Contains links and descriptions of stories covering Blackwater from the present to December 2006. See also the section on Halliburton.

26/10/07

Officials balked on ‘05 Blackwater inquiry —State Department e-mails obtained by ABC News discuss how to deflect a Times reporter’s questions about a civilian shooting death. 26 Oct 2007 Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department’s oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the U.S. sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago. In one instance, internal e-mails show that State Department officials tried to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times inquiry into an alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/
nation/la-na-emails26oct26,0,798301.story

Kerry Demands Investigation of Blackwater Tax Filings —Rather Than Hide Behind Bush Administration, Blackwater Should Come Clean on Taxes (kerry.senate.gov) 26 Oct 2007 Today Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), pressed for more information about Blackwater USA’s alleged tax evasion. The private security firm has been under fire for hiding behind a Bush Administration business size ruling that classified some of their workers as independent contractors rather than employees to avoid paying at least $31 million in taxes. As a senior member of the Finance Committee, Kerry sent a letter to the Committee’s leadership requesting an investigation be conducted into Blackwater’s tax filings.
kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=286187

Torture, Paramilitarism, Occupation and Genocide
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7180
…Today around 200,000 private contractors operate in Iraq. Up to 100,000 of them are paramilitary mercenaries from companies like Blackwater, DynCorp, ArmorGroup, Erinys, Triple Canopy and others like the Australian-owned Unity Resources that murdered two Iraqi women October 9. Blackwater is the largest, is close to the Bush administration, and is cashing in big as a war profiteer from huge continuing no-bid contracts.

DynCorp Thieves May Replace Blackwater Homicidal Maniacs
 10.24.07 (AP)
 The State Department so badly managed a $1.2 billion contract for Iraqi police training that it can’t tell what it got for the money spent, a new report says.
williambowles.info/gispecial/2007/1007/GISpecial5J18.pdf

State Department Coverup on Blackwater Revealed
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102607B.shtml
T. Christian Miller, reporting for The Los Angeles Times, writes, “Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department’s oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the US sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.”

25/10/07

An economic disaster beyond contracted relief
UT The Daily Texan - Austin,TX,USA
More than $3.4 billion was doled out to firms such as Halliburton, Blackwater and Shaw for services as diverse as bringing in mobile homes, providing FEMA ...
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2007/10/25/
Opinion/An.Economic.Disaster.Beyond.Contracted.
Relief-3055987.shtml

Iraq Determined To Expel Blackwater USA
Guardian Unlimited - UK
The Iraqi officials said Cabinet ministers again demanded that the US Embassy, Blackwater's biggest client in Iraq, expel the company. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7022006,00.html

Iraqis Search for Justice After Blackwater Shootings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102507J.shtml
Sam Dagher reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "Mohammed Hafidh says he refused to accept an envelope filled with $12,500 in cash from Patricia Butenis, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Baghdad, as compensation for the death of his 10-year-old son, Ali. 'I told her that I want the courts to have their say,' says Mr. Hafidh, whose son was among 17 Iraqi civilians killed in a Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards."

US: Blackwater vies for jobs beyond security
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14754

US diplomatic security chief resigns after Blackwater row
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Oct 24, 2007
The State Department’s security chief resigned Wednesday amid criticism over his office’s poor supervision of private security firms in Iraq, after Blackwater guards shot dead several civilians.
rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0015IHgXfn3oPmIyO4KHx6TRNjkSnVQrujKnu4fU
HSKWRvfYiW736vnv9WZvzMY1tKkhYxcJzZxwitqpDli9EB_IqZex-G
9KWlwGR1abXslY1wLU2DQul-32qdVUB0Opba7zrqXBcXxr61GU452
EiTr7QtTLkMaDB wKuExB7e48dLuY3PED14ARrnZmd698syFBR0AAT
cr1J769Yd_oEVopUA==

State Department Security Chief Resigns
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102407R.shtml
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press, reports: “The State Department’s security chief resigned on Wednesday in the wake of last month’s deadly Blackwater USA shooting incident in Baghdad and growing questions about the use of private contractors to protect diplomats in Iraq.”

24/10/07

Iraqi Cabinet upholds Blackwater findings, presses for expulsion:
 
The government has upheld the findings of an official investigation of the alleged shooting death of 17 Iraqis by employees of Blackwater USA and is pressing the U.S. Embassy to expel the private security company from Iraq, officials said Wednesday.
www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/747696.html

State Department security chief to resign amid Blackwater scandal 24 Oct 2007 The State Department’s security chief announced his resignation Wednesday in the aftermath of last month’s deadly Blackwater USA shooting incident in Baghdad and growing questions about the use of mercenaries in Iraq.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/24/
america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-Blackwater.php

Use of Contractors by State Dept. Has Soared 24 Oct 2007 Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared to nearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, administration officials said Tuesday, but they said that the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts. A vast majority of the money goes to companies [corpora-terrorists] like DynCorp International and Blackwater USA.
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/washington/24contractor.html

