The end of Blackwater in Iraq?

[CACashRefund]

Iraq revokes license of U.S. contractor Blackwater

 

By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

10:34 AM PDT, September 17, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Interior Ministry canceled the license of controversial American security firm Blackwater USA today after Iraqi officials charged that eight civilians were shot by company bodyguards accompanying a U.S. State Department motorcade the day before in Baghdad.

 

"It has been revoked," said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for the ministry. "They committed a crime. The judicial system will take action."

 

The decision marks Iraq's boldest step yet to assert itself against foreign security contractors, who arrived in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Blackwater has become the symbol of foreign gunmen accused by many Iraqis of speeding through Baghdad's streets and shooting wildly at anyone seen as a threat.

 

Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 wounded when a convoy came speeding by Nisoor Square at the edge of the Mansour district of west Baghdad. Two Iraqi witnesses said no one had attacked the convoy. However, some local Iraqi television accounts reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene.

 

The U.S. Embassy also said the convoy had come under fire.

 

"A car bomb went off near a location where U.S. Embassy officials were in a meeting," spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. "Two U.S. Embassy support teams responded. One team made it to the scene quickly and the other team came under fire."

 

Asked whether Blackwater had stopped working in Baghdad, Nantongo said, "Discussions are going on between us and the Iraqi authorities."

 

American officials want to get to the bottom of the incident, she said. "We take this very seriously, and we are launching a full investigation in cooperation with the Iraqi authorities," Nantongo said.

 

Spokesmen for Blackwater were not immediately available for comment. The company, based in Moyock, N.C., was founded by a former Navy SEAL. It employs about 1,000 people in Iraq.

 

The company provides security for U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other embassy staff. Crocker lauded the firm in his testimony on Iraq to Congress last week. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus also has praised private security firms as a vital partner in Iraq.

 

Tens of thousands of security firm employees operate in the war-torn country. But larger companies like Blackwater, with its U.S. government contract, operate on another level, with their arsenal of helicopters, turreted armored vehicles and automatic weapons.

 

Security firms working with the American government and its allies are technically granted immunity under an order issued in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer III, then-U.S. administrator of Iraq. The U.S. government has the right to waive the immunity for contractors, allowing them to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts.

 

In other developments today, a car bomb exploded in Baghdad near the mostly Shiite Muslim district of Sadr City, killing three people and wounding eight, police said.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-blackwater18sep18,1,3358790.story?coll=la-headlines-world

 

 

Im know its not the end of these mercs in iraq

 

As they still have contracts out with the US and other countries and companies

 

But theyre also talking about holding private contractors responsible for alleged crimes that they commit

 

Such as shooting civilians who are too close to their convoys and other indiscriminate acts of violence

[the.crooked]

750 million in contracts says blackwater doesnt give a fuck if they are kicked out of the country or not.

 

 

they paid.

[Some1]

WHERE IS SNEAK!? This coulda been him running wild through the streets pwn'n arab n00bz!!!

[CILONE/SK]

Blackwater is the name most people know, but there are a ton of firms just like them over there. Alot of them are owned by the same people but are kept seperate because of stuff like this. It really is not a big deal, most of the people will just move to another company.

 

These companies are always hiring. I know of a bunch of people who got out of the Army to go do this sort of stuff.

[MayorMeanBeans]

End of Blackwater? probably. But i guarantee you every single blackwater employee is going to go kick it on our saudi base until whitewater gets there license then back again it goes.

[the.crooked]

Blackwater is the name most people know, but there are a ton of firms just like them over there. Alot of them are owned by the same people but are kept seperate because of stuff like this. It really is not a big deal, most of the people will just move to another company.

 

These companies are always hiring. I know of a bunch of people who got out of the Army to go do this sort of stuff.

 

DING DING!!!

 

 

We have a winner.

[russell jones]

mercenaries... that's the good life man. Kill, make money and be killed. Pretty simple huh?

[viperface]

Iraq to review all security firms

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7000642.stm

[shitting]

They have immunity?

 

Do American soldiers also have immunity from iraqi courts?

[Smart]

it's no sweat, Iraq is already backing down and calling the suspension a temporary thing... nobody has to get a new job.

[shitting]

^ crisis averted

[CILONE/SK]

Who watches US security firms in Iraq?

By RICHARD LARDNER 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The fog of war keeps getting thicker. The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security company Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them.

 

Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

 

A Congressional Research Service report published in July said security contractors in Iraq operate under rules issued by the United States, Iraq and international entities such as the United Nations.

 

All have their limitations, however.

 

A court-martial of a private-sector employee likely would be challenged on constitutional grounds, the research service said, while Iraqi courts do not have the jurisdiction to prosecute contractors without U.S. permission.

 

"It is possible that some contractors may remain outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, civil or military, for improper conduct in Iraq," the report said.

