I'm not being sarcastic nor am I being accusatory. Although Blackwater has detained US soldiers at gunpoint and there has been reports of them 'taking shots' at soldiers, I've seen no direct evidence to suggest the mercenary private contractors had murdered uniformed US military personnel. But it's also not quite that simple…
Thinking back to the infamous killing, burning, and hanging of four Blackwater hired-guns in Fallujah, you can see how cost-cutting and personal vendettas led to the deaths of these four operators, followed by some 36 US soldiers and an estimated 600 civilians in the subsequent military operation to pacify Fallujah. Incidents like this can radicalize the local elements and was create more terrorist than we are supposedly killing. This timeline solely of events that we know about at Mother Jones hints that in areas where Blackwater was operating, they seemingly did everything possible to infuriate the locals.
House Oversight And Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) reveals in a memo that of the 195 “escalation of force” incidents Blackwater has been involved in since 2005, Blackwater forces fired first in over 160 of them:
According to the Blackwater incident reports received by the Committee, Blackwater personnel have participated in 195 incidents in Iraq from January 1,2005, through September 12, 2007 , that involved firearms discharges by Blackwater personnel. This is an average of 1.4 incidents per week. In 32 of those incidents, Blackwater personnel were returning fire after an attack, while on 163 occasions (84% of the shooting incidents), Blackwater personnel were the first to fire.
Most troubling of all is the US State Department's guarantee of immunity to the 17 Blackwater contractors involved at the most recent and discussed event, the shooting at Nissur Square. The State Department has known of issues with Blackwater since 2005, yet Condi continues to provide them cover. Diplomatic moves such as this which stymie the US Military, the Iraqi Government, and our own Justice Department from investigating and further damage our credibility at a crucial time. I'm puzzled as to why we are granting so much trust to a company that has been accused of tax evasion, murder, war crimes, and gun running…
Tags: Department of Justice, Henry Waxman, Iraq, Iraqi Government, Nissur Square, Oversight And Government Reform, U.S. military, United States, US State Department
