Blackwater mercenaries’ in Iraq

BLACK WATER:
Blackwater mercenaries’ record of murder in Iraq
By Kate Randall1 October 2007
In the aftermath of the bloody shooting incident in Baghdad on September 16 involving hired guards of Blackwater USA, more information is coming to light about
the operations of this and similar mercenary outfits in Iraq.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry contends that as many as 20 Iraqis were killed and several dozens wounded in the massacre, and that the security contractors’ actions
were unprovoked. To date, Blackwater has released no account of the incident, and has maintained that its guards fired in self-defense.
New details of the September 16 shootings and other violent incidents involving Blackwater demonstrate that the security firm has operated with impunity in Baghdad
and other areas of Iraq, firing on unarmed civilians without provocation. US State Department reports, which likely underestimate violent incidents involving
Blackwater, show that since the beginning of the year Blackwater guards have been deployed on 1,873 missions and have discharged weapons in the course of 56 of these.
Despite widespread outrage in the civilian population over the episode, and calls by the Iraqi government for the security firm to leave the country, armed Blackwater
convoys continue to patrol through Baghdad, escorting American diplomats.
According to information provided to the New York Times by an American official who was briefed on a US investigation into the September 16 shooting, during the
incident at least one guard continued to fire on civilians while others called on him to stop. At least one guard reportedly drew a weapon on another who would not
stop shooting. A Blackwater spokesperson would not confirm any of these details.
The episode began at around 11:50 a.m., when diplomats with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were meeting about a mile
northwest of Nisour Square in a guarded compound.
A bomb exploded a few hundred yards from where the USAID diplomats were meeting. Instead of waiting 15-30 minutes for things to calm down, the customary
practice, the Blackwater convoys began carrying the diplomats south, toward the Green Zone, which would take them through Nisour Square.
At least four sport utility vehicles operated by Blackwater stopped in lines of traffic that were entering the square from the south and west, and some armed guards
exited their vehicles and took up positions.
At 12:08 p.m., at least one guard shot at the driver of a car approaching the square, killing the driver, who has not be identified. More shots were fired, killing a
woman in the passenger seat—Mahisin Muhsin, a doctor—and the baby she was holding. A grenade or flare was then fired into the car, setting it on fire.
Traffic officer Ali Khalaf, who was on the scene, told Agence France-Presse that the Americans continued to shoot: “The Americans fired at everything that moved,
with a machine gun and even with a grenade launcher. There was panic. Everyone tried to flee. Vehicles tried to make U-turns to escape. There were dead bodies
and wounded people everywhere. The road was full of blood. A bus was also hit and several of its occupants were wounded.”
He added that two small black helicopters hovering overhead swept down and sprayed the scene with machine-gun fire.
One of those killed was Ghania Hussein, a mother of eight, who was riding in a bus towards the square with her daughter Afrah Sattar. As the Blackwater guards
turned toward the bus, Sattar cried out, “They’re going to shoot at us, Mama.” Moments later a bullet pierced her mother’s skull and she was dead.
“They are killers,” Sattar said of the Blackwater guards. “I swear to God, not one bullet was shot at them. Why did they shoot us? My mother didn’t carry a weapon.”
In the wake of the September 16 massacre, numerous US investigations into the incident as well as the activities of Blackwater and other security firms have been
launched. While these investigations are an effort at damage control, they also reflect tensions over the operations of the hired mercenaries—both between the US
military and the State Department, and between the Bush administration and the puppet Iraqi regime.
A joint American-Iraqi inquiry was set up by the American Embassy and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense following the shootings, comprised of five State Department
officials, three US military officials and eight Iraqis. While Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had originally said Blackwater should immediately leave Iraq, he backed
down and agreed to await the inquiry’s findings. As of last Saturday, the commission had yet to meet and had not responded to Iraqi government requests for
information.
Last Friday, the US State Department announced it was sending a team to Iraq to evaluate security measures used to guard US diplomats. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, however, has not taken action to change any policies in regard to the 842 Blackwater guards working for the department. The State Department
continues to defend the security firm, saying the guards were ambushed in Nisour Square and reacted appropriately.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte claimed the State Department exercised “close in-country supervision” of Blackwater. “I personally was grateful for the
presence of my Blackwater security detail, largely comprised of ex-Special Forces and other military, when I served as ambassador to Iraq,” he said.
