Posted on 09/17/2007 4:09:13 PM PDT by radar101
Those critics now include the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which said Monday it had revoked Blackwater's license to operate following a chaotic weekend shootout that Iraqi authorities say left eight civilians dead and 13 injured.
``The 'civilians' reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire,'' company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said late Monday. ``Blackwater regrets any loss of life, but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life.''
``The Blackwater guys are not fools,'' Pelton said. ``If they were gunning down people it was because they felt it was the beginning of an ambush.''
``It's going to turn the world upside down,'' said retired Marine Lt. Col. Bill Cowan, an independent military analyst and the co-chairman of WVC3 Group, a security consulting firm. ``You can bet the U.S. embassy is doing backflips right now pressuring the Iraqis not to revoke their license.''
There have been so many innocent people they've killed over there, and they just keep doing it,'' said Katy Helvenston, the mother of Steve Helvenston, one of the Blackwater men killed in the ambush in Fallujah. ``They have just a callous disregard for life.''
Still, the firm sticks to a policy of secrecy that extends from chief executive Erik Prince, a former SEAL who founded Blackwater in 1997. Under what law are these individuals operating, and do the Iraqis have the authority to prosecute people for the crimes they're accused of committing?'' said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat and longtime Blackwater critic who is pushing Congress to regulate private security contractors. ``It's a very murky area.''
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(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Amen to that. Many BW guys are ex special forces and are fully capable.
Those critics now include the Iraqi Interior Ministry,
I believe that the whole thing was a set-up.
terrorist attack, set to cause Civillian casualties, then Shite sympathizer Malikki, calling for Blackwater banishment. Now Contractors vulnerable to Kidnapping etc.
this is the Islamo M.O.
Yes, Black... Water... DUH.
Murky for who? Makes perfect sense to me. Typical Democrat...
absolutely correct
What is the State Dept saying about this? Blackwater operates on their rules of engagement..they don’t dream up the responses. The State Dept..not the military controls these contractors.
from a CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/17/iraq.main/index.html
Rice called al-Maliki to offer “her personal and the U.S. administration’s regrets” for the shootings. They agreed to conduct “a fair and transparent investigation into this incident” and punish those responsible, the prime minister’s office said.
The Diplomatic Security Service has launched an official investigation, a review that will be supported by the Multi-National Forces-Iraq, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“The secretary wants to make sure we do everything we possibly can to avoid innocent loss of life,” he said.
McCormack said that while the United States tries to avoid innocent casualties, “we are fighting people who don’t play by any rules” and have no problem killing innocent civilians.
There has been no official notice from the Iraqi government on revoking Blackwater’s license, McCormack said, so he couldn’t confirm it and declined to speculate on how it would affect protection of U.S. personnel.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed a State Department convoy was in the area.
“We are taking it very seriously. We are cooperating with the Iraqi government on several different levels and will continue this cooperation with Iraqi officials,” the embassy official said.
-snip-
"Yo, Maliki! That's a REAL good way to get a crotch full of splinters! You'll get an entirely new perspective on the question, 'Got wood?' Of course, given the current state of your country, there's every probability that the fence you're trying to straddle is topped with double coils of concertina wire; in which case you'll soon have no wood at all, nor any stones, and no "sack" to hang' em in, either.High time for you to choose a side and stick to your choice, Sunshine Boy. Darkness falls WAY too quickly in your neck of the woods for you to be playing pat-a-cake with those who'd open fire on a civilian convoy. You start playing too-nice with the subterraneans out there, we'll read the writing on that wall and pack out. God knows there'a a loud enough push for us to just do it, already; don't give us any better reasons.
You know, and I know that if you don't stand by us 'til we are done getting your country on its own two feet; the day we leave will be the day you descend into Hell. Al Quaeda knows which side your bread is buttered on, and you'd damn well better figure it out once and for all, 'cuz you've got the lives of 20 million Iraqi's ridin' on that, and they deserve a whole lot better than for you to turn into a spineless capitulator.
C'mon, Maliki; MAN UP!!"
State Department response should be...”license...? they don’t need no stinkin’ license...” looks to me like they’ve got the ROE just about right...
I friggin hope the US embassy is raising hell! Don't forget, it was Blackwater guys whose burned corpses were hung from the bridge at Fallujah!
Could this be a setup? Has al-Maliki sold out the U.S.?
He knows his fatherland, Iran is about to be neutered and he wants to prove his loyalty.
Contractors won’t stay there without out security.
BW will be ok, they will take a hit here, but that is part of why they get paid what they do.
Blackwater should throw a Coup and take over Iraq
Screw the woggies if they can’t take a joke.
Fyi- BW was awarded a portion of that huge CNTPO contract recently. Ceiling of $15 billion.
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