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Confirmation and picture of eye witness account ... تأكيد الشهادة وصورة الجريح...Wounded Iraqis: 'No one did anything' to provoke Blackwater September 19, 2007

The real story of Baghdad's Bloody Sunday September 21, 2007

"Please, please, I tell myself, leave Orwell out of it. Find some other, fresher way to explain why "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is dependent upon killer mercenaries. Or why the "democratically elected government" of "liberated" Iraq does not explicitly have the legal power to expel Blackwater USA from its land or hold any of the 50,000 private contractor troops that the U.S. government has brought to Iraq accountable for their deadly actions." The Blackwater Fiasco September 19, 2007

"Traffic officer Ali Khalaf, who was on duty on Sunday last week in Al-Yarmukh, in the mainly Sunni Mansour area of west Baghdad, told AFP he had witnessed the entire incident.
"The American convoy arrived... and as usual I stopped the traffic to allow them to pass," Khalaf said.
As they often do, guards from the US firm -- the largest private security operators in Iraq -- hurled water bottles at cars to stop traffic as they drove through.
"Then without reason, they opened fire. Four shots, in the air, aiming just above the cars," Khalaf said.
"But one of the bullets struck a man in his car. I went to his aid but he was already dead, his body was slumped on the dashboard.
"His wife was then killed before my eyes by a bullet that hit her in the head."
Khalaf said he ran to take shelter inside his little hut as the gunfire continued.
The car with the dead couple "continued to move, with its doors open and the bodies inside -- like a phantom vehicle."
"The Americans fired at everything that moved, with a machine gun and even with a grenade launcher. There was panic. Everyone tried to flee. Vehicles tried to make U-turns to escape." Witness tells of carnage in Baghdad shooting September 23, 2007

"The State Department allowed Blackwater's heavily armed teams to operate without an Interior Ministry license, even after the requirement became standard language in Dfence Department security contracts. The company was not subject to the military's restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies on the battlefield. The confrontation between the Iraqi government and Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., has illuminated the uneven and largely dysfunctional regulatory system intended to govern tens of thousands of hired guns operating in Iraq.
A one-paragraph subsection to a 2004 edict issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct U.S. occupation government, granted contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process. This edict is still in effect (See Paul Bremer's Order 17 below)". Where Military Rules Don't Apply September 20, 2007.

"The banning of Blackwater makes it impossible to ignore the fact that Iraq is not in charge of Iraq. We are. Iraq's Interior Ministry announced that authorities have cancelled Blackwater's licence to operate in the country and intend to prosecute the company for a shooting that killed eight Iraqis.
The New York Times account added this disclaimer in the second paragraph:
"But under the rules that govern private security contractors here, the Iraqis do not have the legal authority to do so."
Who says? The occupying Americans. The Coalition Provisional Authority issued a "law" when they supposedly handed over sovereignty to Iraq--Order No. 17 [see below]--that gave Blackwater and other US contractors immunity from Iraqi law. How clever of the American pro-consul.
The basic reality in wars of occupation--see the history of colonialism--is that a country can never regain true sovereignty so long as the occupying army remains on the scene, able to impose its will by force of arms. That of course is Iraq's situation, no matter what the White House says or Americans wish to believe. Iraq will not become a sovereign nation until the US troops depart. Maybe this why polls show 76 percent of Iraqis want the US out. " The Puppet Talks Back September 18, 2007

"Section 2: Iraqi Legal Process
1) Unless provided otherwise herein, the MNF, the CPA, Foreign Liaison Missions, their
Personnel, property, funds and assets, and all International Consultants shall be
immune from Iraqi legal process.
Section 4: Contractors
3) Contractors shall be immune from Iraqi legal process with respect to acts performed
by them pursuant to the terms and conditions of a Contract or any sub-contract
thereto."
Paul Bremer's COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY ORDER NUMBER 17, June 27, 2004

(Correction: We previously thought the occupier's CPA web site on Iraq has been shut down in June 2006 as per their anouncements. Apparently, it is still up!! It may have finally hit them that, the occuption lis asted longer than their expected 2 years (aka Iraqi Resistance). The above Order (and all other orders) can be veiwed also at http://www.cpa-iraq.org/regulations/#Orders).

"Its [Blackwater's] largest obtainable government contract is with the State Department, for providing security to US diplomats and facilities in Iraq. That contract began in 2003 with the company's $21 million no-bid deal to protect Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer. Blackwater has guarded the two subsequent US ambassadors, John Negroponte and Zalmay Khalilzad, as well as other diplomats and occupation offices. Its forces have protected more than ninety Congressional delegations in Iraq, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the latest government contract records, since June 2004 Blackwater has been awarded $750 million in State Department contracts alone. It is currently engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign to be sent into Darfur as a privatized peacekeeping force. "
Bush's Shadow Army March 15, 2007

"There are about 186,000 so-called private contractors operating alongside 165,000 troops . The US military is the junior partner in this coalition. This is a shadow war"
“Blackwater” Author describes the US civilian Militia Group’s relationship with BushCo. “Shadow War” September 17, 2007

"Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'
Dated 7 March and bearing the name of Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists 'need to get creamed, and it's fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.' "
Fury at 'shoot for fun' memo April 3, 2005

"KH: Why would the U.S. want to support these militias?
RR: It's an easy way to produce immediate statistical successes on the ground, a decrease in attacks on American soldiers. And this is a long-term strategy. Petraeus came in with Negroponte with the so-called "Salvador Option" for Iraq, arming death squads to kill insurgents as the Reagan administration did in the 1980s in El Salvador. In 2004 he incorporated all of the Shia militias into the Iraqi security forces and basically created Shia death squads and secret torture prisons we've all heard stories of. Now they're funding Sunni militias and Sunni death squads".
U.S. Is Paying Off Iraq's Worst War Criminals in Attempt to Ward Off Attacks September 18, 2007

These are some of the previous postings here on these war profiteering criminals:

Privatized Warfare in Iraq May 23, 2007

American insidious foreign policy, coming home March 30, 2007 (see this related item Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans September 10, 2005)

'Democracy' galore in Iraq (Hired Guns) October 31, 2006

Bloodied cash for killer mercenaries February 14, 2006

Tens of thousands of private security war criminals roam Iraq

posted by Imad Khadduri  # 7:59 AM