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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 2nd,
2008 - Blackwater Machine Gun Found in Raid on Iraqi Insurgents |
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Blackwater Machine Gun Found
in Raid on Iraqi Insurgents Incident Was Kept Secret and Raises More Questions About the Firm’s
Iraq Operations By Brian Ross ABC News October 2, 2008 An M4 machine gun sent to
Iraq by the Blackwater private security firm somehow disappeared from the
company's storage facility in Baghdad and was later discovered during a US
military operation, apparently against suspected insurgents, people familiar
with the situation have told ABC News. The incident, in 2006, has
been kept secret until now but it raised more questions about Blackwater's
operations in Iraq. Allegations that Blackwater
shipped weapons and silencers to Iraq without proper licensing are already
under investigation by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, according to
people familiar with the case. Blackwater says all of its
weapons "are shipped in accordance with U.S. export control
regulations." A separate federal grand
jury in Washington, D.C. is investigating a shooting incident involving
Blackwater guards that led to the deaths of 17 civilians. Indictments in that
case could come as soon as next week, officials say. Blackwater says it is
cooperating with the grand jury investigation and has said that its guards
acted in self-defense during the incident. The State Department renewed
Blackwater's one-billion dollar private security contract earlier this year,
despite the grand jury investigations. In the case of the missing
machine gun, Army investigators said the "Bushmaster M4" was
discovered in March 2006 by US troops during an unspecified military
operation. Blackwater apparently had no
idea the machine gun had gone missing and possibly ended up in the hands of
insurgents fighting US troops, according to documents reviewed by ABC News. In a statement, Blackwater
said "equipment has been stolen by insurgents" in some instances,
but that "every loss has been reported to the relevant U.S.
authorities." But that was not the case
with the M4, according to internal documents. Blackwater's inventory
records showed no transfer of the weapon after it arrived in Baghdad, and it
was listed as still in the weapons pool. US soldiers reportedly found
the weapon was in surprisingly good condition when it was recovered. Criminal investigators for
the US Army turned the weapon over to Blackwater. A spokesman for the Army
CID said no further investigation was conducted as to whether the weapon had
been stolen or sold on the black market by someone with access to the
Blackwater facility. The Bushmaster, according to
the company's website, is one of the "world's most popular military and
law enforcement carbine models." It is outfitted with a flash suppressor
and, in military models, can fire three round bursts or fully automatic. Copyright © 2008 ABC News
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