Blackwater: How is the company involved in Iraq? Why is Blackwater controversial?

Blackwater came into the headlines in mid-September 2007. After another violence incident in which about 8-12 Iraqi civilians were killed at Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16 and 37 were injured, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said they would ban the group from Iraq and would prosecute them. Maliki ordered them out of the country. The story and the death toll continued to grow. Within two weeks, the estimated dead would rise to 17. Would Maliki be able to override the obvious "veto" from the U.S.? The AP story reminded us, however, that under laws passed by Paul Bremer (Order # 17) before Iraqis had sovereignty, no private contractors can legally be prosecuted, despite previous incidents of rage, murder and abuse. Thus, they legally have immunity. Maliki also spoke out against Blackwater. The contractors are known to shoot first and ask questions later.

The New York Times even has a special section just about Blackwater.

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One Blackwater employee, drunk on Christmas eve last year, shot three times and killed a body guard of one of Iraq's Vice Presidents. The employee, later known as Andrew J. Moonen, claimed he was firing in self defense after he had been shot at. He was fired and left Iraq without being prosecuted. He is one of 122 employees dismissed by the company in the past three years for misusing weapons, alcohol or drug abuse, lewd conduct, or excessive violence. Said President Prince, "We can't flog him; we can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department." Moonen paid his own flight own and did not receive his Christmas bonus of $3000. After the killing of the VP's bodyguard, the US ambassador suggested that the family be paid $250,000 but Blackwater eventually paid them $15,000. Prince testified that the family was paid $20,000. The Justice Department is still investigating this shooting. If he had been in the US military, he would have been court-martialed.

There are about 30,000 private military contractors (or mercenaries) in Iraq, though the State Department doesn't know or won't give an exact number. The Times editorial of Oct. 1 put the figure at 50,000. Why are we so unsure about this basic number? Outsourcing also employees Triple Canopy and DynCorp. Blackwater totals are 1000-1500. The Tribune put Blackwater Iraqi employees at 13,000. A Congressional report the same week put the Blackwater employee number at only 861. A few weeks later it was "nearly 845." The Times quoted a company spokesman as having 550 full-time employees. Careful readers of this site will recall that the Battle of Fallujah was initiated by the US in retaliation for the killing and hanging of four Blackwater employees in 2004. Other confusing numbers are the overall numbers of contractors in Iraq. The Tribune places this at 137,000, nearly as many as US troops. The majority of these are not armed. The Times told us there were 130,000 contractors, whereas Blackwater expert and author Scahill wrote of more contractors than troops. The Times summarized some of the contractor problems in late October by explaining that auditors have uncovered "numerous instances of cost overruns, sloppy work, theft and corruption in the tens of billions of dollars in logistics and reconstruction contracts..."

Over 80% of Blackwater contracts are with the State Department. DynCorp is less dependent on state, but has more total US contracts. Private security contracts with State have increased in four years from $1 billion to $4 billion. How is oversite? Monitoring has clearly not kept pace, as there are only 17 officers in State. This compares with 70 people in Army monitoring fewer contracts. In fact, the State department, upon investigation admitted that it could not "specifically say what it received" for most of the $1.2 billion is has paid Dyn Corp.

Who was firing at whom? There were Blackwater helicopters present. Two bombs exploded around when the convoy passed by. Blackwater defending its "defensive actions" against "armed bad guys" and the State Department said, "There was a firefight...I can't tell you who was responsible." Would the pattern continue that an investigation would take months to complete?

Blackwater received a new Pentagon contract in late September, in the midst of the ongoing investigations. It could be worth nearly $100 million. In 2006 the company took in nearly $600 million in federal money.

Blackwater founder and CEO, Erik Prince, appeared in public at a Congressional testimony on October 3. Prince, from Holland, Michigan, is a leading supporter of President Bush, as well as conservative and fundamentalist Christian causes. His wife, Betsy DoVos, is a Republican leader in Michigan for Bush-Cheney. Her husband ran for Governor. Erik Prince, a former Navy Seal, is 38. He said 30 contractors have been killed, but didn't specify that these were in Iraq. Wrapping himself and his company in the flag, Prince described his employees as "loyal Americans...We're not cowboys...They call us mercenaries. But we're Americans working for America protecting Americans."

As described in detail in the book Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill points out that hundreds of Blackwater employees are hired by them for less, from countries such as South Africa, Chile, Columbia, and Honduras. Though Prince was not asked about the Sept. 16 shooting via prior agreement, he did volunteer, "I believe we acted appropriately at all times."

Some are paid over $1200 per day, more than six times as much as American military performing a similar job. The company was charging separately for two jobs that were really the same person.

Meanwhile, at least investigations were taking place, from FBI, State, and Defense. A Times piece showed the major disagreements between numerous eye witnesses/interviews and the Blackwater version of events. "Blackwater guards took no fire," the article was titled. There were three witnesses on rooftops who witnessed the whole scene. American soldiers arrived soon after the shooting. The portrayals are "at odds." For example, Blackwater said its helicopters did not fire on civilians yet some cars had bullet holes in their roofs. A man named Ahmed was one of the first to be shot. After being shot, his car continued to move because his foot stayed on the accelerator. More shots killed his wife and baby in her arms. There were 40 shots in their car. The car caught fire after Blackwater gunmen fired a grenade into the vehicle. In the investigation quoted by the Times, one witness said, "I call it a massacre...It is illegal. They used the law of the jungle." Americans soldiers were similarly appalled. "If our people had done this, said one US official, "they would be court-martialed. US soldiers who arrived soon after the shooting found no evidence of an attack on Blackwater. Still, the guards kept firing after it was clear there was no resistance and people were shot trying to flee. After a pause, one Blackwater guard began firing again "at a red bus full of people on the western rim of the square."

One of the first Op-Ed pieces was from Paul Krugman (9/28/07) in his "Hired Gun Fetish." He reminded his Times readers that Machiavelli describes mercenaries as "'useless and dangerous" more than four centuries ago...The so-called private security contractors are mercenaries. They're heavily armed. They carry out military missions, but they're private employees who don't answer to military discipline. On the other hand, they don't seem to be accountable to Iraqi or US law, either. And they behave accordingly." So, why are they still playing such a large role? "Don't tell me that they are irreplaceable" after five years. They pose a danger to US forces, after the four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah. This killing "precipitated a crises that probably ended any chance of an acceptable outcome in Iraq." The use of private contractors also "Let the administration avoid making hard political choices, such as admitting that it didn't send enough troops in the first place."

"Subcontracting the War", the lead Times editorial of October 1, estimates 50,000 "private security" contractors out of the 160,000 total contractors. Some of those involved in the Abu Ghraib abuse were private contractors. "The lesson here," the paper concludes, "is that such essential jobs cannot be outsourced. War is not a private business."

A Times editorial, two days later, "Blackwater's Rich Contracts" (10/3/07) states that it should come as "no surprise" that the administration would "reward its political friends with lavish no-bid contracts." At least as significant is that these security contractors "are undermining the military's efforts to win over Iraqis...The fallout from Blackwater's heavy-handed tactics is a reminder of the folly of using a private force to perform military missions in a war zone."

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Rep. Henry Waxman said, "It's costing us more money and I believe it's costing us problems." Waxman also labeled the State Department as "Blackwater's enabler....Privatizing is working exceptionally well for Blackwater." The company is in a sort of "legal limbo." Meanwhile, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who represent Evanston, Illinois and surrounding communities, plans to introduce legislation to phase out contractors after 2012 unless the President tells Congress the military can't do the job. She said, "There is clearly something wrong with the culture of this organization." Obama would present similar legislation in the Senate.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said, "And now we're starting to ask questions that probably should have been asked years ago: Who are they? What authority do they have? How many of them are they? How much do we pay them? How many incidents have we been through? Has anyone prosecuted them for their wrongdoing? Who's in charge?"

A bill passed the House 389 to 30, (10/4/07) despite strong White House opposition. The bill mandates that US laws apply to US contractors and made the front page of the Chicago Tribune. The FBI will investigate any allegations of wrongdoing. It languished in the Senate for weeks. Authority would not be retroactive. A few weeks later we learned that cameras would be placed on Blackwater convoys and their trips should be coordinated with the US military. It took until the last day of October for State and Defense to agree that the U.S. military will now oversee contractors.

Maureen Dowd added her voice of commentary on the following Times page that day in "Sinking in a Swamp Full of Blackwater." Newsweek reported, wrote Dowd, that the Iraqi national police say Blackwater "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason." Giving some historical perspective, Dowd points out that, unlike President Prince, "Americans have been anti mercenary since the British sent 30,00 German Hessians after George Washington in the Revolutionary War. But W [President Bush] outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did the American reputation. The mercenaries inflame Iraqis even as Gen. David Petraeus tries to win their trust...Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the mercenary-evangelical complex."

The Senate voted 92 to 3 to set up a commission to investigate private contractors. This bill might be vetoed.

