He claimed a pocket veto, while technically Bush vetoed the bill under the Constitution. In the president’s Memorandum of Disapproval, he gave one main reason: his objection to Section 1083 of the legislation.

Call me crazy (or just plain realistic), but I’m reluctant to take our dear president’s word as to his actual motive(s) for such a strange method of vetoing the bill.

There just might be more to it.  Read more 

The headline:

Iraq Shooting Illustrates Contractors’ Legal Void

The story:

Guards employed by Unity Resources Group, a security company responsible for the shooting deaths of two Iraqi women here Oct. 9, had shot and seriously wounded a man driving a van 3 1/2 months earlier on the same Baghdad thoroughfare, according to four witnesses.

The case demonstrates how security companies such as Unity operate in a lawless void in Iraq, with many shooting incidents escaping official or public scrutiny.

Most of the more than 100 security firms in Iraq work under contracts or subcontracts for government agencies, private companies or individuals, creating layers of responsibility that make oversight difficult. Unity effectively regulates itself: The company reported 38 weapons-discharge incidents while protecting RTI employees over the past two years, according to a source familiar with the data. In each instance, the company conducted its own investigation.

Iraq is a conservative paradise! It’s a laboratory for Conservative social engineering! Entrepreneurs, free of pesky governmental regulations like the rule of law, free to unleash the magic of the marketplace in a war zone! What could go wrong?  Read more 

WaPo:

Federal authorities have convened a grand jury to investigate multiple shootings involving private security contractors in Iraq, including a Sept. 16 incident in which guards for Blackwater Worldwide killed 17 civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The Washington grand jury has issued subpoenas to several private security firms, including Blackwater, a legal source briefed on the probe said yesterday. Authorities are seeking company “after-action” reports and other documents that may shed light on specific incidents, he said.

The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, declined to say which incidents have been targeted, but he said the investigation ranges well beyond Blackwater. Private security companies in Iraq “have been shooting a lot of people,” he said.

Well, sure. That’s why Iraq is back to normal!

Of course, since the loyal Bushies running the war eliminated the rule of law, prosecuting the mercenaries for breaking the law might turn out to be difficult:

But the U.S. government’s ability to prosecute remains hampered by the lack of clarity over what laws may apply. For instance, contractors were immunized from Iraqi laws under a June 2004 order signed by the U.S. occupation authority. That ruling remains in effect.

How con-v-e-e-e-e-n-i-e-n-t.

But seriously, is there really a story here?  Read more 

Oh, really? Excellent story today from TPM’s Spencer Abraham:

“It’s really surprising that Blackwater is still out there killing people.”

That’s a quote from the director of Iraq’s state-run television network, looking back in anger to an February shooting that prefigured the Nisour Square incident in September. In February, Blackwater guards on the roof of the Justice Ministry building in Baghdad’s Salihiya neighborhood shot and killed three security guards at the nearby Iraqiya TV compound. There was no recompense to the victims’ families. A cursory State Department investigation cleared Blackwater in full. And an Iraqi judge, citing CPA Order 17 —which gave U.S. contractors immunity from Iraqi prosecution — rejected a court petition filed by the network.

Now, I recall getting a little flak in comments on my post Congratulations! Your immunity has been pre-approved! The flak came in the form of an argument that granting the _{MR SUBLIMINAL OK, OK, alleged} Blackwater shooters immunity for shooting civilians was simply the classic prosecutorial maneuver of immunizing the little guys to get to the big guys, rather than a scam to evade accountability and awkward questions for the criminal Bush regime. To which I respond by asking:  Read more 

If you’re Blackwater, that is. ABC:

The wording of the immunity is included at the beginning of the Blackwater guards’ sworn statements, which have been obtained by ABC News.

In each of the statements, the guards begin by saying “I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry,” and that, “I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001.”

The immunity deal was granted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting by State Department officials in Iraq who were under intense pressure to quickly explain what happened in the face of allegations by Iraqi officials that the contractors murdered civilians in cold blood.

Not a bad deal. This is my favorite part, though:  Read more 

In comments on Michael Jerkoff’s blog (!), dadw5boys writes:

I have to say I am totally disappointed as a disabled vet that our Military could watch the Israeli Army use armoured vehicles for years and not have at least 2,000 armoured vehicles on hand to would protect our soldiers from IEDs.

This one is easy to explain, dadw5boys:  Read more 

That’s the question Frank Rich doesn’t ask today. Should he have? Rich gives two examples (and it would be interesting to know if there were more). Both are connected to Price’s Blackwater mercenaries.

Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005. He was at the time the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.

Colonel Westhusing’s death was ruled a suicide, though some believe he was murdered by contractors fearing a whistle-blower, according to T. Christian Miller, the Los Angeles Times reporter who documents the case in his book “Blood Money.” Either way, the angry four-page letter the officer left behind for General Petraeus and his other commander, Gen. Joseph Fil, is as much an epitaph for America’s engagement in Iraq as a suicide note.