The State Department is under pressure from the Iraqi government to investigate seven incidents involving Blackwater since the beginning of the year, and department
officials say their review will consider five of them.
The Iraqi government has threatened to try the Blackwater guards under Iraqi law and is considering legislation that would bring the supervision of private contractors
under its control. This is unlikely as, under provisions put in place by the US following the 2003 invasion, US military and foreign contractors are immune from
prosecution under Iraqi law.
One of the incidents the Maliki government wants investigated took place September 9, a week before the latest Blackwater shootings. Batoul Mohammed Ali
Hussein, a clerk in the Iraqi customs office in Diyala province, had come to Baghdad for the day in connection with paperwork at the central office near the fortified
Green Zone.
According to an account in the Seattle Times, as she walked out of the customs building a US Embassy convoy under Blackwater protection was passing through.
When the guards ordered construction workers to move back, the workers responded by throwing rocks. Witnesses said the guards then sprayed the intersection
with bullets.
“Hussein, on the opposite side of the street from the construction site, fell to the ground, shot in the leg. As she struggled to her feet and took a step, eyewitnesses
said, a Blackwater security guard shot her multiple times. She died on the spot,” the Seattle Times reported. “Before the shooting stopped, four other people were
killed in the beginning of eight days of violence.”
Three days later, Blackwater guards were back in Al-Khilani Square terrorizing Baghdad residents and hurling frozen bottles of water into windshields and store
windows.
Another incident involved a shooting last Christmas eve of an Iraqi guard for the Iraqi vice president by a drunken Blackwater contractor, who was whisked out of
the country after the killing, infuriating the Iraqi government. While this killing is being investigated by the US Justice Department, it is unclear what laws will be applied
as the crime occurred overseas.
As Iraqi anger mounts to the bloody death toll and unprovoked violence by security contractors, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has sent a five-man team to
Iraq to investigate relations between US military forces and these private firms. The actions of these hired mercenaries are focusing new attention on the crimes of the
US occupation and on the growing debacle in Iraq.
Last week, Gates’s top deputy sent a three-page directive to senior Pentagon officers ordering them to review rules governing contractors’ use of arms and to
reportedly begin legal proceedings against those who have violated military law. In a copy of the directive obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Dep. Defense
Secretary Gordon R. England wrote, “Commanders have UCMJ [US Uniform Code of Military Justice] authority to disarm, apprehend and detain DoD
[Department of Defense] contractors suspected of having committed a felony offense” in violation of the rules for use of force.
This is the same Defense Department, is should be noted, that has refused to prosecute any high-ranking military officers in connection with the multiple atrocities in
Iraq that have become public knowledge, from Abu Ghraib, to Haditha, to Mahmudiya, to Fallujah, etc. It is, moreover, well established that the “rules of
engagement” promulgated by commanders in Iraq permit, if not encourage, the murder of Iraqi civilians.
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Bush administration’s request for an additional $189.3 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan in 2008, Gates said, “My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight in the region over the activities of these security
companies.”
The defense secretary’s comments highlight tensions between the US military and the hired mercenaries of Blackwater USA and other security contractors operating
in Iraq: US companies DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, and British-run Aegis Security and Erinys International. An estimated 20,000 to 48,000 armed
contractors from at least 25 private security companies are currently operating in Iraq.
As a rule, these contractors earn far more than US military soldiers. Blackwater guards providing security to US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other diplomats can
earn as much as $1,000 a day, more than ten times the pay of the lowest paid American soldier and more than a four-star general.
Many come from backgrounds in the Navy Seals and the Army’s Delta Force, and flaunt a hunger for blood and violence and open distain for the civilian population.
They drive at high speeds through Iraqi neighborhoods, leaning out of vehicles with leveled weapons, hurling obscenities at residents.
In a civil court case last month in Virginia against Triple Canopy, two former employees of the contractor testified that their supervisor—formerly from the military—
shot randomly into two Iraqi civilian vehicles on the airport road in Baghdad, telling them he wanted to “kill somebody” before leaving for vacation. He denied it.
