When Blackwater Kills, No Questions Asked

[marmar]

from InterPress, via CommonDreams:


Published on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 by Inter Press Service
When Blackwater Kills, No Questions Asked
by Ali al-Fadhily


BAGHDAD - The recent attacks by Blackwater USA mercenaries in Baghdad are far from the first — and many believe they will not be the last.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed Sep. 16, and another 27 wounded at Nisoor square in western Baghdad when mercenaries from the company opened fire on them. Dozens of witnesses said that, contrary to Blackwater claims, the mercenaries had not come under attack.

Several Kurds who were at the scene said they saw no one firing at the mercenaries at any time, an observation corroborated by forensic evidence. Kurds are one ethnic group that has been supportive of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Kurd witnesses work for a political party whose building looks directly down on the square where the bloodshed occurred.

“I call it a massacre,” Omar H. Waso, a senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told reporters. “It is illegal. They used the law of the jungle.”

“Some of the victims were Iraqis who were close to the government,” an eyewitness speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS. “There was a notable fuss about five or six bodies in particular when the ministry of interior’s inspectors arrived on the scene.”

The history of western mercenary companies, often referred to as “security contractors”, is full of such stories.

“They killed my young neighbour Sinan in cold blood,” a 32-year-old using the name Ibrahim Obeidy told IPS. “They have killed so many Iraqis, and no one can even ask them why.”

“Iraqis in Anbar province (to the west of Baghdad) have always said that strange-looking forces have conducted executions in cold blood,” Abdul-Sattar Ahmed, a lawyer from province capital Ramadi told IPS. “Groups of men in civilian outfits, but in armoured vehicles and sometimes helicopters, have carried out the most mysterious executions. They seldom arrest, they prefer to kill.”

Salih Aziz who works with the Iraqi Group for Human Rights, an NGO in Baghdad, told IPS that Blackwater convoys, which usually comprise several large, white SUVs, have proven deadly for Iraqi civilians since the early months of the occupation in March 2003.

“Since the very beginning of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Baghdad streets have seen peculiar looking groups of men in armoured cars with black glasses, killing anyone who approached them,” said Aziz. “They were the first to be hated by Iraqis.”

Blackwater USA came to international attention when four of their mercenaries were killed in Fallujah Mar. 31, 2004. The incident led to two brutal U.S. military sieges of the city. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/30/4900/

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[zabet]

2. I guess if I ever decide to

kill someone, I will just apply for a job with
Blackwater and wait until I am hired to go on my
killing spree. That way, the cops cannot ask me
any questions.
:grr: