H
Harry Hope
Guest
Blackwater founder and Bush crony Erik Prince testified before the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, discussing
reports that his company recently took part in the unprovoked massacre
of Iraqi civilians.
"Based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted
appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept. 16,"
he said.
"There has been a rush to judgment."
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/300840.html
Sure there has.
After all, if you read the State Department's initial report of the
incident, you'll discover that in fact Blackwater "responded properly
to an insurgent attack on a convoy."
And so what if a Blackwater contractor wrote that report on U.S.
embassy letterhead?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/01/blackwater.report/
Clearly there has been a rush to judgement.
A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, mind you,
discovered that "Blackwater's contractors fired their weapons 195
times -- or an average of 1.4 times a week -- from the beginning of
2005 through the second week of September," and, "In over 80 percent
of the cases, Blackwater reports that its forces fired first."
But surely this is just a rush to judgement.
Meanwhile, it was reported last week that a Blackwater plane's ****pit
voice recorder, recovered from a mountain canyon in Afghanistan in
2004, captured the joyriding pilot remarking that "I swear to God,
they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/02/blackwater.afghan.crash/index.html
The pilot then lost control and crashed into the canyon killing
himself, two other crew members, and three U.S. troops.
And a former U.S. official who spent two years in Baghdad wrote an
editorial in the Los Angeles Times last week, noting that:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gans6oct06,0,1155563.story?coll=la-opinion-center
One particularly infuriating time, I was in the town of Irbil in
northern Iraq, being driven to a meeting with a Kurdish political
leader.
We were on a narrow stretch of highway with no shoulders and foot-high
barriers on both sides.
The lead Suburban in our convoy loomed up behind an old, puttering
sedan driven by an older man with a young woman and three children.
As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver
honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull
over.
The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the
sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in
dark sunglasses.
The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but
there was none.
So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car,
pushing it into the barrier.
We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt.
Also, Rep. Henry Waxman wondered last week why a Blackwater guard who
got drunk and shot one of the Iraqi vice president's bodyguards in
December 2006 was back working for a Pentagon contractor in February
2007. http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004398.php
That is curious.
But pay no attention to the facts - surely all this bad news about
Blackwater is just a rush to judgement.
And if you don't believe me, then you'd better pay attention to Rep.
Darrell Issa (R-Obviously) who argued last week that an attack on this
company of lawless mercenaries is an attack on - sniff - General
Petraeus.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=59442
By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Harry
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, discussing
reports that his company recently took part in the unprovoked massacre
of Iraqi civilians.
"Based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted
appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept. 16,"
he said.
"There has been a rush to judgment."
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/300840.html
Sure there has.
After all, if you read the State Department's initial report of the
incident, you'll discover that in fact Blackwater "responded properly
to an insurgent attack on a convoy."
And so what if a Blackwater contractor wrote that report on U.S.
embassy letterhead?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/01/blackwater.report/
Clearly there has been a rush to judgement.
A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, mind you,
discovered that "Blackwater's contractors fired their weapons 195
times -- or an average of 1.4 times a week -- from the beginning of
2005 through the second week of September," and, "In over 80 percent
of the cases, Blackwater reports that its forces fired first."
But surely this is just a rush to judgement.
Meanwhile, it was reported last week that a Blackwater plane's ****pit
voice recorder, recovered from a mountain canyon in Afghanistan in
2004, captured the joyriding pilot remarking that "I swear to God,
they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/02/blackwater.afghan.crash/index.html
The pilot then lost control and crashed into the canyon killing
himself, two other crew members, and three U.S. troops.
And a former U.S. official who spent two years in Baghdad wrote an
editorial in the Los Angeles Times last week, noting that:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gans6oct06,0,1155563.story?coll=la-opinion-center
One particularly infuriating time, I was in the town of Irbil in
northern Iraq, being driven to a meeting with a Kurdish political
leader.
We were on a narrow stretch of highway with no shoulders and foot-high
barriers on both sides.
The lead Suburban in our convoy loomed up behind an old, puttering
sedan driven by an older man with a young woman and three children.
As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver
honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull
over.
The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the
sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in
dark sunglasses.
The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but
there was none.
So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car,
pushing it into the barrier.
We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt.
Also, Rep. Henry Waxman wondered last week why a Blackwater guard who
got drunk and shot one of the Iraqi vice president's bodyguards in
December 2006 was back working for a Pentagon contractor in February
2007. http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004398.php
That is curious.
But pay no attention to the facts - surely all this bad news about
Blackwater is just a rush to judgement.
And if you don't believe me, then you'd better pay attention to Rep.
Darrell Issa (R-Obviously) who argued last week that an attack on this
company of lawless mercenaries is an attack on - sniff - General
Petraeus.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=59442
By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Harry
