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Today's Must Read
The Iraqi government is pressing hard to kick private-security giant Blackwater out of the country. After a pitched battle between Blackwater operatives and Iraqi insurgents in the Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour left at least nine civilians dead, the Iraqi Interior Ministry revoked Blackwater's license to work in Iraq. Now, the Iraqis are escalating their campaign against Blackwater, claiming that an official inquiry found that the company's agents fired the opening rounds. Reports the New York Times:
The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants. The report said Blackwater helicopters had also fired. The Ministry of Defense said 20 Iraqis had been killed, a far higher number than had been reported before.In a sign of the seriousness of the standoff, the American Embassy here suspended diplomatic missions outside the Green Zone and throughout Iraq on Tuesday.
“There was not shooting against the convoy,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government’s spokesman. “There was no fire from anyone in the square.”
The explanation from the U.S. on Sunday for the Mansour incident was that a State Department convoy came under attack, prompting the Blackwater guards protecting it to respond with small arms fire and employ helicopter support. A State Department official said Blackwater's people were forced to "defend themselves" against an ambush.
But Dabbagh, the Iraqi spokesman, contradicted that entirely. According to the Iraqi inquiry, he said, a car bomb detonated far from the convoy, prompting Blackwater to overreact. A traffic policeman attempted to clear an area for the convoy to pass, but a "small car" didn't heed the warning. Blackwater responded as if the car represented a follow-on attack. Witnesses interviewed by the Times said that the ensuing confusion prompted Iraqi soldiers and police in the area to fire into the crowd as well.
State Department officials said they were investigating the incident themselves and urged caution. It should be noted that Blackwater has a reputation, earned or not, for using force to ensure that suspicious vehicles don't get too close to those under Blackwater's protection. In May, the Interior Ministry was incensed after Blackwater opened fire on a car leaving a gas station just outside the ministry. The Times notes that "even Westerners" -- read: journalists -- fear coming too close to Blackwater-guarded vehicles.
Whomever is at fault, the Times reports that Iraqis are infuriated by the perception of impunity by private security companies. A U.S. occupation order from 2004, still binding on the Iraqi government for some reason, created legal immunity for security contractors. The Times:
The Iraqis’ accounts have not been verified, but the anger in their telling served to reinforce the feeling among Iraqis here that private security companies care little for Iraqi lives. In a war where perceptions are paramount, the effect is poisonous.“They are more powerful than the government,” the Iraqi soldier said. “No one can try them. Where is the government in this?”
Comments (20)
1oldlady wrote on September 19, 2007 10:23 AM:Well I don't want to sound like a conspiracy nut, but...
This is MY take on the Iraq government's actions..
The administration TOLD the Iraq government that it needs to publicly speak out against Blackwater in order to sway congress to keep the troops there. In addition, since they have done so, and if Blackwater moves out of Iraq and come home to the USA there services may be needed here, for what..thats a question yet to be asked and answered.
But, I would not put anything pass this administrations actions! With the signing statements that the President has set forth...for some reason I feel there is a connection yet to be seen!
EdNSted wrote on September 19, 2007 10:32 AM:Those poor deluded Iraqis are under the severely mistaken impression that they have the authority to expel Blackwater USA from Iraq. Nothing could farther from the truth. The Iraqis need to shut up and just deal with it. Blackwater USA isn't going anywhere. They know it. We know it. Blackwater knows it. Even Harry Reid knows it. We control the vertical. We control the horizontal. All this silly posturing by the Iraqi government just wastes time.
bobo the chimp wrote on September 19, 2007 10:44 AM:EdNSted,
It's not that simple. Yes, there is no way the Iraqi government can simply force Blackwater out. However, it looks bad politically for Bush and the US if the Maliki government gives the order and the US government protects Blackwater and keeps it in.
In particular, it makes it more likely that at some point the Maliki government will state it wants the US military out. If it did that, there is no way the US could stay in, and the Bush administration knows that.
