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ABC: State Officials Concerned about BW Shootings in 2005
Man, is it a good thing Condoleezza Rice expressed "regret" that State waited until last month to start reviewing its relationship with Blackwater. And it's particularly nifty that she isn't "personally following" every little multi-million dollar discrepancy, shenanigan or blooper. Because then she might have to explain why State Department officials, back in 2005, chatted in internal e-mails about how Blackwater was killing Iraqi civilians and yet were outside the law:
Internal State Department e-mails, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, show top officials were extensively briefed about repeated incidents of Blackwater security guards killing innocent civilians more than two years ago. ...Yet, the e-mails show that State Department officials had extensive knowledge of a growing problem in the summer of 2005, and complained about a lack of a compensation program for civilian victims.
"Obviously it is not pleasant meeting with these individuals with nothing more to offer than apologies, condolences and vague promises," wrote a State Department security officer based in al Hillah, Michael Bishop, to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Two years later, the State Department recommends making appropriate "condolence or compensation" payments, as well. And Iraqis love that!
Comments (9)
Slim Pickins wrote on October 25, 2007 2:50 PM:So concerned, that they actually did nothing.
donviti wrote on October 25, 2007 3:21 PM:I just fell out of my chair in shock
wait for it
wait
wait
Alien Alert wrote on October 25, 2007 3:49 PM:notttttt
Look at her forehead!
Stealing this from my brother: "Do aliens control politics? Humans wouldn't do this to us, would they?"
mo2 wrote on October 25, 2007 4:18 PM:I found a picture of Mr. Brent Blashke
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/56811.pdf
page 14 of 44. Posing with a rock lion statue.
mo2 wrote on October 25, 2007 4:23 PM:More on Brent Blashke:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/02/01/us-department-of-state-watching-sabbah/
Blackwater Awareness Week wrote on October 25, 2007 4:39 PM:A quick google search shows that he has posted about baseball in April 2006, but that wasn't so interesting as the above. In the above he posted to an anti-Zionist blog and they wrote him back. I haven't read the whole thing, but the man likes the internet.
Thank you for making us aware of that, Spencer. We're all doing our part to expose "Misinformation and Fabrications."
Remember, Blackwater asked for it!
mo2 wrote on October 25, 2007 4:54 PM:And it appears that Brent Blashke is on the State Department blog team since last month:
4. AT STATE DEPT., BLOG TEAM JOINS MUSLIM DEBATE - NEIL MACFARQUHAR (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): The idea of State Department’s Digital Outreach Team, according to project director Brent E. Blaschke is to reach “swing voters,” whom he described as the silent majority of Muslims who might sympathize with Al Qaeda yet be open to information about United States government policy and American values. Some analysts question whether the blog team, currently made up of two persons, will survive beyond the tenure of Karen P. Hughes, the confidante of President Bush who runs public diplomacy. The department expects to add seven more team members within the next month—four more in Arabic, two in Farsi and one in Urdu, the official language of Pakistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/washington/22bloggers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
judyinnm wrote on October 25, 2007 5:08 PM:"Appropriate condolence or compensation". How does that work - Say "I'm sorry we obliterated your entire family, here's some money, now bug off"?
mo2 wrote on October 25, 2007 5:14 PM:I searched for the names on the email because we know that all State Department emails are routed through the OVP (Cheney). I was trying to figure out which recipient bypassed Condi and went straight to Dick.
The decision to ignore complaints (like all decisions) only comes from one source.