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Today's Must Read
If Blackwater seems to have a bunker mentality, there are some ready explanations. First, the company has a lot to answer for. Second, it's got a relentless inquisitor on its heels. And not to be forgotten: in Iraq, at least, its employees (sorry, "independent contractors") actually live in a bunker.
Paul von Zielbauer and James Glanz of The New York Times provide a fascinating glimpse into the maze of stacked trailers that comprise Blackwater's Green-Zone compound. It says a lot that the compound is surrounded by 25-foot high concrete barriers topped with razor wire inside the safest place in Iraq: denizens liken it to a minimum security prison. Outside is the enemy. Not merely insurgents, infuriated Iraqis, and disdainful Iraqi government officials, but frustrated U.S. troops, unreliable diplomats and FBI inquisitors delving into the company's mistakes in last month's Nisour Square shootings.
The bunker mentality, however, may be dissipating. Some Blackwater officials were openly critical of the company's actions to the Times reporters:
“Some guys are thinking that it was not a good shoot, that it was not warranted,” said one Blackwater contractor, using military jargon for an episode that results in a wrongful death. “I don’t think there was criminal intent involved. I just think it was the application of the use of deadly force gone horribly wrong.”He added, “To mitigate one threat, 17 people had to die?”
Outside the compound, the picture of Nisour Square painted by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government is disturbing, if not exactly clear (or multifaceted): Blackwater contractors overreacted to a misperceived threat and fired nearly indiscriminately on Iraqi civilians despite not taking hostile fire themselves. Inside the compound, though, there isn't a united rejoinder -- only confusion.
But in furtive discussions over recent weeks, certain details about the episode, [company employees] said, have gained currency among many Blackwater workers, many of whom would like to believe that their colleagues acted appropriately.Those workers said, for example, that Blackwater guards who fired at Iraqis in Nisour Square described how an Iraqi driver had pulled up his car well after the Blackwater convoy had arrived and warned traffic to stay back. The encroaching car, the workers said, caused their colleagues to feel threatened and initiate machine-gun fire. They also said that friction between Blackwater convoys and groups of armed Iraqi police in the days before the shooting had created a mutual distrust, and that the police officers, perhaps as a result of earlier disputes, fired at the Blackwater convoy. “The Iraqi police were testing these guys at various intersections,” said one former Blackwater guard who has spoken with men on the convoy at Nisour Square.
That doesn't explicitly contradict what Erik Prince, Blackwater's CEO, has told Congress and the press all this month. But it's not exactly congruent, either. Prince described a "complex attack" of insurgent small-arms fire and a nearby car bomb. The view from the compound is one of overreaction to the single, much-described approaching car. If Blackwater contractors told the Times reporters about taking insurgent fire, it didn't make it to print. At least one Blackwater contractor suggested that the bodies at the square were insurgent bodies stripped of weapons to make them appear to be civilians, but that's a hard thing to prove.
The confusion at the bunker is indicative of confusion among Blackwater guards at Nisour Square itself. Not everyone on the Blackwater team was on board with the degree of force employed:
The Blackwater employees said that talk about the Sept. 16 shootings had also focused on a heated dispute between members of the team in the square, pitting the men pouring gunfire into Iraqi vehicles against other Blackwater guards who were imploring them to stop.“There was turmoil in the team, where half the guys were saying, ‘Don’t shoot,’” said a military veteran who spoke to a member of the Blackwater team on the convoy.
That's sure to feature in the FBI report.
Comments (36)
TheraP wrote on October 25, 2007 9:33 AM:Mercenaries - not contractors, please!
ARG in Chicago wrote on October 25, 2007 9:41 AM:Call them what you like, they're violating the rights of civilians over there, so they don't have to do it over here. At least, not yet.
-- ARG
Blackwater Awareness Week wrote on October 25, 2007 9:45 AM:Report "Misinformation and Fabrications" to Congress. Do your part!
Obviously Blackwater is still trying to weasel out of the shooting of 17 civilians. And State is trying to weasel out of lack of oversight of Blackwater - and everything else. And .... you know the routine!
Remember, Blackwater is asking for this!
JEP wrote on October 25, 2007 9:46 AM:Thera-P, you're really on to something here. That word "contractors" is surely a milquetoast term for a much more pernicious purpose.
That term "contractors" has been flashing like a neon sign, ever since Halliburton and the rest of the neo-con book-cooker's cabal figured out they could free up their accountants and some of their easy money by designating "employees" as "contractors."
