Blackwater Accused of Engineering Prison Break

[kpete]

Blackwater Accused of Engineering Prison Break
By Spencer Ackerman - September 20, 2007, 6:22PM

If Erik Prince of Blackwater shows up at the House oversight committee's hearing into his company's activities in Iraq, expect him to get an earful. It's not just about the Mansour incident, or the murky legal status the private-security firm possesses. According to the Iraqi government, Blackwater employees engineered a jailbreak to free a minister convicted of corruption charges.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki referred obliquely to the incident yesterday. But a Defense Ministry spokesman told Leila Fadel of McClatchy that Blackwater, in December, broke former Electricity Minister Ahyam al-Samarrai out of prison in the Green Zone, where he was awaiting sentencing for embezzling $2.5 billion in reconstruction money.

Until now, Iraqi officials hadn't named the private security company that they believe helped Samarrai, the only Iraqi cabinet official convicted of corruption, to escape from a jail that was overseen jointly by U.S. and Iraqi guards. He subsequently was spirited out of the country and is believed to be living in the United States.

The U.S. State Department made note of his escape in its December report on developments in Iraq, saying that "Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) said they believed he fled with the help of members of a private security company."

But the accusation that Blackwater, which earned at least $240 million in 2005 from contracts to provide security to U.S. officials in Baghdad, assisted in his escape raises questions about what American officials might have known about the breakout.

more at:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004253.php

[HuffleClaw]

1. if true they would have HAD to had help from within

this sure is a curious tale. kinda makes me wonder what nefarious things they wanted to keep hidden?

[sam sarrha]

2. and they just got a $15,000,000,000 contract to build a stealth blimp to watch mexicans cross the bo

but that is just a cover for giving the brown shirts enough weapons to cover the martial law situation when the Wet Brain Alcoholic drug addict psychopath "Decider" stops the election and declares himself GodMan Emperor for eternity

[superkia]

6. The only way that would happen is if Clinton is NOT the democratic candidate.

If Clinton is the candidate like the media has already told us, he will let it go. If she isn't the candidate, hello martial law!

[tanyev]

3. "raises questions about what American officials might have known"

Ya think? How about some questions about how much of that 2.5 billion got diverted back to American officials?

[burythehatchet]

4. I must be psychic cuz I can tell you how this story will end nt

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Just a practice run ... they want to be ready to spring the Evil Dictator from the Hague.

Oh, and maybe they'll also rescue his sidekick, Cirrhotic Monkey Boy.