These mercenaries are part of the privatization of US military operations. When the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, they bought the largest force of private
contractors ever deployed in modern warfare. While during the first Gulf War the ratio of troops to private contractors was about 60 to 1, in the current war in Iraq
privately employed operatives outnumber US troops, with 180,000 contract personnel involved in both security and other tasks from more than 100 countries,
compared to the official US military presence of 160,000 troops.
In the prosecution of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, vast sums of money have been funneled into the pockets of Bush administration cronies and US multinational
corporations. While US spending on mercenary and private contracting services is not readily available, some congressional estimates indicate that 40 cents of every
dollar spent on the war goes to private contractors. An estimated $2 billion a week is spent on US operations in Iraq.
Multimillion- and billion-dollar profits are channeled to companies like Haliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney formerly served as CEO. In the early days of
the war, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) was awarded a no-bid contract to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq estimated at tens of millions of
dollars. KBR also has thousands of military contractors on the ground in Kuwait and Turkey as part of a government contract worth close to a billion dollars.
Blackwater USA has government contracts totaling at least $800 million, providing security to US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other diplomats. Only recently, it
was awarded a large State Department contract to provide helicopter services in Iraq.
Cofer Black, former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, is Blackwater vice-chairman. Former
CIA divisional head Robert Richer joined the company as vice president of intelligence in 2005.
The North Carolina-based company has trained more than 20,000 mercenaries ready to be deployed in wars around the world. Blackwater has also hired at least 60
Chilean commandos trained under the Pinochet dictatorship.
Under conditions of growing opposition to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration has assembled a de facto shadow army of shock troops that can be used to wage
this and other unpopular military ventures in the global “war on terror.” These mercenaries are not accountable to Congress, the US military or international laws
governing war and war crimes.
The recent spate of violent killings carried out by the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq must serve as a warning of the threat posed by a ruling elite that subordinates the
interests of the vast majority of the population to its profits and imperialist adventures. These fascistic mercenary elements are being groomed to be thrown against
workers and youth in the US who resist the escalating attacks on their living standards and democratic rights.
Iraq suspends license of Blackwater USA
US mercenary firm denounced after civilian killings in Baghdad
By Kate Randall18 September 2007
The Iraqi government on Monday said it had revoked the operating license of Blackwater USA, following a shootout involving the private security company in
downtown Baghdad Sunday that left at least nine people dead and 14 wounded, the majority civilians.
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said that the decision meant that Blackwater “cannot work in Iraq any longer, it will be illegal for
them to work here.” Khalaf added, “Security contracts do not allow them to shoot people randomly.”
The bloody incident on Sunday focuses attention on the mercenary activities of the estimated 25,000-30,000 private contractors from some 60 companies operating
in Iraq at the service of the US occupation, forming an integral part of the illegal war and occupation. With revenues of about $100 billion a year, these hired thugs
pilot helicopters and patrol in bulletproof vehicles; many are armed with automatic weapons.
Blackwater USA has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, and at least $800 million in government contracts. One of its main contracts is to provide security to US
Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other diplomats. The company has also guarded Gen. David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq.
Blackwater has earned the fear and hatred of the Iraqi civilian population, particularly in Baghdad, where its heavily armed agents speed diplomatic convoys through
the crowded streets in black SUVs and its “Little Bird” helicopters swarm overhead, riflemen at the windows to provide cover to ground-based convoys.
The shooting on Sunday was touched off when a car bomb reportedly exploded near a State Department motorcade in the Mansour district in western Baghdad.
According to US Embassy officials, Blackwater employees opened fire, leaving at least nine people dead and wounding 14 others. Iraq Interior ministry spokesman
Khalaf put the death toll at 11.
Hussein Abdul-Abbas, the owner of a mobile phone store in the area, told Associated Press, “We saw a convoy of SUVs passing in the street nearby. One minute
later, we heard the sound of a bomb explosion followed by gunfire that lasted for 20 minutes between gunmen and the convoy people who were foreigners and
dressed in civilian clothes. Everybody in the street started to flee immediately.”