“I cannot support a msn that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars,” Colonel Westhusing wrote, abbreviating the word mission. “I am sullied.”

[Corrente covered the Westhusing story here, here, and here.]

Rich might have mentioned the interesting fact that a mercenary discovered Westhusing’s body, and tampered with the evidence. (From the Corrente archives, the LA Times link having moved.) And oddly, or not, mercenary corruption is the link that connects the latest “suicide.” Rich again:  Read more 

We’ve really got to stop using the term “mercenaries” for Blackwater, and start using the term “Christianist mercenaries.” Because it’s true:

Erik Prince is 37 years old. He founded Blackwater in 1997 with money he inherited from his father, Edgar Prince, the head of Prince Automative. The elder Prince and his wife were major Republican and conservative activists and funders. And Prince himself co-founded The Family Research Council with Gary Bauer and apparently provided the key early funding for the group.

According to Bauer, “I can say without hesitation that, without Ed and Elsa and their wonderful children, there simply would not be a Family Research Council.”

Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is married is the former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party and her husband is Dick DeVos, failed candidate for governor of Michigan and scion of the DeVos family, founders of Amway and major funders of Republican and conservative causes.

Amway is privately owned by the DeVos and van Andel families. And to give some sense of the scale of their political giving, according to a 2005 Center for Public Integrity study, Dick & Betsy DeVos were the fifth largest political givers in the country during the 2004 election cycle. Richard DeVos Sr. & his wife were ranked third. And Jay Van Andel was ranked second.

In addition to running Blackwater Prince also serves on the board of Christian Freedom International [Blackwater’s marketing arm].

Well, great. The winger billionaires, the Christianists, and the Republican Party have a private army under their control. But don’t worry! I’m sure they’ll never use it here! (Not. And not.)

And what an army it is! So many lovely details, but this is one is my favorite:  Read more 

Everyone needs a Mother Jones subscription. There’s a great deal in this piece, but here’s what really gets my attention:

Last Wednesday afternoon, amid news that Blackwater USA security contractors had killed 11 Iraqi civilians and wounded 12 others in a Baghdad firefight, members of the antiwar group Code Pink gathered outside the Washington office of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group that represents a who’s who of the private military industry. There to greet them when they arrived was Doug Brooks, the IPOA’s founder and president, who’d been tipped off to the protest earlier that day by an anonymous caller  Read more 

Multimillionaire Blackwater CEO Erik “With a K” Prince

Worse than we thought. As usual. McClatchy. It’s always nice to read real reporting. Fair use:

On Sept. 9, the day before Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq , and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Congress that things were getting better, Batoul Mohammed Ali Hussein came to Baghdad for the day.

A clerk in the Iraqi customs office in Diyala province, she was in the capital to drop off and pick up paperwork at the central office near busy al Khilani Square, not far from the fortified Green Zone, where top U.S. and Iraqi officials live and work. U.S. officials often pass through the square in heavily guarded convoys on their way to other parts of Baghdad. As Hussein walked out of the customs building, an embassy convoy of sport-utility vehicles drove through the intersection. Blackwater security guards, charged with protecting the diplomats, yelled at construction workers at an unfinished building to move back. Instead, the workers threw rocks. The guards, witnesses said, responded with gunfire, spraying the intersection with bullets.

Hussein, who was on the opposite side of the street from the construction site, fell to the ground, shot in the leg. As she struggled to her feet and took a step, eyewitnesses said, a Blackwater security guard trained his weapon on her and shot her multiple times. She died on the spot, and the customs documents she’d held in her arms fluttered down the street.

Before the shooting stopped, four other people were killed in what would be the beginning of eight days of violence that Iraqi officials say bolster their argument that Blackwater should be banned from working in Iraq.

Sounds like a bad case of Blackwater Fever, eh?  Read more 

Via commenter Linda at TPM, weapons-grade snark from former Green Beret Patrick Lang at Sic Semper Tyrannis:

Blackwater Fever: The Symptoms

A common disease among international contractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan and various other 3rd world hellholes. Frequently attacks young men with 1 war or enlistment under their belt, State Dept agents, Former LEOs, anyone associated with an Ambassador’s detail and occasional poseurs. BKWF has many symptoms; if you have the following you may be infected:

1. Large amount of primping, i.e. mousse in your hair despite the fact you live in a war zone.

2. Your forearms break out in tattoos, often tribal or USMC related

3. All your shirts are skintight “Under Armor” T-shirts

4. Have used, currently using or consider using steroids

5. Refer to yourself as a “Shooter” or “Operator for Blackwater”

16. Look puzzled when someone refers to the pool as a “Sausage Fest”

17. You carry a drop-leg holster, wear a Federal Agent Badge, flash bangs, 5 or more pistol mags, asp, handcuffs, surefire light , leatherman,
on your belt and a Gerber mark II strapped to the outside of your boot, in the embassy complex.

