Iraq Says Blackwater Must Go - Wants U.S To Pay Millions In Compensation To Victim's Families
AP Via Chron:
Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months and pay $8 million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed when the firm's guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.
The demands — part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press — also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.
The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square — which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.
It said the compensation — totaling $136 million — was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country." Read more...
I doubt they will ever see a dime of that.
If there is any more compensating to do for the deaths incurred from the Blackwater's (mercs),
it should be deducted from Blackwater's contracted pay. If the State Dept pays 10 thousand Dallars for the death caused by Blackwater, 15 thousand should be dede=ucted from Blackwaters contracted pay.
Plus charges of the criminal, that inficts hate on our troops.
This administration's legacy: torture, mercenaries, and corruption. What a foul and nasty sty is DC!
This looks like a catch 22 for Bu$h and his handlers. Their whole argument for the surge was to empower the Iraqi government. Now, the Iraqi government is asserting itself in rightfully demanding that what THEY see as a terrorist orginaization, Blackwater, be removed from their country. Now, will Bu$h and his handlers acquiesce to the sovereignty of the Iraqi government and sever Blackwater contracts, remove the outfit from Iraq, pay reperations, and hand over the murderers? Or will the simply refuse, thus making the obvious statement that the Iraqi government is in fact NOT in control of their country, and are simply puppets of the Bu$h regime?
"Or will the simply refuse, thus making the obvious statement that the Iraqi government is in fact NOT in control of their country, and are simply puppets of the Bu$h regime?"
That should read, "Or will the simply refuse, thus making the obvious statement that the Iraqi government is in fact NOT in control of their country, and is simply a puppet regime?"
ugggh... too much bourbon last night...
I emailed the Whitehouse about blackwater the other day explaining that this for profit mercenary army was an insult to every active serviceman and that there ilk had helped this abomination to thrive.. I suppose I'm back on the enhanced security list at the airport or nobody read the email at all. I can drive to wherever I need to go and the Whitehouse and brownwater can all go fuck themselves in the ear (Mr. Bush with a pretzel).
Buying off the families isn't going to change this reality... In fact, it actually reinforces the reality that the United States has granted its blessing to a mercenary force unaccountable to noone really, but nevertheless operating under color of the United States of America supposedly assisting in the prosecution of the U.S. mission in Iraq and ultimately backed by U.S economic power...
Where the hell does anyone think that 8 mil per family is going to come from.. Erik Princes wallet???? I don't think so, though that would be appropriate...It's going to be all our wallets folks....
And all those crimes and any other atrocities they may be responsible for comes right back and soils the reputation of this nation in the eyes of the rest of the world regardless of any hush money or any other reparations monetary or not they may use to try and paper over the scandal.. 'Nothing good' will ever come of any of this... The United States should not be in the business of using mercenaries to fight our wars regardless of the language used to describe these organizations and their purposes. That's nothing more than propaganda... Goebbels would be proud...
The Bush administration won't admit it, even to themselves, but the whole world recognizes the criminal nature of all this... It's a fucking war crime!!! Plain and simple, purpetrated by mercs with the U.S. governments blessing in order for that government to get around the need for a draft. If we are faced with a legitimate need to defend the nation, a citizen army will rise up and volunteer. Of this I am still certain even in the face of the gen next gen x apathy and obsessions with gaming and video etc... When push really has come to shove, the American population, the average smoe, has managed to get his or her shit together when it really mattered.. If this war was ligit, it would have happened here as well...
The fact that we find ourselves in this moral predicament of trying to explain, let alone defend organizations like Blackwater and the two or three other principal business entities sending hired guns over to the middle east to fight a war in the U.S's name...With the Bushco blessing via sole source contracts let out specifically for this war, should inform the reader and say something of significance about the ligitimacy of this so-called 'war' in Iraq to fight an idea.... That's right, to fight an idea given a name..