My guess is there is going to be some sort of compromise here, with Blackwater staying in but with the US putting some restrictions on it.
jonas wrote on September 19, 2007 10:46 AM:EdNSted is probably right. We'll allow the Iraqis to blow off some steam over this for a week or so, then they'll reach some sort of "agreement" with the State Dept. allowing Blackwater to stay if they promise they'll try not to kill so many people in broad daylight from now on. Ok, they won't try, but they'll try to try.
And also, as someone above already noted, how come a law passed by the CPA still has force in Iraq? Did the parliament or president directly issue an order carrying it over? American officials always act evasive when anyone asks about the legal status of these private paramilitary outfits like Blackwater.
Brianm0122 wrote on September 19, 2007 10:50 AM:What's with these crazy Iraqi's anyway?
It's like they think they control their own country!!!
Next thing, they will be forming their own government and trying to enforce their own laws....the NERVE of some people!!!
The Conservative Deflator wrote on September 19, 2007 10:58 AM:The Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. That the U.S. government has resorted to using high-priced mercenaries to slaughter innocent civilians around the world is an affront to our history as a moral nation. I hope the trigger-happy criminals who did this spend the rest of their pathetic lives in prison, although we all know they won't.
Iraq is kicking these Blackwater scum out of their country. How long until we can kick them out of ours??
thomas wrote on September 19, 2007 11:02 AM:We have losened a mercenary army in Iraq because the administration and congress/American people refuse to face their responsbility of spreading the cost of our ventures beyond the working class who now populate our armed services. A professional army was one of the greatest fears of the founding fathers and now we've gone even one step beyond that to a mercenary army.
ARG in Chicago wrote on September 19, 2007 11:09 AM:With well over 100,000, some reports go as high as 180,000 'contractors' in Iraq we are paying a high price in blood and treasure and an even greater price in national prestiege. It is well beyond time to go to a national service program for ALL Americans.
Blackwater -- gunning down ordinary citizens over there, so they don't have to shoot us over here.
-- ARG
legion wrote on September 19, 2007 11:35 AM:Whomever is at fault, the Times reports that Iraqis are infuriated by the perception of impunity by private security companies.
Perception? What brand of crack are you on, Sparky? Their immunity is cold, hard fact. Anyone either in the US or Iraq who thought Iraq was anything other than an occupied region, and might have it's own sovereign government is in for a rude shock...
scott ingram wrote on September 19, 2007 11:59 AM:Read the part of the article that describes the young couple and their infant who were in the slow-moving car. The Blackwater fire blew up the car, and in the ensuing inferno, the infant was fused to the mother's body. Another day in the Iraqi holocaust.
TaskerFive wrote on September 19, 2007 12:32 PM:Read it a few times. Think of human beings caught in a traffic jam, panicked and helpless. Think of the sunglassed Kevlared Dick Cheney-loving thugs who are us. We are cursed for generations and we deserve it. I am ashamed every day--every hour--to be a citizen of this country.
Anybody interested in this subject should read "A Bloody Business" by Colonel Gerald Schumacher. He is a contractor, Green Beret, and a professional. This book was written without any varnish on the situation contractors are in, over in Iraq. There are stories that far exceed the current news headline.
At the time I read it was considering accepting a job as a security contractor in a prison over there. After reading it some time ago, I realize it greatly enhanced my understanding of security contractors in general. It's not a love fest, some of the things in the book are questionable. Iraq is basically the wild west, and everything that comes along with that.
sarah wrote on September 19, 2007 12:37 PM:American majorities repudiated the Vietnam War and have repudiated the invasion of Iraq. They did not lack guts then or now; they saw past the false promises and manipulations of their leaders, and called time. George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden appear to share the belief that the United States is chronically afflicted with a cut-and-run syndrome, but they are both wrong: the most striking aspect of American democracy during the catastrophe in Iraq today is not the public’s inconstancy but, rather, its capacity to absorb thousands of casualties on behalf of a war that is widely understood as a mistake and has no foreseeable end.