21. When your advance goes out on mission, Army MPs secure your perimeter.

23. Despite earning a six figure income you wear a ragged ball cap that has not ever been washed

33. Often email pictures of yourself in body armor, weapons and kit to all your friends, family and anybody that you have their email address.

And of course, #22, the key to the whole mess, and why Blackwater is worse than Abu Ghraib:  Read more 

Because we know, with Bush, that’s what it always comes down to. And since they’re mercenaries, there’s a lot of money to be put into willing Republican hands.* WaPo:

enior Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to U.S. officials about Blackwater USA’s alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm until 11 Iraqis were shot dead last Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Before that episode, U.S. officials were made aware in high-level meetings and formal memorandums of Blackwater’s alleged transgressions. They included six violent incidents this year allegedly involving the North Carolina firm that left a total of 10 Iraqis dead, the officials said.

And then there’s the arms dealing:  Read more 

While we want for the Iraqi government to figure out that what they want to do is put their video up on YouTube, here’s the the story:

Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths.

He told The Associated Press that the conclusion was based on witness statements as well as videotape shot by cameras at the nearby headquarters of the national police command. He said eight people were killed at the scene and three of the 15 wounded died in hospitals.

Khalaf also said the ministry was looking into six other fatal shootings involving the Moyock, N.C.-based company in which 10 Iraqis were killed and 15 wounded. Among the shootings was one Feb. 7 outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad that killed three building guards.

“These six cases will support the case against Blackwater, because they show that it has a criminal record,” Khalaf said.

Shortly after the Sept. 16 shooting, U.S. officials said they “understood” that there was videotape, but refused to give more details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release information to the media.

Well, some Regent grad or whoever else Bush can hire these days must be sweating, waiting for the tape. Good. They’ve earned it.

And while we wait, here’s the video of Hassan Salhan, an Iraqi lawyer, being interviewed. They shot him in the back, from helicopters.  Read more 

Xan noted the walking papers the democratically-elected government of Iraq are handing out to Blackwater Mercenary Industries.

Naturally, I thought of Paul McCartney…

++++

Blackwater

Blackwater shooting in the dead of night, take your smoking guns and say goodbye
Wasted lives, you were making money as their blood fell from the sky

Blackwater shooting in the dead of night, occupiers bring the world such misery
Wasted lives, you were making money as their blood fell from the sky

Blackwater sky
Blackwater sky, into a fight where Mohammed cries

Blackwater sky
Blackwater sky, into a fight where Mohammed cries  Read more 

Whether it’s such good news for us, the country to which the people (and their vast stores of everything from guns to hardened vehicles to helicopters) are supposed to be repatriated toot-sweet, is, um, another question. Via NYT:

The Interior Ministry said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.

The ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday incident.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

”We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities,” Khalaf said.

This of course assumes the “Iraqi authorities” involved can execute the orders they impose. Blackwater being better armed than the current Iraqi military, such as they are, this is somewhat questionable.  Read more 

Yeah, I know we “knew” these things oh, three years ago or so. But this is why it makes a difference to have Democratic chairs of committees and hearings out in the bright light of day. Because then you know things from the Congressional Record and hear about them from the AP, not dirty fucking hippie bloggers. This piece from the Raleigh NC N&O/AP could be better with some copy editing, so I have taken the liberty of rearranging some paragraphs. The material is otherwise unchanged:

WASHINGTON — After numerous denials, the Pentagon has confirmed that a North Carolina company provided armed security guards in Iraq under a subcontract that was buried so deeply the government couldn’t find it.
The secretary of the Army on Tuesday wrote two Democratic lawmakers that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military support operation by run by Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

Vice President Dick Cheney ran Halliburton before he became vice president.

Would we have seen that sentence, that high up in the story, without a Democratic Congress? Kinda answers itself, don’t ya think? But to continue:  Read more 

Keep this handy. You could even print out a few pages and you know, just leave them lying around your workplace or church. Most of it isn’t news to you, but I bet it is to your friends who watch the TV news:

 Read more 

The battle Blackwater Security, the favored private militia of the favored few, fears most is coming nearer. From the NC News & Observer:

A North Carolina-based security contractor lost a federal appeal Thursday in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the families of four men killed and publicly mutilated in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004
The decision by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., means that after a year and a half of motions and appeals, the lawsuit can move forward in Wake County Superior Court and that Blackwater Security Consulting will likely have to give up records and oral depositions about the incident, said Marc Miles, an attorney for the families.

That highlighted part is what they fear worst. And this news may be even better than it sounds..  Read more