Blackwater resumes operations in Iraq

hailhailkchailhailkc Posts: 582
edited September 2007 in A Moving Train
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/21/blackwater/index.html

(CNN) -- The security firm Blackwater USA is starting to resume normal operations in Iraq after a hiatus sparked by concerns among Iraqi and U.S. government officials over its actions.

Blackwater USA contractors secure the site of a roadside bombing in Baghdad in July 2005.

Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said on Friday that Blackwater and two other security firms that provide protection for U.S. diplomats in Iraq are resuming civilian convoys on a case-by-case basis.

All Blackwater USA operations in Iraq will be back to normal on Saturday, a highly placed industry source told CNN on Friday.

A deadly shooting incident on Sunday prompted the Iraqi government to bar the firm from operating. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has been prohibiting staff-member trips by land outside the Green Zone amid investigations into the incident.

Sunday's shooting has created tension between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret about the incident in a phone call to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and promised an open and transparent probe into what happened. Watch heavily armed private contractors at work in Iraq »

The Iraqi government has said as many as 20 civilians were killed by gunfire from Blackwater USA contractors who were guarding a U.S. diplomatic convoy. Iraqi officials dispute the U.S. claim that the guards were responding to an attack.

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The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday the creation of a joint commission to examine issues of security and safety in the aftermath of the shooting incident.

The commission, co-chaired by an American and an Iraqi with equal representation from both countries, will receive the results of both the State Department investigation and the separate Iraqi investigation, Casey said.

He said the commission will look at both the Sunday incident and the broader issue of "personal security details" and the use of private contractors to provide security in Iraq.

The commission "is not an investigative body doing field forensics on this particular matter," Casey said. "The focus of this is to look not only at that incident but at the broader question ... and help us come up with joint recommendations."
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Comments

  • jlew24asujlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    I really don't know what happened, I wasnt there. but if they killed innocent people, the company should leave the country now the people who did the shooting should go to jail in an Iraqi prison. fuck that.
  • polarispolaris Posts: 3,527
    just goes to show who really runs iraq now ... the military-industrial complex is in full swing ...

    this is partly what this war has been all about ... spending tax payer dollars to companies who helped put this administration in power ...
  • Do you think Blackwater ordered them to just start mowing down crowds of Iraqis?

    Seems a little bit overboard to expel the whole company for the actions of a few. especially since most diplomatic envoys are protected by them and it would be a bit of a pain to replace them.

    But whatever, they shouldn't be there in the first place.
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    Who the fuck do those Iraqis think they are, anyway? It's not up to them to decide who goes and who leaves that place, right?
    The goddamn Iraqis just need to do the fuck as they're told and quit pretending they have a say in the matter.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • puremagicpuremagic Posts: 1,907
    Here is where Congress could cut off funding without jeopardizing the U.S. military. If we are in a "war" then why are all these damn diplomats running back and forth to Iraq like their buying houses? There is no need for over 20,000 mercenaries in Iraq to cover "diplomats. That would probably save 49.98 billion dollars of the 50 billion requested. The rest would go to the U.S. military because there doesn't seem to be any improvement in the gear and equipment provided for troop safety. It damn sure isn't going towards the families, unless you count the fact that many military families are being supplemented by government social programs like welfare, medical and food stamps.

    Is Hunt considered a diplomat?
    SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Isn't it up to the Iraqi government to decide wether this company should or shouldn't be operating on Iraqi soil. I guess the Iraqi government is allowed to run it's own country as long as we approve of the decisions they make.
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • i was thinking about how the Roman military became so dependent on mercenaries that it collapsed once the mercenaries realized they were in charge.

    is this the start of the same thing happening to us?
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    MrSmith wrote:
    i was thinking about how the Roman military became so dependent on mercenaries that it collapsed once the mercenaries realized they were in charge.

    is this the start of the same thing happening to us?
    ...
    Well... if you look at it from a certain angle... can it be argued that the U.S. is the Modern Day Rome?
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Cosmo wrote:
    ...
    Well... if you look at it from a certain angle... can it be argued that the U.S. is the Modern Day Rome?


    The US is most definitely the modern day Rome.
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • Cosmo wrote:
    ...
    Well... if you look at it from a certain angle... can it be argued that the U.S. is the Modern Day Rome?

    maybe so
  • mammasan wrote:
    Isn't it up to the Iraqi government to decide wether this company should or shouldn't be operating on Iraqi soil. I guess the Iraqi government is allowed to run it's own country as long as we approve of the decisions they make.




    Its the Puerto Rico of the middle east. arrrrgh! sigh. another shit colony.
  • Ah, so much money to be made with war.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_go_co/us_blackwater_probe

    Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

    The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

    A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday. The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George Holding, declined to comment, as did Pentagon and State Department spokesmen.

    Officials with knowledge of the case said it is active, although at an early stage. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, which has heightened since 11 Iraqis were killed Sunday in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.

    The officials could not say whether the investigation would result in indictments, how many Blackwater employees are involved or if the company itself, which has won hundreds of millions of dollars in government security contracts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is under scrutiny.

    In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that two former Blackwater employees — Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. — are cooperating with federal investigators.

    Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided and abetted another in doing so, according to court papers viewed by The Associated Press. In their plea agreements, which call for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the men agreed to testify in any future proceedings.
  • mammasan wrote:
    The US is most definitely the modern day Rome.


    The US is an empire. Empire is as empire does. Kill...conquer..consume...

    like all empires before it throughout history...
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
  • http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/scahill0921

    This author has researched Blackwater for years and this link has his testimony before Congress yesterday.
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