Blackwater employees shooting in streets of Baghdad - a privatized military?

[Sparkly]

U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad
Blackwater Employees Were Involved in Two Shooting Incidents in Past Week

By Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 27, 2007; Page A01

Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area.

Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly.

Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq, and its employees operate in a perilous environment that sometimes requires the use of deadly force. But last week's incidents underscored how deeply these hired guns have been drawn into the war, their murky legal status and the grave consequences that can ensue when they take aggressive action.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052601394.html?hpid=topnews

Seems this was just a matter of time. BushCo has essentially privatized their occupation of Iraq, which works better for them in so many ways, including avoiding the need for a draft, offering huge sums of money to get people to go in and work there, and of course, soaking up the spoils of war. Incredible.

[razzleberry]

1. mercs are mercs

mercenaries are mercenaries.

what is the point?

[dave_p]

2. Not a privatized military ...

... just legalized private killers.