Reports from Congress and other groups concluded that Blackwater hid shootings, by either failing to report or covering it up. They shot first 80-85% of the time in the nearly 200 shootings since 2005, about 1.4 per week. 56 shooters occurred in the first 7 months of 2007, reported the State Department. Usually Blackwater contractors fire from their moving vehicles without stopping. In at least two cases, there were payments to victim's families. Blackwater shoots nearly twice as often as Dyncorp or Triple Canopy, in relation to number of armed men. Dyncorp and Triple Canopy guard diplomats in the north and south, whereas Blackwater operates in Baghdad.

We did not learn until mid-November that Blackwater snipers had killed three Iraqi guards back in February. A quick State Department investigation led to no charges. No witnesses were interviewed, but we have told them the shootings were unprovoked. No compenstation was offered to the victim's families.

The initial embassy account reported "mayhem" at the location, but it turned out that Blackwater employee were the only source for the report.

One report was harshly critical of the State Department for its lax oversight. The State Department official who oversaw all contractors in Iraq, Richard Griffin, resigned on October 23. Prince told Congress that they follow strict State Department guidelines. State officials say the company provides a critical service. The company has been paid over $800 million in contracts for Iraq and elsewhere. I read a Tribune report within a day which put the figure at $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001. Blackwater gunmen ever engage in offensive operations alongside US military, in violation of their contract. In Najaf, for example, Blackwater set up a machine gun in 2004.

One motorcade in 2005 traveled to and from the Oil Ministry and collided with 18 different vehicles during the round trip.

What is the Iraqi government reaction? Iraqi investigations called it "deliberate murder" by Blackwater. A traffic policeman says, "They are butchering the Iraqis." The Iraqi cabinet, a few weeks later, moved to end contractors' immunity. The bill was sent on to Parliament. One wonders why the Iraqi government has taken so long to try to change the law. By mid-November the Iraqi Interior Minister authorized raids on security firms. "They are called security companies. They are not called violate-the-law companies." Confrontations could become violent as the Iraqi search for illegal weapons.

In mid-October Gates proposed placing armed contractors under Pentagon authority. The State Department is not in favor of the Gates plan for these 10,000 people. Rice announced that contractors undergo sensitivity training on Iraqi culture and language. In early December State convoys were required to coordinate they movements with the military. New policies outline when armed guard can use force in self-defense. What happens to contractors who violate the law appears unchanged. Blackwater's contract expires in May.

A legal suit was filed in mid-October by an Iraqi survivor and relatives of three people killed. It contents that "Blackwater created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life."

Added Maliki, the events amount to a challenge to the nation's sovereignty because "The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens, and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing." Senior US officials are concerned that if Blackwater left right away "it might leave a security gap" for those diplomats and workers.

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By mid-October we learned that the State Department had improperly promised Blackwater employees immunity for their testimony. State did not have authority to do so. Justice Department was not informed, and is not pleased. Did Sec. Rice know? The next day the immunity was labeled by State as "limited." However, writing in response to this development was Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater. His commentary is "Nothing you can say can and will be used against you in a court of law." Efforts to prosecute will become much more complicated. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois reacted to the immunity by saying, "It feels like they're protecting Blackwater." Added Sen. Leahy, "If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence," a reference, no doubt, to Scooter Libby. Sen. Obama chimed in: "This isn't just about broken laws or wasted tax dollars. This is about our claims to moral leadership in the world. We cannot win a fight for hearts and minds when we outsource critical missions to unaccountable contractors."

"Congress must act swiftly to ensure that American justice applies to all those [contractors] who remain," urged the Times editorial of November 5. "It is folly to outsource the tasks of combat to private contractors with no commitment to that nation's broader goals in Iraq, undermining the already hard job of gaining Iraqis' trust...Four years after the start of the war, not one contractor has been prosecuted for crimes committed against an Iraqi. That is no way for a nation to behave if it prides itself on following the rule of law."

The FBI determined guilt for at least 14 of the 17 deaths, in a mid-November report. Force was used "recklessly." At least five contractors had opened fire, some with automatic weapons. There was no evidence found that the Blackwater contractors were fired on. Perhaps they were responding to gun fire from their buddies. Some Iraqis were shot while fleeing the scene. The Justice Department is reviewing these findings. Blackwater spokesman had no comment for a number of days.

A Times editorial, writing about Blackwater much more often than the Tribune or Washington Post, feels that this current "mess" provides "yet another argument for the swift and orderly exit" of US troops and "the even swifter withdrawal of all the private armies Washington employs there."

