Contractors in Iraq accused of opening fire on civilians, troops

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http://www.fayobserver.com/article_ap?id=109151



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[504PIR]

This is an extremely inflamatory, biased article. Yes there have been "bad apples" in the contractor world. To be blunt I'm not a big fan of Blackwater, though there are some great people that work there.

For starters most of the contractors in Iraq are NOT armed. This includes the truck drivers, cooks, constuction workers, engineers, KBR, Lockeed Martin, IAP support folks. Granted there are many who wish they were armed.

Of the contractors that are armed, many are under direct US Govt supervision. The WPPS program (Worldwide Personal Protection Service) which provide PSD to DoS personnal, are supervised and often lead by TLs from State's own Diplomatic Security Service. Believe me many studs who thought they were "hairy chested gunslingers" have been fired and thrown out of country by their DoS DSS CoC.

Other armed contractors operate under ROEs and after a weapon is fired an AAR has to be done. I was in country in the "wild,wild west" days and they are certainly over. Granted there are still a few knuckleheads out there, doing stupid s$%t, but they likely did stupid S)*t when they were joes too.

To use the Ageis flim as an example, (which I admit, I have not seen) sometimes flim does NOT always show the true picture. What the article does not say, is the usally there is an escalation of force when a vehicle is approaching too close from the rear. Ours was first was to stick hand out, motioning stay back, 2nd throw a half filled water bottle if that did not get there attenion, 3rd was point your weapon, 4th fire in front of the vehicle, the 5th was to fire into the hood/front cap of the car and final was to fire on the driver. Keeping in mind a muji tactic was to overtake the convoy in a fast vehicle and rake it down with PKM fire or drive into with a sucide bomber at the wheel.

[504PIR]

On the Zapata incident outside of Fallugha, the articles author leaves a whole bunch of details. As I was very close to 2 men involved in that, (1 retired USAF PJ, the other a a retired WO from 1st SFG) the article fails to mention that the Zapata convoy was at BIAP when the alleged shooting took place. This was confirmed by a NICS investigation. Second if a young Marine O' had not flown off the handle and over-reacted there would have been no incident. If what had happened those men would still be in the brig today. Bottom line was the MC made a big deal out of it, they were wrong and had to cover their butt. For the record the two gentelmen I mention were back in-country in 90 days working for the US Govt.

Frankly I have seen very little animosity between contractors and Coalition Forces. What little I have seen is generally from "Leg, Fobbit," Sr Officers & NCOs. I have always had excellant relationships with both Big Army combat troops & Special Operations Forces. If we saw something we reported it to local mil, if they had something we needed , we got them something they needed and traded. Hell there many contractors who are members of the Guard who bounce back between Mil deployments and contractor deployments.

As far as someone offering Marine LTC Mike Zacchea a $1000 a day I can pretty much call BS on that. For one thing I'm sure he was not qualified for a contract that would pay that. While I'm not at the top of the contacting pay scale, I'm pretty close. While there was some that did pay that in the early days, those were extremely special short-term deals. They also required very special skill-sets/quals that most folks don't have.

Sorry for going so long but this is typical MSM BS designed to piss mil personal off at contractors, as well as give a another black eye to the war effort. Sure there are negatives to the contracting business, but they serve a place.

Back to lurking.

[Guy]

I'm pretty sure that there was a "less-than-lethal" means proposed for Iraqi vehicles approaching IC convoys.

Don't get me started on some of these guys claiming "OPERATOR" status because the are doing PSD work.

Stay safe.

[jwt5]

Originally Posted by 504PIR

Frankly I have seen very little animosity between contractors and Coalition Forces. What little I have seen is generally from "Leg, Fobbit," Sr Officers & NCOs. I have always had excellant relationships with both Big Army combat troops & Special Operations Forces. If we saw something we reported it to local mil, if they had something we needed , we got them something they needed and traded. Hell there many contractors who are members of the Guard who bounce back between Mil deployments and contractor deployments.

As far as someone offering Marine LTC Mike Zacchea a $1000 a day I can pretty much call BS on that. For one thing I'm sure he was not qualified for a contract that would pay that. While I'm not at the top of the contacting pay scale, I'm pretty close. While there was some that did pay that in the early days, those were extremely special short-term deals. They also required very special skill-sets/quals that most folks don't have.

I agree with the statement about the animosity mostly being at the upper level of the CoC and the "Fobbits". That animosity would also branch over towards the SOF as well. It would get real bad towards the last part of my deployment in 2005. When the relieving unit took over operations on the FOB they would make rules such as "US Army personnel receive priority when entering chow hall". I understand you want to try to look out for your own, but when the only other people sharing the FOB are SEALs, I find it retarded. Besides, it's not like it was a battalion (or whatever the Navy calls it), there were only a few teams of SEALs.