23/10/07

US acts to rein in Iraq security firms
Washington (AFP) Oct 23, 2007 – The US government Tuesday vowed to clamp down on Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq, which stand accused of killing innocent civilians through gung-ho tactics. Officials said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was adopting “immediately” the recommendations of a review panel that exposed a worrying legal impunity for security guards working in Iraq and Afghanistan. ..
rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001IIocTeETXQ4R64iQqMnTF7SHTAZ9TEvV8lEtAE
D0UeIFEIADNthBfFxrw-lvj6jC2EU9G19oev4iswyP9mc2YzTsmReNTj5BQX
8EplcPt_25wUsXVSBik0nRXL14hHtueQ_XL787fXW-uragyLAkS2
OtPW4cgsUJvYa6USCw6S63moDGXZNDI9uJKaSkhI9N

Why do people who know about corrupt mercenaries in Iraq keep “committing suicide”?
Corrente
That’s the question Frank Rich doesn’t ask today. Should he have? Rich gives two examples (and it would be interesting to know if there were more). Both are connected to Price’s Blackwater mercenaries. Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005. He was at the time the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq…
www.uruknet.de/?p=3746

US acts to rein in Iraq security firms
Africasia – London,UK
The US government Tuesday vowed to clamp down on Blackwater and other
private security firms in Iraq, which stand accused of killing innocent
civilians …
www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php
?area=mideast&item=071023215452.6o4l14e7.php

Blackwater accused of tax evasion 22 Oct 2007 Blackwater USA, the security company that has come under intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill after a September 16 incident in which it allegedly opened fire on Iraqi civilians and killed 17, was accused on Monday by a senior Democratic lawmaker [Henry Waxman, CA] of evading tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21427332/

Blackwater tying up loose ends? Radio journalist missing in Baghdad, driver killed 22 Oct 2007 A correspondent for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) went missing while on her way to an interview in Baghdad on Monday morning, the radio station said. “Police found the body of her driver, shot and dumped in the street,” RFE/RL said in a statement. “There is no trace of the car or RFE/RL’s correspondent.”
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22468746.htm

Contractor ‘command center’ recommended in Iraq, sources say
CNN – USA
The Iraqi government has called Blackwater’s actions “premeditated murder”
and has called for the company to leave Iraq. Blackwater officials have
insisted …
www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/blackwater.state.review/

22/10/07

Waxman Accuses Blackwater of Tax Evasion
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102207R.shtml
Anne Flaherty, The Associated Press, reports: “The Democratic chairman of a House watchdog committee said Monday that Blackwater USA violated tax laws and may have defrauded the government of millions of dollars, a charge the embattled security firm said is groundless.”

Lawmaker accuses Blackwater of tax evasion —Blackwater “sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials.” 22 Oct 2007 The chairman of a congressional committee said on Monday that documents obtained by his panel suggest that private security contractor Blackwater USA “engaged in significant tax evasion.” Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused Blackwater of “failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and related taxes.”
www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN2245858720071022

Blackwater and me: A love story it ain’t:
 During my own yearlong tour in Iraq, the bad boys of Blackwater twice came closer to killing me than did any of the insurgents or Al Qaeda types. That sort of thing sticks with you. One story will suffice to make my point.
snipurl.com/1sibb

21/10/07

‘Criminal’ Blackwater must leave, others can stay: Iraq
AFP –
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq repeated a call for US firm Blackwater to leave on Saturday almost five weeks after its guards killed as many as 17 civilians, …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j5sP6vBTIjpWlYi2sc-3to8eg6Fg

Frank Rich: Suicide Is Not Painless
By jurassicpork(jurassicpork)
That firm, founded by a former Tom DeLay chief of staff, proved ground
zero in the Jack Abramoff scandals. Alexander may be no more, but since
then, in addition to Blackwater, Mr. Behrends’s clients have
includeda company called the …
welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2007
/10/frank-rich-suicide-is-not-painless.html

20/10/07

Criminal Blackwater must leave: Iraq
Tehran Times – Iran
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq repeated a call for US mercenary firm Blackwater to leave on Saturday almost five weeks after its guards killed as many as 17 Iraqi …
www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=155335

Bush rehires DynCorp’s child rapists to replace Blackwater’s assassins: Blackwater likely to be phased out of diplomatic duty 20 Oct 2007 Troubled military contractor Blackwater USA is likely to be eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, U.S. officials said Friday. While no decisions have been finalized, Blackwater’s role in Baghdad is likely to be taken over by one of two other contractors who provide security for the State Department in Iraq, the officials said. They are Triple Canopy and DynCorp International. [See: DynCorp Disgrace By Kelly Patricia O’Meara 14 Jan 2002 Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia.]
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/278120.html

Blackwater Wanted Iraqi Military Planes 19 Oct 2007 Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the mercenaries. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants the company to provide all documents related to the attempted shipment and to explain where the aircraft are now.
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iHe3RG
dxzFVjqN54O2181uAuXjmwD8SCJ4JG0

