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 Jossey discovered 9 months ago -
Prince Blackwater hired himself and then billed the taxpayer
Erik Prince is also a major funder of the Reichwing Theocrats
How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards
Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Just...
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- Jossey rated 9 months ago
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Prince Blackwater hired himself and then billed the taxpayer
Erik Prince is also a major funder of the Reichwing Theocrats
How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards
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.
U.S. officials and the security company, now known as Blackwater Worldwide, offered no compensation or apology to the victims' families, according to relatives of the guards and officials of the network, whose programming reaches 22 million Iraqis.
"It's really surprising that Blackwater is still out there killing people," Mohammed Jasim, the Iraqi Media Network's deputy director, said in an interview. "This company came to Iraq and was supposed to provide security. They didn't learn from their mistakes. They continued and continued. They continued killing."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR200711070275 1.html
17 Iraqis were killed after Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation.
The Sept. 16 incident sparked widespread outrage across Iraq and prompted heightened scrutiny here and in the United States of shootings by foreign security firms that have left scores of Iraqis dead.
The Iraqi government has demanded that Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm that guards top U.S. diplomats in Iraq, be expelled from the country within six months and pay $8 million in compensation to the family of every civilian its employees are accused of killing last month, Iraqi officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR200710140149 1.html
U.S. Offers Cash to Victims in Blackwater Incident
Family members of several victims turned down the compensation saying the money being offered in some cases $12,500 for a death -- was paltry and that they wanted to sue Blackwater the North Carolina-based security contractor and its chief executive, Erik Prince.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR20071 02401936.html
An Illinois congresswoman yesterday proposed the rapid withdrawal of hundreds of armed security contractors who provide protective services for the State Department in Iraq.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) introduced legislation that she said would call for the phasing out of some 800 armed contractors who work for Blackwater, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy in Iraq over the next six months. She proposes that the contractors be replaced with military or diplomatic security personnel or military police.
"There's been major examples of how these companies adversely affect the mission," Schakowsky said. "They jeopardize our uniformed men and women, and they jeopardize the morale of our troops. They strain our diplomatic relations. They're unaccountable."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR200711070244 4.html
Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company. Lest you think you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The "criminals" in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad's Nisour Square last September. They were se
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