Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/world/middleeast/18iraq/html?up" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09 /18/world/middleeast/18iraq/html?up</a> Why on earth are there private security firms in Iraq in the first place? So much for "support the troops." Apparently we don't trust them with security so our tax dollars pay more for private contractors. Of course, now we'll see if we really do want the Iraqis to rule their own country or if the Bush administration will overrule them. It's been well documented that private contractors who take the "ready, fire, aim" approach are quietly shipped home and not prosecuted. See Ghraib, Abu. Feel free to wrap yourself in the flag and bleat on about Iraq; it's really a disgrace what's been allowed to take place. Argue about Saddam, WMDs, etc., but the contractors are indefensible. Many of them are war profiteers; we used to hang war profiteers as treasonous in America. Now, we give them tax breaks.
Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/middleeast/19blackwater.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190229372-6sOFw3VdP36KHjUUdVSQRg" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09 /19/world/middleeast/19blackwater.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190229372-6sOFw3VdP36KHjUUdVSQRg</a> Another update, from the New York Times: BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 — A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman’s call to stop, killing a couple and their infant. The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants. The report said Blackwater helicopters had also fired. The Ministry of Defense said 20 Iraqis had been killed, a far higher number than had been reported before. In a sign of the seriousness of the standoff, the American Embassy here suspended diplomatic missions outside the Green Zone and throughout Iraq on Tuesday. “There was not shooting against the convoy,†said Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government’s spokesman. “There was no fire from anyone in the square.†A State Department spokesman, Edgar Vasquez, said he had not heard of the report and repeated that the department was conducting an investigation supported by the American military. A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.<<
Originally Posted By SuperDry I encourage anyone that's interested in learning more about how private security firms are operating in Iraq in quasi-police and quasi-military capacities watch a PBS Frontline episode on this very topic from two years ago. The full hour-long program is available for free online viewing here: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/view/" target="_blank">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/shows/warriors/view/</a>