We’re in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in our nation’s history….
iraq update
…Well, right now in Iraq, there are 180,000 contractors operating alongside 170,000 US troops. So it’s effectively a doubling or more than doubling of the occupation force. What this does is it subverts the citizenry in the United States. You no longer have to have a draft. You don’t have to depend on your own citizens to fight your wars. You can simply hire up the poor of the world to work for American and British companies occupying another country….well, General Petraeus himself has been guarded by private contractors in Iraq. I mean, what message did that send when the general who’s overseeing the surge in Iraq is guarded at times not by the US military, but by private forces….Erik Prince likes to describe Blackwater as the sort of Federal Express of the national security apparatus….But the fact is, the US military is the junior partner in the coalition that’s occupying Iraq to these private companies. There are over 170 mercenary companies like Blackwater operating in Iraq right now…
www.uruknet.de/?p=37377

FOCUS | Blackwater to Be Phased Out of Iraq
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102007Z.shtml
Warren P. Strobel, reporting for McClatchy Newspapers, says Blackwater mercenaries will likely be “eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.” Blackwater’s current work order under a State Department contract worth $834 million reportedly runs out in May 2008.

Blackwater and Haditha
A Tale of Two Atrocities
RAHUL MAHAJAN
The recent public outrage over the conduct of Blackwater Security mercenaries in Iraq, after an unprovoked massacre of at least 17 Iraqi civilians in western Baghdad has been heartening; unfortunately, there has been virtually no attention a far more important concurrent development — the ongoing collapse of the military prosecution in the Haditha massacre. Paul Bremer’s decision at the eleventh hour before his departure in June 2004 to set all private contractors in Iraq above the law (they are not subject to Iraqi law, U.S. military law, or U.S. civilian law) stands out as one of the more cynical decisions of a war that has redefined cynicism, and attention to that fact is a positive development. At the same time, however, all the attention is being focused on an extremely minor issue. The U.S. military has possibly killed more civilians in a single incident than all the mercenary companies operating in Iraq in the last several years….
www.uruknet.de/?p=37346

HB – who should apologize
By ecthompson
actions speak louder than words, blackwater, bush administration, fiscal discipline, halliburton, hardball, home energy assistance program, imus, liheap, Party Politics, pete stark, president bush, stephaniemiller.
www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/
2007/10/19/hb-who-should-apologize/

20/10/07

Blackwater attempted to take Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq:
 Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the private security contractor.
snipurl.com/1sece

Blackwater likely to be out of Iraq 18 Oct 2007 A State Department review of private security guards for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over the deaths of 17 Iraqis last month, but the company probably is on the way out of that job, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
www.onelocalnews.com/howelltimesandtrans
cript/stories1/index.php?action=fullnews&id=79376

19/10/07

Blackwater won’t allow arrests
Sharon Behn
A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq’s faulty justice system. “We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis,” Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone and carrying out limited duties. Two or three others have been allowed by the State Department to leave the country as part of their scheduled rotation out of Iraq and are expected to return…
www.uruknet.de/?p=37282

Face-Off: Airbrushing Accountability in the Terror War
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
…We’re seeing this kind of thing writ large in Iraq right now, as the Bush-connected Blackwater continues to deny — against all the evidence — that its mercenaries went beserk on a Baghdad street and gunned down 17 innocent people — again, as in London, without provocation. The mercenary firm’s warlord, Eric Prince, has defiantly declared that he “will not allow” his shooters to be face justice in Iraq. He blamed the “accusations” against his company on the “far left,” who went after Blackwater after being “unsuccessful in attacking Petraeus [Yes, he quite shamelessly omitted the Congressionally protected general’s title!] and defunding the war, forcing a pullback of U.S. troops.” As for those dead bodies in the street, those grieving families, those tsunamis of anger and cries for revenge ringing across the conquered land after the atrocity — Prince had nothing to say in his interview with the friendly folks at the cultic Washington Times. Why should he? Does the butcher mourn the meat he makes his money from?…
www.uruknet.de/?p=37288

Blackwater: Another Black Mark on US Image
New Canaan News Review – New Canaan,CT,USA
As Time noted this week, “You could call (Blackwater) Halliburton with
guns, except Halliburton has some guns too.” We advocate no, insist on
stronger …
www.newcanaannews-review.com/opinion/ci_7215583

Bill Moyers Journal | Examining Blackwater
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101807U.shtml
Blackwater’s top gun Erik Prince has been spinning the security firm’s story this week in a PR offensive. Bill Moyers asks why the press is buying it and interviews journalist and author Jeremy Scahill, who helps separate the spin from the reality.