Lawyer Hassan Jabar Salman, another eyewitness, recounted details of the Sunday incident to Agence France Presse as he lay wrapped in bloodied bandages in
Baghdad’s Al-Yarmukh Hospital. Salman said he was hit by five bullets as he tried to flee the scene in his car. He said he heard an explosion and saw a two-car
convoy ahead.
“The foreigners in the convoy started shouting and signaling to us to go back,” Salman said. “I turned around and must have driven 100 feet (30 meters) when they
started shooting.”
“There were eight of them in four utility vehicles and all shooting with heavy machine guns,” he added. “My car was hit with 12 bullets, of which four hit me in the
back and one in the arm.” Salmon said he witnessed the killing of a woman and a traffic policeman, and “dozens of people hitting the ground to avoid the barrage of
bullets,” according to AFP.
Following the incident, US embassy spokesperson Mirembe Nantongo did not immediately confirm the cancellation of Blackwater’s license. W. Johann Schmonsees,
embassy information officer, told reporters that the company had not “been expelled from the country yet.”
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the Diplomatic Security Service had launched an official investigation into what he described as a
“terrible incident.” He was quick to cast blame on the Iraqi population, commenting, “We are fighting people who don’t play by any rules.”
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf stated, “We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime.” Prime Minister Nouri al-
Maliki condemned the shootings as a “crime” committed by a “foreign service company,” although it is unclear whether the Iraqi government holds the power to
regulate Blackwater’s operations.
Under the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) led by L. Paul Bremer in the early days of the occupation, a regulation was adopted known as Order 17,
which effectively grants immunity to US security contractors and shields them from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
Under the order crafted by the Bush administration, all foreign personnel—private and military—are exempt from “local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction
and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states.”
Order 17 was renewed before the “transfer of sovereignty” to the unelected Iraqi interim government in late June 2004. The measure allows the US military—as well
as its hired mercenaries such as Blackwell—to carry out the killing of civilians, destroy homes and property and commit other war crimes such as extra-legal
detention and torture of prisoners without fear of prosecution by Iraqi authorities.
While another CPA order requires security contractors to register with the Ministry of Interior, a number have not done so. The license obtained by Blackwater in
2005 has reportedly lapsed and the company has been having trouble getting it renewed, but has remained in the country nevertheless.
The Iraqi population closely identifies the activities of these military contractors with the brutality of the US occupation. On March 31, 2004, a Blackwater convoy
was ambushed in Fallujah and four armed contractors were killed, their charred bodies subsequently hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.
Photographs of the slain contractors’ corpses were released to the news media, with the images used to condition public opinion for the impending assault on
Fallujah. In November 2004, the US launched Operation Phantom Fury, laying siege to and virtually leveling the city of 300,000. Thousands of civilians were
massacred and about 100 US Marines died in the operation.
More recently, in late May of this year, Blackwater employees opened fire in the streets of Baghdad twice in two days. On May 23, a US convoy under Blackwater
protection was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, setting off a raging battle in which security contractors, US and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters
were firing in a congested area.
Mohammed Mahdi, 37, an employee at a veterinary drugstore, told the Washington Post that the battle lasted for nearly an hour, and that afterwards he saw “four
mini-buses, a taxi and an Opel sedan containing dead and wounded. He said that he saw ‘at least four or five’ people ‘who were certainly dead’ but that he did not
know how the people were killed, who killed them or whether they were civilians or combatants.”
On May 24, an Iraqi driver was shot and killed near the Interior Ministry by a Blackwater guard, who claimed the victim had driven too close to their convoy. The
Iraqi Interior Ministry had received four previous complaints of shooting incidents involving Blackwater in the two years previous to this incident.
Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry’s intelligence directorate, commented at the time that he was concerned the incident “could
undermine a lot of the cordial relationships that have been built up over the past four years.”
These cordial relationships between US forces and private security firms—and, in particular, the connections between Blackwater and the Republican Party—have
indeed been key in perpetuating the occupation in Iraq.
Blackwater USA was founded in 1997, and markets itself as “The most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping and stability
operations company in the world.” It receives at least 90 percent of its revenue from government contracts, two-thirds of which are on a no-bid basis.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Blackwater worked under a no-bid contract with the Department of Homeland Security at a cost of $240,000 a day, operating
as a security force whose main task was protecting government facilities.
