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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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April 1st,
2009 - US Replaces Blackwater for Some Iraq Security 1st news article from
the Associated Press |
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US Replaces Blackwater for Some
Iraq Security By Matthew Lee Associated Press April 1, 2009 Washington - The State
Department said Wednesday it has signed the Virginia-based private security
firm Triple Canopy to take over protecting U.S. diplomats on the ground in
Iraq from Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe. Blackwater, which earlier this
year changed its name to Xe (pronounced "Zee"), had come under
heavy criticism for its alleged role in a fatal gun battle in Iraq. The Iraqi
government refused to renew the firm's license to operate in the country. State Department spokesman
Gordon Duguid said the government gave the job to Triple Canopy on Tuesday
following a decision made in January not to renew Blackwater's contract. "The department awarded
Triple Canopy the ground task order for protective security details in
Baghdad after a thorough evaluation of proposals from each company that had
submitted bids," Duguid told reporters. He said the transition
between Triple Canopy and Xe would begin immediately but that Xe's contract
does not expire until May. Duguid could not immediately
provide details about the amount of Triple Canopy's contract or its duration,
although he said the task order includes only ground protection. He said the
department had not yet determined how to handle replacing the air support
that Blackwater had been providing for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. Triple Canopy, based in
Herndon, Va., is one of three private companies, along with North
Carolina-based Xe and Virginia-based Dyncorp, that have handled security for
U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The State Department
informed Xe on Jan. 29 that its contract for Iraq would not be renewed
because of the Iraqi government refusal to grant the company a new license. The Iraqi decision was made
amid lingering outrage over a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor
Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. That incident strained
relations between Washington and Baghdad and fueled the anti-American
insurgency in Iraq, where many Iraqis saw the bloodshed as a demonstration of
U.S. brutality and arrogance. Five former Blackwater guards have pleaded not
guilty to federal charges in the United States that include 14 counts of
manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gztXTGAKUSeJLN3dRjWpSUjkQ_ugD979Q2KG1 No forensic match for ammo
in Blackwater shooting By Matt Apuzzo Associated Press April 1, 2009 Washington - FBI scientists
were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns
carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory
reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the
crowded intersection. Five Blackwater guards face
manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left
17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the
contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and
grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by
insurgents. The FBI lab reports,
obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal
case, allow for both possibilities. Investigators recovered
.30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck and around Baghdad's
Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from
.30-caliber Blackwater machine guns. The AK-47 rifles favored by
many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets. Nobody disputes that
Blackwater guards fired, but accounts vary on whether the convoy of armored
trucks was attacked. Iraqi witnesses and some members of the Blackwater
convoy told authorities they saw no insurgent gunfire. Radio logs show
Blackwater guards repeatedly reporting incoming fire during a hectic eight
minutes in which one truck was disabled. The government's case does
not hinge on whether Blackwater was fired on, since prosecutors say the
guards violated their rules of engagement even if they did take fire. But any
evidence that Blackwater was attacked would help the guards argue they fired
in self-defense. The inconclusive lab reports
do little to sort out the discrepancies. The documents do not prove the
government's argument that Blackwater was unprovoked. Nor do they prove that
Blackwater was attacked. Instead, the reports reveal
the difficulty FBI agents faced in an investigation that began two weeks
after the shooting. In the U.S., investigators
would analyze bullets from the dead bodies. But Muslims typically bury their
dead within 24 hours, so when the FBI arrived, such analysis was impossible.
Iraqi autopsy reports, if they are done, are not usually as thorough as those
in the United States. The FBI lab reports give no indication that
investigators recovered any bullets from dead bodies. Neither the Justice Department
nor attorneys for the Blackwater guards would discuss the lab reports. Further complicating things,
investigators found Yugoslavian and Chinese cartridge cases in the square.