18/10/07

Iraq says U.S. mercenaries Blackwater must go:
Iraq put more pressure on the United States on Thursday to pull out security contractor Blackwater from Baghdad but the State Department said no decision had been made on the North Carolina firm.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18425934.htm

Blackwater won’t allow arrests 17 Oct 2007 “We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis,” said Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his mercenaries and try them in Iraq’s ‘faulty’ justice system. [Oh, but Iraq’s justice system isn’t ‘faulty’ when it tries, convicts and executes enemies of the Bush regime?]
washingtontimes.com/article/20071017/FOREIGN/110170057/1003

‘They Protect People’s Lives’ — One Month After Baghdad Killings, Bush
Defends Blackwater USA
One month after the Baghdad mass shooting that killed 17 Iraqi civilians,
President Bush has defended Blackwater USA, saying they provide ?a valuable
service? and ?protect people’s lives.?
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1418252

Hillary’s “Rove” Comes Through for Blackwater
Posted: 17 Oct 2007 11:29 AM CDT
by RJ Eskow
Have we just had a taste of how influence might be wielded under a Clinton II Administration? In a very successful week for its most notorious client, Mark Penn’s firm was able to get Blackwater CEO Erik Prince several major television appearances. Lob-ball questions were included at no extra charge.
feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AtlanticFreePress/~3/171190399/index.php

Blackwater Likely to Be Out of Iraq
The Associated Press –
WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department review of private security guards
for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over
the deaths …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4OiK8Bkks3epqQ-eXeiSGX6cu7g

Gates mulls central authority over Iraq security contractors
Washington (AFP) Oct 17, 2007 – US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is mulling a move to bring all armed security contractors in Iraq under a single authority to exert greater control over them, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The issue has come to the fore after an incident last month in Baghdad in which Blackwater USA guards working for the State Department killed at least 11 civilians. The killings outraged the Iraqi gov …
rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001bQV4Z-amxg4JqLNKFozm_VMzQQUOewN3XRym
EXRqC1ZtsFL02GluLW8MKQTquaj_qliZWQn3M_HfzhYMsHiCNShsBbIS
jxldr6nBT3NMWFUhmpn5ThfmLXN8GlbCtpm1GsHWnVu7xgZWH_
xvOZTzPOJndVKeZsOwRuKNIo13PsZOIY_1D9r3y9Ro2YnrZL7-zI8uq
7NPaFzmdZYhKz9dap0BmYtqUE0k

Blackwater: Mercenaries by Definition
 By A. Alexander
 Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater mercenaries, has been a huge financial supporter of George W. Bush and the Republican Party. That might explain why Mister Bush’s State Department worked with Prince’s people to try and cover up the latest Blackwater slaughter of civilians in Iraq, and could be a big part of the reason why so many Republicans came to the chief mercenary’s defense during Congressional hearings. His fondness for and belief in all things Republican probably answers too, Erik Prince’s problem with honesty.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18577.htm
 
U.S. Mercenary Army: A Law Unto Itself
Blackwater Won’t Allow Arrests
 By Sharon Behn –
 A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq’s faulty justice system.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18572.htm

17/10/07

Blackwater tying up loose ends? Separate attacks kill 5 Iraqi journalists —Four reporters’ deaths follow the slaying of a Washington Post correspondent in Baghdad. 16 Oct 2007 Five Iraqi journalists were killed in three separate attacks this weekend, marking the deadliest day for reporters covering the country in a year. In Iraq’s worst day for journalist deaths, five journalists and six supporting staff members were killed one year ago when [US] gunmen attacked the Al Shaabiya television station in Baghdad.
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/
la-fg-journalists16oct16,1,4430410.story

Iraq Seeking Faster Blackwater Pullout 17 Oct 2007 Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pressed U.S. Embassy officials in recent meetings to pull the Blackwater USA security firm out of Iraq even before the six-month deadline he initially set, a top aide to the Iraqi leader said Wednesday. The aide said the Americans responded that they cannot give al-Maliki an answer until the FBI finishes its inquiry into the incident in which Iraqi officials say Blackwater mercenaries killed 17 Iraqis.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7004070,00.html

Dad: Blackwater blew up son’s and wife’s ‘skulls’
CNN
Haythem could only recognize his oldest boy from his tall and slim physique as well as what was left of his shoes. His son’s head had been blown away, his body charred beyond recognition. His wife of more than 20 years was torn apart. “Only part of her neck and jaw remained,” Haythem told CNN. The rest of her was covered by a body bag. Choking back tears, he said, “Killing them was not enough, blowing up their skulls, they burned them and disfigured them.” Haythem’s wife, Mahassen, and his 20-year-old son, Ahmed, were among the 17 Iraqi civilians killed and 27 others wounded in a hail of gunfire September 16 in Baghdad….
www.uruknet.de/?p=37268

Norman Solomon | The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101707C.shtml
Norman Solomon, writing for Common Dreams, says: “Blackwater scandal has gotten plenty of media coverage, and it deserves a lot more. Taxpayer subsidies for private mercenaries are antithetical to democracy, and Blackwater’s actions in Iraq have often been murderous. But the scandal is unfolding in a US media context that routinely turns criticisms of the war into demands for a better war.”

