State Dept. Convoy Attacked In Baghdad, Sparking A Shootout

[American Patriot]

Editor notes are mine.

State Dept. Convoy Attacked In Baghdad, Sparking A Shootout
The Washington Post ^ | Sept 17, 2007 | Joshua Partlow

BAGHDAD, Sept. 17 -- A U.S. State Department motorcade came under attack in Baghdad on Sunday, prompting security contractors guarding the convoy to open fire in the streets. At least nine civilians were killed, according to Iraqi officials.

The shootout occurred in the downtown neighborhood of Mansour at midday after an explosion detonated near the convoy, police said. In response, the security contractors "escalated the force to defend themselves," a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said.

Iraqi officials alleged that the response by the security company, which was not named, (ed.note, it was "Blackwater") involved excessive force and killed innocent civilians. The Iraqi government will investigate the incident and "probably will withdraw the authority for this security company in Baghdad," said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

"The security company contractors opened fire randomly on the civilians," he said. "We consider this act a crime." (Ed note:According to other articles, they did NOT open fire FIRST)

Early Monday, Iraqi state television reported that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had condemned the "criminal operation" in Mansour and said he would "punish" the private security company and shut down its operations.

A Washington Post employee in the area at the time of the shooting witnessed security company helicopters firing into the streets near Nisoor Square in Mansour. Witnesses said they saw dead and wounded people on the pavement.

The U.S. Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident was under investigation and that he could provide no further details.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

[American Patriot]

Told ya....



Iraq revokes security contractor license after shootout
Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | 09/17/07 | Aseel Kami



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq announced on Monday it had withdrawn the license of a U.S. security firm and would prosecute employees it said were involved in a Baghdad shooting in which 11 people were killed.


An Interior Ministry spokesman said guards working for Blackwater, one of the biggest foreign security contractors in Iraq, opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their convoy in west Baghdad's Mansour district on Sunday.


"By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said.
"We have withdrawn its license," Khalaf said, adding that the ministry was investigating the incident and would "deliver those who committed this act to the court."


U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to telephone Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over the shooting.


"She is going to express regret for the loss of life ... (and) make it clear that we are investigating this incident," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.


A U.S. embassy spokesman said the shooting took place after a car bomb exploded when U.S. diplomats were nearby.


"The car bomb was in proximity to a place where State Department personnel were meeting. That is why Blackwater responded to the incident," spokesman Johann Schmonsees said.


The embassy said it was cooperating with the Iraqi government but declined to confirm that Blackwater's license had been revoked. There was no immediate response from Blackwater, which employs hundreds of foreign contractors in Iraq and is responsible for U.S. embassy security.


Blackwater's distinctive small black helicopters hover in the skies above Baghdad and its armed vehicles shadow convoys of senior officials through the city's streets.


Four Blackwater employees were killed in Falluja in 2004. Insurgents then burned their bodies and hung the charred remains from a bridge -- prompting an all-out U.S. military assault on the Iraqi city.


IRAQI CONDEMNATION


Maliki condemned Sunday's shooting and vowed to punish the perpetrators and their employers.


"We will work to punish and halt the work of the security company which conducted this criminal act," state television quoted him as saying.


The U.S. embassy said it was seeking clarification on the legal status of security contractors and whether Blackwater employees could be prosecuted in Iraq.


Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said foreign contractors "must respect Iraqi laws and the right of Iraqis to independence on their land."


"These cases have happened more than once and we can't keep silent in the face of them," he told Arabiya television.


Tens of thousands of private security contractors, many of them American and European, have worked in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.


Many Iraqis believe they operate outside the law with little accountability either to the Iraqi government or U.S. military forces.


Khalaf did not say how many contractors were involved in the shooting. He said the investigating committee had gone to the scene and spoken to witnesses, and would also visit the company's compound in Baghdad.


(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Arshad Mohammed in Washington)

[Jag]

BAGHDAD, Tuesday, Sept. 18 — Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy.

Enlarge This Image
Ahmad al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Blackwater contractors in Baghdad in 2005. Reports of the number of its employees in Iraq ranged from 1,000 to 1,500.



A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, said Monday that authorities had canceled the company’s license and that the government would prosecute the participants. But under the rules that govern private security contractors here, the Iraqis do not have the legal authority to do so.


The shooting took place in Baghdad on Sunday, but the details were still unclear, and American officials stopped short of saying whether the Blackwater guards in the diplomatic motorcade had caused any of the deaths.

Bombs were going off in the area at the time, and shots were fired at the convoy, American officials said.