 

Blackwater and other private security firms long have been fixtures in Iraq, guarding U.S. officials and an international work force helping to rebuild the war-torn country.

 

Prior to the March 2003 invasion, however, U.S. officials paid little attention to how prevalent these security firms would be in combat zones and the difficulties their presence could cause, according to Steve Schooner, co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University.

 

"The real problem is when we went into Iraq none of this had been worked out," Schooner said. "We hadn't thought it through."

 

The result is dissatisfaction on multiple fronts that is tempered by the acknowledgment these hired hands have become an important part of the long-running effort to stabilize Iraq.

 

"This is what happens when government fails to act," Singer wrote on the Brookings Web site of the incident Sunday involving Blackwater.

 

Iraq's government said Tuesday it would review the status of all security firms working in Iraq to ensure each is complying with Iraqi laws.

 

But Iraqi government representatives also said they probably would not rescind Order No. 17, which was issued more than three years ago by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. The order gives American security companies immunity from Iraqi prosecution on issues arising from their contracts.

 

"We don't want to do so because we don't have the services they are providing for the diplomats and for the American Embassy here in Iraq," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN.

 

Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., is one of three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq. The two others, both of which are headquartered in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, are Dyncorp, based in Falls Church, Va., and Triple Canopy of Herndon, Va.

 

The State Department has provided little information on Sunday's incident, which began after a car bomb attack against an American convoy guarded by Blackwater employees turned into a firefight that left eight Iraqis dead.

 

The department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security is conducting an investigation with assistance from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The Iraqis are conducting their own inquiry, although it seems unlikely the Iraqi government would revoke Blackwater's license and order the company's 1,000 personnel to leave the country.

 

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the guards acted "lawfully and appropriately" after being "violently attacked by armed insurgents."

 

In a separate development, a congressional committee is questioning how aggressively the State Department has looked into allegations that Blackwater illegally brought weapons into Iraq.

 

In a letter to Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Krongard impeded a Justice Department probe into claims that a "large private security contractor was smuggling weapons into Iraq."

 

Although the security company was not named in the letter, several senior administration officials confirmed it was Blackwater.

 

In an e-mailed response to the committee's charges, Krongard said Tuesday he made one of his "best investigators" available for the probe.

 

Tyrrell declined to comment.

 

For Democrats in Congress, the Blackwater shooting incident has reinvigorated an effort to pass additional regulations on how security contractors operate.

 

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a longtime critic of Blackwater, is pushing legislation requiring the Pentagon and State Department to provide details about security contractors it has hired, including any disciplinary actions taken against them.

 

"I think we have to have some uniform rules, particularly when these security guys are walking around fully armed," Schakowsky said Tuesday. "Who are they accountable to?"

 

But that's not because there is a shortage of laws, according to Laura Dickinson, a law professor at the University of Connecticut who has studied the use of private contractors on the battlefield.

 

"There are plenty of laws that apply to them," said Dickinson, who is working on a book called "Outsourcing War and Peace."

 

The problem is enforcement, she said.

 

The Pentagon and State Department have their own contracting officers and separate systems for ensuring performance and accountability.

 

Dickinson said a single government office is needed to monitor contracts and keep Congress informed.

 

"I don't think there's real clarity about what the rules of the game are either," said Schakowsky, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "It's a very murky area."

 

The International Peace Operations Association, a trade group that represents Blackwater and other companies doing business in Iraq, is not opposed to better oversight of the industry, according to Doug Brooks, the group's president.

 

That begins with the federal government having a deeper pool of experienced contracting officers who can properly monitor the work that's being done, he said.

 

"The companies try to operate within their contracts," Brooks said. "It's a problem when you can't get a hold of a contracting officer, or when the contracting officers don't understand how the contracts work."

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_contractors

[Stereotype V.0002]

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3615647

All the wounded civilians in the hospital are coincidentally military aged males. Not that the Iraqi ministry of the interior is untrustworthy or something, that would be nuts! Just nuts!

[Guest spectr]

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3615647

All the wounded civilians in the hospital are coincidentally military aged males. Not that the Iraqi ministry of the interior is untrustworthy or something, that would be nuts! Just nuts!

 

so I take it you watch a lot of fox news..... and not for the comic value that the rest of us do... I take it you actually believe the things that fox news says....

[Juan Fuentes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj89dJQ9wPM

 

if you have a channel on youtube, subscribe to "theREALnews" channel, very good news.

independent and unbiased

[Stereotype V.0002]

so I take it you watch a lot of fox news..... and not for the comic value that the rest of us do... I take it you actually believe the things that fox news says....

 

Well I take it that fox news mirrors Bush’s belief that the Iraqi gov is a fine upstanding legitimate democratic regime, and as such the interior ministry is also the paramount of reliable democratic organizations... and wouldn’t be (as I said) infiltrated by militias or deathsquads and definitely wouldn’t have an anti-American agenda. I take it that’s too much thinking, so I'll stick with fucking fox news fucking fucksters fucking a ham sandwhich in a fucking hammock, fuck fox fuckin cockmonkey murdoch you faghat wearing cocksucking squirelshit!!!!!!!!!!

