doubt the american government would find these blackwater sniper mercenaries NOT guilty? let's just say for the sake of argument they WERE found guilty....well if THAT did occur (which it NEVER would have) king george would have overruled everything and declared them sin-less JUST like scooter (who, to the best of my knowledge didn't actually pull a trigger on a rifle and blow off the top of someones head)
How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards
Witnesses Call Shooting From Justice Ministry Unprovoked, But State Dept. Cleared Its Security Team After a Brief Probe
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD -- Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague's side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony.
Eight people who responded to the shootings -- including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander -- and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." The media network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation." .............
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I take pause when I read this story. First, because it's all eye witness accounts. Police investigators today all but discount eye witnesses. Not necessarily because they're dishonest, but because people think they see things that in fact they have not. (The case of Jean Charles de Menezes being shot on the London Underground is a good case of this.)
Second, I pause because Blackwater stands by their work. Two years ago they ASKED the State Department to install cameras in all their vehicles; they believe a video record will bear out their version of events. (Incidentally, State turned down the request, so we still don't have much evidence about what goes on in Iraq. See http://blackblawg.blogspot.com/2007/10/state-department-denied-blackwaters.html.)
Finally, a note on Blackwater's contract with the State Department. While trawling the blogosphere I recently came across someone rhetorically asking 'Who drives against traffic in a traffic circle?' A fair question. The State Department contract with Blackwater, which is about 1,000 pages long and extensively detailed, stipulate that State Department convoys travel quickly and drive aggressively. Furthermore, no State Department official ever travels with less than three vehicles and they're always the biggest stuff they can find, with those obnoxious "Warning: Stay Back" signs and all of that.
This is in contrast to the CIA, which drives around Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, with contract security, all the time, but doesn't run into trouble. Why? Because they're riding in unmarked beat-up pickups and following traffic patterns. The difference, surprisingly, is not the contractors - both employ them - but the agency that hires them and the terms of the contracts.
It's sad to think that the State Department officially has the lead for public diplomacy. Who most heavily opposed the State Department terms under which Blackwater is employed? The Department of Defense (which also employs contractors, but again, under different terms), folks who actually know a thing or two about public diplomacy, even though it's not their primary duty.
The State Department contract also stipulated that diplomatic security guards must wear wrap-around sunglasses (a cultural faux pas in the Arabic world) and prohibited facial hair (another cultural faux pas). Just what were these State Department boys learning at Georgetown?
Lest you think I'm making this up, the Christian Science Monitor recently ran a story along similar lines. It's definitely worth reading: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1102/p09s01-coop.html.
aaron, i know you're not making the stuff up. i KNOW NO ONE who is in iraq (or afghanistan) was aware (initially) of sunnis and shiites. i know NO ONE knew the customs of that part of the world. no one knew what was a faux pas, an insult or what an acceptable hello was. slowly they (well we) learned a FEW things but certainly not enough. i know who hired blackwater and i know what their job is (jobs are). i also know what a mercernary is. i cannot fathom what it takes to sign up to become one though. i hope i never will either. i do thank you for stopping by as well.
leon please take your rapture crap elsewhere. i don't want it here
oh aaron, i also know eyewitness accounts are NOTORIOUSLY unreliable. however, i also tend to believe many in blackwater (not all) are trigger happy war mongers
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