“There was a firefight,” said Sean McCormack, the principal State Department spokesman. “We believe some innocent life was lost. Nobody wants to see that. But I can’t tell you who was responsible for that.”


The deaths struck a nerve with Iraqis, who say that private security firms are often quick to shoot and are rarely held responsible for their actions. A law issued by the American authority in Iraq before the United States handed over sovereignty to Iraqis, Order No. 17, gives the companies immunity from Iraqi law. A security expert based in Baghdad said Monday night that the order, issued in 2004, had never been overturned. Like others, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains under official inquiry.


Senior officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, expressed outrage.

“This is a big crime that we can’t stay silent in front of,” said Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, in remarks on Al Arabiya television. “Anyone who wants to have good relations with Iraq has to respect Iraqis. We apply the law and are committed to it.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Mr. Maliki on Monday afternoon to express her regret “over the death of innocent civilians that occurred during the attack on an embassy convoy,” said Tom Casey, another State Department spokesman.

Mr. Maliki’s office said Ms. Rice had pledged to “take immediate steps to show the United States’ willingness to prevent such actions.”


Because Blackwater guards are so central to the American operation here, having provided protection for numerous American ambassadors, it was not clear on Monday whether the United States would agree to end a relationship with a trusted protector so quickly. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker praised private security companies in a speech on Sept. 11, referring to Blackwater by name.

“This incident will be the true test of diplomacy between the State Department and the government of Iraq,” said one American official in Baghdad.

Blackwater defended its actions, saying it had come under attack from armed militants.

“The ‘civilians’ reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire,” said Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mail message. “Blackwater professionals heroically defended American lives in a war zone.”

The American official said he believed that the contract had been pulled, although Ms. Tyrrell said that there had been no official action by the Ministry of Interior “regarding plans to revoke licensing.” Mr. McCormack said the State Department had not been informed about any cancellation.

It was not clear what legal mechanism the Iraqi government was using to block the company. All security contractors must obtain licenses for their weapons. Companies must also register with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Interior.

One of the most terrifying images of the war for Americans involved four of Blackwater’s contractors in Falluja who were killed in 2004, and their bodies hung from a bridge. Reports of the number of Blackwater employees in Iraq ranged from at least 1,000 to 1,500, but the numbers were impossible to confirm.

At the end of the cold war, Congress and the Pentagon were eager to take advantage of new, less threatening landscape and drastically scaled back the standing Army, leading to the outsourcing of many jobs formally done by people in uniform. The Bush administration expanded the outsourcing strategy after the invasion of Iraq, with companies like Blackwater and its two main competitors, Triple Canopy and DynCorp, supplying guards and training at many levels of the war. About 126,000 people working for contractors serve alongside American troops, including about 30,000 security contractors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/wo...SA&oref=slogin

Jag

[American Patriot]

US Resumes Blackwater Convoys in Iraq
AP via SFGate ^ | 9/21/7 | KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, (AP) -- American convoys under the protection of Blackwater USA resumed on Friday, four days after the U.S. Embassy suspended all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials in response to the alleged killing of civilians by the security firm.

A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had earlier conceded it may prove difficult for the Iraqi government to follow through on threats to expel Blackwater and other Western security contractors.

The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into Sunday's incident was ongoing, said a way out of the Blackwater crisis could be the payment of compensation to victims' families and an agreement from all sides on a new set of ground rules for their operations in Iraq.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision to resume land travel outside the heavily fortified Green Zone was made after consultations with the Iraqi governments. She said the convoys will be limited to essential missions.

Nantongo declined to comment on an Interior Ministry report that officials said concluded that Blackwater guards opened fire from four positions on a square in western Baghdad after a vehicle near their convoy failed to stop in the incident on Sunday.

"We're waiting for the results of the investigation, which we are conducting as quickly as we can," she said.

The U.S. ban announced Tuesday had confined most American officials to the Green Zone, a 3 1/2-square-mile area in the center of the city that houses the American Embassy and thousands of U.S. soldiers and contractors.

The decision kept them from visiting U.S.-funded construction sites or Iraqi officials elsewhere in the country except by helicopter — an indication of how dependent the State Department is on Blackwater protection.

Blackwater has said its employees acted "lawfully and appropriately"...

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...

[Malsua]

Interesting that the MSM isn't broadcasting this. The certainly demonized Blackwater when suspended. Just goes to show, bias is exposed in as much as what you report as what you do not report.

