Iraq Could Try Blackwater Over Deadly Shootout
BAGHDAD - A top Iraqi judge said on Tuesday that US security firm Blackwater could go on trial over a deadly shootout in Baghdad, as Washington sought to cool tensions over the incident.
“This company is subject to Iraqi law and the crime committed was on Iraqi territory and the Iraqi judiciary is responsible for tackling the case,” said Abdul Sattar Ghafour Bairaqdar from Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council, the country’s highest court.
Iraq’s interior ministry on Monday ordered the cancellation of Blackwater’s operating licence after its guards who were escorting US embassy officials were involved in Sunday’s gunbattle in Baghdad’s Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood.
Eight people were killed and 13 wounded in the shooting, which Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned as a “criminal” act.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Maliki on Monday to express her regret, as US and Iraqi officials pursued their investigations into the incident.
US and Iraqi sources in Baghdad said the shooting erupted after a bomb exploded near a US diplomatic convoy, but a US government incident report said armed insurgents fired on the convoy and Blackwater guards responded.
The Iraqi judge said the case against Blackwater, one of the biggest private security firms operating in the violence-wracked country, could be filed either by relatives of the victims or by the government.
Despite the interior ministry order, a US embassy official said on Tuesday that Blackwater — which employs almost 1,000 people in Iraq — had not been expelled.
“Blackwater is still here. The US authorities are holding discussions with the Iraqi counterparts over the issue,” the official told AFP.
The ministry’s director of operations, Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf, said the investigation was continuing, adding: “We will submit our report in a day or two to the judiciary.”
Rice called Maliki on Monday to “express her regret over the death of innocent civilians that occurred during the attack on an embassy convoy,” US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
But Maliki’s office said Rice went further and had “apologised personally” as well as assuring him that a detailed investigation would be conducted.
According to a US government incident report, the “skirmish occurred… when the (US) motorcade was engaged with small arms fire from several locations as it moved through a neighbourhood of west Baghdad,” Time magazine reported.
“The team returned fire to several identified targets,” Time quoted the report as saying.
“Some eyewitnesses said the fighting began after an explosion detonated near the US convoy, but the incident report does not reflect that,” the magazine said.
US embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad, Mirembe Nantongo, told reporters on Monday that the shooting happened when the private security guards “reacted to a car bomb.”
A Blackwater official told Time that “contrary to some reports from Iraq, the convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job, they fired back to defend human life.’”
Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demanded the ouster of Blackwater, saying those employed by the company were “criminals and those who have left American jails.”
The shootout came as the spotlight was focused on the future strategy of the United States in Iraq, where top commanders are forecasting a troop drawdown in the coming months.
Political analyst Peter Singer, in an article posted on the Brookings Institution website, said the US military in Iraq was stretched thin and that US government’s diplomatic security force “has been hollowed out.”
This means that in the short term, Washington will have to “ignore the Iraqis’ wishes and just keep on using Blackwater contractors as before; find another company to step in and quick-fill take on these roles in lieu of the firm; or negotiate with the Iraqis to find terms under which (Blackwater) might continue to carry out the operation.”
Set up by a former US Navy SEAL, Blackwater made headlines when four of its contractors were killed and their bodies were hanged from a bridge in the then insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad in 2004.
The company operates a fleet of helicopters offering security to US embassy officials and other Americans and escorts for convoys on the country’s dangerous roads.
Meawhile, 11 people were killed in bomb attacks in Baghdad on Tuesday, including seven who died when a car bomb and a mortar targeted a morgue filled with people looking for their missing relatives, security officials said.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse
“Political analyst Peter Singer, in an article posted on the Brookings Institution website, said the US military in Iraq was stretched thin and that US government’s diplomatic security force “has been hollowed out.” This means that in the short term, Washington will have to “ignore the Iraqis’ wishes and just keep on using Blackwater contractors as before…”
Maliki could do himself a big favour by continuing to insist that Blackwater be banished completely from Iraq. This might be the best way to achieve that “Iraqi unification” benchmark that Bush has been blathering on about.
Personally, I’d love it if the Iraqi government could round up all the Blackwater ass-holes who have been wontonly bullying, raping and murdering Iraqis in the name of our country and subject them to Iraqi justice. That would keep the more dangerous and unstable ones from coming back here and doing god knows what. Mercenaries have no right carrying out the business of the American Military. For that matter, this administration has no right to sell America’s interests to fascist-minded corporate America.