"Terrorism".... This thing called by that name.. It's not a nation, it's not a person though our propaganda has spent six years trying to nail the face of Osama Bin Laden to that word... The truth is, OBL is not terrorism.. OBL is a poor little rich muslim brat with too much money, too much time on his hands, a bad attitude and some kind of messiah complex... Maybe his mommy and daddy should of held him more as a baby.. Maybe he got picked on at the obscenely rich little western prep school somewhere back in time when he was young and impressionable, by all the other rich little muslim kids... I don't know.. Dont' care, he's a major dick now, has committed international crimes.. murder among them. Presents himself as some kind of muslim rightous figure..which is bullshit too... That much I know.. But waging a war against one person... by attacking a third nation that had nothing to do with him or his philosophy... and calling 'it' a 'war on terror'?..... Again, that's just and has always been bullshit... We might as well have declared war on ether.... It's about the same dif, and would have amounted to about the same results so far. Overall, seems like we are just not really serious about dealing with this catatrophe, and I just don't think we are going to get serious about it until Bush is kicked off the stage..................JD
it is time for Bush to call for a new Iraqi election and replace the government.
Blackwater should pay compensation, not American taxpayers.
that's the funny thing about puppet governments, eventually there's so much corruption going on that even they quit on you.
Cant they just take that amount off what Iraq owes us for helping them....Oh yeah, I forgot. We are paying that.
Sung to the tune of Blackwater by the Doobie Brothers (sorry Doobies)
Well, I built me an army and it’s ready to go…
‘Ol Iraqi, she’s callin’ my name
Crusaders are jumpin’
Arabs gonna get a thumpin’
Blackwater keeps rollin’, dolin’ out pain
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
No bid contracts, gonna make millions
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
Innocent civilians, but we’re making millions
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
We’re above the law and we keep making millions
Yeah, we keep firin’ our guns
watching heads explode, we admit it’s kinda fun
And we ain’t got no worries
cause we won’t see no juries at all…
Well if they complain, I dont care
Dont make no difference to me
Just blast that car in our way all to hell…
Yeah, Id like to see some guts fall to the sand
See that boy, watch me shoot his dad…
And Ill be buyin’ Exxon Stocks all night long!
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
No bid contracts, gonna make millions
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
Innocent civilians, but we’re making millions
Old Blackwater, keep on killing
We’re above the law and we keep making millions
Yeah, we keep firin’ our guns
watching heads explode, we admit it’s kinda fun
And we ain’t got no worries
cause we won’t see no juries at all…
Yeah, Id like to see some guts fall to the sand
See that boy, watch me shoot his dad…
Hey Bu$h, come and take me by the hand,
just step over the bodies lying in the sand,
in the sand, in the sand, where’s Osama?
gonna murder and kill all night long!
You gotta love the irony of "bringing democracy to Iraq".
Now that Iraq has stood up, so to speak, do you think we'll "stand down"???
Nah, me neither.
We don't let them tell us how to run our country; why should we let them tell us how to run theirs?
AR @ 1:
Welcome to The Hague. Please, take a number.
Jack Damage @ 7:
you make some good points
Citizen_Pain,
That was too frickin' funny!! Actually, I made the same connection but I'm not adept at parodying lyrics.
Weird Al's got nothin' on you!
every day you hear about attacks by insurgents on the news, exactly how many of these are murder committed by american troops exactly?
Agreed on Blackwater being responsible for making the payments. A mere pittance for that war profiteering company.
Add Erik Prince to that list. The old saying applies in this case: A fish rots from the head down.
#7-Jack Damage
You raise a number of interesting points. If, hypothetically, Blackwater were ever brought to trial, besides being sent to prison, they could also being fined for their crimes. Congress or the courts should see to it that Blackwater pays these families whose members have died at the hands of Blackwater. It is the very least that Blackwater should do in order to compensate those families. Employees of Blackwater should also be spending a very long time behind bars for the murders that they have committed.
Speaking of which, someone should start drilling into the heads of Blackwater, as well as those who are in the military, that if and when war crime tribunals are ever held, that they will be standing in the dock along with their employers. As Lt. Watada correctly noted during his speech at the Veterans for Peace convention last year in Seattle, "I was only following orders" is never an excuse, which was confirmed at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII, when German soldiers and officials were hanged for attempting to use that justification for the crimes that they had committed.
