U.S.-hired guards operate in a legal limbo in Iraq

[AuntPatsy]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/20/africa/baghdad.php

The thousands of heavily armed private soldiers in Iraq work with virtual immunity from Iraqi or American law, despite a move last year to bring them under U.S. laws that apply to the military.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/20/africa/baghdad.php

There have been numerous incidents of killings or injuries of Iraqi civilians by employees of Blackwater USA, the company involved in the incident Sunday, and other private military contractors.

The most egregious recent episode came last December when a Blackwater gunman was reported, during an argument, to have killed a bodyguard for Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi. He was whisked out of the country and has not been charged with any crime, said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written extensively about contractors in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq complained of killings of Iraqis "in cold blood" by U.S. armed contractors. He said the shooting Sunday was the seventh such case involving Blackwater

Snip

Publicly, the Bush administration has not said how it would respond if the Maliki government tried to carry out its threat to evict Blackwater. But administration officials and executives in the security contracting industry said Wednesday they believed that the White House and the State Department would support Blackwater and seek to block any move by the Baghdad government to force the company out.

The issue is already leading to sharp tensions between the two governments, and any effort by the United States to force Iraq to keep Blackwater could make the Maliki government appear to be a puppet.



....I am so ashamed of what my government has allowed to happen to innocent people and yet day after day we hear from our media how important it is that we remain in this country. Meanwhile people are not only dying from violent actions but by the horrific sanitary conditions that are obviously not a priority for aiding the country we invaded under the guise of protecting innocent people what so many assumed to be certain death under a tyrant.






http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/18/news/britain.php

U.S. warns British against leaving Iraq

LONDON: The top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, briefed British officials on the course of the war Tuesday, praising Britain's plan to give Iraqi security forces control in Basra but warning against leaving the country too soon.

Despite "challenges and setbacks," Petraeus said, "Iraqis have generally been able to deal with the challenges with minimal assistance, although help has been provided on occasion."

...Now we are warning other countries to stay in Iraq or else? I wonder what they are threatening the consequences will be for Britian if they do not heed the almighty US to stay put.





http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/12/africa/cholera.php

Cholera infects 7,000 in Iraq

BAGHDAD: A cholera epidemic in northern Iraq has infected approximately 7,000 people and could reach Baghdad within weeks as the disease spreads through the country's decrepit and unsanitary water system, health officials said.

The World Health Organization reported that the epidemic is concentrated in the northern regions of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya and that 10 people are known to have died. But Said Hakki, president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which has responded to the epidemic, said Tuesday that new cases had turned up in the neighboring provinces of Erbil and Nineweh, indicating that the disease had spread.

Cholera is caused by infection of the intestine with the Vibrio cholerae bacteria. The infection can be mild or have no symptoms, but about one in 20 infected people become extremely ill, with watery diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramps. Without treatment, rapid loss of fluids causes dehydration and shock, and a person can die within hours.

Cholera does not usually spread directly from person to person, so casual contact with infected people is not risky and quarantine is not necessary.

The major human displacement caused by the Iraq conflict - people being driven from their homes or simply choosing to leave - is likely to be driving the epidemic, officials say.

...I am sure our esteemed leader will discuss these issues this am and not once again tell US citizens how much safer Iraq has become for the world and it's citizens since we invaded them.