U.S. Embassy Offers Cash to Victims in Blackwater Incident

[babylonsister]

Is this standard ops, paying for a private company's screw-ups? Why doesn't Blackwater, with the millions they've made, pay?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102401936.html

U.S. Offers Cash to Victims in Blackwater Incident
Family Members Of Some View Amount as Paltry

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 25, 2007; Page A19

BAGHDAD, Oct. 24 -- The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday began offering tens of thousands of dollars in payments to victims and families of victims of the Sept. 16 shootings in Baghdad involving security guards from the firm Blackwater Worldwide, according to relatives and U.S. officials.

Family members of several victims turned down the compensation, out of concern that accepting the funds would limit their future claims against the North Carolina-based security contractor and its chief executive, Erik Prince. Others said that the money being offered -- in some cases $12,500 for a death -- was paltry and that they wanted to sue Blackwater in an American court.

Nisoor Square was the scene of the Sept. 16 shooting that left 17 people dead. The U.S. Embassy in some cases offered $12,500 to the families of those killed.
Nisoor Square was the scene of the Sept. 16 shooting that left 17 people dead. The U.S. Embassy in some cases offered $12,500 to the families of those killed. (By Khalid Mohammed -- Associated Press)

"This is an insult," said Firoz Fadhil Abbas, whose brother Osama was killed in a barrage of bullets. "The funeral and the wake cost more than what they offered. My brother who got killed was responsible for four families."

The offers of compensation, while a standard practice in the U.S. military, are unusual for the U.S. Embassy, reflecting the diplomatic and political sensitivities raised by the shootings, which sparked outrage in Iraq and the United States.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102401936.html

[malaise]

1. Great question n/t

[DrDan]

2. well, if Blackwater paid the death-payoffs,

they would certainly bill the DOD, and tack on their normal profit margins . . . plus administrative costs . . .

So this might be cheaper.

[tanyev]

3. Sad but true.

x(