I have to disagree with you when you state that "...I just don't think we are going to get serious about it [the so-called War on Terror] until Bush is kicked off the stage." The Democrats' solution to the Terror charade does not seem to be that much different than that of the Republicans. The top three Democrats said that they could not flatly state that they would withdraw all of U.S. troops by the end of their term from Iraq. By advocating that the U.S. military remain in the region, the terrorists do not have to try very hard to look for recruits, as they will be flocking in the Middle East to fight the infidel, i.e. the United States. The U.S belongs neither in Iraq nor, to use Murtha's term, "over the horizon", where they can be sent back into Iraq at a moment's notice where they can once again inflict more pain and misery upon the Iraqi people.
Bring those troops home-alive and in one piece-now.
> Blackwater should pay compensation, not American taxpayers.
Bullshit. We hired them and they have operated within the parameters that we gave them. We are responsible for the consequences of that decision.
But we should definitely fire their asses and never hire again.
$8 million a head.
Let's see, now, ...650,000 @ $8 million, ...that's $5.2 trillion.
Get out your cheque-books, folks!
#21-Jason
"But we should definitely fire their asses and never hire again." That is not exactly punishing them for what they did, is it? How about if they are tried in Iraq for what they did or tried in The Hague for war crimes, where they [and that would include Erik Prince]could rot in jail for the wanton killing of innocent Iraqi civilians? They deserve nothing less than to be brought to trial where they could be held accountable for their actions.
If the Iraqis want to pay these people millions, maybe they should go find the other Iraqis who have stolen billions and get it from them.
Smack_dab @ 24:
WTF? What does that have to do with Blackwater killing people? Because some Iraqi people stole money Blackwater should just be immune for killing other (uninvolved) Iraqi people?
Smack_dab @ 24:
Don't have to look far....just under Cheney's pillow.
Smack_dab @ 24:
Where the hell did you get the idea that the IRAQIS stole those billions?
Great, so we have to fire Blackwater security over THERE so that they can follow us home and shoot at people over HERE?
Janet @ 27:
Well, yeah, and that, too!
I want every dime our government gave to the Blackwater terrorist company back. But, more importantly I want their terror training camps, here in on US soil closed and their executive terrorist in jail, where they belong. And while I' on the subject I want laws passed than make it treason to own or work for a mercenary company.
Why isn't Blackwater labeled a terrorist organization. Aren't they just a for hire army? What's the difference?
Since most Blackwater are ex U.S. Military and heavily SEALS/SPEC FORCES guys ala their 'Prince' I call them traitors. Pure and simple. In service for profit - not the greater good of their country and certainly not out of 'PATRIOTISM'. As a veteran I am ashamed to have ever considered them a 'brother in arms'. Once you go merc it's over for me. Good riddance to the lot of them.
Ex Navy Submariner @ 32:
Isn't it nice to know that your tax dollars are being used to train Blackwater criminal mercenaries?
Why kill for glory when you can get paid big bucks for it?
BaScOmBe @ 16;
Thanks, I wish I could say I thought my points of view or words would make any real difference... I can't help but suspect the kinds of pressure blogging brings to the situation is minimal at best. I suspect the only real pressure these people would understand, fear, and react to, is the kind of pressure the dems refuse to consider. And that includes more than just the impeachment card........
Errol @ 20; I don't disagree with your perceptions of the dems... But what I was really alluding to in my last comment specifically, was the Iraq war, not the war on terror... They are linked though due to the Bush administrations mendicous behavior.. But, still, looking at it from your perspective, yea the dems might, hell, probably won't do anything any different...
But the thing is 'Might', 'probably', 'most likely'... All those discriptive words still hold some small promise that maybe they (Pelosi and the dems) will do something different ... Maybe they will find some guts, some honor, some integrity..something.. A real purpose other than just pointing fingers at repubs but doing nothing but mostly worrying about their own sorry asses, and how they can manage to stay in office one way or another...