The Times included a lengthy article about two brothers who have conflicting interests in Blackwater, the Krongard brothers. Scahill had written about them in his Blackwater book. One resigned from the Blackwater advisery board when his brother went to testify before Congress. Some though that Cookie, the State Department Inspector General, would go easy on Blackwater if his brother was on the Advisory board. Alvin, who resigned, was a top CIA official until 2004.

In early December Howard Krongard resigned as the State Department's Chief Inspector. He had been accused of impending a Justice Department investigation. His brother, Alvin, was on Blackwater's advisory board.

NPR reporters listened to hours of interviews of witnesses. They tell the story, in chilling detail, of the actions of Blackwater employees. One part of December 17 was on All Things Consideredand another part on Morning Edition.

The Washington Post ran an investigation in late December of warnings of contractor behavior being ignored by the US government

In fact, a new report in January 2008 emphasizes that of all the abuses by contractors, only one prosecution has ever taken place.

In addition to the Blackwater guard Jeremy Ridgeway, who pleased guilty and will testify against the others, five guards pleaded innocent January 2009 in federal court. The charges, manslaughter and others, will not come to trial until Feb. 1, 2010. The five defendants are Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, and Donald Ball. They are from five different states throughout the US.

Another Blackwater employee would be charged in the 2006 killing of an Iraqi bodyguard working for the Vice-President.

After about a month out of the news, we learned that Blackwater had dropped CS gas on Iraqis and Americans from helicopters. The substance, dropped at a Green Zone check point, The Assassins Gate (also the name of a book) acts similar to tear gas. US soldiers had trouble seeing. The story was not revealed for over 2 1/2 years. Only the President or top levels of military leaders can approve of use of such a gas. Though banned by international convention as chemical weapons, a 1975 Presidential order allows limited use in a war zone with high level approvement Bush approved use of CS in Iraq, but only to control rioting prisoners. An upset American captain, quoted for a front page Times story, said, "This is decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous. It's not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness." The gas can also cause nausea and vomiting. Captain Clark added that the gas caused a complete traffic jam. A US sergeant did not hear any gunfire "or anything" before it was dropped. What is the chain of command where Blackwater is involved? The State Department does not forbid Blackwater from carrying CS.

A Blackwater spokesman said the gas had been released by mistake. Blackwater also uses smoke canisters to impede attacks on convoys, which the military does not. However, American witnesses saw crew from the helicopter actively dropping the gas canisters. Was there a smoke canister also in the helicopter, one wonders?

Congressional investigations of Blackwater,led by Rep. Waxman, expanded in mid-March, 2008. By May, an Iraqi man was demanding an apology for the death of his son. A federal grand jury heard testimony behind closed doors.

In early April a US contractor was charged for the first time since 1968. The stabbing was seen as a test of the military's legal jurisdiction over civilians. Congress had provided them greater authority. Alaa Mohammed Ali was accused of stabbing a fellow contractor in the chest and sternum back in February. Mr. Ali, of Canadian and Iraqi citizenship, has been provided a military lawyer. A Brookings think tank expert feels that this is "a huge first step."

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A few days later, the US renewed a Blackwater contract, but Prime Minister Maliki did not approve. Iraqi threats went nowhere. Other Iraqis were also angered. Blackwater expert Jeremy Scahill wrote of "Contract Justice" in The Nation.

Blackwater made a "comeback" in mid-May. It's "business as usual." The Times editorialized about "Blackwater's Impunity". The paper hoped that after the September killings Bush "would rethink the folly of relying on mercenaries, who have no accountability it Iraqi or American law. The ever-stubborn administration decided it couldn't stay at war without its gunslingers. More than six months after the event, not a singe charge has been brought against the guards. Last month, the State Department--which is supposed to be sensitive to local politics and perception--renewed" the contact for another year. "That the US is so dependent on 30,000 or so private guards to plug the holes in the undermanned military force underscores, once again, how badly this administration has mismanaged the occupation of Iraq--and hwy the US must begin an orderly withdrawal as soon as possible."

Contracting companies in October numbered 310. Only Custer Battles has been banned by the US in Iraq.

Contractors would lack future immunity under the November agreement between Iraq and the US. That immunity had been granted by the US led Coalition Provisional Authority before their was an Iraqi government. Will companies like Blackwater withdraw? The 170,000 contractors are more than the number of US troops. Only about 17% of the contractors are Americans, while about half are Iraqis. It is not clear if Iraqis could prosecute Americans for past crimes.

