When
Blackwater Kills,
No Questions Asked
By Ali al-Fadhily
30 October, 2007
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD, Oct 30 (IPS)
- The recent attacks by Blackwater USA mercenaries in Baghdad
are far from the first -- and many believe they will not be the last.
Seventeen Iraqis were killed
Sep. 16, and another 27 wounded at Nisoor square in western Baghdad
when mercenaries from the company opened fire on them. Dozens of witnesses
said that, contrary to Blackwater claims, the mercenaries had not come
under attack.
Several Kurds who were at
the scene said they saw no one firing at the mercenaries at any time,
an observation corroborated by forensic evidence. Kurds are one ethnic
group that has been supportive of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation
of Iraq. The Kurd witnesses work for a political party whose building
looks directly down on the square where the bloodshed occurred.
"I call it a massacre,"
Omar H. Waso, a senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
told reporters. "It is illegal. They used the law of the jungle."
"Some of the victims
were Iraqis who were close to the government," an eyewitness speaking
on condition of anonymity told IPS. "There was a notable fuss about
five or six bodies in particular when the ministry of interior's inspectors
arrived on the scene."
The history of western mercenary
companies, often referred to as "security contractors", is
full of such stories.
"They killed my young
neighbour Sinan in cold blood," a 32-year-old using the name Ibrahim
Obeidy told IPS. "They have killed so many Iraqis, and no one can
even ask them why."
"Iraqis in Anbar province
(to the west of Baghdad) have always said that strange-looking forces
have conducted executions in cold blood," Abdul-Sattar Ahmed, a
lawyer from province capital Ramadi told IPS. "Groups of men in
civilian outfits, but in armoured vehicles and sometimes helicopters,
have carried out the most mysterious executions. They seldom arrest,
they prefer to kill."
Salih Aziz who works with
the Iraqi Group for Human Rights, an NGO in Baghdad, told IPS that Blackwater
convoys, which usually comprise several large, white SUVs, have proven
deadly for Iraqi civilians since the early months of the occupation
in March 2003.
"Since the very beginning
of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Baghdad streets have seen peculiar looking
groups of men in armoured cars with black glasses, killing anyone who
approached them," said Aziz. "They were the first to be hated
by Iraqis."
Blackwater USA came to international
attention when four of their mercenaries were killed in Fallujah Mar.
31, 2004. The incident led to two brutal U.S. military sieges of the
city.
The November siege of that
year left approximately 70 percent of the city destroyed. Tens of thousands
of residents remain refugees to this day.
"It is all about business
and money making," Malik Nizar, a 50-year-old businessman in Baghdad
told IPS. "Top corporate officials, like the CEO of Blackwater,
Erik Prince, are making billions of dollars out of security contracts
in Iraq, and they would not give it up for the world."
Independent journalist Jeremy
Scahill is author of the best-selling book, 'Blackwater: The Rise of
the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army'. "From documents I obtained,
it is clear that Blackwater has been contracted for some 750 million
dollars in private armed security services for the U.S. State Department
alone," Scahill told IPS in a telephone interview.
"The extent of its total
U.S. contracts worldwide in unknown, as Blackwater also does covert
work for the government, and its overt work is shrouded in secrecy and
layers of bureaucratic protection."
Scahill said that while Blackwater
is now under increased scrutiny, it is continuing to win lucrative contracts
in Washington.
"These include a recent
92 million dollar Pentagon contract to operate flights in Central Asia,
as well as a share of a whopping 15 billion dollar contract to fight
the so-called war on drugs," Scahill told IPS. "Even if Blackwater
loses its overt Iraq contract, this company will continue to make a
killing off the U.S. taxpayers."
The political fallout from
the incident in Baghdad last month has led the Iraqi government to accept
the findings of an Iraqi investigative committee that Blackwater guards
are guilty of the killings, and that they acted without provocation.
The Iraqi investigators said
Blackwater should be expelled from the country, and demanded eight million
dollars compensation for the family of each victim. Officials decided
last week to establish a committee to find ways to repeal a 2004 directive
issued by L. Paul Bremer, head of the former U.S. occupation government
in Iraq, which placed private security companies outside Iraqi law,
making them immune to prosecution.
Many Iraqis are angry that
Blackwater enjoys special rights.
"I was shot at while
driving my car in Baghdad in December 2004," Saad Mohammad Saed,
an NGO worker in Baghdad told IPS. "I recognised the vehicles to
be with a private security company. My car was destroyed and my survival
was a miracle, but when I went to court to file charges, they told me
they could not question those people." While it could not be verified
that this incident involved Blackwater personnel, there is deep public
anger with the company.
Such incidents continue.
Two Iraqi women were killed in Baghdad last week. Maro Bougos and Jenna
Jalal were driving in a white Oldsmobile when they were shot dead by
men from a private security convoy. Three children in the back seat
survived.
"Will (U.S. President
George) Bush or (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki or any politician
look after my sister's children after bringing death to their mother?"
said Bougos's brother, who was at the scene of the attack.
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