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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 9th,
2007 - Iraq Wants Blackwater to Pay $ 136 Mln Compensation |
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Iraq Wants Blackwater to Pay
$ 136 Mln Compensation By Reuters October 9, 2007 Baghdad - The Iraqi
government wants U.S. security firm Blackwater to pay $8 million in
compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed in a shooting last
month, a senior government source said on Tuesday. The source said the figure
was roughly in line with compensation paid by the Libyan government to the
families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing over
Scotland. "We want them to pay $8
million for each family," the source told Reuters. "The same level
as the compensation for the Lockerbie victims." Blackwater, which has a U.S.
State Department contract to protect its diplomats in Baghdad, has been told
of the demand, the source said. It was unclear what
Blackwater's response was and the North Carolina-based firm did not
immediately respond to e-mailed questions from Reuters. In Washington, State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined comment on how much compensation
its contractor had been asked to pay for the Sept. 16 shootings. "Obviously, the issue
of what some refer to as bereavement payments - or a number of different
names for them - is an issue of some sensitivity that we are taking a look
at," McCormack told reporters. "It is an issue that
commonly turns up when you have security incidents in which there is a loss
of life. As with other previous incidents throughout Iraq, civilian or
military, we are taking a look at the issue." There are four separate
investigations into Blackwater's actions in Iraq and McCormack cautioned
people about "jumping to conclusions" on the private security
contractor's conduct. Far more often, he said
there was a loss of innocent life from the actions of al Qaeda and other
extremist groups in Iraq than security contractors working for the U.S.
government. Iraqi government spokesman
Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday the investigation set up by Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki had found Blackwater "deliberately killed" the 17 people
in the Sept. 16 shooting in western Baghdad. Blackwater has said its
guards responded lawfully to a hostile threat against a U.S. State Department
convoy it was guarding but Dabbagh said the investigation also had found
there was no evidence they had come under fire. The incident caused outraged
among Iraqis who see security contractors like Blackwater as private armies
that act with impunity. Blackwater employs about
1,000 people in Iraq. Its founder, former U.S. Navy SEAL Erik Prince, told a
congressional hearing last week his men had come under small-arms fire and
"returned fire at threatening targets." U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice last Friday ordered tighter controls on Blackwater,
including putting cameras on the company's vehicles and ensuring diplomatic
security agents accompany and monitor each convoy. A Libyan intelligence agent
was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie,
which killed 270 people including 189 Americans. In March 2003, Libya reached
a political settlement with the United States and Britain to accept civil
responsibility for the bombing, with Libya agreeing to pay about $2.7 billion
in total compensation. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSN09422747 |