Diplomatic convoys curtailed in Iraq = Blackwater USA

[L. Coyote]

Diplomatic convoys curtailed in Iraq
U.S. Bans Diplomatic Ground Movements in Iraq Outside Protected Green Zone
ROBERT H. REID and MATTHEW LEE
AP News Sep 18, 2007 19:25 EDT
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/09/iraqis_to_review_security_comp.php

The Iraqi government said Tuesday it would review the status of private security companies as anger over the alleged involvement of Blackwater USA in a fatal shooting of civilians threatened to spread to other firms ... Muqtada al-Sadr called for all contracts of foreign securities firms to be annulled and blamed the government for failing to protect Iraqis, noting the shootings occurred on a busy square filled with Iraqi troops.

"This aggression wouldn't have happened had it not been for the presence of the occupiers who brought these companies," al-Sadr's political committee said in a statement issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf.

It also called for a speedy investigation, the referral of those involved to the Iraqi justice system and compensation for families of the victims.

A series of bombings, meanwhile, ripped through Baghdad, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens............

[L. Coyote]

1. Did I mention, they have real guns, not tasers. = morning kick!

[madokie]

2. I get the feeling that the Iraqi are about to rid themselves of us

I have been sensing a TET type offense for some time and I think the time is drawing near for the Iraqi to band together more so than they are now for the common good of the people there.

[Canuckistanian]

3. I hear the Insurgents are now targeting Blackwater

How ironic. The "protectors" are now becoming a major security risk to others.

Blowback is a bitch.

[L. Coyote]

4. Meanwhile TIME asks: Can the U.S. Live Without Blackwater? Rice says "WE"

in reference to Blackwater.

Can the U.S. Live Without Blackwater?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663306,00.html?imw=Y

During a telephone conversation on Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad relies heavily on Blackwater security to guard its personnel as they visit government ministries and other sites around Iraq. American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following a firefight Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least eight Iraqi civilians. "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 ........

[L. Coyote]

5. BROTHERS: Blackwater USA's "Buzzy" Krongard and DoS IG Howard Krongard

How convenient is this?
Blackwater vice chairman, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, formerly CIA's executive director " is the brother" of DoS IG Howard Krongard

===================================================================
Blackwater Well-Positioned to Stymie Official Inquiries, Regulation
By Spencer Ackerman - September 19, 2007, 12:10PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004232.php

Blackwater doesn't just operate in a legal black hole in Iraq. The private-security firm has grown expert in protecting itself from oversight and regulation in Washington as well.

Over at POGO, Nick Schwellenbach connects Blackwater to House oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman's investigation of Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general whom Waxman alleges stifled numerous corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of those probes involved an alleged Blackwater scheme to funnel weapons into Iraq, and, Schwellenbach notes, it wouldn't be so difficult for Blackwater to know how to get around an IG probe. Its parent company, the Prince Group, recently hired the Pentagon's ex-IG, Joseph Schmitz.

Indeed, all throughout Blackwater are ways to get around government oversight: Cofer Black, the company's vice chairman, used to work at the CIA with A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, formerly CIA's executive director. And, yes, you read that last name correctly: Krongard of CIA is the brother of the current State Department IG. .....

[goodhue]

6. blackwater presently limited to green zone

this strikes me as a pretty big deal

[goodhue]

7. .

[L. Coyote]

9. Indeed. Part of it is to try the offenders in Iraqi courts! Maybe they will HANG!

I wonder if that will be televised?

[goodhue]

11. the potential fallout is mind boggling

The state department is in quite a bind

[goodhue]

8. kick to page one

[iamthebandfanman]

10. heres a video of how these contractors act

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z0NMKcVHHM


they do it outa the arguement of keeping cars away from a convoy they are in, but are they even marked as a convoy so people know to stay away? spraying the car with bullets is not a way to win hearts and minds... then again they are payed killers so what do they care ? as long as they get payed.

[Supersedeas]

12. this would be a pretty important story -- but for Taser boy and OJ

[goodhue]

13. it is an important story

give it time