Blackwater trains more than 40,000 people a year at its 7,000-acre base in Camden and Currituck Counties, North Carolina, which is composed of firing ranges,
and indoor, outdoor and urban reproductions. Company promotional material boasts the company runs “the largest privately owned firearms training facility in the
nation.” Blackwater also has a facility in Mount Carroll, Illinois and is looking to open another in California for military training.
In 2003, Blackwater was awarded the contract to guard Ambassador L. Paul Bremer at a cost of $21 million for 11 months. The company has been paid more than
$320 million since June 2004 out of the US State Department’s five-year, $1 billion budget for the Worldwide Personal Protective Service—to protect US and some
foreign officials in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2006, Blackwater won the contract to protect the colossal US embassy in Baghdad.
Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince is a former Navy SEAL and millionaire who personally financed the formation of the company at the age of 27. Prince is
the brother of Betsy DeVos, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Michigan and wife of billionaire Amway heir Dick DeVos, the party’s 2006 Michigan
gubernatorial candidate.
Prince was an intern in the senior George Bush’s White House and campaigned for ultra-right Republican presidential hopeful Patrick Buchanan in 1992. Prince and
Blackwater President Gary Jackson, also a former Navy SEAL, are major contributors to the Republican Party.
Prince now runs Prince Group, Blackwater’s parent company. He also serves as a board member of Christian Freedom International, a group whose self-proclaimed
mission is helping “Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.”
Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA since February 2005, worked in the Directorate of Operations at the Central Intelligence Agency for 28 years, and
was appointed director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (CTC) in 1999. From December 2002 to November 2004 he was the US Department of State
coordinator for counterterrorism, with the rank of ambassador at large.
Black is also chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions, providing “Fortune 1000 companies with the only comprehensive and complete solution for private intelligence”
(totalintel.com).
He is also CEO of The Black Group LLC, which advertises the company’s services on its web site: “The Black Group brings an unmatched skill set to the private
sector. With corporations facing potential threats designed to cripple the global economy, The Black Group offers executives a variety of options; protection for
travel to high threat locations, business intelligence, threat assessments, specialized investigations, and tools to detect biological/chemical threats. We can tailor a
solution to meet your unique security needs.”
Blackwater Iraq contract renewed
Security firm Blackwater has had its contract to protect US diplomats in Iraq extended.
The move comes despite the continuing FBI investigation into the killing of 17 Iraqis by Blackwater staff guarding US officials in Baghdad last September.
Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defence. An Iraqi inquiry concluded the shooting was unprovoked.
The security company's contract was due to expire in May, but the government of Iraq said it had now set new criteria.
State department head of security Gregory Starr said on Friday the contract had been extended for another year.
Judicial violation?
Iraq's government said requests for tighter controls on Blackwater's activities had been met.
The Americans want to show that Iraq is under their control Iraqi opposition spokesman
"The demands of the Iraqi government have been taken into consideration and Blackwater will follow the Iraqi government's laws," said Iraqi government spokesman
Ali al-Dabbagh.
However, the Iraqi government's political opponents called the move a "violation of the Iraqi judicial system".
"The government should have shown its influence and authority by taking the initiative," a spokesman for the mainly Sunni Arab Accordance Front bloc told Reuters.
"But the Americans want to show that Iraq is under their control."
'Unjustified' deaths
Blackwater employees have been used as guards and armed drivers in the US embassy complex in the Iraqi capital.
The FBI started its investigation into the killing of 17 Iraqis in November. That month, the New York Times reported the bureau had found that 14 of the deaths were
unjustified.
When asked if the company's contract could be cancelled if Blackwater was found at fault, Mr Starr was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We can terminate contracts
at the convenience of the government if we have to."
"I am not going to prejudge what the FBI is going to find in their investigation. I think really, it is complex. I think that the US government needs protective services,"
he said.
"Essentially I think they do a very good job. The 16 September incident was a tragedy. It has to be investigated carefully," he added.
In October the Iraqi government approved a draft law revoking the immunity from prosecution that private security contractors enjoyed under Iraqi law.
The US has since put in place new guidelines for private security contractors.