Iraqis outraged as Blackwater case thrown out

In this Oct. 2007 image, Mohammed Hafiz holds a picture of his 10-year-old son, Ali Mohammed, who was killed when guards employed by Blackwater allegedly opened fire at Nisoor Square in Baghdad. Iraqis responded with bitterness and outrage Jan. 1 at aU.S. judge’s decision to throw out a case against Blackwater guards accused in the killings.

BAGHDAD — Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge’s decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.

The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge’s decision as proof of what they’d long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law.

“There is no justice,” said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. “I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards who committed a massacre in Nisoor Square.”

What happened on Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007, raised Iraqi concerns about their sovereignty because Iraqi officials were powerless to do anything to the Blackwater employees who had immunity from local prosecution. The shootings also highlighted the degree to which the U.S. relied on private contractors during the Iraq conflict.

Blackwater had been hired by the Department of State to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The guards said they were ambushed at a busy intersection in western Baghdad, but U.S. prosecutors and many Iraqis said the Blackwater guards let loose an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades.

“Investigations conducted by specialized Iraqi authorities confirmed unequivocally that the guards of Blackwater committed the crime of murder and broke the rules by using arms without the existence of any threat obliging them to use force,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement Friday.

He did not elaborate on what steps the government planned to take to pursue the case.

Are America’s Mercenary Armies Really Drug Cartels?

News out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India reports massive corruption at the highest levels of government, corruption that could only be financed with drug money. In Afghanistan, the president’s brother is known to be one of the biggest drug runners in the world.

In Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari is found with 60 million in a Swiss Bank and his Interior Minister is suspected of ties to American groups involved in paramilitary operations, totally illegal that could involve nothing but drugs, there is no other possibility.

Testimony in the US that our government has used “rendition” flights to transport massive amounts of narcotics to Western Europe and the United States has been taken in sworn deposition.

American mercenaries in Pakistan are hundreds of miles away from areas believed to be hiding terrorists, involved in “operations” that can’t have anything whatsoever to do with any Central Intelligence Agency contract. These mercenaries aren’t in Quetta, Waziristan or Federally Administered Tribal Areas supporting our troops, they are in Karachi and Islamabad playing with police and government officials and living the life of the fatted calf.

The accusations made are that Americans in partnership with corrupt officials, perhaps in all 3 countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, are involved in assassinations, “unknown” criminal activities and are functioning like criminal gangs.

There is no oil. There is nothing to draw people into the area other than one product, one that nobody is talking about. Drugs.

Russian Mercs: We’ll Out-Blackwater Blackwater

Blackwater Offers Training to ‘Faith Based Organizations’

In its ever-evolving re-branding campaign, Blackwater has created a new alter-ego for part of the company’s business. Meet the “Personal Security Awareness” program, which appears to be an off-shoot of Erik Prince’s Greystone, Ltd., a classic mercenary operation registered offshore in Barbados. On its website, which was registered on February 20, 2009 and went live recently, the “program” is described as “a multi-phase course which is designed to assist Non-Government Organizations, Faith Based Organizations and Commercial Businesses by providing individual personal awareness and driver training for their personnel when deployed to unfamiliar environments.” It adds: “Greystone recognizes the importance of “preparation by doing” and looks forward to you joining us for this exciting training!”

Blackwater founder, CEO resigns

(CNN) — Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater Worldwide security firm, announced Monday he has resigned as head of the company, recently renamed Xe.

Prince, in an e-mail to employees and independent contractors, said Danielle Esposito will become chief operating officer and executive vice president. Esposito has worked for the firm and its partners for nearly 10 years.

Blackwater/Xe’s president, Gary Jackson, is also retiring, Prince said.

The position of CEO will remain open, the company said.

See also:

Report: State Department & Blackwater Cooperated to Neutralize Killings

Accused Blackwater Shooters Face Trial in D.C.

Sources: Blackwater guards indicted

New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food

Blackwater May Face Criminal Charges, Hefty Fines Over Arms Shipments

Not Blackwater, but Xe, as in Xena Warrior Princess

Blackwater has gone to ground–sort of.  In a move to apparently distance itself from its image as reckless cowboys that was etched into the world’s mind from the September 2007 Baghdad Nisoor Square shoots, Blackwater USA is once again rebranding itself.  It has changed its name (and presumably legal structure) to Xe.  (Pronounced, “Z” as in “Xena, Warrior Princess.”)

The world’s largest private security company that once boasted on its website, “We are not simply a ‘private security company.’ We are a turnkey solution provider for 4th generation warfare,” has taken yet another step to distance itself from its swashbuckling past.   Due to its aggressive, yet effective tactics, it became the world’s poster child for irresponsible guns for hire, an ironic reputation since Blackwater was actually one of the most professional of the hundred plus private military organizations.

See also:

Report: State Department & Blackwater Cooperated to Neutralize Killings

Accused Blackwater Shooters Face Trial in D.C.

Sources: Blackwater guards indicted

Security firms told they lose immunity in Iraq: official

Blackwater Busted? Six Guards May Be Charged in Iraq Massacre

New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food

Blackwater May Face Criminal Charges, Hefty Fines Over Arms Shipments

The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It’s time to stop the mission creep

We no longer have a civilian-led government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects of civilian government. Our Constitution is at risk.

Report: State Department & Blackwater Cooperated to Neutralize Killings

WASHINGTON — State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.

Read the House committee memorandum

Accused Blackwater Shooters Face Trial in D.C.

Five Blackwater guards charged in the shooting deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians are now facing trial in a Washington, D.C. The Associated Press reports that a bid by defense attorneys to move the case to Utah — where the accused guards turned themselves in — was unsuccessful. Sources: Blackwater guards indicted Security firms told they lose immunity in Iraq: official Six Guards May Be Charged in Iraq Massacre Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers & Dog Food Blackwater May Face Criminal Charges, Hefty Fines Over Arms Shipments

Sources: Blackwater guards indicted

Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been indicted and a sixth was negotiating a plea with prosecutors for a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead and became an anti-American rallying cry for insurgents, people close to the case said Friday.

Security firms told they lose immunity in Iraq: official

US officials on Thursday told scores of firms offering security in Iraq that their personnel will lose immunity from prosecution under a new US-Iraq security pact due to take effect in January.

Blackwater Busted? Six Guards May Be Charged in Iraq Massacre

Critics still fear reckless behavior by the 140,000 private corporate contractors in Iraq will continue.

New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food

A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned.

Blackwater May Face Criminal Charges, Hefty Fines Over Arms Shipments

Private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide may be slapped with millions of dollars in fines by the State Department for shipping weapons to law enforcement facilities in Iraq and Jordan without authorization, according to a report published in the magazine Government Executive.