Can the U.S. Live Without Blackwater?

[superconnected]

Source: AP

A U.S. government official tells TIME that when President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sit down for a scheduled bilateral meeting next Tuesday in New York they will discuss the recent episode in Baghdad involving the Blackwater security firm, which is critical to the way American diplomats operate in Iraq. Already, during a telephone conversation on Monday night, Maliki and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. Since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following the Sunday firefight, American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone to visit ministries and other Iraqi sites. "We're there to strengthen the capacity of the Iraqi Government. We're not able to do that all in the Green Zone," Rice said she told Maliki in the conversation. And, she said, he agreed.


Rice told the press traveling with her on a Mideast mission that the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad met with Maliki's office on Tuesday and the two governments are negotiating a way for the embassy to operate safely and allay Iraq's concerns about what it says is a pattern of excessive use of force by Blackwater. "They are working toward mechanisms that might allow us to address these issues together," she said during an overnight flight to Jerusalem where she is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the run up to a possible November summit.


But Maliki offered his own solution on Wednesday, recommending that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad change the company it uses to provide security. "This crime has generated a lot of hatred in the government and the people against Blackwater," Maliki told reporters. "For their own interests, the Americans should hire a new company to protect their people so they can move freely." The Iraqi premier also ordered a full investigation into Sunday's fire fight. Maliki has made it clear that he will raise the subject with Bush during their New York meeting, saying he won't tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood." A U.S. government report of the incident that first appeared on TIME.com, says that Blackwater guards shot back only in response to small arms fire. The company has said its employees killed and wounded armed insurgents, not civilians. Yesterday, Iraq's Ministry of the Interior released an account of the incident that differed substantially from the U.S. report. The ministry said that Blackwater initiated the firefight, killing as many as 20 civilians.


He told senior aides that he wants to look at ways to change Order 17, a law from early in the post-war occupation of Iraq that some believe provides expatriate contractors immunity from Iraqi prosecution.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070919/wl_time/cantheuslivewithoutblackwater

[superconnected]

1. President bush pimps for blackwater

should be the headline.

[Dhalgren]

2. I said it the very first day this broke:

"Blackwater will change its name, and all will go back to business as usual." Watch for it...

[MetalCanuck]

3. When I think of Blackwater I think of sewage...

and they are no better either.

[stillcool]

4. they could...

but why would they want to?

http://www.nndb.com/company/462/000105147/
Blackwater USA
COMPANY
Mercenary firm founded in 1996 by former Navy SEAL and fundamentalist Christian Erik Prince. Received no-bid contracts from the Bush administration in Iraq, Afghanistan, and post-Katrina New Orleans.
Official Website:
http://www.blackwaterusa.com /
Corporate headquarters:
Moyock, NC

EXECUTIVES
Fred F. Fielding - White House Counsel
Erik Prince -Blackwater USA mercenary firm
Joseph E. Schmitz - Pentagon Inspector General, 2002-05

BOARD MEMBERS OR DIRECTORS
Cofer Black

Blackwater USA Counsel
Ken Starr

**Fred F. Fielding
White House Counsel (2007-)
9-11 Commission (2002-04)
White House Counsel (1981-86)
White House Staff Deputy White House Counsel (1972-74)
White House Staff Associate White House Counsel (1970-72)
Blackwater USA Counsel (c. 2005)

**Cofer Black
Member of the Board of Blackwater USA vice chairman, Blackwater USA
US Coordinator for Counterterrorism (2002-04)
CIA employee Deputy Chief, Latin America Division (Jun-1998 to Jun-1999)
CIA employee Task Force Chief in the Near East and South Asia Division (1995)
CIA employee Director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center (past)
CIA employee (1974-)

**Joseph E. Schmitz
Executive summary: Pentagon Inspector General, 2002-05
Military service: US Navy ; US Naval Reserve
Special assistant to Attorney General Ed Meese in 1987. Inspector General at the Pentagon Mar-2002 to Sep-2005. Left to take an executive job at Blackwater International.
Sister: Mary Kay Letourneau (b. 30-Jan-1962)

Blackwater USA CEO for the Prince Group (2005-)
Patton Boggs
*Baker Botts
Federalist Society
Knights of Malta 1999
US English Board of Directors, Counsel of Record
**Erik Prince
Erik Prince is a multi-millionaire right-wing fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Michigan Republican family. His wealth came from his father, Edgar Prince, who headed Prince Automotive, an auto parts and machinery manufacturer.