The Times editorial page is predictably pleased with "At Least Some Accountability" in the agreement. The contractors "get-out-of-jail-free" card is being withdrawn. Their "spray and pray" approach may change. They spray bullets and pray "they hit the enemy." The Times hopes that the next administration "must quickly reduce its reliance on the private armies so favored--and so protected--by the Bush administration."

Five Blackwater guards were finally charged in December 2008, over one year after the shootings. The Justice Department has indicted them for the killing of at least 17 Iraqi civilians. The indictments remained sealed, but we soon learned that the guards are charged with disobeying orders to leaving the base "to respond to reports of a car bomb. They began shooting without warning. The guards version of events was not supported by the Pentagon or FBI investigations. The FBI concluded that the guards "recklessly violated American rules for the use of lethal force." The thorough FBI investigations involved 10 agents, hundreds of witnesses being interviewed, and at least four trips to Iraq.

Who from Blackwater is being charged? One is Paul Slough, who served in the Army Infantry and Texas National Guard before joining Blackwater in 2006. Slough contended, "I engaged the individuals and stopped the threat." Prosecutors could seek a 30 year prison sentence. Careful readers of this site will recall that Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince in 1997. Nissour Square is not the only Blackwater incident in Iraq (see above).

One defendant pleaded guilty of manslaughter, Jeremy Ridgeway. He then testified how the other guards used "automatic rifles and grenade laudners to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls' school" aroudn the square.

In December 2008 there was talk of Iraq banning Blackwater, since the new agreement appears to allow contractors to lose their immunity and be persecuted in Iraqi courts. The State Department contract with Blackwater expires in April. John Kerry, who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committees, wants Blackwater to be dropped.

As we might have predicted, the Iraqis ousted Blackwater in late January. Two other security companies will fill the void, Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, and Blackwater employees are allowed to be hired by these companies. The State Department agreed to abide by the order. After the Baghdad shootings involving Blackwater, Prime Minister Maliki had aat first demanded the company's ouster. However, in the spring of 2008, a contract was renewed for another year. They were denied an operating license in March, 2009.

Blackwater in 2009 hit the headlines again in August. Now known as Xe (pronounced "zee") secret contracts were made public. Though used less in Iraq, the company is still used to guard State Department officials in Afghanistan and contacts with the CIA on assassinations of Al Qaeda leaders. The CIA used to do all this work. The program began in 2004 soon after Porter Goss took over the agency and the CIA spent several million. Cheney argued that Congress did not need to be told of the secret program. The Obama head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, stopped the program and told Congress. Another report says the program was ended under Bush. Special permission was needed before any Blackwater employee would capture or kill any militant. The Blackwater employees worked on drones and their 500 pound hellfire missiles in Afghanistan and Pakistan but the CIA "pulled the trigger." Contractors in summer of 2009 make up over 1/4 of the intelligence community. Congress was not told of the program. Reaction from Congress included Sen. Fein stein: "It is too easy to contract out work that you don't want to accept responsibility for...Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress. If they are not, that is a violation of the law." Democrats are more upset the Republicans, who think the story is being overblown. What other secret programs have yet been uncovered?

Over the years, Blackwater has hired former CIA employees, including Cofer Black, who ran the CIA counter terrorism center after 9/11. CIA operatives often train at the huge company headquarters in North Carolina. Back in 1976, President Ford banned the CIA from carrying out assassinations after it became known that the US tried multiple times to assassinate Fidel Castro of Cuba. Bush felt the ban did not apply to al Qaeda because they pledged to attack the US again.

Despite all these issues, the State Department extended a contract for aviation services to Blackwater (now Xe) in September 2009. Blackwater no longer has a government liscense to operate in Iraq.

Blackwater was not happy about being back in as the top story in November 2009, even has health care legislation in Obama's pending Afghanistan decision were in the minds of readers. After the 2007 shooting at Nissour Square, Blackwater officials approved "hush money" and bribe payments of $1 million to leading Iraqi politicians. The company's President at the time, Gary Jackson, had approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman. It is not yet clear who, if anyone, received the bribes. CEO and founder Erik Prince did not dispute the bribery plan. A spokesman called the charges baseless. These payments would be illegal under U.S. law, so the company or its officials could face charges of obstruction of justice and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans bribes to foreign officials. The lead story in the Times details the situation. At the time, top Iraqi officials were calling on Blackwater to be banned. The company has collected over $1.5 billion in Iraq since 2004. Back in 2007, State Department officials said they still needed Blackwater to guard them and Iraqi officials dropped their demands to ban the company. In December, we learned that a gradn jury is still investigtating the allegations of weapons smuggling and bribery of Irai officals in an unsuecsful attrempt to keep a license to operate after the shooting.