I certainly enjoyed this episode of ‘American Empire: Iraq and let’s roll’. The action scenes were terrific! Our heroes in denim dished out their brand of justice to the unsuspecting and innocent.
Then there was the song and dance from al-Maliki, who was joined by our own Condi Rice in the heartfelt duet ‘Sorry but that’s the way it is’.
This week’s losers have been eliminated and the winners proceed to the next round.
I hear that the season finale will be really explosive. You know how it is, if the ratings go down then heads will roll!
The US decision to “ignore the Iraqis” is indisputable evidence that the US has given the Maliki government 0% of the authority needed to govern and 100% of the accountability for everything that goes wrong not only in Iraq, but also anything the US can’t blame on Iran throughout the region.
Fortunately the Maliki government has not yet signed Iraq’s oil over to the multi-national oil companies. He knows that once the oil is given away the Bush Administration will have no further use for him.
Blackwater will not be tried or ejected. Not only does Blackwater have full WH backing, but they also have full support and funding from the Democratic Congress.
“Iraq Could Try Blackwater Over Deadly Shootout”
But they won’t.
Look for Blackwater to be hired in the US as outsourced Police Departments.
Won’t that be fun.
I question the “1000″ Blackwater number. I heard somewhere that there is almost as many mercenaries in Iraq as US soldiers. Anyone have the real numbers?
Further, Blackwater is setting up “bases” in the US. And they are training our local police forces. All the better to round up those “terrorist” Americans to be thrown into the Haliburton detention camps.
If Congress doesn’t put a stop to this nightmare in the next couple of months, a REAL American revolution will be necessary. Period.
Rebel, I heard there were 182,000 mercenaries in Iraq.
Talk about adding insult to injury for the poor Iraqis. The U.S. shouldn’t be in Iraq in the first place, yet they placed almost
200 thousand mercenaries there in addition to the regular military.
The French press picked this up from an AP article on Common Dreams yesterday, 9/17, added a few lines of updates and published it with a different photo today.
Maybe they can keep it alive and not let it get buried.
Hope the Iraqis don’t settle for Rice’s empty apologies or sign the oil deal that Bush has been pushing for either. Maybe more of the EU will begin to support them soon. I’ve got my fingers crossed they spit in Bush’s face! They deserve better.
The hired mercenaries (paid w/our tax dollars) are what Zimbardo was talking about in the Stanford flap about Rumsfeld being appointed to the Hoover Institute. What university will be hiring them next after they return to the US? University of Florida or Ohio State?
Our Constitution is in serious trouble! I’m putting signs up in my front yard again. The first amendment
is what America is all about! What do you mean I can’t express my opinion? Watch me…….
Everybody, do something - no matter how small!! It’s time to create the change we’ve been looking for.
Good - hang the bastards. This Blackwater filth, its founder and its most ardent supporters are obscene - I’m with Suter - express your opinions before you’re not allowed to have any, for God’s sake.
“express your opinions before you’re not allowed to have any, for God’s sake.”
becareful it may already be too late.
My local paper - Palm Beach Post claims that there are only a few thousand “security forces” in Iraq. No where near the amount of soldiers. Hasn’t anyone checked the budget to see where all these billions are going? It sure as hell isn’t going to the people of Iraq and our Troops families are on FOOD STAMPS! But we have enough money to pay private companies millions…..
Oops, my bad! Food stamps is how we support our troops! Maybe we should start calling them welfare queens…
Bush has ordered diplomatic personnel to remain in the green zone since that will no longer have Blackwater to protect them.
Doesn’t Bush trust our own troops? With all of our soldiers that are there, surely some could be used to protect non-combatants.
It’s definitely not too late!
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. As long as we can breathe we can talk with one another and to our representatives in Congress. That is easy… who doesn’t have something to say?
Acting it out may be a littler harder to do for some people - signs on the lawns, stickers on the cars, messages on a t-shirt, etc. But whatever it is that you can do, do it! This will inspire other to speak up and act in their own way. As individuals we can do so much.
With the common goal for change we become a collective that cannot be ignored! Give it a try and let’s just see what happens!