots of people are desperate."

We drove through blowing dust as the white sun rose above the plains of Mesopotamia.

A few Iraqi women were already out in the fields.

"Women do all the agricultural work," Lieutenant Davies said, "as well as run the household. Iraqi men are lazy. They don't do shit."

I heard something along the same lines from quite a few soldiers. I doubt I've ever been in such a masculine environment as I was during my time with the American military, but these guys sounded downright feminist when they talked about gender roles in Iraq, especially in Anbar Province which is noticeably more conservative and retro than Baghdad.'

continued

How strong is Baathi alliance with AQI?

I wonder exactly when the Baathists allied themselves with AQI, and how strong the alliance is today.

Iraqi terror suspect arrested in Italy

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 28, 2:35 PM ET

ROME - An Iraqi allegedly linked to al-Qaida in Iraq and suspected of plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. bases there using ultra-light aircraft was arrested Friday in northern Italy, authorities said.

Saber Fadhil Hussien, 45, was arrested on international terrorism charges in a morning raid in Padua, Carabinieri paramilitary police said.

Hussien, a former member of ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, had been in touch with aides of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed last year in a U.S. airstrike, said Col. Francesco D'Auria, head of the Carabinieri unit in Padua that conducted the investigation.

"It is documented that he was in contact with the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group," D'Auria told The Associated Press by telephone. "He was organizing an attack against American bases in Iraq."

The attack would have employed suicide bombers, anti-tank weapons and ultra-light helicopters that the group planned to buy from an Italian company, investigators said.

"These would have been used because they fly low and cannot be spotted by radar," D'Auria said.

Police also conducted searches at the homes of three other Iraqis in the Venice area, turning up maps and other documents, but there was not enough evidence to arrest them, police said.

D'Auria said he did not have more details on the intended target because Hussien and his contacts never named it in telephone conversations wiretapped by police. The target may be identified once investigators study the maps found in the raids, he said.

The searches also turned up the names of Hussien's contacts in Iraq, and D'Auria said the Italians would relay the information to Iraqi police and U.S. authorities.

Investigators who trailed Hussien for nearly a year would have liked to learn more about the plot before arresting him, but they were forced to act when they learned he planned to travel Sunday to Romania and then on to Syria.

"There he was to meet an Iraqi contact and give him detailed information about the target," D'Auria said.

Hussien had been living in Italy for 25 years and operated kiosks that sold kebabs. D'Auria said Hussien also provided financial support to his cell, using money transfer agencies to send about $4,200 a month to Iraq.

Aegis wins largest Iraq security contract

British firms battle for Iraq security deals
(Reuters)
1 October 2007

'LONDON - The US government quietly gave a $485 mln security contract for Iraq to a private British firm within the week that US contractors were accused of opening fire on and killing Iraqi civilians.

The highly contested deal, the largest security contract awarded in Iraq, was won by Aegis Defence Services, a 5-year-old company run by a former British army officer one of whose previous companies helped put down coups in Africa.

Industry experts say the deal shows just how well positioned British firms are in the battle to make money amid Iraq’s chaos, as US companies, particularly in the wake of last month’s shooting, come under increasing scrutiny.

The deal was not awarded without controversy—Erinys, a rival bidder, has filed a lawsuit to try to block it and another has said it is ‘considering its options’—but Aegis was expected to retain the contract.

Aegis, which employs about 1,200 people, has now attracted nearly $800 mln in US government contracts, making it one of the most financially successful firms operating in Iraq.' continued

Thanks for posting the link Anand. Aegis Defence Services is the same company whose employees filmed the clips contained in this video:

“So you are going to divide our country?”

In Iraq, Repeated Support for a Unified State

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

Published: October 1, 2007

BAGHDAD, Sept. 30 — The American Embassy on Sunday reiterated its support for a united Iraq as six political parties together voiced their objection to a United States Senate resolution that endorsed partitioning the country into three states.

In a statement released Sunday, the embassy said: "Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend and sustain itself. Attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means into three separate states would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed."

The statement rebuffs the nonbinding Senate measure, sponsored by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and approved last week, which calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions controlled separately by Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. The proposal resembles the power-sharing arrangement used to end the 1990s war in Bosnia among Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

Many Iraqi politicians have reacted angrily to the proposal, suggesting that at the very least they find it presumptuous. Opposition to it has even found currency on the street, where Iraqis have volunteered their opinion to American reporters they encountered. Said one, "So you are going to divide our country?"

At a joint news conference on Sunday, six diverse political parties that are discussing the removal of the current government objected to a divided Iraq.

"We think this would complicate the security problem and Iraq would undertake a long-term war and a civil war more than we have witnessed already," said Basim Shareef, a member of the Fadhila Party, told reporters.

The Kurdish parties and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, led by the Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz Hakim, however, strongly support an arrangement in which much of the central government's power is devolved to the regions. The Kurds already run a semiautonomous state in the north, and the Supreme Council hopes to see the nine majority Shiite provinces in the south band together to form a Shiite region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced that the toll from cholera had reached 14 deaths. Its spread is worst in northern Iraq, with the city of Kirkuk and surrounding Tamim Province reporting 2,096 cases of infection. There are also 655 people infected in Sulaimaniya, and 106 in Erbil. In Mosul, Baghdad, Tikrit and Basra the cases are still in the single digits.

There is no information on the provinces of Diyala and Anbar, where the security situation has made it difficult for health workers to reach the areas for testing.

In violence across Iraq, three Sunni imams were assassinated in Mosul on Saturday, and American and Iraqi forces reported clashes with armed insurgents over the past two days that they said they believed killed at least 60 gunmen.