Shootings by Blackwater Exceed Other Firms in Iraq
As the Iraqi government complain about the actions of Blackwater in their country, the US state department has released figures which clearly show that Blackwater USA have been involved in a far higher share of shootings than other security teams offering similar security.
Blackwater has actually been involved in twice as many shooting incidents as other companies working in Iraq to provide security.
Blackwater are refusing to provide any sort of data of incidents in which their personnel have opened fire.The State Department keeps reports on each case in which weapons were fired by security personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq. Officials familiar with the internal State Department reports would not provide the actual statistics, but they indicated that the records showed that Blackwater personnel were involved in dozens of episodes in which they had resorted to force.
The officials said that Blackwater’s incident rate was at least twice that recorded by employees of DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, the two other United States-based security firms that have been contracted by the State Department to provide security for diplomats and other senior civilians in Iraq.
There are some who argue that Blackwater operate in some of the most violent parts of Iraq, which they say explain it's very high shooting rate, although there are even American officials who say that they think the shooting rate reflects a corporate culture which encourages excessive behaviour: “Is it the operating environment or something specific about Blackwater?” asked one government official. “My best guess is that it is both.”“The incident rate for Blackwater is higher, there is a distinction,” said a senior American government official who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss a delicate, continuing investigation. “The real question that is open for discussion is why.”
A Blackwater spokeswoman declined to comment.
Blackwater, based in North Carolina, has gained a reputation among Iraqis and even among American military personnel serving in Iraq as a company that flaunts an aggressive, quick-draw image that leads its security personnel to take excessively violent actions to protect the people they are paid to guard. After the latest shooting, the Iraqi government demanded that the company be banned from operating in the country.
“You can find any number of people, particularly in uniform, who will tell you that they do see Blackwater as a company that promotes a much more aggressive response to things than other main contractors do,” a senior American official said.
Some now find Blackwater's behaviour counterproductive to American efforts to gain support from Iraqis for their military effort in that country.
“They’re repeat offenders, and yet they continue to prosper in Iraq,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who has been broadly critical of the role of contractors in Iraq. “It’s really affecting attitudes toward the United States when you have these cowboy guys out there. These guys represent the U.S. to them and there are no rules of the game for them.”Blackwater still have an unusually close relationship to the Bush administration, with Mr Prince - Blackwaters owner and founder - having hired J. Cofer Black, the former counterterrorism chief at the C.I.A. and State Department, as vice chairman at Blackwater.
The Maliki regime recently called for Blackwater to stop operating in Iraq. Blackwater, like other mercenaries operating in Iraq, do so with immunity from prosecution.
It says a lot about how much power the Iraqi government actually possesses that Blackwater continue to operate in Iraq, albeit on a reduced scale. Surely an independent Iraqi government would be able to expel such a company and that this would simply happen? The fact that it hasn't undermines Bush's claims that Maliki is really in charge.
Click title for full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment