Blackwater Logs Most Shootings of Firms in Iraq

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

Blackwater Logs Most Shootings of Firms in Iraq

By JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES RISEN
Published: September 27, 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — The American security contractor Blackwater USA has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials.

Blackwater is now the focus of investigations in both Baghdad and Washington over a Sept. 16 shooting in which at least 11 Iraqis were killed. Beyond that episode, the company has been involved in cases in which its personnel fired weapons while guarding State Department officials in Iraq at least twice as often per convoy mission as security guards working for other American security firms, the officials said.

The disclosure came as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he was sending a team of Pentagon investigators to Iraq to get answers to questions about the use of American security contractors there.

The State Department keeps reports on each case in which weapons were fired by security personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq. Officials familiar with the internal State Department reports would not provide the actual statistics, but they indicated that the records showed that Blackwater personnel were involved in dozens of episodes in which they had resorted to force.

The officials said that Blackwater’s incident rate was at least twice that recorded by employees of DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, the two other United States-based security firms that have been contracted by the State Department to provide security for diplomats and other senior civilians in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/middleeast/27contractor.html?hp

[dickbearton]

1. That's what I expect from the black shirts at Blackwater.

[saigon68]

12. And they get what they deserve

Fallujah April 2004

[Judi Lynn]

2. If you give $325,000.00 to the Republican Party, maybe you, too, can operate

a paramilitary group with absolutely no laws or even suggestions, apparently, to stifle your creative aggressive instincts. From the article:

Just in recent weeks, Blackwater has also been awarded another large State Department contract to provide helicopter services in Iraq.

The company’s close ties to the Bush administration have raised questions about the political clout of Mr. Prince, Blackwater’s founder and owner. He is the scion of a wealthy Michigan family that is active in Republican politics. He and the family have given more than $325,000 in political donations over the past 10 years, the vast majority to Republican candidates and party committees, according to federal campaign finance reports.

Mr. Prince has helped cement his ties to the government by hiring prominent officials. J. Cofer Black, the former counterterrorism chief at the C.I.A. and State Department, is a vice chairman at Blackwater. Mr. Black is also now a senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security issues to the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

Joseph E. Schmitz, the former inspector general at the Pentagon, now is chief operating officer and general counsel for Blackwater’s parent company, the Prince Group. Officials at other firms in the contracting industry said that Mr. Prince sometimes met with government contracting officers, which they say is an unusual step for the chief executive of a corporation.
(snip)

[Drum]

3. And some of those fucks are probably proud of that.

:mad:

[Enrique]

4. maybe they get paid by the bullet n/t

[tanyev]

5. Do they chant "We're number 1!" at the weekly motivational meetings?

[Demeter]

6. Shootings by Blackwater Exceed Other Firms in Iraq

Source: NYTimes


Shootings by Blackwater Exceed Other Firms in Iraq

By JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — The American security contractor Blackwater USA has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials.
...The State Department keeps reports on each case in which weapons were fired by security personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq. Officials familiar with the internal State Department reports would not provide the actual statistics, but they indicated that the records showed that Blackwater personnel were involved in dozens of episodes in which they had resorted to force.

The officials said that Blackwater’s incident rate was at least twice that recorded by employees of DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, the two other United States-based security firms that have been contracted by the State Department to provide security for diplomats and other senior civilians in Iraq.
...In 2005, DynCorp reported 32 shootings during about 3,200 convoy missions, and in 2006 that company reported 10 episodes during about 1,500 convoy missions. While comparable Blackwater statistics were not available, government officials said the firm’s rate per convoy mission was about twice DynCorp’s.

The State Department’s incident reports have not been made public, and Blackwater refused to provide its own data on cases in which its personnel used their weapons while guarding American diplomats. The State Department is in the process of providing at least some of the data to Congress. The administration and industry officials who agreed to discuss the broad rate of Blackwater’s involvement in violent events would not disclose the specific numbers...“The incident rate for Blackwater is higher, there is a distinction,” said a senior American government official who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss a delicate, continuing investigation. “The real question that is open for discussion is why.”

The company’s close ties to the Bush administration have raised questions about the political clout of Mr. Prince, Blackwater’s founder and owner. He is the scion of a wealthy Michigan family that is active in Republican politics. He and the family have given more than $325,000 in political donations over the past 10 years, the vast majority to Republican candidates and party committees, according to federal campaign finance reports....Mr. Prince has helped cement his ties to the government by hiring prominent officials. J. Cofer Black, the former counterterrorism chief at the C.I.A. and State Department, is a vice chairman at Blackwater. Mr. Black is also now a senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security issues to the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney....Joseph E. Schmitz, the former inspector general at the Pentagon, now is chief operating officer and general counsel for Blackwater’s parent company, the Prince Group. Officials at other firms in the contracting industry said that Mr. Prince sometimes met with government contracting officers, which they say is an unusual step for the chief executive of a corporation.



Separately, American officials specifically exempted all United States personnel from Iraqi law under an order signed in 2004 by L.Paul Bremer III, then the top official of the American occupation authority. The Sept. 16 shootings have so angered Iraqis, however, that the Iraqi government is proposing a measure that would overturn the American rule and subject Western private security companies to Iraqi law. The proposal requires the approval of the Iraqi Parliament.





Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/middleeast/27contractor.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

---

I especially liked this little one sentence non sequiter of a paragraph:

"Just in recent weeks, Blackwater has also been awarded another large State Department contract to provide helicopter services in Iraq. "

Maybe there will be helicopter service off the Embassy roof!

[kurth]

7. Typical of the GOP culture of corruption

[Eagle_Eye]

8. BlackWater is by far the best American mercenaries money can buy

They use force as directed by the government, and keep their mouths shut when questioned about it.

They got guns an they ain't afraid to use 'em.

[izzie]

9. If one thinks of military take over this is the type group that is

really scary. I would like to see them just to go away and fast. I do not think tax payers should be paying for this. Really puts a bad smell on us as Am.

[soothsayer]

10. "We're number one!"

[0007]

11. We have become the scum of the earth and the pariah of the world.

....and if ya open your pie hole you'll get tasered and thrown in a dark prison in bum fuck Egypt

[truthisfreedom]

13. It's almost as if they were trained by Saddam himself.

Just sayin'.

[angstlessk]

14. They refused to give the statistics, so is TWICE the number of the combined

other companies or twice the number of each company? See statics can be used to confuse as well as enlighten? :shrug:

[DLnyc]

15. "...in Afghanistan, where it also has counternarcotics-related contracts."

" The company also provides security for the State Department in Afghanistan, where it also has counternarcotics-related contracts."

Not a good combination. ' Counternarcotics' combined with above-the-law mentality, alleged illegal gun-running . . . tends to lead to big money narcotics smuggling, violent 'self-protection', disappearing witnesses . . . seen this movie before . . . not good.