Warned About Blackwater

[unapatriciated]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302442.html?hpid=topnews
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 24, 2007; Page A01

The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents.

The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime.

Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department took substantive action to regulate private security companies until Blackwater guards opened fire Sept. 16 at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and provoking protests over the role of security contractors in Iraq.

"Why is it they couldn't see this coming?" said Christopher Beese, chief administrative officer for ArmorGroup International, a British security firm with extensive operations in Iraq. "That amazes me. Somebody -- it could have been military officers, it could have been State -- anybody could have waved a flag and said, 'Stop, this is not good news for us.' "

[madokie]

1. this cabal went into Iraq to destabilize the region and blackwater is one of the tools they used

and are using for that end. The neocons want and are stealing the oil from the Iraqi and will continue up until we are no longer there militarily. When wolfie said the oil would pay for the war he was talking about something different from the actual cost of fighting, of which I have suspicions but you know they're kind of like opinions and assholes