Alarms Were Sounded on Blackwater Well Before the 2007 Iraq Shooting

[Judi Lynn]

Alarms Were Sounded on Blackwater Well Before the 2007 Iraq Shooting
Stephanie Burnett @stephy_burnett
2:32 AM ET

Documents on Blackwater reveal that a U.S. State Department official warned of the military contractor’s poor oversight and arrogant attitudes weeks prior to the Nisour Square bloodbath


A U.S. State Department official wrote of Blackwater’s lack of oversight and its “environment full of liability and negligence” well before Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians and injured 20 others in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in September 2007, reports the New York Times.

Weeks prior to the shooting, the State Department had begun an investigation into the military contractor’s operations in Iraq — but the probe was aborted after Blackwater’s top manager threatened that “he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports obtained and published by the Times.

As tensions over the investigation worsened in August 2007, American embassy officials sided with Blackwater — and officials told State Department investigators to pull out of the probe because it disrupted the embassy’s relationship with the security contractor, according to the report.

Alarmed, Jean C. Richter, the investigator, wrote a scathing memo to State Department officials on Aug. 31, 2007. “The management structures in place to manage and monitor our contracts in Iraq have become subservient to the contractors themselves,” he wrote of Blackwater.

More:
http://time.com/2938966/blackwater-iraq-shooting/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. It's well worth taking a deeper dive to the NY Times link

Included in the article. A quick read - but seeing the allegations in detail helps to understand that Richter felt the threat by Daniel Carroll of Blackwaer was serious enough that after it was made he and another official cancelled dinner that night, used a military escort to go to the airport and refused to use Blackwater's aviation to go home.


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/30/us/30blackwater-documents.html?_r=1

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Another thought

I hope this shows up in the movie. It was announced about two weeks ago that a production company has the green light to make it. If this isn't included - we need to bombard Harvey Weinstein ( solid leftist and liberal) to use his clout to get in on as few screens as possible.

I suspect that's why the Ayn Rnd flicks have failed.

[liberal N proud]

3. "Subservient to the contractors themselves"

This is what happens when it becomes war for profit.

[Enthusiast]

4. Precisely.