State Department official: "We get almost weekly reports of such (security contractor) shootings"

[sabra]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/despite-repeate.html

<snip>

Despite repeated reports of shootings of Iraqi civilians by Blackwater and other U.S. private security contractors, the incidents were "rarely" the subjects of full investigations, current and former State Department officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

"We get almost weekly reports of such shootings, but it is close to impossible to go the crime scene and interview witnesses," said one current State Department official formerly based in Baghdad.

The contractors are responsible for filing incident reports, the officials said, but the State Department could do little to follow up.

"To conduct a forensic investigation and go talk to witnesses where people can go to 10 different hospitals is nearly impossible in a war zone," the official said.

Another official told ABCNews.com that the standard practice was for the contractor to be quickly moved out of the country.

"They would just disappear, often within hours," said one former official who dealt directly with Blackwater and other contractors.

[shain from kane]

1. "...nearly impossible in a war zone" They are creating the war zone. n/t

[L. Coyote]

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

How convenient is this? Brother "investigating" brother as part of Bush's WAR LIES cover ups!

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

===================================================================
Waxman: State Investigator Blocked Corruption Probes to Support Bush
By Paul Kiel - September 18, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004223.php

In a blistering 14-page letter today (pdf), House oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) charged that the inspector general for the State Department Howard Krongard has been actively impeding probes into waste and corruption in Iraq and elsewhere. The basic allegation, as Waxman simply puts it, is that "you believe your foremost mission is to support the Bush Administration, especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than act as an independent and objective check on waste, fraud, and abuse on behalf of U.S. taxpayers." In other words, Waxman is charging that he's a hack, and the worst kind, too -- one that can do real damage.

Waxman has a litany of examples of Krongards' alleged hackishness, but one is particularly colorful.

There have been allegations that the contractor First Kuwaiti used forced labor building the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. So Krongard looked into it.

Only he had a peculiar method, according to Waxman's investigation. First, he insisted on doing the report entirely by himself and shut out his staff. And instead of seeking out the source of the allegations, he allowed the contractor to choose the employees that he'd interview. He ultimately interviewed six employees.

The result? Krongard declared that he found no evidence of human trafficking. ..............

===================================================================
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. ....

[tanyev]

5. And let us never forget Buzzy's connections to the 9/11 put options.

FTW - October 9, 2001 – Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the “put options” on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Until 1997 A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker’s Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard’s last position at Banker’s Trust (BT) was to oversee “private client relations.” In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.

Krongard joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.

http://www.hereinreality.com/insidertrading.html

[Robbien]

3. And this weekly reports are only the ones the mercs bother to write about

Why would a merc bother to report he is out killing civilians?

[panader0]

4. In a weird way, the shootings of civilians by Blackwater

have had the effect of uniting Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni. The incident is the latest and greatest in many such "contractor" violence against civilians.