Heat Turns Up on Blackwater Inquiry
Khody Akhavi
WASHINGTON – As with most of the controversies that have embroiled the U.S. in Iraq, the activities of the Bush administration’s mercenary force remained murky and opaque. Enabled by the U.S. State Department, private security firms such as Blackwater USA seemingly occupied a state of legal limbo that allowed their guards to operate with impunity.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39600

16/10/07

Iraqi adviser: Blackwater shooting unprovoked, guards must go 16 Oct 2007 The Iraqi investigation into last month’s Blackwater USA shooting is complete, and it proves that the mercenaries committed unprovoked and random killings in the incident, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Tuesday. Adviser Sami al-Askari told CNN al-Maliki has asked the U.S. State Department to “pull Blackwater out of Iraq.”
www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/
10/16/iraq.blackwater/index.html

Minister seeks Blackwater trials 16 Oct 2007 Private security guards from the US firm [terrorists] Blackwater should stand trial in Iraq, according to Iraq’s Minister for Human Rights, Mrs Wijdan Salim. She said the Iraqi government’s inquiry into a shooting incident which left some 17 Iraqi civilians dead would be made public within the next two weeks.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7046272.stm

Iraq to crack down on foreign security guards —Foreign firms will be made liable under Baghdad law —Minister’s pledge follows shootings of civilians 16 Oct 2007 The Iraqi government intends to make foreign private security firms [mercenaries] answerable under Iraqi law, even if it drives them out of the country, the human rights minister said yesterday.
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2191869,00.html

William Fisher | Blackwater “Excesses” No Surprise
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101607E.shtml
William Fisher, reporting for Truthout, writes, “On October 15, a diplomatic advocacy organization charged that the powerful State Department office and the Department’s inspector general are protecting Blackwater and other private security contractors by creating a ‘pattern of deceit involving direct collusion’ to conceal a wide variety of problems from Congressional and American taxpayer oversight.”

Private US military contractors move into Helmand
Kim Sengupta, Independent
Large numbers of US private military personnel are expected to arrive in Helmand, the focal point of British involvement in Afghanistan, as part of a new effort to promote reconstruction and development in the war-torn province. The US has contributed the largest sum to the new aid effort, over $200m. But British officials striving to win “hearts and minds” in the conflict against the Taliban have expressed concern over the potential influx of military contractors, amid a continuing furore over the shooting of civilians in Iraq by Blackwater…
www.uruknet.de/?p=37232

15/10/07

Iraqi Journalist Is Shot and Killed in Baghdad 15 Oct 2007 A journalist for The Washington Post was shot and killed while reporting from a neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Sunday, the newspaper said. The killing, an isolated act that appeared to have been deliberate, was one of at least nine in the capital Sunday. [This one has Blackwater USA written all over it.]
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html

US, Iraq Negotiate Blackwater Expulsion
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101507A.shtml
Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, reporting for The Associated Press, write, “US and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad’s demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.”

Sara Daniel: “They Seem to Be Allowed To Do Anything”
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101507G.shtml
Le Nouvel Observateur’s star reporter Sara Daniel, who has spent a great deal of time in Iraq since the outset of the war there, considers some of the wider questions of the Blackwater scandal while offering some new details.

Room at Gitmo for Blackwater?
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101507J.shtml
Julian E. Barnes reports for The Los Angeles Times, “As the Bush administration deals with the fallout from the recent killings of civilians by private security firms in Iraq, some officials are asking whether the contractors could be considered unlawful combatants under international agreements.”

A month after killings Iraq insists Blackwater quit
AFP –
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq insisted on Monday that US private security firm
Blackwater and “other companies who commit crimes” leave Iraq after its
guards opened …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8YqbQcBP-UsuA71ClyafHGYMhZw

Tainted security company to be expelled from Iraq
Kansas City Star – MO,USA
The talks about Blackwater’s future in Iraq flow from recommendations in
an Iraqi government report on an incident Sept. 16 when, Iraqi officials
determined …
www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/317564.html

Blackwater Vies for Jobs Beyond Guard Duty
Wall Street Journal – USA
By AUGUST COLE MOYOCK, NC — Even as Blackwater USA seeks to extricate
itself from a firestorm over the conduct of its private-security forces in
Iraq, …
online.wsj.com/article/SB1192405186
91958669.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Namibia Deports US Security Employees
The Associated Press –
Private security firms operating in Iraq and Afghanistan have come under
increasing scrutiny. The Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater USA
expelled from …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFqBA70
1YzAWSSbf4qzCq3m0uEJQD8S96U680

US, Iraq Negotiate Blackwater Expulsion
The Associated Press –
The talks about Blackwater’s future in Iraq flow from recommendations in an
Iraqi government report on the incident Sept. 16 when, Iraqi officials …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmrLJfB
ttBSuJiT0K5tiQvlB47dAD8S95V1G0

Washington Post Admits Good News From Iraq
By Mark Noonan
NEWS COVERAGE and debate about Iraq during the past couple of weeks have centered on the alleged abuses of private security firms like Blackwater USA. Getting such firms into a legal regime is vital, as we’ve said. …
www.blogsforbush.com/mt/archiv
es/2007/10/washington_post_4.html

Blackwater May Be Forced Out of Iraq
By MissLaura
Unfortunately, it appears that even if “Blackwater” was pulled out of Iraq, many of its employees would simply be transferred to its replacement, likely to be DynCorp – one of only two other mercenary companies used by the State …
feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/169870080/3965

