Two Years Still Waiting for Justice

The nation wide citizen's group noprivatearmies.org and the Illinois
Clearwater group mark the two year anniversary of the Nisour Square
shooting with a call on Congress to end the use of private military
companies.

Two years ago on a sunny September in Baghdad 17 unarmed innocent
civilians were gunned down by contractors of the Blackwater Worldwide
private military company. (Now known as Xe.) Over 40 civilians were
injured in the massacre. The Blackwater security contractors were part
of a U.S. state department convoy making its way through the busy
Nisour square. When the convoy was stopped by traffic the contractors
became edgy. When a car, driven by a medical student, did not stop when
ordered to stop they opened fire. This led to five of the contractors
firing indiscriminately in a 360 degree radius. Many of the victims
were shot in the back trying to flee the scene. One nine year old boy
was killed in the backseat of his father's car.

The U.S. Army, the Iraqi police, the FBI and the U.S. department of
justice all investigated the incident and found no justification for
the shooting. Today two years later the five contractors who were
responsible for the murders are still free.

Other private military companies such Armor Group North America,
CACI, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp to name only a few of the over 600
that are under contract to the U.S. government; have also been found to
be involved in fraud, sex trafficking, arms smuggling, civilian
murders, torture and other criminal activity. Still taxpayer money is
being used to pay for these multi-million dollar contracts.

The noprivatearmies.org citizens group calls upon Congress to begin
the work necessary to end our dependency upon these mercenary
companies. The group urges Congress to give back to the military the
responsibility of providing security and carrying out combat operations
instead of outsourcing our security to these companies that operate in
war zones for their personal profit.

How much longer must the families and loved ones of those gunned down in Nisour Square wait for justice?