How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

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.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110702751.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

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I hope the congress & the next Democratic president puts this bunch out of work and Erik Prince and his mercenaries who committed murder in prison!

[seemslikeadream]

1. Felled 3 Iraqi Guards?

How quaint

[merwin]

4. I think the proper term in this instance would be 'murdered'

[notadmblnd]

2. it's obvious that those working for Blackwater enjoy killing indiscriminately

at this point I'm wondering how much killing of their fellow Americans they've done and blamed on Iraqis.

[formercia]

3. Strategic tension

keep the pot stirred and factions fighting each other to justify continued occupation.

[notadmblnd]

5. The beheadiongs of the 4 contractors popped into my mind

as I read that article. The picture I remembered seeing with the Iraqi's masked, just didn't look like middle easterners to me. I wonder .....

[formercia]

7. An excuse was needed to attack Falluja

A gruesome killing did the trick.

[yardwork]

10. I thought the same thing when I read this part:

Abood, a short, stocky man who speaks halting English, said he learned from the Justice Ministry that snipers from a U.S. security company -- not insurgents -- had shot the guards. He drove in a Humvee with one of his lieutenants to the ministry. The Blackwater guards were gathered in the traffic circle, he said, preparing to leave. Most were stocky, with goatees and small communication devices in their ears.

"I told them, 'I want to speak with the guy who is in charge of this unit,' " he said.

The Blackwater guards started toying with him, Abood said.

"He's in charge," said one, pointing at one of his colleagues.

"No, he's in charge," said another.

[Recursion]

6. As much as I hate Blackwater, that's far from "obvious"

Because Congress isn't doing oversight we really don't know who's telling the truth in any of these stories. Taking this case, it's possible that the Blackwater sniper murdered 3 guards in cold blood. It's possible that the guards were taking potshots at the sniper and he killed them. It's possible that somebody else was taking potshots at the sniper and he misidentified the target. It's possible that the guards and the sniper were in an honest-to-God firefight. One of the guards could have started a firefight and called his two buddies hoping to involve his militia in a fight against the mercs. Somebody else could have shot the guards and the mercs are getting blamed for it.

At least one person is lying here, but in war there's rarely call for limiting the number of liars hypothesized to just 1.

[yardwork]

9. Read the whole article - the facts are damning of Blackwater

An internal review of the State Department's handling of private security recently found serious deficiencies in the agency's supervision of contractors, including Blackwater. The State Department's security chief, Richard J. Griffin, was forced to resign last month after the report was released.

[Nihil]

8. Cool ... just like playing Team Fortress!

(And yes, that was sarcasm ... out of sheer disgust for the unpunished
murderous antics of the mercenaries.)