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State Dep't Hearts Trigger-Happy Blackwater
To add one thing to what the Boss observed about Blackwater being involved in the most shooting incidents of any State Department contractor, consider these two excerpts from The New York Times' piece today. First:
The State Department keeps reports on each case in which weapons were fired by security personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq. Officials familiar with the internal State Department reports would not provide the actual statistics, but they indicated that the records showed that Blackwater personnel were involved in dozens of episodes in which they had resorted to force.The officials said that Blackwater’s incident rate was at least twice that recorded by employees of DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, the two other United States-based security firms that have been contracted by the State Department to provide security for diplomats and other senior civilians in Iraq.
And then this:
Last year, the State Department gave Blackwater the lead role in diplomatic security in Iraq, reducing the roles of DynCorp and Triple Canopy.
Blackwater workers in Iraq outnumber those for the other two contractors by more than 2 to 1.
However aggressively Blackwater operates, the State Department clearly approves. No wonder experts consider pointing a finger exclusively at the company to be misleading.
Comments (5)
TheraP wrote on September 27, 2007 1:33 PM:My reading of the article was that "according to the government" Blackwater has twice the recorded rate of firing incidents.
HOWEVER, it is very interesting that while they supplied the actual figures for the other two war privateers, they did not give the actual Blackwater numbers. Thus, here we go again, folks.... can we trust that indeed Blackwater's figures are twice as high ONLY? Or are they really 3x higher? Or 4x higher?
My question: Why release the actual figures for the other two and pointedly refuse to release the actual figures for Blackwater?
This is like the figures Petraeus cited, that we talked so much about last week. Why must we trust their statement, in the absence of their releasing the actual figures for Blackwater?
Kibitzer wrote on September 27, 2007 3:34 PM:My first reaction was that one would expect Blackwater to be involved in twice as many incidents as the other contractors, since they have twice as many employees.
It turns out that it is twice as many incidents _per_ mission. Just in case anyone else made that mistake, here's the relevant quote from the NYT piece: "...the company has been involved in cases in which its personnel fired weapons while guarding State Department officials in Iraq at least twice as often per convoy mission as security guards working for other American security firms, the officials said."
--Kibitzer
GERALD PLOMBON wrote on September 27, 2007 7:50 PM:I'M CONVINCED THAT DEAD EYE MUST BE RUNNING "BLACKWATER". iT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT WE INVADED THAT COUNTRY ILLEGALLY AND NOW WE HIRE MERCENARYS TO PROTECT US. DOES THIS ADMINSTRATION HAVE ANY SHAME AT ALL!!
shenacatro wrote on October 29, 2007 4:25 AM:Work from home jobs
dafodilkemmy wrote on October 29, 2007 10:27 AM:"Real Work At Home Job That Pays $150 - $2,000 a day. No scams just easy work that anyone can do from home. Work at home jobs that really pay."
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