Mostly dems looks shaky to bad, but with some kind of pie in the sky promise of a 'maybe'... That ain't much, but it's better than the current staus quo... Whereas with the Bush administration???.. The verdict is already in... We 'know' what they are about now... Just like the last seven years... We know this much.. They are going to fuck it up and blame someone for those failures... So, there's certainly no promises with the dems to be sure, but we know already where we stand with repubs in charge... About forehead deep in the shitter...
I'm willing to give the dems a chance.. To either fix it or hang themselves too......IF they (the dems) screw this up... It's definitely third party grass roots organization time as far as I'm concerned................ JD
Eric Jaffa @ 9:
Thank You! Geez, why should us taxpayers suffer because of Blackwater's thugs.
Hey, what's another hundred or so million on top of the billions already being pissed away on Iraq???
What a country.
"because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country."
I want to emphasize the Middle Eastern context of that statement. Their concepts of hospitality, and the honor involved in proper behavior of both guest and host, are much more meaningful in their culture than in ours. Blackwater's behavior is a grave insult to their deep cultural values.
I've linked an explanation-
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196502/manners.in.the.middle.east.htm
Apparently, Blackwater employees killed two more women earlier today. This is just sad...
Fanon @ # 31
Ex Navy Submariner @ # 32
What the Blackwater mercs are doing in Iraq is no different than what happened in Bosnia and Kosovo . A number of those people that were part of those crimes in Bosnia and Kosovo were hauled off to the Hague and the Workd Court. NATO forces are trying to capture more. Blackwater's crimes are similar and Erik Primce should be on a plane to the Hague.
Ah, No, No and No.
Blackwater stays, forget any money and there is no way on Allah's green earth that we'll ever hand over those security agents to a pussy like you. Take a hike Maliki. This is our country now... New Texas I call it... we only let you pretend to be in charge. You know, as a friendly face to all the other ragheads in your tribe.
If you know what's good 'fer ya you'll keep your yap shut lest Blackwater pay you a visit!
Two things:
#1, I think Blackwater is the beginning of the end of the Iraq war. They're simply unacceptable on so many levels, and there is no way to polish what they're doing that doesn't look like a giant stinky turd to any decent American.
#2, When do we get to see Erik Prince do the frog march? Here is the unabashed arrogance of this son-of-a-bitch, as he opens his slavering hog-mouth to the billions of American Taxpayer dollars Bushco is funneling into it:
Somebody needs to grab that little shit by the shoulders and give him a good shakin'.
This looks just a bit too convenient to me. Blackwater will be kicked out of Iraq just in time to be sent back to the U.S. for the 2008 elections. I wonder where they will be illegally used next? I also wonder whether or not al-Maliki or other Iraqi government officials are aware of this potential set-up. A 'terror attack' in the U.S. would draw most of the attention of the world away from Iraq in such a scenario. A strong man taking over who neutralizes the opposition would be forgotten in a matter of a few weeks or months - regardless of the number of opposition who are murdered, sent to prison or re-education camps. Particularly since the country is already in such a huge mess. But this is impossible and could never happen.
why dont we know the names of the Blackwater employees that did this?
Fanon @ 25:
Even though Blackwater is in the wrong in this, what they've done is nothing compared to what the Iraqis are doing to each other. It just seems stupid to me to get all up in arms about what Blackwater has done when the Iraqi militias kill far more. Why aren't the Iraqis calling for the militias to pay compensation or to stop being wanton killers? The Iraqis are their own worst enemy now. As bad as things are now, they will get a lot worse when we leave. That part of the world is just fucked.
Taxpayer money for this? No way in hell.
We need to spend some money on the actual taxpayers for a change.
Looks like Maliki is going to have a little accident.
Can we all just say Diem?
If any millions is to be paid to the people BLACKWATER killed, BLACKWATER's millions should be confiscated to make it happen.
It is not the responsibility of the American taxpayer to pay for BLACKWATER'S killings. They were paid enough in contracts which we didn't approve in the first place. Is this guy going to pull up stakes and move to a foreign country that doesn't send them back for trial.
