Report says U.S. contractor involved in 195 Iraq shootings

[seafan]

Source: Reuters UK

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. security contractor Blackwater was involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, said a congressional report on Monday that also panned the State Department's oversight of the company.

State Department contractor Blackwater, under investigation for the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis on September 16, will answer questions about that incident and others at what is expected to be a testy congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Senior State Department officials will also be grilled by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examining whether the growing use of military contractors undermines U.S. efforts in Iraq.

.....

It listed 195 shooting incidents from the start of 2005 until September 12 of this year, an average of 1.4 per week. Of those, there were 16 Iraqi casualties and 162 cases with property damage, the California Democrat said. He did not specify if there were fatalities.
"In 32 of those incidents, Blackwater were returning fire after an attack while on 163 occasions (84 percent of the shooting incidents), Blackwater personnel were the first to fire," Waxman, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, said.

.....

Blackwater, which has been paid a little over $1 billion (490 million pounds) by the U.S. government since 2001, declined comment.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN0150129520071001

[kurth]

1. Killing is a lucrative business

[micraphone]

2. Pics of these guys in NO...

give me the creeps. Killers om the loose.

And paid by YOU AND ME.

[seafan]

5. And many of these guys are foreign. And with little or no loyalty to our country. Killers for hire.

BlackwaterUSA: Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.







Photo: Chris Curry/the Virginian-Pilot/ZUMA Press

[Robbien]

6. The comparisons between Iraq and NO are spooky

because our plans for both places seem almost the same.

Privatize all assets. Contract out all services to Bush admin cronies and laugh when they do not fulfill their obligations. Ignore the suffering of the common people and just hope they all just go away and or die.

It is becoming to be the US of A's standard operating mode when responding to disasters.

[lumpy]

3. The current news that Blackwater has been

involved in random uncalled-for shootings must be the reason Iraqi deaths have fallen by 50%.

[gratuitous]

4. You wonder about the methodology, don't you?

I was watching ABC News tonight, and they were all breathless about how civilian casualties were down this month, and I immediately wondered two things: What were they counting as civilian casualties, and I thought they hadn't been counting how many Iraqis were getting killed every month; so what were they measuring against, and how could they state so authoritatively that civilian deaths were down?

Then I remembered that the major media slavishly publish without question whatever this administration says, and it all made perfect sense.

[lumpy]

7. Also Blackwater must be trying to rein in

the mercenaries merciless killings. Public opinion counts...sometimes.

[mcg]

8. Blackwater in nearly 200 shootings since 2005: US report

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The private security firm Blackwater USA has been involved in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005, according to a US Congress report that depicts the company's employees as dangerously out of control.

Blackwater has covered up fatal shootings involving its staff, is the first to shoot in most incidents, and has joined in US military tactical operations, the report released Monday said.

It was also highly critical of the US State Department for failing to restrain Blackwater's activities and helping to cover up some of its wrongdoings -- even protecting a drunken Blackwater employee who shot dead a guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi.

The report was issued by the House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the eve of hearings into Blackwater's work in Iraq and in particular a September 16 shooting incident in a crowded Baghdad square that killed at least 10 Iraqis.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnZQpPkhBf8Vjn_y5x0EGD02tgBg

[Demeter]

9. That's Only One a Week...or Slightly More

Hence the claim that Baghdad is safer than Detroit!

[0007]

10. Which is it? Or is Erik Prince a goddamn lair?

Mr. Prince defends his company from concerns that his guards are reckless in their use of deadly force, saying guards have opened fire during only 56 of the 1,873 security details it has conducted so far in 2007.

The committee staff report states that Blackwater guards fired their weapons 195 times between the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September, an average of more than once a week.

Though the company's contractors are authorized to use force only defensively, "the vast majority of Blackwater weapons discharges are preemptive, with Blackwater forces firing first at a vehicle or suspicious individual prior to receiving any fire," the report says.

The report is also critical of the State Department. In cases where Iraqis have been killed, "the State Department's primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments to 'put the matter behind us,' rather than to insist upon accountability or to investigate Blackwater personnel for potential criminal liability."

"The most serious consequence faced by Blackwater personnel for misconduct appears to be termination of their employment," the report states.

In one case cited in Monday's report, a Blackwater guard who was visibly drunk shot and killed a bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi during a confrontation in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve in 2006.

more.....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/02/blackwater.hearing/index.html

[Maribelle]

11. Skinheads, Inc.

neo murder, inc.

[0007]

12. junior and his dick are true warriors of fortune and divine Providence

Erik Prince and his gang of thugs

[tuckessee]

13. How many shooting were the US military involved in? What about other armed contractors?

Blackwater's totals are meaningless unless we can put it into perspective.

They may be exercising greater fire discipline than the US Army & Marines.