A major Republican campaign contributor, he interned in the White House of President George H.W. Bush and campaigned for Pat Buchanan in 1992, finding time to intern for conservative congressman Dana Rohrabacher as well. Prince founded the mercenary firm Blackwater USA in 1997 with Gary Jackson, another former Navy SEAL.
Prince's sister Betsy DeVos is a powerful conservative in her own right. Married to the son of Richard DeVos (Republican bankroller and co-founder of Amway), she served as chair of Michigan Republican Party in the 1990s.

[paparush]

5. Blackwater and the Draft

The two things buffering the Neocons from the poison pill of the Draft are:

A. Recycling our troops.

B. Spending billions on private merc armies (who can kill with impunity).

Take one of these out of the equation (I know there are other merc companies in Iraq besides BW), then the Neocons are faced with:

A. Scaling back operations significantly (unacceptable).

B. Instituting the Draft (unacceptable).

[onager]

6. Maybe the diplobrats can borrow Ahmed Chalabi's mercenaries.

:rofl:

[goodhue]

7. They mave have to

[Kagemusha]

8. Actually, it's doubtful Blackwater requires such a license for State Dept work

But since the powers that be in the Green Zone don't dare provoke the awesome power of the Maliki administration, the press has no reason to have this impression corrected.

[goodhue]

9. The press accurately reported Maliki's statement that Iraqi government was revoking license

The fact that Blackwater may not have had or needed are current license was reported, but remains entirely unclear. Reuters explained:

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1882490620070918?pageNumber=1

Security sources in Baghdad say they operate in a murky world of little regulation where few companies hold up-to-date licenses and many bribe their way into work.

The workings of security contractors in Iraq are so unclear that the State Department, whom Blackwater protects in Iraq, was still unable to say more than 48 hours after Sunday's incident whether the company holds a legitimate license.

The U.S. embassy also could not answer questions about the legal status of security contractors, and
whether any possible proceedings would be prosecuted under Iraqi or U.S. law.

* * *

GOVERNMENT POLICY UNCLEAR

Other security sources, who asked not to be named, said few foreign security companies hold current licenses, most simply not bothering to renew their one-year permit after landmark 2005 elections because the new government's policy was unclear.

Companies wanting to work in Iraq must register with the ministries of trade and the interior, lodging documentation for personnel, vehicles, weapons, training, fire and safety and first aid, and pay a bond of between $20,000 and $55,000.

David Claridge, managing director of London-based Janusian Security Risk Management which employs about 1,000 mostly Iraqi staff, said the rules on licensing private security companies (PSCs) had not been consistently applied.

"You have to apply those rules evenly. Otherwise it does introduce a level of uncertainty ... and create a sense that some people are totally immune and can behave as they wish and others not," he told Reuters in London.

Claridge and several Baghdad security sources said it was widely known Blackwater was operating without a license because they worked under the protection of the U.S. embassy.

* * *

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1882490620070918?pageNumber=1

[Kagemusha]

10. So the press reported accurately Maliki's revoking a license that never existed?

I mean, if that's so, great. Clears things up :) But looks like we haven't heard the last of this story either way.

[DLnyc]

11. This Reuters article has an apparent error

It says:
"The Iraqi Interior Ministry says 11 people were killed when Blackwater contractors fired randomly after mortar rounds landed near their convoy."
None of the other reports I have seen have the Iraqi's saying that BW was responding to any sort of fire--Iraqi Interior Ministry has been very consistently reported, as far as I have seen, as saying that there was NO PROVOKING FIRE, only a car which didn't get out of the way fast enough.

[bemildred]

12. "Can the US live with Blackwater" is a much better question.

It will be a much different US if Blackwater and similar "companies" are allowed to persist.