[Juan Fuentes]

 

victims talks about blackwater and the incident. from blackwater, according to the iraqi gov, it is the seventh time something like this happens....

 

 

(i remember seeing a video of a car shooting from the back window at random cars in motion)

[Dick Quickwood]

i hope to god those faggots get what they deserve

[Stereotype V.0002]

I don’t get why the only innocent civilian victims that are being paraded infront of the cameras by the interior ministry are males in their 30s to 40s. Wouldn’t some woman or children be better for the propaganda? And thats a good video with the lawyer, there must be plenty of work for lawyers in Iraq, almost as much as luxury car dealers and stock brokers.

 

The Washington post and New York times says the iraqi witnesses reported that Iraqi police were firing on the convoy, and one of the cars blackwater was shooting spontaneously blew up...almost as if there was some sort of explosive device inside. The Iraqi police is coincidentally controlled by the ministry of interior and was recommended to be disbanded because it is so fucked up in a congressional report a few weeks ago.

[Juan Fuentes]

no stereotype women and children wouldnt make better propaganda! damn! a new world order supporter and a bad one! women and children would make blackwater look worst!

to be evil and succeed in your terrorism you have to be smart, ima send you with greenspan a weekend so he can school you a little.

 

 

...

 

 

but blackwater, now "banned", has to leave, has left?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070921/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_070921164116;_ylt=Alr5cVklsOi5HKl0.S8AAZIUewgF

that is the news.

[WorldBench]

you guys serve a year in iraq and question the shooting of civilians. it's either you or them. fuck the chances of me getting blasted by some hadji fuck, imma take them out first.

 

read what happened, i.e.d went off, they halted their convoy, people tried passing. EOF and Iraqi laws state, we are authority there, therefor you cordon off the area and wait for EOD to come in to inspect and keep everyone away. people come driving up of course youre going to blast them.

 

there's gotta be more to this story, most of blackwater are ex-special forces, who are highly dicipline and trained

 

ontop of that, blackwater will never leave the warzone until the end.

 

you're all naive

[CILONE/SK]

you guys serve a year in iraq and question the shooting of civilians. it's either you or them. fuck the chances of me getting blasted by some hadji fuck, imma take them out first.

 

read what happened, i.e.d went off, they halted their convoy, people tried passing. EOF and Iraqi laws state, we are authority there, therefor you cordon off the area and wait for EOD to come in to inspect and keep everyone away. people come driving up of course youre going to blast them.

 

there's gotta be more to this story, most of blackwater are ex-special forces, who are highly dicipline and trained

 

ontop of that, blackwater will never leave the warzone until the end.

 

you're all naive

 

Co-signed. Early next year I am going to start a Iraq superthread with pics.

[lord_casek]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gJUEUhsImf0

[dowmagik]

FREEDOM ISNT FREE

[WorldBench]

Co-signed. Early next year I am going to start a Iraq superthread with pics.

 

start it soon, i got mad pics. it'll give me something to do.

 

shit maybe i'll start it tonight

[Juan Fuentes]

you either believe their side, "ied" or the other story of innocent civilians getting shot like have been happening for years, look at casek's video...

 

it depends how conditioned you are you will take different choices when it comes to "believing".

[WorldBench]

they already showed their was an IED. and like i said, it's either you or them. don't be so naive.

[CILONE/SK]

I have seen IEDs for real and I have seen the lies that they put on in front of the media for real. There are very few people here that really know what they are talking about.

 

I think the blackwater guys are a bunch or cowboys and I do not really like them, but I also KNOW that as soon as something goes off, they parade kids and mothers and whoever in front of the media, because they know that the politcians are fastly losing support of any type for this war on the homefront.

 

NEVER BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE OR READ ABOUT THIS WAR.

 

For real.

[WORDISM45]

thats a good point Cilone ^

 

and in response to communist constantly saying "it's them or you". Sure everyone has a right to self defense, but have you bothered asking yourself why the fuck you're in their country in the first place? and what gives you the right to go over there wit ha bunch of guns and lord around the place? even bigger question mark over private contractors right to be in their country, why shouldn;t they get bombed and shot up? I bet you'd want to shoot up some private contractor Arabs that were parading around your hometown wityh a bunch of guns shooting people and the like

[Juan Fuentes]

the "it's them or you" i thing kinda took it different, though like it is either blackwater doing the work or us(people in the US) going to do the work of killing the "terrorists", related to the "fight them there so we dont have to do it here" yuppy mentality.

 

but as what yumone said, it is true.

 

if we could put ourselves in someone elses place for seconds, we could understand life better.