14/10/07

Lawmaker says Rice interfered with Iraq inquiry 12 Oct 2007 A leading Democratic lawmaker [Henry Waxman, CA] on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq’s government and the activities of U.S. security firm Blackwater.
www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2542752620070925

reading notes on jeremy scahill’s book “blackwater”
By maruta_us(maruta_us)
Paul Behrends has been Blackwater’s lobbyist since 1998 and worked for the Alexander Strategy Group, which got caught up in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Joseph Schmitz was Inspector General of the Department of Defense from 2002 …
maruta-us.livejournal.com/58744.html

Blackwater’s US complex: mini war zone
By admin
The Alexander Strategy Group – Jack Abramoff’s former lobbying outfit – provided public-relations advice. Starr is defending Blackwater in the Fallujah case, and former Pentagon inspector general Joseph Schmitz joined the Prince Group …
www.eurofaerie.org/2007/10/14/bla
ckwaters-us-complex-mini-war-zone/

13/10/07

Privatizing Terror, Outsourcing Diplomacy
 
By Wajahat Ali
 
“Isn’t it interesting that the same government individual, who has been reported by one investigative committee to have made the initial decision for Blackwater to get its first contract, is the brother of the current State Department Inspector General, who was found, by the same committee, to have intervened in preventing an investigation into Blackwater’s illegal activity?”
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18546.htm

New Evidence That Blackwater Guards Took No Fire
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101307B.shtml
James Glanz, The New York Times, writes: “Fresh accounts of the Blackwater shooting last month, given by three rooftop witnesses and by American soldiers who arrived shortly after the gunfire ended, cast new doubt Friday on statements by Blackwater guards that they were responding to armed insurgents when Iraqi investigators say 17 Iraqis were killed at a Baghdad intersection.”

Blackwater withdrawal ends inquiry 12 Oct 2007 Blackwater USA has ended an inquiry into the private security contractor’s performance by withdrawing from an industry group that initiated the review after the company’s mercenaries were accused of killing 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/blackwater

New Evidence That Blackwater Guards Took No Fire 13 Oct 2007 Fresh accounts of the Blackwater shooting last month, given by three rooftop witnesses and by American soldiers who arrived shortly after the gunfire ended, cast new doubt Friday on statements by Blackwater guards that they were responding to armed insurgents when Iraqi investigators say 17 Iraqis were killed at a Baghdad intersection… American soldiers who arrived minutes later found shell casings from guns used normally by American mercenaries, as well as by the American military.
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/world
/middleeast/13blackwater.html

‘We’re f---ing security; we don’t have to answer to anybody.’ Blackwater Is Soaked —An arrogant attitude only adds fuel to the criticism. 15 Oct 2007 The colonel was furious. “Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers.” He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek

‘Blackwater twice came closer to killing me than did any of the insurgents or Al Qaeda.’ Blackwater and me: A love story it ain’t By Robert Bateman 12 Oct 2007 Every time one of those Blackwater convoys drives an Iraqi civilian off the road because the most important thing in the world is the protection of their “principal,” they make a new enemy for the United States. Every time they ram another car to clear the way (and, yes, I’ve seen them do that), so that they could maintain their own speed and thereby minimize their exposure to “improvised explosive devices,” they make another enemy. Every time they kill innocent civilians, or wound them, they make whole families of new enemies.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/
chi-oped1012contractoroct12,0,4399312.story

2008: Safari Tourism in Iraq
Posted: 12 Oct 2007 06:16 PM CDT
by Pablo Ouziel
Shortly after the occupation of Iraq in 2003, Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer issued an edict granting immunity to U.S. military and civilian personnel including employees of Blackwater USA, from criminal prosecution in Iraqi courts.
feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AtlanticFr
eePress/~3/169150009/index.php

Scapegoating Blackwater: U.S. Soldiers Commit War Crimes at One-Ninth the Price
Ted Rall
…Pundits and politicians are scapegoating Blackwater and other private security firms to help sell the continuation of the Iraq War. Some mercenaries shoot at anything that moves. They endanger locals with crazy practices like speeding down jammed highways on the wrong side. (Memo to Secy. Gates: Ban screenings of “Ronin.”) Rein in these Rambo wannabes or fire them, the argument goes, and Iraqi commuters will warm to their friendly public-sector replacements in the United States Armed Forces. A thousand roses will bloom. Soon we’ll be awash in that staple of postwar gratitude, Iraqi war brides. But it isn’t just Blackwater. Official U.S. soldiers are no less stupid or vicious or trigger-happy than their private counterparts…
www.uruknet.de/?p=37132

12/10/07

Six-Figure Bonuses Retain US Commandos —$150,000 Bonuses for ‘Top’ Mercenaries and War Criminals to Stay in Uniform 11 Oct 2007 The Pentagon has paid more than $100 million in bonuses to veteran Green Berets and Navy SEALs, reversing the flow of top mercenaries to the corporate world where security companies such as Blackwater USA are offering big salaries. Overall, more than 1,200 of the military’s most specialized personnel near or already eligible for retirement have opted for payments of up to $150,000 in return for staying in uniform several more years.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101175.html

Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, Soldiers Say —First U.S. Troops on Scene Found No Evidence of Shooting by Iraqis; Incident Called ‘Criminal’ 12 Oct 2007 Blackwater USA mercenaries shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons. The soldiers’ report of Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa… concluded that there was “no enemy activity involved” and described the shootings as a “criminal event.” Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater mercenaries killed 17 people. The soldiers’ accounts contradict Blackwater’s assertion [lies] that its guards were defending themselves after being fired upon by Iraqi police and gunmen.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101030.html

Blackwater faces war crimes inquiry after killings in Iraq 12 Oct 2007 The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its mercenaries in Baghdad.
news.independent.co.uk/world/m
iddle_east/article3052374.ece

Blackwater USA Is Sued by Iraqis 12 Oct 2007 A wounded survivor and relatives of three people killed on Sept. 16 when employees of the private security company [Waffen-SS] Blackwater USA opened fire on Iraqis in Baghdad sued the firm in an American court on Thursday. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, said it filed the suit, which charges that Blackwater and its affiliates violated United States law in committing “extrajudicial killings and war crimes.” [Haul Bush’s ass into court for same.]
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3052374.ece

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN BLACKWATER
By admin
Its lead counsel is Greenberg Traurig, the influential DC law firm that once employed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The lawyers for the families charge that Blackwater has continued its practice of stonewalling. …
www.funonwebsite.com/blood-is-thicker-than-blackwater/

Blackwater Faces War Crimes Inquiry
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101207C.shtml
Anne Penketh, reporting for The Independent, writes, “The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad.”

US: Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14730

US: U.S. Pays Steep Price for Private Security in Iraq
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14732

US: State Dept. Tallies 56 Shootings Involving Blackwater on Diplomatic Guard
Duty
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14728

IRAQ: Iraqis describe violence by private U.S. security guards
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14724

US: Lockheed Looks Beyond Weapon: Contractor Targets Growth With Services in
Strife-Torn Areas
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14707

US: U.S. probes Blackwater weapons shipments
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14703

Blackwater faces war crimes inquiry after killings in Iraq
Independent – London,England,UK
Ivana Vuco, the most senior UN human rights officer in Iraq, spoke
yesterday about the shootings by private security guards, which have
provoked outrage …
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3052374.ece

Private security contractors in Baghdad kill two Iraqi women
Kate Randall, WSWS
Two Iraqi women were killed Tuesday afternoon when their vehicle was fired on by a private security convoy in central Baghdad. The guards were from the Unity Resources Group, an Australian-owned company. Iraqi Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf told CNN that the mercenaries fired 19 bullets, killing two passengers in the front of a white sedan. Numerous witnesses recounted a violent scene in which the driver panicked, shots rang out and the convoy sped away. The shootings came amid mounting anger over the operations of private security contractors in Iraq. A September 16 massacre in Baghdad by Blackwater Security USA killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded at least 22 others. An Iraqi government probe determined that the killings by the Blackwater mercenaries were unprovoked and that they had “committed a deliberate crime and should be punished by law.”….
www.uruknet.de/?p=37086

11/10/07

Baghdad shooting victims sue Blackwater in U.S:
 
The Centre for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, said it filed the suit charging that Blackwater and its affiliates violated U.S. law in committing “extrajudicial killings and war crimes.”
snipurl.com/1s2cq

Brian Cook | Blackwater Nation
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101107C.shtml
Brian Cook, writing for In These Times, says, “Contracting soldiers of fortune is only one example of our recent philosophy of government.”

Blackwater Case Highlights Legal Uncertainties
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101107H.shtml
Alissa J. Rubin and Paul von Zielbauer, reporting for The New York Times, write: “If a private in the United States military fires on civilians, a clear body of law and a set of procedures exist for the military to use in investigating each incident and deciding if the evidence is sufficient to bring charges. But when private security contractors do the same, it is exceedingly unlikely that they will be called to account. A patchwork of laws that are largely untested, and practical obstacles to building cases in war zones, have all but insulated contractors from accountability.”

Baghdad shooting victims sue Blackwater 11 Oct 2007 An injured survivor and relatives of three Iraqis killed in Baghdad on September 16 when employees of private security company Blackwater USA opened fire on civilians sued the firm in U.S. court on Thursday. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, said it filed the suit charging that Blackwater and its affiliates violated U.S. law in committing “extrajudicial killings and war crimes.”
www.reuters.com/article/domes
ticNews/idUSN1135517520071011

State Dept. may phase out Blackwater [Yeah, right!] 11 Oct 2007 The State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling Blackwater USA’s contract or awarding it to another company in line with an Iraqi government demand, The Associated Press has learned. Blackwater has been paid as much as $1 billion for its work terrorism in Iraq.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_
on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_blackwater_13

Lieberman Has No Plans to Investigate Blackwater, Corrupt Iraq Contractors 10 Oct 2007 Joe Lieberman (I-Insane), who chairs the Senate committee responsible for government oversight, says he has no plans to investigate Blackwater and other Iraq war contractors accused of potentially criminal wrongdoing. Roll Call reports.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/10/
lieberman-has-no-plans-to_n_67825.html