As far as the comment about making $1000 a day, I've heard that echoed by other 'contractors'. I had the opertunity to cross train a bit with contractors hired by "Tactical Intelligence International." Most of these guys were Blackwater/Triple Canopy and the least "special" of the group was a former Recon platoon Ranger. The rest were all SEALs, SF, and Delta. Some of them echoed the '$1000 a day' thing, but they were the few that were contractors in the very beginning and were contracted to protect then SECSTATE Powell in Afghanistan. The rest would talk about $300 or $400 a day depending on the job.

I find it hard to believe that nowadays they're offering the same amount. Especially with all the 'wannabes' out there that will sign up for anything they can get.

[ktek01]

I know a bunch of contractors that made over a thousand a day, none of them carried a weapon for a living. Those of us that did carry, made the normal $300-400 a day protecting those guys, yet all we ever heard about was the cost of security. The cost of "security" and delivery related "security issues" were the great excuse for every missed deadline and cost overrun. A big smoke screen drawing attention away from the real scammers, who happen to be the ones pocketing the real money.

[RTK]

Associated Press BAGHDAD — 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.

Blackwater, based in North Carolina, provides security for many U.S. civilian operations in the country. Phone messages left early Monday at Blackwater's office in North Carolina and with a company spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

More here.

[Razor]

Tick-tock-tick...

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20884905/


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[Ret10Echo]

B.W. is currently confined to the Green Zone. State has suspended all surface travel/convoy operations pending...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...rticle=1&cat=0

[esco015]

Searched, didn't find this anywhere. Apologies if this is in the wrong place.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1575/story/712139.html

Feds target Blackwater in weapons probe

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday. The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George Holding, declined to comment, as did Pentagon and State Department spokesmen.

Officials with knowledge of the case said it is active, although at an early stage. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, which has heightened since 11 Iraqis were killed Sunday in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.

The officials could not say whether the investigation would result in indictments, how many Blackwater employees are involved or if the company itself, which has won hundreds of millions of dollars in government security contracts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is under scrutiny.

In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that two former Blackwater employees - Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. - are cooperating with federal investigators.

Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided and abetted another in doing so, according to court papers viewed by The Associated Press. 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.

Calls to defense attorneys were not immediately returned Friday evening, and calls to the telephone listings for both men also were not returned.

The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq without a license.

The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not be confirmed by the AP.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of security practices for U.S. diplomats in Iraq following a deadly incident involving Blackwater USA guards protecting an embassy convoy.

Rice's announcement came as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad resumed limited diplomatic convoys under the protection of Blackwater outside the heavily fortified Green Zone after a suspension because of the weekend incident in that city.

In the United States, officials in Washington said the smuggling investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone missing in Iraq. It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels.

The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said a Turkish official.

The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.

Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match those taken from the PKK.

was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with the PKK. If they did, possible charges against them could be more serious than theft or illegal weapons sales, officials said.
The PKK, which is fighting for an independent Kurdistan, is banned in Turkey, which has a restive Kurdish population and is considered a "foreign terrorist organization" by the State Department. That designation bars U.S. citizens or those in U.S. jurisdictions from supporting the group in any way.

The North Carolina investigation was first brought to light by State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, who mentioned it, perhaps inadvertently, this week while denying he had improperly blocked fraud and corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Krongard was accused in a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, of politically motivated malfeasance, including refusing to cooperate with an investigation into alleged weapons smuggling by a large, unidentified State Department contractor.

In response, Krongard said in a written statement that he "made one of my best investigators available to help Assistant U.S. Attorneys in North Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq by a contractor."

His statement went further than Waxman's letter because it identified the state in which the investigation was taking place. Blackwater is the biggest of the State Department's three private security contractors.

The other two, Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, are based in Washington's northern Virginias suburbs, outside the jurisdiction of the North Carolina's attorneys.

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

cnn
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[Team Sergeant]

Having been the personal bodyguard for the American Ambassador, in a war zone, I can understand the possible requirement to fire into a crowd.

I also understand those that are trained properly one or two rounds will equal a dead bad-guy next to his AK-47.

My only question is how many of those 11 killed by blackwater contractors were found next to their AK's?

Shooting randomly into a crowd of unarmed people is cowardly at best.

Team Sergeant

[jwt5]

I think this recent development stems from an earlier discussion about how when these companies have large contracts they just start throwing bodies into positions, regardless of the person's experience. I have seen a lot of Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and a few others out in Iraq and you can immediately tell the ones that know the business and those who dress/pretend like they know the business. I spoke to one guy who had a fancy little toy on his weapon, and when I asked about it he basically admitted to just having it there for looks, it didn't even have a power supply...