It is nothing more or less than more BOOK COOKING, it is one of the true identifiers that we are dealing with book-cookers, because book-cookers came up with the whole "contractor" abdication BS in the first place.
The word "contractors" as we see here will one day become mych more infamous, once we learn how the no-bidders used it to reap even more corporate profit from this profane "war".
"Contractor" might take on a new meaning in the coming decades, it may just become a derisive word for anyone stupid enough to work for one of these neo-multinational corporations that dpoesn't want to for pay taxes, health-care and personal equipment.
Johann wrote on October 25, 2007 9:51 AM:"That's sure to feature in the FBI report."
Wanna Bet?
Figbash wrote on October 25, 2007 9:52 AM:For a disgustingly good look at life in the Green Zone, Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, is a fascinating read. The neoconservative ideologues' incompetence, mismanagement and failed initiatives would make them appear as slap-stickingly funny as Moe, Larry and Curly if the results weren't so tragic. Read it and weep.
TheraP wrote on October 25, 2007 9:53 AM:JEP - I'm trying to think then what we should call the "book-cookers" who employ the Mercenaries.
Pimps? Or are they Prostitutes and this administration is Pimping?
Hopefully you can straighten this out for us.
Steve5117 wrote on October 25, 2007 10:08 AM:Hello RWA-42
House Oversight Committee, Waxman vs Rice, now online.
moondancer wrote on October 25, 2007 10:26 AM:If memory serves me, State Dept security was handled by the marine corp at one time. I wonder what fevered free-market Vulcan decided we were better served by mercenaries without oversight?
The private militia is the part that bothers me the most. A elite corp of trained killers that are loyal to a Christo-fascist fanatic is alarming. Imagine if the same organization was funded by George Soros? I suspect the media would be looking a little closer.
Figbash-
nellieh wrote on October 25, 2007 10:27 AM:Yes, great book. My favorite anecdote(there are so many) is the nitwit and the Iraqi stock exchange.
They are called "contractors" for more than evading taxes. It is an attempt to eacape blame for when things go bad. "It wasn't Blackwater it was the 'sub-contractors!' And things have been bad. If these contractors like to shoot, bring the troops home and leave the ammunition for them. The problems are still Blackwater's starting at the top.
buck wrote on October 25, 2007 10:28 AM:I've argued for four years now that we must be skeptical of any reports from Iraq that mention "civilian contractors". There are at least three distinct groups of CC in Iraq (I usually focus only on the first and combine the other two). First, you have the security contractors who are not civilian at all--Blackwater is only the most obvious example. Second, you have the KBR-type contractors who do hire civilians for a variety of jobs and usually use military units as convoy escorts. I wonder if their number has declined since 2004, when Haliburton was running empty trucks with underequipped escorts as bait for the "insurgents". That's when truckers and whole National Guard units started balking at assignments.
The third group is still rather heterogeneous and includes small-time contractors who were lured into Iraq ostensibly to make money of reconstruction--including subcontractors of Haliburton/KBR and Bechtel--plus some GOP ops who could not get government jobs but were nonetheless hired by the GOP-friendly businesses operating in Iraq.
When the media reports on civilian contractors, the administration wants us to believe that they are mostly of the third kind but hired to do the job that is covered by the second kind. Yet, when we hear about contractor problems--particularly casualties--it is usually of the first kind. That includes the Fallujah Four as well as various interrogators (including a several killed in Afghanistan). In addition, because these guys are recognizably military types, their actions engender resentment toward the actual US military. So all the potentially good work by the military units to establish contact and positive rapport with the locals goes to waste because of these "civilian" contractors.
john Buster wrote on October 25, 2007 10:31 AM:Orwell in Baghdad
Letter to the NYT Editor
I am troubled by the NYT's follow-up today of the Blackwater massacre, "Under Siege, Blackwater Takes on Air of Bunker." It is Orwellian, not honest. Your article describes Blackwater's men as "employees," "guards," "workers," and "contractors" . . . but never once as "mercenaries." Any reason why the NYT refuses to use this proper noun?