I'd favor life in prison for every mercenary that murders an Iraqi or anybody else, including the clowns sent to New Orleans , imagine that out sourcing police work to a Cheney created legalized criminal enterprise called Black Water , so Alex Jones is proven RIGHT again, the militarization of law enforcement, the spying on non-conformist groups, cameras on corners of every major city, this shit is happening before our very pathetic eyes and ears.
This PRIVATIZATION OF POWER , LAW ENFORCEMENT , dISASTER RESPONSE , IS PLANNED PEOPLE , THIS SHIT DIDN'T HAPPEN OVER NIGHT AND IT'S GETTING WORST .
The idea that TORTURE is framed in the national media as " not being effective " or " reliable", and not in the expected humane reaction, it's not humane , and it's no better than " terrorists" actions , so it sounds like well if water boarding would juuuuust work, it might be a cool idea . Not confronting power with truth directly, shows the complicity of the sycophantic media .
Black Water wants to build a huge training center in California , ya right . We don't need mercenaries patrolling our fricken streets , MAKING ARRESTS or wacken every person that looks cross eyed at them , and they did it again in Iraq , an Australian mercenary company
working for the U.S. murdered two Iraqi women , in a car . The cowards .
And thanks Mathews during these serious times , the only person challenging this necon imperialism, that wants to start WARS all around the world, the ONLY person calling it the way it is RON PAUL , blatantly after repeatedly being complaINED TO ABOUT BEING GETTING THE LEAST TIME , THE DEGENERATES DID AGAIN DURING TONIGHTS "DEBATE"
To me this is an INSULT to every citizen of this country , that ANYBODY that has the audacity to QUESTION our disastrous polices , is either smeared like Jimmy Carter or Ignored and marginalized like RON PAUL . While the NEOCON in training GHOULIANI , Mr. Striker that wants to spread and continue bush's wars , gets more air time to spread the message of them , the Council on Foreign Relations Cabal and every New World order Criminal enterprise .
Wait a minute...
It's our STATE DEPARTMENT that wants Blackwater to continue to do business in Iraq!
Our STATE DEPARTMENT wants to continue to financing the work of brutal mercenaries inside our occupation of a foreign country.
Our DIPLOMATS are chosing to subject innocent citizens of a foreign country to that kind of brutality!
What's next, mr. Bu$h? Torture and SECRET PRISONS for EVERYBODY?
dan @ 30:
The football player Michael Vick has to give back his 20 million bonus because of what he did. Runner Marion Jones had to give back het gold medals. Both face possible jail time even without murdering people. Damn straight Blackwater needs to give us our money back.
Blackwater should already be paying millions to the families of the people they murdered. Since that badass seal Prince says he doesn't care about money, he doesn't need it, he's doing all this because he loves Iraqis and wants to help them. Money is the last thing on his mind.
He can just fork it over to those whose lives he destroyed,
Per NPR, the money is being accosted not from the US government, but in fact directly from Blackwater. Also, if anyone hasn't heard there is now a possibility that the mercenaries can be prosecuted under Iraqui law as their "license" which exempted them from the law under Bremmer's deal expired over a year ago. This truly would be the greatest justice having our mercenaries tried for mass murder under Iraqui law.......suffice it to say that the sentences would very likely be very painful and very final.
V V
Thanks for bringing this article to light. I must, however, be a stickler and ask that the admin move the apostrophe so that it can properly identify that there are numerous victims in this situation. It sounds like there is one victim, and he or she has several famlilies.
Who do these puppets think they are making demands and cutting deals with China? You have to figure there will be an unfortunate lapse of security soon where another bomb or two will find their way into ministerial and assembly meetings.
Does anyone else think it strange that all of a sudden we are trusting the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the same folks that are known to be riddled with Sunni insurgents and failed most of the benchmark standards set by the US? Just a few months ago the American media was vilifying these guys; now they're believing every word of their report. And this in spite of allegations that the Interior Ministry is out for vengeance because Blackwater refused to pay kickbacks. (See "Will Bush administration cave in to Iraqi corruption?" at www.politicalwarfare.org) I might also point out that the joint US-Iraqi committee to investigate the 16 September shootings only held its first meeting TWO DAYS ago. But apparently we trust the Iraqi government working alone more than we trust the joint investigation.
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