Iraq: standing up to Blackwater

mullah cimoc say this the lie. blackwater not to be kicking from irak.

al malaki only him cia puppet obey every command like the gay homosexual with the hair gel and the beautiful fingernail.

blackwater to kill more iraki.

and usa to be so destroy and ameriki woman to take LBT (low back tattoo) be total slut for every man. also the earthquaking?

stop1984now@yahoo.com

The SF community is pretty tight. The US military might move against Blackwater, but no blood will be shed.

Blackwater will dissolve and remake itself, phoenix like, then resume operations.

Rice has issued an apology (from The Guardian):

Rice apologises for US security firm shootings
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, apologised to the Iraqi government yesterday in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of all employees of the security firm Blackwater USA.
...
Ms Rice called the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to apologise for the shooting. They agreed to run a "fair and transparent investigation", according to a statement from Mr Maliki's office.
...
The office did not specify whether the apology was sufficient to reverse the expulsion decision.
...
There are tens of thousands of mercenaries - or private security operators - in Iraq .... Jeremy Scahill, author of a book about Blackwater, put the figure at about 180,000 and described them as "unaccountable". Blackwater has 1,000 employees in Iraq.
The private security firms are controversial and are often hated by Iraqis who regard them as trigger-happy. ... [T]he law in relation to private security firms is vague.
...
[Brigadier-general Adam-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the interior ministry,] said there would be prosecutions in relation to Sunday's deaths. ...
Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, said: "This is such a big crime that we can't stay silent. ... These cases have happened more than once and we can't keep silent in the face of them".

I note Ms Rice is not reported as agreeing to respect the results of so-called "fair and transparent investigation". So, for instance, if the investigators don't get "the correct result" and actually identify the gunmen, the suspects probably won't be surrendered for trial. Of course, that presumes Cheney's mob will actually allow any sort of investigation to proceed or reach a conclusion.

(Initially, I also found it slightly odd the USA State Department was apologising for the actions of a company, but apparently the company in question (Blackwater) was hired by the State Department, so it's not that odd.)

I have been following this story with heightened interest. I do not recall any recent precedent for this particular dilemma. I find it horrifyingly fascinating that Blackwater is that bad, that the Iraqis are actually taking the step of telling them to leave, with all the other things that are going on. I fear that Jeb is right, however. All they have to do is rename themselves and wait awhile; it worked for RJ Reynolds.

(Oh, and nice troll you seem to have picked up there in the person of mullah cimoc. The usual rational responses directly related to the subject, of course.)

There have been several impressive threads on Blackwater by Science Fiction editor/anthologist Kathryn Cramer, most recently at:

Iraq bans Blackwater? US State Dept turtle to operate without its shell?

http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2007/09/iraq-bans-black.htm…

The Guardian's updated version of previously cited story, Iraq gets tough with foreign security firms, contains the astonishing claim:

Under a law issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority before Iraq regained sovereignty in June 2004, the companies have immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

An astonishing claim, that is, if you happen to believe in the rule of law. If you don't--Bush and Cheney, take a bow, please--there's nothing at all stupid about ensuring the armed thugs "protecting" your minions can do whatever they like.

Blackwater also appears to be playing the "the people we killed were shooting at us" card:

"Blackwater's independent contractors acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack in Baghdad on Sunday," [a Blackwater spokeswoman] said. "The civilians reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire. ... [T]his convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life."

So why did Ms Rice apologise for Blackwater killing "armed insurgents, not civilians"?

The Blackwater mercenaries have killed many innocent people so far, so why is the Iraqi gov't reacting just now?

Oh, and what Condi Rice really meant to say was that this Blackwater incident was going to receive a 'fair and balanced' investigation...we know what that means.

The next few days should be interesting regarding this issue.

Truthdig
| posted September 19, 2007 (web only)

The Mercenary Factor

Robert Scheer

[Robert Scheer is editor of TruthDig, where this essay originally was published.]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071001/truthdig

Please, please, I tell myself, leave Orwell out of it. Find some other, fresher way to explain why "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is dependent upon killer mercenaries. Or why the "democratically elected government" of "liberated" Iraq does not explicitly have the legal power to expel Blackwater USA from its land or hold any of the 50,000 private contractor troops that the US government has brought to Iraq accountable for their deadly actions.

[truncated]

Sept. 21st update - the mercenaries are back in action; I'm not surprised.