Neither U.S. troops nor Blackwater use such ammunition. But shootings are not
uncommon in Nisoor Square and those shells could have been left behind before
or after the Blackwater shooting. "Even if they didn't
find anything except Blackwater cartridge casings, because of how insecure
the scene is out there, people could have come in and picked up anything they
wanted," said Michael Haag, a forensic scientist and instructor who
reviewed the lab reports for the AP. FBI scientists also tried to
match the bullets to Blackwater ammunition by analyzing and comparing metal
compositions. Scientists determined the bullets and bullet fragments
recovered from the scene probably came from "several different
sources." But that, too, is an
inconclusive finding, Haag said. Even ammunition pulled from the same box can
have different metal compositions. So, the lab's finding does not prove
whether Blackwater was alone in firing, he said. Gerald Styers, the former
president of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners, said the FBI
reports show that while TV scientists solve shootings in an hour, real
science is rarely so easy. "TV tells a different
story than real life," he said. "It's very difficult to compare
badly damaged materials." The Blackwater guards are
scheduled to go on trial early next year and the results will be closely
watched in Baghdad, where Iraqi authorities wanted to prosecute the case. The Obama administration
says it will not renew Blackwater's security contract next month. The Moyock,
N.C.-based company recently changed its name to Xe and announced a management
overhaul. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iN98dxyAqNIVZ151pKs7_shPIL4wD979KU1G3 Falsehoods in Iraq shooting
unpunished By Matt Kelley USA Today April 1, 2009 Washington - The top
security official at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq refused to punish Blackwater
security guards for making false statements about an unjustified 2005
shooting in Baghdad because he didn't want to lower the morale of those
contracted to work security, according to newly released State Department
records. Investigators from the
department's Diplomatic Security Service concluded that four guards were not
justified in spraying an Iraqi's car with more than 70 bullets, according to
reports released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by USA
TODAY. The fate of the car's driver was unknown because the security convoy
left after the shooting. The previously unreported
Feb. 16, 2005, shooting occurred more than two years before a highly publicized
incident in which Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in
September 2007. The incident provides
another example of lax State Department oversight that an independent federal
panel cited after the 2007 shootings, which resulted in manslaughter charges
against six Blackwater guards. One pleaded guilty and five pleaded not guilty
and are awaiting trial. State Department spokeswoman
Grace Moe said in an e-mail that she could not comment on the 2005 incident
because it was one of "fewer than 10" in Iraq the department has
discussed with Justice Department officials. Justice Department spokesman
Dean Boyd also declined to comment. The State Department told
Blackwater to refer all questions to the department, said Anne Tyrrell, a
spokeswoman for the firm's parent company, which in February changed its name
to Xe Services. The 2005 shooting occurred
when a four-vehicle convoy was returning to the U.S. Embassy from the Iraqi
Ministry of Interior. Four guards told investigators they felt threatened by
an approaching car on a parallel road that ignored orders to stop. The investigators' final
memo in June 2005 said several guards "failed to justify their
actions" and "provided false statements," including a claim
that bullet holes in a Blackwater vehicle were from a passenger in the Iraqi
car. The evidence showed a guard accidentally shot his vehicle, investigators
concluded. When the investigators
presented their findings to John Frese, the embassy's top security official,
he said he would not punish anyone because "any disciplinary actions
would be deemed as lowering the morale" security guards contracted by
the State Department, Special Agent Matthew McCormack wrote. Frese
"considers this investigation closed," he said. Frese, who is retired,
declined to comment when reached at his Wisconsin home because he thought it
was "not appropriate" to talk about a 4-year-old incident. Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass.,
chair of the House Oversight Committee's foreign affairs panel, said
"there's blame to go around everywhere" in this and other incidents
reviewed by his subcommittee. "The State Department
certainly needed better resources and training to do their job," he
said. "Blackwater obviously made mistakes and needed better training as
well." The State Department, which
has paid Xe Services more than $1.2 billion since 2004 for security in Iraq,
said in January it would not renew the firm's contract when it expires in
May. State Department spokesman
Gordon Duguid said Wednesday that Virginia-based Triple Canopy would take
over Xe Services' operations in Baghdad and central Iraq. Blackwater, which was
founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, began working in Iraq after the 2003
U.S. invasion. It has been protecting State Department diplomats and visiting
dignitaries, such as members of Congress, in and around the Iraqi capital
since then. The firm won praise from the
State Department for successfully preventing any diplomats under its
protection from being killed. But the 2007 shootings strained U.S. relations
with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who called the
incident an affront to Iraq's sovereignty. Since the shootings, the
department sent 45 more diplomatic security agents to Iraq to oversee
security guards' work, installed video cameras in the guards' vehicles and
tightened its rules for the use of deadly force, the State Department's
inspector general reported in December. The use of deadly force by
all State Department private security guards plummeted, from 89 incidents in
2007 to just one in the first 10 months of 2008, the report said. External link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-04-01-blackwater_N.htm |