U.S. Guards Kill 2 Iraqi Women in New Shooting 10 Oct 2007 Two women died here on Tuesday when their white Oldsmobile was riddled by automatic gunfire from mercenaries for a private security company, just weeks after a shooting by another company strained relations between the United States and Iraq. In the Tuesday shooting, as many as 40 bullets struck the car, killing the driver and the woman in the front seat on the passenger side.
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html

Security guards fired randomly: Iraq official 10 Oct 2007 Iraqi authorities on Wednesday accused guards working for a foreign security company [terrorists] of firing randomly when they killed two women in the latest incident involving mercenaries that has outraged Iraqis.
www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0554268320071010

Blackwater, Halliburton, et al.: A Primer on Crony Capitalism by …
By Daily Kos(Daily Kos)
Blackwater and Halliburton are just the most well known beneficiaries of the Bush administration’s policy of gutting the government’s capabilities to handle disasters and then handing out contracts to the private sector to step in. …
www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/11/11224/722

Privatizing war—Blackwater and others use political connections to …
Tower Timberjay News – Tower,MN,USA
Companies like Blackwater and Halliburton, both with close ties to the Bush
White House, have profited handsomely from the occupation and continue to
do so …
www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=3756

Mud, Fog, And Blackwater
By Rand Clifford
www.countercurrents.org/clifford111007.htm
CorpoMedia is simply the propaganda arm of CorpoGov, who won’t stop until the realization of CorpoWorld. A privatized world where the essentials of life will be available only to those who can afford them, and the idea of commonwealth is safe, deep in some landfill patrolled by Blackwater. A two-class world where the elite own virtually everything, live in self-contained fortresses patrolled by Blackwater, and travel only with Blackwater escorts. What’s to stop them now, other than Mother Nature? For a sneak preview of sorts, research what has really happened in New Orleans

TITAN EDITORIAL: Iraq unraveling with new contractor shooting
The Daily Titan – Fullerton,CA,USA
On the heels of information about Halliburton subsidiary Blackwater’s
involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan coming under the public eye, many
Americans are …
www.dailytitan.com/news/2007/10/11/Opinion/Titan.Editorial.
Iraq.Unraveling.With.New.Contractor.Shooting-3025978.shtml

Report: private security firms may lose contract in Iraq
Xinhua – China
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhuanet) — The US State Department may phase out or
limit the use of private security firms, including Blackwater USA, in Iraq
…
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/11/content_6862278.htm

Security guards fired randomly: Iraq official
Reuters Canada – Toronto,Ontario,Canada
URG has worked in Iraq since 2004 and its security escorts typically
include Iraqi guards with foreign team leaders. The bodies of the two
women, …
ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&st
oryID=2007-10-10T162618Z_01_L05542683_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-
IRAQ-COL.XML

10/10/07

The Murky Blackwater Story Fuels Iraq Coverage
By Mark Jurkowitz, PEJ
For years, journalists struggled to report on the activities the private security firms in Iraq. But last week, when the story of one such company moved from the streets of Baghdad to the hearing rooms on Capitol Hill, the media shed more light on the mystery.
www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/10/10/
the-murky-blackwater-story-fuels-iraq-coverage/

Burson-Marsteller To Help Blackwater out of Hot Water
Source: Associated Press, October 6, 2007
Blackwater USA has hired the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M) for crisis management, following a September 16 incident in which the company killed 17 Iraqi civilians, according to the Iraqi government’s investigation. “The State Department, which pays Blackwater hundreds of millions of dollars to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, has stringent rules barring the private security contractor from discussing with the media the details of its work,” reports AP. These constraints make it “difficult to repair a corporate image.” B-M’s Robert Tappan is working on the firm’s Blackwater account. Tappan manages B-M’s lobbying subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, and is a former State Department official. BKSH helped Blackwater founder and head Erik Prince prepare for his October 2 testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Public relations executives had conflicting advice for Blackwater. “They need to help people understand that as you attack Blackwater, you’re really attacking soldiers,” suggested Beau Phillips. But Richard Levick of Levick Strategic Communications warned that “figuratively wrapping your company in the American flag” doesn’t work so well when an unpopular war is involved.
salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?
v=2&c=rYT3CNFGaoDSxLahDKbxnQmsUVqe22Ju

Outside the law: Security contractors in Iraq must be accountable
Salt Lake Tribune – United States
In Iraq, the mercenaries of Blackwater USA shooting up Baghdad are employed
by the US State Department, and it’s little wonder that Iraqis hate them as
the …
origin.sltrib.com/ci_7129195

AP Blackwater account
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/
08/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Blackwater.php

Blackwater USA…Halliburton and KBR….
By Watch ‘n Wait(Watch ‘n Wait)
There have long been questions about the role of Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR, in providing support services to the military. The Iraq war has been fought with fewer active-duty troops than might have been expected, …
aggravated.blogspot.com/2007/10/
blackwater-usahalliburton-and-kbr.html