Blackwater Manager Blamed for 2004 Massacre in Fallujah

[Hissyspit]

Source: News and Observer (NC)

Blackwater manager blamed for 2004 massacre in Fallujah
Military contractors write that a site manager sent four Americans on an ill-advised, fatal mission

Joseph Neff, Staff Writer
When four Blackwater USA security guards were ambushed and massacred in Fallujah in 2004, graphic images showed the world exactly what happened: four men killed, their bodies burned and dragged through the streets. A chanting mob hung two mutilated corpses from a bridge.

Since then, Congress and the families of the murdered private security contractors have been demanding answers: Why did the lightly armed and undermanned team go through the heart of one of Iraq's most hostile cities? Why did the two teams sent out that day have four members, not the usual six? Some answers can be found in memos from a second team for Blackwater operating around Fallujah on March 31, 2004.

Blackwater, based in North Carolina, sent two squads through Fallujah without maps, according to memos obtained by The News & Observer. Both of the six-man teams, named Bravo 2 and November 1, were sent out two men short, leaving them more vulnerable to ambush.

The Bravo 2 team members had protested that they were not ready for the mission and had not had time to prepare their weapons, but they were commanded to go, according to memos written by team members. The team disregarded directions to drive through Fallujah and instead drove around it and returned safely to Baghdad that evening. The November 1 team went into Fallujah and was massacred.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/630475.html

[ClassWarfare2008]

1. Fuck those Nazis. They got what they deserved.

Too bad their manager wasn't with them. Better yet, too bad Erik Prince (of darkness) wasn't with them.

[saigon68]

31. Yes the Mercenaries got their Rose Petal Parade

RIP Jack-Asses

[ClintonTyree]

2. Well, you go into an operation like that.....

with the manpower you have, not the manpower you "wish" you had. :eyes:

This is why I could never have served in the Armed Forces (or a greedy outfit like Blackwater). Blindly following orders, knowing that they're dumb and dangerous, is beyond my capability. I wouldn't have gone. Period. I'm not a very good "order taker", I ask too many questions. You can't survive in an environment like the Armed Forces if you ask, "why", all the time?

These people could have refused that mission but being good little order takers (and greedy to boot) they went ahead and followed orders anyway. They paid with their lives. For the life of me I can't understand how anyone can do that. It takes a special type of mentality to put yourself in that position, one that I'm supremely glad I don't possess.

[Hissyspit]

3. .

[lanlady]

4. I just can't work up any sympathy for mercs

Live by the sword, die by the sword.
:nopity:
:nopity:
:nopity:
:nopity:
:nopity:

[madrchsod]

5. tens of thousands were killed ,wounded ,or dispossessed

because of these scumbags. what is congress going to do about the money that feeds blackwater?

[livingonearth]

6. I remember the lies and spin in the news about Fallujah

when it first happened. First reports said these guys were unarmed contractors conducting security for the rebuilding of the country. Hell, they made them sound like innocent surveyors or something. They sure didn't use the word mercenaries.

[Dr.Phool]

7. Maybe we need a mercenaries union.

Gotta enforce those work rules.
:sarcasm:

In case it wasn't obvious.

[wordpix]

8. whatever you think of the mercs, their managers are mostly to blame

This profiteer and others like Blackwater are there to make lots of dough for BigOil on our backs (i.e. the taxes we pay). They have no rules to follow except the profiteers' rules. Iraq for Sale and Frontline pieces on the profiteers make clear what's going on but Congress still can't bring these evildoers to justice.

[niceypoo]

22. Managers my ass

The mercs are to blame. Anyone who goes to another country to kill people for money is the scum of the earth. I have no sympathy for any mercs in Iraq or anywhere.

[The Stranger]

29. No, the mercs are to blame too. No fucking way they get off passing the buck.

Murderers for hire.

[mod mom]

9. I'd like to know whose idea it was to use white phosphrous. Does Blackwater

have access to chemical weapons?

[1776Forever]

19. Very astute thinking - I wouldn't doubt they didn't have access to everything!

All you have to do is look at that guy that tried to tell the FBI and CIA about what he saw the contractor he was working had control of and how they were supplying some of our adversaries with these items! The Hague for all of them!!!!!!!!!

[formercia]

10. A few martyrs were needed

to justify an attack on Falluja.

How convienient the cameras were there to record the carnage.


In fishing terms, it's called chumming.

[fed-up]

13. yep, another Pearl Harbor to justify Fallujah-read "Blackwater" Jeremy Scahill for whole story nt

[formercia]

14. Mercs are expendable

If a US Military Officer ordered that, he would have been brought up on charges.

[gratuitous]

16. I agree

They needed the Shock and the Scare in 2004 when Chimpy was running for the last time. And if these clowns hadn't been fried, some other ones would have been. And if the people of Fallujah hadn't accommodated, the military or the mercs would have done it themselves.

