Blackwater - black day

According to an unidentified spokesperson, “Blackwater guards reacted lawfully to an attack on one of its convoys.” The spokesperson was commenting on an August 16, 2007 incident in which, according to initial reports, eleven Iraqi civilians were killed and fifteen others wounded. The latest news reports put the death toll at seventeen, with twenty-three others wounded when a Blackwater security detail opened fire in Nisoor Square in Baghdad.

One might reasonably ask whose law they were acting lawfully under. Back in 2004, the US State Department granted Blackwater (as well as other private security contractors) immunity from prosecution under not only Iraqi law, but under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice. Nor does this private contractor have to worry about following the rules of the Geneva Convention.

It is also unlikely Blackwater employees can be tried in the United States for crimes outside that jurisdiction, which means that Blackwater is accountable to no one. (A US rights group announced it was filing a petition to have the courts decide if they can be tried in a civil proceeding on behalf of a survivor and the families of three victims.)

The shooting prompted a wave of outrage in Iraq about the activities of private US security firms protecting diplomats and foreign workers, and calls for those responsible for the deaths to be tried in Iraqi courts.

According to an official Iraqi investigation, ordered by Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, guards from the US security firm had not been shot at before they opened fire on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. This contention is supported by accounts from the first US soldiers to arrive on the scene, who claimed no evidence was found to support Blackwater contentions that they had come under fire.

According to a US congressional report released last week, Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005. In 84% of those cases, the report claims, Blackwater personnel were the first to open fire.

And, apparently, it’s not just the shootings of innocent civilians by private contractors in Iraq that has Washington concerned. Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that employees of Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq that may have ended up in the hands of a designated terrorist organization, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

The Raleigh News & Observer reported that two former Blackwater employees are cooperating with federal authorities investigating the accusations. They pleaded guilty earlier this year to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce. In their plea agreements, which call for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the men agreed to testify in any future proceedings.

Back in July, Turkey officially protested to US officials that they had seized US weapons from captured PKK terrorists. The Turkish government provided the US with serial numbers from the weapons which are now being traced by the FBI.

A joint US/Iraqi commission is looking into the incident in Nisoor Square to try and sort out what really happened. The US is conducting its own investigation into the illegal smuggling of weapons into Iraq.

Neither is likely to result in anything more than a mild reprimand to any of the offending parties. A few foot soldiers will be designated as bad apples and have their butts kicked but the big wigs with the big wallets will walk away.

We’ve seen it all before; another incident; another investigation; another whitewash.