Posted on 09/19/2007 10:50:31 AM PDT by presidio9
During a telephone conversation on Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad relies heavily on Blackwater security to guard its personnel as they visit government ministries and other sites around Iraq. American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following a firefight Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least eight Iraqi civilians. "We're there to strengthen the capacity of the Iraqi Government. We're not able to do that all in the Green Zone," Rice said she told Maliki in the conversation. And, she said, he agreed.
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Rice told the press traveling with her on a Mideast mission that the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad met with Maliki's office on Tuesday and the two governments are negotiating a way for the embassy to operate safely and allay Iraq's concerns about what it says is a pattern of excessive use of force by Blackwater. The State Department confirmed Wednesday that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has stopped all ground movement of American diplomats throughout Iraq outside the Green Zone. "They are working toward mechanisms that might allow us to address these issues together," Rice said during an overnight flight to Jerusalem where she is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the run-up to a possible November summit.
But Maliki offered his own solution on Wednesday, recommending that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad change the company it uses to provide security. "This crime has generated a lot of hatred in the government and the people against Blackwater," Maliki told reporters. "For their own interests, the Americans should hire a new company to protect their people so they can move freely." The Iraqi premier also ordered a full investigation into Sunday's fire fight. Yesterday, Iraq's Ministry of the Interior released an account of the incident that differed substantially from the official U.S. report. The ministry said that Blackwater initiated the firefight, killing as many as 20
The article is from TIME.
Sure. Send in the Whitewater folks. They will draw the fire away from the good guys.
There's an entire agency devoted to protecting the Diplomatic Corps. Why is a private contractor needed?
L
Iraq, not so much
What crime!!? What's he talking about? Bad guys ambushed motorcade. Good guys shot back. Some of the injured and killed may or may not have been civilians caught in the middle of a firefight.
Blackwater has a contract to defend Embassy personnel around the world now. They pretty much are DSS now.
Someone needs to explain to me how we can get the capital under control, and then need to destroy Blackwater’s capability to move about.
It’s easy enough to explain that the Blackwater group came under fire and returned it. So what gives here?
Is this evidence of ‘failure of leadership’ in the theater or from back in the U.S.?
Good grief. Buck up folks. Get Blackwater back in the game and let’s start moving ahead here.
I cannot live without Blackwater. They currently fly my mail in to my site here in Afghanistan.
A long time ago after somebody read Atlas Shrugged it was noticed that the gov't was doing many things that the private sector could do more efficiently. This led by a leap of logic to the gov't contracting out services rather than having gov't employees do those services. This is how gov't has kept its number of employees down while taking an ever larger chunk of the national product. This won't be a question in the college Civics test.
Ex Special Ops Guys have to work somewhere.
PING, per yesterday’s discussion on Blackwater.
Unfortunately, Al Maliki, I don't think there is another company with Blackwater's resources and capabilities.
? So is Maliki just saying he wants to see a different DBA/TIN on the license? That’s easy enough.
Blackwater leaves, and Maliki’s life expectancy decreases proportionally in my opinion.
I’m not sure if thats a good thing, or a bad thing.
They (The DSS) are not equipped to deal with something of this magnitude.
Rather than expanding a government agency, they’ve tapped a viable resource (Blackwater) that already performs that mission for private industry and government in Iraq.
Blackwater has assets that the DSS would have to pull from The Army (helos, armor, etc.). Also, DSS is more organized around “Executive Protection” and Iraq is far beyond that. A quasi-military agency (easy, I just don’t have a better term) like Blackwater is much more suited to the theater in Iraq.
The former government/military folks have been signing on with Blackwater and other private security outfits for multiples of two, three or more of their Government pay.
Some are entering such private-sector activities as bail fugitive recovery, which (not frequently) can be quite lucrative.
The bad news is that the skills these follks bring to the industry represents overkill (no pun intended) and they seldom bother to obtain professional training from the one or possibly two credible organizations that provide same, and they do not even bother with such inconveniences as state laws concerning licensure/registration, lawful bail (re)arrests, transport, etc., and often lack the social skills necessary in dealing with bail bondsmen and other recovery agents.
I generally chose to not become associated with guys who show up in cammies and whose introductions are replete with claims concerning their martial arts and weaponry prowess.
That said, some the veterans who do bother to enter the profession via proper training and mentoring often turn out to be excellent agents. Indeed, they come in handy re: skips who initiate foot chases or unnecessary know-down/drag-outs during what generally are arrests without incident or injury....
enough said
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