One thing that strikes me is how easily we all identify these "contractors" as mercenaries nowadays. There were some pretty hot arguments about whether or not these chaps at Blackwater were just good old boys trying to make an honest dollar in the new Iraq or something a bit more sinister. We don't seem to be entertaining those doubts anymore.

[coalition_unwilling]

35. We had to destroy Falluja in order to save it -n/t

[SpiralHawk]

11. Blackwater = republicon christofascist Praetorian Guard

These mercenaries are not loyal to the United States of America. They are loyal only to their republicon paymasters (who are funneling our tax dollars to this profit-making war machine.

They will unleash their troops on the honest and patriotic citizens of the USA someday, when the fat=cat republicon self-imagined OVERLORDS feel their grip on power is threatened.

Ominously, SH

[alfredo]

12. Weren't they using banned (exploding) rounds in their weapons?

http://armedforcesjournal.com/blackwater/?s=2004_side1

[formercia]

15. They're not exploding per se

The Russian 5.45 round is similar in that it has an aluminum section in front of the penetrator core. The weight distribution causes the bullet to become destabilized on impact with a soft target. It then tumbles, causing extensive damage. If it hits a hard surface, the penetrator goes through the aluminum and into the target.

Soviet units in Afghanistan were using them. We put some in a milling machine and made cutaways for training purposes.
The Brits had a similar .303 round in WWI. I think it was the MK VII, if I remember correctly.

[alfredo]

26. The idea is to turn a wound into a fatality. Actually a wound ties up

more resources than a fatality. A screaming and crying man is more of a distraction than a silent dead man.

[Solo_in_MD]

21. No, its more of a super softpoint backed up by a hard penerator

I'm not sure its allowed under the Geneva Conventions, but in their role that does not matter.

[alfredo]

25. they don't have to comply with the conventions, and the locals know

they don't have to treat them as POW's. Soldiers have a code of conduct, and that affords the soldier some respect. Mercenaries do not and are treated in kind.

[coalition_unwilling]

36. George Washington ordered that captured Hessian mercenaries

be treated with dignity and respect during the American War of Independence. Following Cornwallis' surrender, many former Hessian POWs stayed here, if memory serves correctly, so impressed were they by the kind treatment they received from the Colonial captors.

Of course, the Brits of 1776-83 were not nearly as brutal occupiers of the colonies as we and the mercenaries have been of Iraq, so the historical analogy only goes so far.

[alfredo]

40. The Brits wanted to make money bush's mission is different

I haven't figured it out, but it is different.

[formercia]

27. A soft point would be illegal

Some of the sniper rounds use hollow point boat-tail rounds and supposedly don't cause more damage than the FMJ, the argument being that the Geneva Convention bans bullets that would cause unnecessary suffering. A round that did would be banned.
If these rounds are designed to cause massive tissue damage, it would be an issue.

[Solo_in_MD]

34. I concur for soliders in uniform but that is not the case for Blackwater

since they are not part of a uniformed national army. They are private security and are *in theory* subject to the local laws WRT to weaponry, not the Geneva Convention

[formercia]

38. I thought there was legislation

that required them to be under control of the military and subject to military regulations.

I think this Merc business has gotten completely out of hand.

[Solo_in_MD]

39. Not sure, and it may not have included weapons

[donsu]

17. and yet we pay them

nt

[SpiralHawk]

18. We pay them a hell of a lot more than our sons and daughters in uniform

The BushCo republicons stiff our American soldiers and veterans, and reward their republicon crony war profiteers.

I have always felt it was because so many republicons are hypocritical chickenhawks living in SHAME (Bush, Cheney, Lott, Limbaugh, O'reilly, Hannity, etc. etc. etc).

The republicon shame is vast and well deserved.

But the mistreatment and underpayment of our American sons and daughters in uniform -- and the enrichment of republicon mercenary corporations -- is a HUGE ISSUE,

The DEMS should make a Major Stink about this (treason if you ask me) starting right now and all through the election campaigns.

[donsu]

23. a slap in the face every payday

nt

[Igel]

20. I'd like to hear the answers to one of the questions, too.

Why they were sent through Fallujah.

People somehow assume that mercenaries in Iraq are like the mercenaries that fought along the US troops against the British, private guns for hire in the service of the army taking the place of soldiers on the battlefield. This I haven't seen evidence for, just innuendo and speculation.

[SpiralHawk]

24. Profit-making prisons, profit-making hospitals, profit-making armies

This is the republicon plan, already well into implementation.

The fat-cat republicon overlords profit massively when people are thrown in jail, when people get sick, and when war (even needless oil crusades) happen.