These guys used to tick us off, especially on the road, so I will admit part of me is happy that Blackwater is being investigated... not to mention the general lack of regard towards their employee's lives...

Should be interesting to see who the company tries to throw 'under the bus' when the hammer comes down....

[Team Sergeant]

I can't wait to find out if all of the blackwater shooters were "graduates" of the blackwater training course. What a joke.

I'll bet eric crapped his pants with this news.......

You going to sue those families also eric?



Iraqi Investigators say Videotape Shows Blackwater Guards Fired Without Aggravation

Saturday, September 22, 2007

E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
BAGHDAD — 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 had been referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Iraq's president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 20 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.

Blackwater, which provides most of the security for U.S. diplomats and civilian officials in Iraq, has insisted that its guards came under fire from armed insurgents and shot back only to defend themselves.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Saturday that she knew nothing about the videotape and was contractually prohibited from discussing any details of the shooting.
Khalaf also said the ministry was looking into six other fatal shootings involving the Moyock, N.C.-based company, including a Feb. 7 incident outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad in which three building guards were fatally shot.

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

Khalaf said the report had been "sent to the judiciary" although he would not specify whether that amounted to filing of criminal charges. Under Iraqi law, an investigating judge reviews criminal complaints and decides whether there is enough evidence for a trial.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Saturday that no decision had been taken whether to seek punishment for any Blackwater employees.

"The necessary measures will be taken that will preserve the honor of the Iraqi people," he said in New York, where al-Maliki arrived Friday for the U.N. General Assembly session. "We have ongoing high-level meetings with the U.S. side about this issue."

Al-Maliki is expected to raise the issue with Bush during a meeting Monday in New York.

It is doubtful that foreign security contractors could be prosecuted under Iraqi law. A directive issued by U.S. occupation authorities in 2004 granted contractors, U.S. troops and many other foreign officials immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.

Security contractors are also not subject to U.S. military law under which U.S. troopers face prosecution for killing or abusing Iraqis.

Iraqi officials have said in the wake of the Nisoor Square shooting that they will press for amendments to the 2004 directive.

A senior aide to al-Maliki said Friday that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Shortly after the Sept. 20 shooting, U.S. officials said they "understood" that a videotape had recorded the incident in Nisoor Square but refused to give more details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release information to the media.

Following the Nisoor Square shooting, the Interior Ministry banned Blackwater from operating in Iraq but rolled back after the U.S. agreed to a joint investigation. The company resumed guarding a reduced number of U.S. convoys on Friday.

The al-Maliki aide said Friday that the Iraqis were pushing for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable."

Hadi al-Amri, a prominent Shiite lawmaker and al-Maliki ally, also said an admission of wrongdoing, an apology and compensation offered a way out of the dilemma.

"They are always frightened and that's why they shoot at civilians," al-Amri said. "If Blackwater gets to stay in Iraq, it will have to give guarantees about its conduct."

Allegations against Blackwater have clouded relations between Iraq and the Americans at a time when the U.S. administration is seeking to contain calls in Congress for sharp reductions in the 160,000-strong U.S. military force.

Adding to those strains, President Jalal Talabani demanded the immediate release of an Iranian official detained Thursday by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

The U.S. military said the unidentified Iranian was a member of the Quds force — an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused of arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq.

A statement issued Saturday by Talabani's office said the arrest was carried out without the prior knowledge or the cooperation of the Kurdish regional government.

"This amounts to an insult and a violation of its rights and authority," said the statement, quoting a letter Talabani sent to Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Talabani, a Kurd, is one of Washington's most reliable partners in Iraq.

Talabani said Iran had threatened to close the border with the Kurdish region if the official were not freed — a serious blow to the economy in the president's political stronghold.

"I want to express to you our dismay over the arrest by American forces of this official civilian Iranian guest," Talabani wrote to Petraeus and Crocker.

Five Iranians said to be linked to the Quds force were arrested in the Kurdish city of Irbil and remain in U.S. custody.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military announced the death of two more U.S. soldiers — one of an unspecified non-combat related injury and another in a vehicle accident in Diyala province. The deaths raised to at least 3,795 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. said seven insurgents were killed and 12 were captured in a raid in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad. A U.S. statement said one of those captured is believed to know the whereabouts of senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297719,00.html

[jatx]

LOL, is the "spokeswoman" contractually prohibited from providing useful information of any kind or merely in cases where BW has shown its hindquarters?

I have advised a number of large private equity investors on potential investments in this industry, and in every case I have recommended that they run for cover like their hair was on fire. The number of credible individuals in management and executive ranks at the major firms is dwarfed by the volume of shady blowhards.