Hats off to Jeremy Scahill who gives Blackwater’s Vice President Martin Strong no deferential treatment and confronts this erstwhile war profiteer head on.
Don't miss the video posted below.
From Jeremy Scahill:
Last week, I spoke at a conference organized by NYU's Center on Law and Security called "Privatizing Defense: Blackwater, Contractors, and American Security." Also present at the conference were Blackwater Worldwide vice president Martin Strong and a lawyer for Blackwater, David Hammond. At the conference, I confronted Strong on Blackwater's killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, 2007. The day after our exchange, the Bush Administration extended Blackwater's Iraq "security" contract for another year:
Democracy Now! videotaped the session and covered Blackwater's contract extension:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhRYAqLhyso&eurl=http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/Here's the link from Dem Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/7/state_dept_renews_blackwater_contract_inJEREMY SCAHILL: My name is Jeremy Scahill. I find it very telling that nowhere on this panel do we hear a voice talking about the Iraqi victims of these companies. I find it very interesting—the way that Mr. Strong and Mr.
Brooks talk about this, we could be at a banking convention.
The reality is that Blackwater has killed innocent civilians in Iraq. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, Mr. Strong, but the first victims in Nisour Square that day were a twenty-year-old medical student and his mother, not al-Qaeda operatives, not Iraqi insurgents. A nine-year-old boy named Ali was shot in the skull; his brains splattered in his hands. Your operatives were on the scene that day. They opened fire on these individuals.
And if you don’t want to take the word of the witnesses, what about the military that investigated it on the spot that day and found that all seventeen of the Iraqis killed by your men were killed as a result of unprovoked and unjustified gunfire? This was the military investigation. They also found that there was excessive use of force that potentially violated the rules governing contractors in Iraq. When the FBI findings were released in part to the New York Times, they found that fourteen of the seventeen were killed as a result of unjustified and unprovoked gunfire.
My question to you is, how many innocent Iraqis has your company killed? And what consequences have your men faced for those actions?
MODERATOR: Well, that’s about—you answered—speak as you want to speak in response, sorry.
MARTIN STRONG: Well, I think the third panel is about accountability, if you want to re-ask that question at that point. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know how much time you spent in Iraq or in combat, but I spent twenty years and did thirty-six combat missions, and I spent nine months in Iraq. And it’s a very difficult place. And I think the FBI, who has not issued their investigative report, irrespective of the New York Times or any other newspaper saying that they think they know what’s going on, the FBI is going to complete an official investigation, not one done by the seat of the pants. And at that time, we’re going to find out exactly what they found out. We have not, as a company, had access to that information, nor did we conduct our own little investigation so I could respond to your question directly. We have no idea what happened there by going back and forensically looking at it. We’re awaiting the government’s investigation.
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