OCCULT EVIL DOING, if you ask me.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Agreed. But it still needs to be asked why they were sent into Falluja at that time,

why they were 4 and not the usual 6, who sent them, on whose orders, to do what, and also who in fact killed them, and possibly also who burned their bodies and strung them up? The whole incident has always felt wrong and suspicious. Many, many people died, with that incident as the excuse. This is no minor thing. What was the chain of command from Rumsfeld (or Cheney, or Rove, or Bush?) to Blackwater--on this and other Blackwater events--and what is the chain of command now?

And for people who just instantly condemn these guys, there are levels of guilt, and also many levels of political understanding. If you just dismiss them all as jerks, then you may well miss what really went on, in that incident, and in other events. How were they recruited? For instance, Rumsfeld promised "flowers and cheers." Were they told that they would simply be doing routine guard duty in a situation that the US military had already stabilized--easy, non-dangerous duty in a place where civil order had already been established? How were they trained? What were they expecting? What were they told the rules were (if any)? Were/are some just ordinary cop type guys, who got lured by the money, but with generally good intent (say, feeding their families, putting their kids through college)? Were/are some of them picked/trained for death squad activity, for torture, to do special favors for Rumsfeld, Chalabi, or other malefactors?

Details are important. And I'm especially intrigued by the fact that these Falluja patrols were supposed to have six members, and that the mercenaries themselves objected to going on an undermanned mission. Who gave that order? Where did that order originate? Also, why was Blackwater given this mission--in this dangerous and explosive situation--and not regular army? And, what WAS the mission? Something smells here, and not only the family members, but also we, the American people, who were/are paying this bill have a right to know the full story of this incident, and of all Blackwater activity in Iraq.

There is a parallel situation developing in Colombia, where rightwing paramilitaries with very close ties to the Uribe government--upon whom the Bush Junta has larded billions of our tax dollars in military aid--have been torturing, shooting and chainsawing union activists, poor peasant farmers and political leftists, and throwing their remains into mass graves. They have also been engaged in large scale drug trafficking. The former chief of intelligence, the chief of the military and many Uribe office holders including relatives have been implicated. One witness/whistleblower is a young man who was recruited as a teenager. As I said, there are levels of guilt. Others have been confessing to get amnesty. A "truth and reconciliation" process is going on. Although this means that some guilty persons may escape with no punishment--and some have accused arrested paramilitary leaders of continuing to direct crimes from prison--at least the truth is becoming known. We need such a process here, I think. We NEED TO KNOW what our government has been doing, what it has been funding and ordering, in order to prevent such things from ever happening again. It shouldn't be a matter of condemning everybody--all Bushites, all mercenaries--forgetting about them and moving on. Truth needs to be told. It is essential to democracy and good government. And victims need to have at least that justice--the truth.

[SpiralHawk]

30. Your questions are excellent, Patriot, and must be posed

by responsible government agencies that are actually serving the interests of the citizens of the United States of America.

I become bombastic about these travesties that violate so crassly the ideals of our USA, and I just spew flak far and wide in response to the republicon-mercenary perversions. But I do recognize the value and importance of your discernment, and your questions. Thanks...

[YankmeCrankme]

32. The fact is that this would have happened eventually

These mercenaries are a law unto themselves and answer to no one for their behavior. They admit that they race around without slowing down and if anyone is in their way they run them down. They fire indiscriminately into crowds, who knows how many Iraqis have meet their demise at the hands and actions of these guys. Maybe the ones in this car were nice and treated the Iraqis with respect, but even so, they paid the price of how all are perceived and reaped the results of that past behavior.

Why there was only four instead of six or what were they doing in Falluja is kind of irrevelant to what happened to them or what transpired after. Was it a planned provocation? I doubt it, it was probably just cost cutting for Blackwater to increase profits. That is usually the motive behind reducing manpower or material. Cost savings. The company's shortsightedness contributed to their deaths, but it is the behavior of the mercs themselves that are more directly related to what happened. As for our response, that was more a function of public outrage and a desire to show the people of Falluja who is boss. Who did these Iraqis think they were, killing and disrespecting their white betters? Call it collective punishment for a city that wasn't towing the line.

[KansDem]

33. "...they race around without slowing down and if anyone is in their way..."

I remember seeing a video sometime back that showed a carful of mercs driving on a road just shooting randomly at any Iraqi driver that got "too close" to the back of their car (i.e., "within range"). Perhaps this article was about that video:

'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers

[TheBaldyMan]

37. interesting that another team avoided Fallujah and wasn't ambushed

I remember reading in the British press a quote an unnamed special forces soldier who was of the opinion that the guys that were killed must have been asking for it, everybody knew that Fallujah and the route associated with that bridge was 'hot' and only a fool would use that road regularly, if at all.

At the time it was presumed that the November1 team was too lazy to take the 30 mile detour, unlike all prudent operatives - including armed forces, rather than use that particular bridge and route. Especially if travelling in a readily identified vehicle (Four white westerners in a brand-spanking-new SUV)

If the management had instructed drivers to use the bridge and not take the much longer, slower although far safer detour there would seem to be a case to answer.