-Mal

[Brian Baldwin]

Interesting that the MSM isn't broadcasting this. The certainly demonized Blackwater when suspended. Just goes to show, bias is exposed in as much as what you report as what you do not report.

-Mal

This statement couldn't be any truer. It's also interesting to note that President Ulysses S. Grant described this same tactic along with the Dems of his day trying to sabotage the Whig Generals from having victories during the Mexican-American War of 1846. Seems they were upset that the overwhelming victories weren't by Democrat Generals instead and they sought to block votes to fund the war effort. They also sought to block any good news from reaching the public. Seems they've been a bad party choice for this country for at least 160 years.

[American Patriot]

Iraq Awaits Blackwater Probe Before Taking Action
By VOA News 24 September 2007

A suicide bomber has killed the police chief of the Iraqi city of Baquba and at least six other people.


The bomber struck a meeting of local police and tribal leaders Monday in the city, north of Baghdad, as they gathered to break the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.


Earlier today, a suicide truck bomb killed at least six people and wounded 17 others at an Iraqi security checkpoint near the northern city of Tal Afar.
In other news, Iraq says it will wait for the results of an investigation into the killing of 11 Iraqi civilians in an incident involving the Blackwater USA security firm before taking any action.


Iraqi officials accuse Blackwater guards of shooting 11 Iraqis to death on a Baghdad street on September 16. Blackwater says its guards reacted lawfully to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy they were escorting.
Sunday, Iraqi government official Tahseen Sheikhly said Baghdad will not take immediate steps to expel Blackwater. He said such a move would leave a "security vacuum" that would require diverting troops from combat missions.


Iraqi officials suspended Blackwater's Iraq license for several days after the September 16 shooting. But the firm resumed operations Friday, guarding some U.S. government convoys.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

[American Patriot]

The Times' Blackwater-Air Force Conspiracy

By Sharon Weinberger October 22, 2007 | 10:18:24 AMCategories: Mercs, Money Money Money, Press Corpse


In what may be the most bizarre article I've read all year, a New York Times op-ed draws a connection between Charles Riechers, the Air Force official who committed suicide last week, and Blackwater USA, the controversial military contractor:

As it happens, [Riechers] was only about three degrees of separation from Blackwater. His Pentagon job, managing a $30 billion Air Force procurement budget, had been previously held by an officer named Darleen Druyun, who in 2004 was sentenced to nine months in prison for securing jobs for herself, her daughter and her son-in-law at Boeing while favoring the company with billions of dollars of contracts. Ms. Druyun’s Pentagon post remained vacant until Mr. Riechers was appointed. He was brought in to clean up the corruption.

The connection to Blackwater? Bear with me here. The writer, Frank Rich, connects disparate dots worthy of the best tin-foil hat conspiracies. First he draws a line from former Pentagon Inspector General, Joseph Schmitz, who, by some accounts, did a crappy job investigating the Air Force/Boeing lease deal (um, he couldn't locate the former Pentagon acquisition czar; I think someones asked him if he tried the phone book). Anyhow, I digress. Schmitz then exited the Pentagon, joining up with Prince Holdings, parent company of Blackwater. We assume that makes Schmitz bad, because Blackwater is accused of killing civilians. No Riechers, but wait, I'm getting there....



Well, the only connection is that Pentagon IG investigated the Air Force (yeah, that's the IG's job!), and then he went to work for Blackwater. And Riechers worked for the Air Force (a couple years after Schmitz left). Get it? They were practically brothers!
Why didn't someone just make that final "seven-degrees of separation" connection: Schmitz, for those who don't read US Weekly, is the brother of Mary Kay Letourneau, the ultra-hot high school teacher who was jailed for sleeping with her under-age student. Betcha didn't know that! Actually, that's only four degrees, so that would mean Riechers is linked to Letourneau as well.


Let me be clear. Darleen Druyun is a convicted criminal. Blackwater stands accused of killing civilians in Iraq. Schmitz, according to critics, may (or may not) be guilty of being a lousy IG (and the sister thing definitely isn't his fault, though it must make for some awkward family reunions). The "epic corruption" in Iraq is well documented. What Charles Riechers -- an Air Force official with no known affiliation to any of these characters -- has to do with any of this is unclear.


In the meantime, no newspaper, from what I can see, has pointed out the original page one article in the Washington Post on Riechers, under the title "Air Force Arranged No Work Contract," was misleading, perhaps because the writer didn't understand science and technology assistance contracts. It wasn't a "no work contract" because the contractor provides technical assistance to the Defense Department).


If Riechers weren't dead, the whole thing would be laughable.