SplendidOne wrote on September 19, 2007 1:20 PM:http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2007/09/24/070924taco_talk_coll/?printable=true
"Think of human beings caught in a traffic jam, panicked and helpless. Think of the sunglassed Kevlared Dick Cheney-loving thugs who are us."
Right on. Why is it so hard for Americans to - just for one moment - put themselves in the place of these victims? If I were Iraqi and this happened to my family, as soon as the funerals were over I'd be at the Al Quaeda recruiting center.
psyopswatcher wrote on September 19, 2007 1:44 PM:Glad to see Muckie pick up on this. OJ and the Taserkid kinda blew Blackwater into the backwater netherland. Fixed Noise?
olo wrote on September 19, 2007 4:47 PM:I'm sure that as far as Bleakwater is concerned, their misteak was leaving living witnesses.
osama_been_forgotten wrote on September 19, 2007 4:56 PM:High priced mercenaries? Jokes on them! This is all borrowed money. FED keeps dropping interest rates like this, and soon, it will be toilet paper.
Uncle Kudzu wrote on September 19, 2007 6:12 PM:creepy, creepy, creepy. but we're unpatriotic if we question the the way this occupation is being executed.
and rest assured that this will be made to go quietly away.
714Day wrote on September 19, 2007 7:32 PM:scott ingram you said
Utopia wrote on September 19, 2007 11:02 PM:"Think of the sunglassed Kevlared Dick Cheney-loving thugs who are us. We are cursed for generations and we deserve it. I am ashamed every day--every hour--to be a citizen of this country."
I couldn't disagree more with your conclusion, though I applaud the original portion of your post.
Ever read the Declaration of Independence?,... Constitution?,... Bill of Rights? Surely you know as well as I do that the current junta in Washington has no relationship with any of those ideas. And sure as hell the abominations perpetrated by those diabolic movers have sent droves of volunteers into the embrace of Al Qaeda (an equally bankrupt bunch in the execution of the guiltless and the innocent...albeit for different "reasons" - namely vengeance - but in reality they have an agenda as jackdawed as the PNAC.)
We are complicit in this in some fashion, to be sure. We are impotent (so far) beneath the iron fists that crush us all.
Sometimes I wonder what, shy of the second American Revolution, will stop this satanic juggernaut? Are you willing to take up arms against the government and do a bit of bloodletting of your own, then? If not, are you ashamed that you refrain from doing so? We feel as hopeless as the Iraqis on many levels, I think.
Unlike the Iraqis, we have been imbued with the IDEAS that we might find the means to empower justice through reason and ingenuity and diligence. We are immersed in the notion that we have a RIGHT and DUTY to take a stand against corrupt and greedy tyrants.
We, the people, prefer nonviolent peaceful living (which I would agree we will not long enjoy; sledgehammers are in an arc and they will follow the law of gravity).
I have children. I must hope that more exercise of right headed thinking and firm resolve by the many will find a way.
Dick Cheney and his thugs aren't this nation, we are. A good chunk of the populace thinks Cheney is an authoritarian crackpot and his cabal an elevated gang; I'm not ashamed of that at all. Two thirds of the nation wants our military out of Iraq, that's good in my book.
If we capitulate in despair, these monsters get exactly what they want. I'm not ready to hand them a God blessed thing.
So much for the vaunted "sovereignty" Gee Dubya announced oh so many years ago. I can just imagine Condi saying to Maliki: "sure you've got sovereignty, just don't try to use it, K?" What a joke.
U
The Oracle wrote on September 19, 2007 11:19 PM:The Iraqi Interior Ministry?
The ministry that has been running Shiite Iraqi death squads who've been "ethnic cleansing" Baghdad? That ministry?
I have really no sympathy for Blackwater, but based on what I've read about the Iraqi Interior Ministry, they are about as believable (and accountable) as Blackwater, which isn't saying very much.