Anger over Blackwater

It is really an obscene indictment of US justice that the Blackwater killers were let free. Anyone who's driven in Iraq knows how terrifying the Blackwater thugs are when they drive people off the road. They are responsible for the kind of bitterness that keeps the insurgency going. How would you like it if foreigners behaved like that in your country? You would want to rise up against such provocation wouldn't you? Interesting the latest response from Iraq. Is it all bluff and bluster I wonder?

Agence France-Presse - 02 January, 2010
Iraq said yesterday it had begun taking steps to "bring Blackwater to justice" over the deaths of 14 civilians in 2007, one of the bloodiest incidents involving a private security firm in the country. A US court decision on Thursday to drop charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of the deaths has unleashed anger in Baghdad. >>>>>

Rice boosts Iraq firms oversight

This is a welcome development, long overdue and of utmost neccessity.  I would advocate the expulsion of private security firms from Iraq but we need to take account of a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week (not linked due to their subscription wall) that essentially came to the conclusion that it would be near impossible for the US to run the war without the services of Blackwater et all...  Still, it is unconscionable that the rules now belatedly adapted were not in place to begin with.  

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private security contractors used in Iraq.

It follows a review by an independent panel ordered after an incident last month involving the US firm Blackwater, in which some 17 Iraqi civilians died.

The steps include tightening the state department's rules of engagement so they are line with the military's.

Contractors will also have to undergo improved cultural awareness training.

There will also be better co-ordination with the US military and tighter restrictions on the use of force.

Boards will be set up to investigate any future killings involving private contractors in Iraq, and will have to power to refer cases to the US justice department.

Contractors will also have to have Arabic speakers on hand.

FULL STORY

‘Mercenary Is a Slanderous Term’

The founder of Blackwater defends himself—and his company.

A Newsweek Exclusive
By Mark Hosenball

Oct. 12, 2007 - Erik Prince made it clear he doesn’t like talking to the press. But the Blackwater founder also tells NEWSWEEK’s Mark Hosenball he doesn’t want “what we do” to be “completely misrepresented.” So he spoke—about himself and his controversial company—in an at-times prickly hourlong interview in his offices in northern Virginia.

Read the interview HERE