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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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November 15th,
2007 - Blackwater Guard Gives Account of Shootout in Iraq |
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Blackwater Guard
Gives Account of Shootout in Iraq By Agence France Presse November 15, 2007 A guard from the US security
firm Blackwater says his motorcade came under fire and that he feared for his
life in a deadly shootout in Iraq, ABC television reported on Wednesday. Contradicting reports that
the Blackwater motorcade in Baghdad did not come under attack in the
September 16 incident which left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, the guard alleged
he opened fire on a car that drove towards his team and failed to heed
warnings to stop. He said that then, after
coming under fire, he shot at a shack behind the approaching car, at a man
with an AK-47 rifle pointed at the motorcade, at a bus which was the source
of gunfire, and at two other cars deemed as threats. "As our motorcade
pulled into the intersection, I noticed a white four-door sedan driving
directly at our motorcade from the west bound lane," he said in his
statement. "I and others were
yelling and using hand signals for the car to stop and the driver looked
directly at me and kept moving toward our motorcade. Fearing for my life and
the lives of my teammates, I engaged the driver and stopped the threat,"
he said. Identified only by the first
name "Paul," the Blackwater guard recounted the shooting in a sworn
statement to State Department investigators three days after the incident,
which ABC posted on its website. His account differs
dramatically from that of the FBI, which the New York Times reported found in
its investigation that 14 of the 17 deaths were unjustified, the New York
Times said. The Iraqi government in
October said that an investigation into the incident concluded the US
motorcade had not come under any attack and that the Blackwater guards had
opened fire without cause. "Paul" insisted
the group was shot at after he first fired at the oncoming car. "At the same moment, I
started receiving small arms fire from the shack approximately fifty meters
behind the car. I then engaged the individuals where the muzzle flashes came
from." When a person in uniform
started pushing the car toward the motorcade, the guard said he shouted and
shot at the vehicle until it stopped. He then heard on his radio
that the motorcade's command vehicle was down, "and that we were still
taking fire," he said. As the command vehicle was
towed, he said he saw a man with his AK-47 "oriented" at the rear
gunner in a nearby vehicle in the motorcade. "Fearing for the
gunner's life, I engaged the individual and stopped the threat." With gunfire allegedly
coming from a red bus stopped at the intersection, he said he opened fire on
the shooters. Then when he was told on his radio that gunfire was coming from
another car, he fired at the "suspect vehicle" as he again was
"fearing for my life." Later, a red car was backing
up towards the motorcade, and the guard - fearing it was a possible car
bombing attack - again opened fire, he said. "As we were going over
the curb, I noticed several civilians and I was motioning, and screaming that
they get down and find cover," he said. "We returned to the
International Zone without further incident," the statement said. The guard said during his
time in Iraq he had made "numerous split-second shoot-don't shoot
decisions." He said he had passed qualification courses required by the
State Department to carry automatic weapons. According to the statement,
the man served in the US army in Bosnia between 1992 and 2002 and was
deployed to Iraq in 2004. He later left the military and began working for
Blackwater in 2006. Copyright © 2007 Agence
France Presse. All rights reserved External link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071115/pl_afp/iraqunrestussecurityblackwaterguard |