Blackwater Said to Approve Iraqi Payoffs After Shootings (Top Execs Authorized Secret Payments)

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Four former Blackwater executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then the company’s president, had approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where Blackwater maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.

Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/middleeast/11blackwater.html

[gateley]

1. Where did the rest of the $8 billion go? nt

[laststeamtrain]

2. Maybe ask Paul Bremer? n/t.

[gateley]

3. I'm sure he'd be totally forthcoming. Ditto with Rumsfeld. nt

[wordpix]

7. prosecutors and grand juries have their ways to make them sing

[KoKo]

4. NYT REPORTS...story get's out on Blogs...then dies for lack of interest...

Until we get TRUE INVESTIGATION...this is the way it will be. They will all get away with it, because the focus of Eric Holder is "Move Along..to Get Along."

[gateley]

12. Rachel had it on her show tonight, and had the author of the Blackwater expose

book as a guest.

Rachel: (paraphrasing liberally) The argument for keeping them is that we don't have enough military personnel to do the job.

Author: (paraphrasing liberally) The military would say otherwise. Who do you think was Hillary Clinton's security when she was over there? Who do you think guards the congressmen and senators? They know where all the bodies are buried -- they were part of the CIA assassination squads.

Basically, we're stuck with them because they know too much. :grr:

The book was a bombshell -- if nothing came of that, then I don't hold out much hope.

[FarLeftFist]

5. Oh No, radical christians have infiltrated our military.

Blackwater=religious crusaders

[Uncle Joe]

8. Actually Blackwater is more like a loose cannon, war profiteer, mercenary outfit which

serves as blood sucking leech on the nation's military and defense budget.

[wordpix]

6. "security contractors lost their immunity from Iraqi laws" - Bremer should be hauled up to Congress

to explain why he exempted Blackwater et. al from Iraqi laws. What was he, King of Iraq? Apparently, he thought he was or BushCheney told him to run the country that way. :grr:

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[cory777]

10. don't forget about pakistan

http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2009/11/04/11157.shtml

[harmonicon]

11. your tax dollars at work (nt)

[grasswire]

14. you beat me to it

That was my first thought.

Taxpayer dollars flowing through Blackwater to buy off charges of murder. Makes a person proud, eh? :sarcasm:

[goclark]

13. Blackwater is the Bush Mafia nt

[laststeamtrain]

15. MoJo: Cofer Black Disputes Blackwater Bribery Story

Cofer Black Disputes Blackwater Bribery Story
— By Daniel Schulman | Tue November 10, 2009 8:44 PM PST

Cofer Black is disputing the New York Times' blockbuster Blackwater story. On Tuesday evening, the paper reported that in December 2007 the company (which now goes by Xe) schemed to bribe Iraqi officials "to silence their criticism and buy their support" in the wake of a shooting frenzy in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead. According to the Times, Black, a veteran CIA counterterrorism official then serving as Blackwater's vice chairman, learned of the payout plan "from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials."

"Alarmed about the secret payments, Mr. Black cut short his talks and left Iraq. Soon after returning to the United States, he confronted Erik Prince, the company’s chairman and founder, who did not dispute that there was a bribery plan, according to a former Blackwater executive familiar with the meeting. Mr. Black resigned the following year."

Cofer Black is disputing the New York Times' blockbuster Blackwater story. On Tuesday evening, the paper reported that in December 2007 the company (which now goes by Xe) schemed to bribe Iraqi officials "to silence their criticism and buy their support" in the wake of a shooting frenzy in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead. According to the Times, Black, a veteran CIA counterterrorism official then serving as Blackwater's vice chairman, learned of the payout plan "from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials."

"Alarmed about the secret payments, Mr. Black cut short his talks and left Iraq. Soon after returning to the United States, he confronted Erik Prince, the company’s chairman and founder, who did not dispute that there was a bribery plan, according to a former Blackwater executive familiar with the meeting. Mr. Black resigned the following year." ... http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/11/cofer-black-disputes-blackwater-bribery-story