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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 4th,
2008 - Blackwater Shooting Highlights a U.S., Iraq Culture Clash |
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Blackwater Shooting
Highlights a U.S., Iraq Culture Clash Relatives of those killed in September by U.S. contractors are
insulted by the compensation offers. In their justice system, an apology
comes first. By Borzou Daragahi & Raheem Salman Los Angeles Times May 4, 2008 Baghdad - He refused to take
the Americans' blood money. Mohammed Hafidh Abdul-Razzaq
had been summoned by U.S. Embassy officials who wanted to make amends for the
killing of his 10-year-old son. The boy died during a shooting involving
employees of Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. security firm. Deputy Chief of Mission
Patricia A. Butenis told him that she was sorry for what had happened,
Abdul-Razzaq recalled. She gave him a sealed envelope. It had his name
written on it. Abdul-Razzaq pushed it away. "I told her I refuse to
receive any amount," the auto parts dealer said. "My father is a
tribal sheik, and we're not used to taking any amount unless the concerned
will come and confess and apologize. Then we will talk about
compensation." In September, Blackwater
contractors protecting an embassy mission killed 17 Iraqis, including
Abdul-Razzaq's boy, and injured at least two dozen in a widely publicized
incident in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Blackwater officials have said
their workers feared they were under attack; Iraqi officials and witnesses
called it a massacre. U.S. officials say the
investigation of the shooting continues, though they have been tight-lipped
about details. An FBI report is due this year. In April, the State Department
renewed Blackwater's contract for another year, a move that enraged many
Iraqis affected by the killings. Far from bringing justice
and closure, the investigations underline the frictions between Americans and
Iraqis that have plagued the five-year U.S. presence. The shooting and its
aftermath show the deep disconnect between the American legal process and the
traditional culture of Iraq, between the courtroom and the tribal diwan. U.S. officials painstakingly
examine evidence and laws while attempting to satisfy victims' claims through
cash compensation. But traditional Arab society
values honor and decorum above all. If a man kills or badly injures someone
in an accident, both families convene a tribal summit. The perpetrator admits
responsibility, commiserates with the victim, pays medical expenses and other
compensation, all over glasses of tea in a tribal tent. "Our system is so
different from theirs," said David Mack, a former U.S. diplomat who has
served in American embassies in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and the
United Arab Emirates. "An honor settlement has to be both financial and
it has to have the right symbolism. We would never accept their way of doing
things, and they don't accept ours." Citing confidentiality
requirements, U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about the Blackwater
investigations. Iraqi victims are the only witnesses to the behind-the-scenes
legal process who are willing to talk. Their accounts of the investigation
jibed individually as well as with the typical narrative of U.S. criminal
investigation. Under U.S. military doctrine,
rules of engagement allow U.S. soldiers and contractors in a combat zone to
defend themselves if they fear they are under attack. The rules tighten and
loosen as conditions on the ground shift. The Nisoor Square incident took
place at the end of what had been one of the worst periods of violence in
Iraq. The Blackwater team says it
was justified in firing to protect itself and the State Department officials
it was guarding. Speaking before Congress, Blackwater owner Erik Prince said
the team was doing its duty in the face of an onslaught, and he described the
square as "a terrorist crime scene." Prince offended those who
say they were simply going about their day's chores. Baraa Sadoon Ismail, 29, a
father of two, was severely injured in the gunfire while driving to a
relative's house. Doctors told him he had 60 fragments of bullet lodged in
his abdomen. He said he had undergone surgery to remove three pieces that
threatened major organs. He has met with eight
committees of investigators so far, including twice with the FBI. Teams of
three or four people would sit in a room with him. They would show him an
aerial map on a table. They asked how and when and where the shooting
started. Where was this victim? Where were you? Several times he asked about
his car, which was shot up in the incident. Investigators told him it was
still needed for the investigation. They wanted to know whether he planned to
ask for compensation. He was miffed. "I want you to feel
that Iraqi life is precious," he said he told them. Physician Haitham Rubaie
doesn't want money either. What he wants above all is justice for his wife, a
doctor, and his son, a medical student, who died. He rebuffed attempts to have
a donation to an orphanage made in his family's name. No amount of cash, no
matter how well-intentioned, would sweep this under the rug. "I don't want any help
from you," he said he told them. "If you want to help the orphans,
you give them money yourselves." If North Carolina-based
Blackwater wanted to negotiate, it would have to apologize, publicly and
loudly, he said. "Let them apologize by
saying those were innocent people," Rubaie said. "Then we will be
ready for understanding." Rubaie couldn't believe that
with the investigation still going on, the State Department would renew the
Blackwater contract. "Such decisions abuse
us," he said. "I appeal to the American ambassador: Just as he
considers the safety of the American diplomats, he must also consider the
safety of the Iraqi citizen in an equal way." Abdul-Razzaq remembered
rushing his son to a hospital, and being told an hour later that he was dead.
At a police station two days later, U.S. investigators apologized while
emphasizing that Blackwater personnel worked for a private company, not the
U.S. military, he said. "I told them that if
they didn't fall under [the military's] protection, I would have killed them
with my teeth right here on the street," he said. They pulled out an aerial
map of Nisoor Square. Days went by. Nothing
happened. A day before the Oct. 12 Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the
holy month of Ramadan, Abdul-Razzaq got a call from an Iraqi official asking
him to meet with FBI investigators. He resisted. He was planning to visit his
son's grave. But the official pressed
him: The FBI had come all the way from the U.S. and would be there only a few
days. Abdul-Razzaq relented. They wanted distances and
positions. They asked about his height, weight, skin and eye color, his job,
his customers, his employees and number of children. They asked about exit
wounds, how his son was injured. The rage welled up. "It was a
massacre," Abdul-Razzaq said of the incident. "It is as if they
came with the sole intent of eradicating all -- women and children, they had
to die." The investigators requested
his car to examine bullet fragments. He towed it to an entrance of the Green
Zone, the U.S.-protected administrative headquarters of Baghdad, and invited
a CNN team to film the transfer. A few weeks later, he was
summoned to another meeting at the U.S. Embassy with Butenis. He said she
asked whether he wanted to press charges or receive compensation, how much he
wanted and what terms he demanded for a settlement. "I told them I didn't
expect to be compensated a large sum," he recalled. "No amount of
money would return my son. I told them I would feel better only if I knew the
people responsible for this crime are brought to trial." Two months ago, an
intermediary on behalf of Blackwater again offered him money as a goodwill
gesture, he said. Again he refused. Two days later, he said, he
met with a Blackwater representative. The man offered him $20,000,
Abdul-Razzaq said, "not as compensation, but as a gift."
Abdul-Razzaq said he refused again. "If you write out an
apology for me and confess your crime," he recalled saying, "I will
give you a similar paper with my signature promising not to press
charges." He said the official told
him such an arrangement was impossible. His company's lawyers in America
would never sign off on such a proposal. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-blackwater4-2008may04,0,4800442.story |