The NYT reports the exculpatory, imagined excuses of a Blackwater "employee" [whose name, past deeds and personal interest in this incident the article leaves blank] who never witnessed it. The article quotes him:
[Block NYT quote] that Blackwater was fired upon by Iraqis with AK-47s who fled the scene after Blackwater returned an overwhelming amount of fire.“How long does it take for a dead terrorist to become a dead civilian?” a Blackwater employee said. “As long as it takes to remove an AK-47 from the body,” suggesting that accomplices might have removed weapons as they fled. [end block NYT quote]
The NYT did not appear to investigate or do any obvious fact-checking to counterbalance the excuses it printed today. The article does not state whether anyone, Blackwater mercenaries, State Dept. officials, or Iraqis, actually reported seeing any "accomplices" at the scene, whether any Blackwater vehicles were hit by AK-47 slugs, and whether any AK-47 cartridges were found in the aftermath. The answers are all "No", but the article never report these salient facts.
The NYT earlier reported that no State Dept. official in Iraq has been harmed while protected by Blackwater.
But the NYT today did not report how many Iraqi women, older men and children, [by group, in addition to able-bodied men] were killed in this one incident or were killed or disfigured [hundreds possibly] in the 68 [?] other shootings Blackwater's mercenaries needed to achieve their spotless record. My God, a spotless record?
And what about the NYT's record?
The NYT passes along transparent excuses from a mercenary and possible fellow killer as "all the news fit to print." The NYT's article reads like a bad defense attorney's opening statement.
If I were you, I would be embarrassed.
SoCali wrote on October 25, 2007 10:45 AM:This is the one of the few times I have seen in print the word "massacre" used to describe the Blackwater slaughter of innocent people. It is called a "shooting" or a "killing" but rarely is accurate language used. I don't think it is a coincidence. Our corporate media is very complicit in this move towards fascism.
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:10 AM:Congratulations on your accuracy.
Definition of "massacre":
1. the UNNECESSARY, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.
TheraP wrote on October 25, 2007 11:11 AM:2. a general slaughter, as of persons or animals: "the massacre of MILLIONS during the war."
RWA - 43:
How dense I am! Took me till now to catch your drift!
Sorry I'm not able to monitor Waxman. But you report back.
Mary Savoca wrote on October 25, 2007 11:30 AM:Hitler called his mercenaries "the Gestapo " and used them against his German people when they questioned
john buster wrote on October 25, 2007 11:40 AM:his actions.
Nana
Thank you, Jake D, for the dictionary definition of "massacre."
You capitalized "UNNECESSARY." Why?
I cited facts [no "accomplices" seen by anyone, no AK-47 damage to Blackwater's vehicles, no AK-47 cartridges on the ground] reported by other news sources].
Are you implying that a mercenary's machine-gun killing of 17 Iraqi men, women and children and disfiguring of another 20 pedestrians was necessary and not indiscriminate?
Please explain.
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:47 AM:We have sadly passed the 17-post mark here on this very thread. I would like to ask for a moment of silence to honor this "massacre".
The Conservative Deflator wrote on October 25, 2007 11:54 AM:These are sick perverted criminals who get a nut off by killing. Prince and everyone who works for Blackwater should either go to prison or undergo psychological testing and be required to surrender and never have or own a firearm again in their pathetic life.
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:56 AM:I am such an asshole.
jri wrote on October 25, 2007 11:58 AM:Erik Prince sets my gaydar off. And not in a good way.
=
Jingle drums wrote on October 25, 2007 12:21 PM:Dear John Buster,
SoCali wrote on October 25, 2007 12:33 PM:Remember when they had Judy Miller incorporated in with the troops? It was a personal favor to the NYT through Scooter from Cheney for NYT being so helpful in selling the errors and lies that were the sales pitch to this carnage, reinvented in terminology that identifies it as liberation from tyranny and protection of a civilian population who only wants freedom. Since then it's been referred to as a War we're in, although Iraq never did one damn thing to the United States, and all the reasons for keeping no records of civilian deaths or any legitimate accounting of costs is called National Security, although there again Iraq didn't and doesn't represent any sort of any threat of any magnitude massive or miniscule to our country. The words would have us believe this War is for our protection and the continuance of a set of noble ideals, when reality pretty much at this point demands the fact this is for profit and political power. There's been times in the recent past when nearly 50% of our own population have urged the rest that there's no use resisting the urge to invest in slaughter of people you will never have to know and are encouraged to despise by describing them as backward unhappy and unworthy. To refuse or feel otherwise afterall would clearly label one UnPatriotic. We had a chance to lead the world in innovative fuels, metropolitan interaction, and global diplomacy, but were forced to throw it away because others were willing to accommodate Dick Cheney's homocidal psychosis and George Junior's drug and alcohol induced brain damage and his residual anal gratification phase he never was willing to part from since age three.
