As Crocker and Petraeus testified before Congress, Blackwater guards shot 43 people, 16 have died

[ProSense]

Blackwater guards killed 16 in week of violence

By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers Sat Sep 29, 3:06 PM ET

BAGHDAD — On Sept. 9 , the day before Army Gen. David Petraeus , the U.S. military commander in Iraq , and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Congress that things were getting better, Batoul Mohammed Ali Hussein came to Baghdad on business for the day.

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Hussein, who was on the opposite side of the street from the construction site, fell to the ground, shot in the leg. As she struggled to her feet and took a step, eyewitnesses said, a Blackwater security guard trained his weapon on her and shot her multiple times. She died on the spot, and the customs documents she'd held in her arms fluttered down the street.

Before the shooting stopped, four other people were killed in what would be the beginning of eight days of violence that Iraqi officials say bolster their argument that Blackwater should be banned from working in Iraq .

During the ensuing week, as Crocker and Petraeus told Congress that the surge of more U.S. troops to Iraq was beginning to work and President Bush gave a televised address in which he said "ordinary life was beginning to return" to Baghdad , Blackwater security guards shot at least 43 people on crowded Baghdad streets. At least 16 of those people died.

Two Blackwater guards died in one of the incidents, which was triggered when a roadside bomb struck a Blackwater vehicle.

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[Solly Mack]

1. I want you to know how much I appreciate your threads

Thank you

K/R

I'm so disgusted

[ProSense]

3. Thanks! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

2. Thanks for the thread Prosense.

Kicked and recommended.

[malaise]

4. Things are going swimmingly

I hope I live to see these bastards pay.

[globalvillage]

5. How are they still in Iraq?

I must have blinked and missed it. Last I heard, Maliki was going to kick them out, then Condi made a phone call, and they're still there.
Our military is paying the price for these trigger happy contractors.

[RC]

7. Blackwater is doing the job for which they were hired, which is continuing the war for the

profit for the Military Industrial complex.

[globalvillage]

8. I get that, RC.

But the Iraqi govt, such as it is, said they were being kicked out. And I never heard how that changed.
Are they just not leaving, with no explanation, or did Maliki and the Parliament change their answer?
I'm just curious about the official explanation for their continued presence.
Of course, yours is the correct answer. I want the other one.

[WinkyDink]

6. Why are you bothering my beautiful mind?

[ProSense]

9. Kick! n/t