Dear "asshole" (self-described),
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 12:52 PM:I can't tell if you are applauding the massacre, doubt that the word massacre applies or generally don't give a damn about the slaughter of innocent people.
Jake D, how would you characterize this slaughter? Was it murder?
My point was that the MSM chooses its words carefully and with the purpose to convey that these "killings' were insignificant even though the murderers were paid for by US tax dollars.
Mark
Mark:
That was the fake Jake at 11:56 AM -- I am reserving judgment on the use of the word "massacre" until we actually know the facts -- for instance, you may think there was a "massacre" at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think it was necessary and justified.
Erik wrote on October 25, 2007 1:05 PM:What he means, Mark, is that he's going to stick with the Bush talking points and no amount of reason or common decency will deter him. And we shouldn't let him hijack yet another thread.
Jim wrote on October 25, 2007 1:05 PM:All these psychpaths will be coming home to live in houses nearby.
Jim wrote on October 25, 2007 1:06 PM:All these psychpaths will be coming home to live in houses nearby.
SoCali wrote on October 25, 2007 1:35 PM:This country is filled with guys like John D who are unable to make ethical judgments because of their undying loyalty to this administration and their belief that the ends justify the means whatever they deem the ends to be in Iraq and the greater Middle East.
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 2:05 PM:What worries me is the MSM acts as accomplish and carries otherwise good people along.
Mark:
Who is "John D"? There's a "John Buster" posting above. I fear that the fake Jakes are trying to hijack yet another thread away from me -- would that be re-hijacking?
Mark wrote on October 25, 2007 2:21 PM:Sorry... my mistake. It was Jake D aka "asshole" not John D
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:47 AM:
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 2:25 PM:Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:56 AM:
I already told you that was the fake Jake.
Mark wrote on October 25, 2007 2:37 PM:And these? They all sound like the same person. You know, someone that would answer to Jake D's self description (asshole).
p mac wrote on October 25, 2007 3:04 PM:Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:10 AM:
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 12:52 PM:
If not mercenaries, how about "condottieres", which actually means "contractors?"
It has exactly the right connotation.
v. popvli wrote on October 25, 2007 3:40 PM:Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:10 AM:
Definition of "massacre":
1. the UNNECESSARY, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.
2. a general slaughter, as of persons or animals: "the massacre of MILLIONS during the war."
i take from your caps of unnecessary that you believe the nisour square shooting was "necessary," but not indiscriminate. that's a low bar for defining a massacre, you know. given the opportunity, would you detonate an atom bomb in berlin in 1942 to derail hitler, even if it meant the deaths of hundreds of thousands of germans? or is it only ok to use atom bombs on people with yellow skin?
in recent times, the navy has indicated that its blockade of the japanese island and complete air superiority could've starved the country into surrender by the winter of 1945.
i take from your caps of millions to mean that you think the number of deaths has to approach the millions to be a massacre. but that's just a dictionary's example sentence, not a definitive dividing line between a massacre and a not-massacre. the dictionary's example sentence could just as easily have referenced Haditha and used the word DOZENS, only their editors would use the appropriate amount of emphasis and leave it uncapitalized.
if you seriously think that capitalizing "millions" strengthens your point about what does or does not constitute a massacre, i feel sorry for whoever wasted their time teaching you rhetoric. maybe i should capture OBL, and place him in proximity of 17 of your innocent relatives and friends, and then blow them all up since killing OBL is "necessary." you can tell me whether you think it's a massacre after the funerals. hypothetically speaking.
Ray wrote on October 26, 2007 2:22 AM:To ARG, (dude, what's that stand for?)... anyway, if you want to check out the predicate of that comment try googling blackwater during Katrina for some contrary evidence to deal with, maybe you'll change your mind.
To Jake D...NECCESSITY, being the mother of invention, so JUSTIFICATION is the father of lies. The good news is that there still are whistleblowers around and even in such unlikely places as Blackwater rosters.
May the pimps remain hidden no more.
ARG in Chicago wrote on October 26, 2007 10:11 AM:Thanks, Ray (they're my initials, dude).
"The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit.
...
Blackwater is not alone. ... mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions. ... Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal contract to house FEMA workers.
A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I was on the phone with my business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the phone and returned fire."
Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said." "
So I see you're point, Ray. Compared to some, Blackwater was downright civilized in enforcing martial law in New Orleans.
Some bad things are set to happen over here in the next year or two. And these mercenary groups are training in Iraq so that they can "enforce the law" here. Expect the same techniques, and the same lack of accountability.
-- ARG