In the Baghdad shootings of September 2007, which also involved launching grenades into a nearby school. five guard are still facing manslaughter, with a trial set for February, 2010 in Washington. A sixth pleaded guilty 11 months ago.

The New York Times even has a special section just about Blackwater. The total number of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan equals the total number of US troops.

Blackwater (or the company formerly known as Blackwater, as Prince might describe them), was the top Times story of December 11, 2009. The companies guards were "tied to covert raids by the CIA." Secret raids ("snatch and grab")on a nightly basis between 2004 and 2006. These "guns for hire" and outsourcing were not simply provided security for CIA officers, but the relationship was war deeper. One former CIA officer told the paper, "There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency." One reaction came from the chair of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, Rush Holt (D-NJ) feels this use of contractors is "a scandal waiting to be examined." Will this latest news result in any change in US policy? Is the US too depedent on Blackwater?

In mid-Janaury, 2010, the lead Times editorial was "Privatized War, and Its Price." Obama should follow through on his rhetoric by getting rid of the "thousands of private gunmen" in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "The killings in Nisour Square were hardly the first misdeeds by hired guns in Iraq, or the last...The government has failed to hold armed contractors accountable" as the Bush administration insisted that they be granted legal immunity. "But the government has not persecuted a single successful case" in any of the killings. "There are many reasons to oppose the privatization of war. Reliance on contractors allows the government to wok under the radar of public scrutiny And freewheeling contractors can be at cross purposes with the armed forces. Blackwater' under supervised guards undermined the effort to win Iraqi support."

The next day we learned that the CIA has terminated a contract in August with Blackwater. It had allowed loading of bombs on CIA drones in AfghPak.
How many more Blackwater contracts does the CIA maintain?

The February 2010 trial, referenced above, will probably never take place. A US federal judge dismissed all charges against the four, in a blow to the Justice Department. After the 2007 killings, the State Department, for whom they worked, compelled them to answer questions (or possibly be fired) promising that their answers could not be used against them. However, at the Grand Jury testimony, these answers were used. Thus, the judge's 90 page opinion threw out the "mishandled evidence." An appeal seems unlikely. US investigators, we will recall, had concluded, according to the Times lead story of January 1, 2010, that the guards had "indiscriminately fired on unarmed civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified assault." Blackwater claimed that they were fired at with small arms and responded in self-defense.

Reaction in Iraq was negative, with shock and anger common. Could Iraq try to try the men back in Iraq? This is doubtful, as they were immune from being prosecuted under Iraqi law based on an agreement signed under the Coalition Provisional Authority, an American pseudo-government just after the war. The Iraqi reaction was summarized as disbelief, anger and bitter resignation. US investigators had concluded that the contractors had fired indiscriminately in an unprovoked and unjustified assault. It seemed incomprehensible to Iraqis directly effected by the violence. Some had been shot as they were trying to flee, so it seemed like an open and shut case. Is Democracy really working in Iraq? some Iraqis wondered. A bank employee who was one of 20 injured in the attacks, said, "What are we--not human? Why do they have the right to kill people? Is our blood so cheap? For America the land of justice and law, what does it mean to let criminals go?" Added a taxi driver, "We have been waiting for so long. I still have bullets in my back. I cannot even sit like an ordinary human being." Some of the bodies were burned so badly, he reported, that he and others had to use shovels to scoop their remains out of their vehicles. "I ask you, if this had happened to Americans, what would be the result? But these were Iraqis."

Reaction in the US came from Gen. Odierno who spoke of "a lesson in the rule of law...The evidence obviously was not there, or was collected illegally."

Why did the prosecution fail? The US lawyers knew that had troubles early on. In front of a grand jury as early as 2007, prosecutors knew they had erred.

Is this the end of the case? Possibly not. A civil suit is being brought, on behalf of Iraqi families, by the Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York. The guards statements cannot be used directly against them, but they could be prosecuted for providing false statements.

Biden promised that the US will appeal the dismissal, but he appears to have flimsy legal grounds. In a visit to Iraq, the Vice President expressed his "personal regret" for the shootings, adding, "a dismissal is not an acquital."

In January government officials met with victim families for the first time. Mr. Hassoun, who was shot in the chest and arm at Nissour, said, "Since the incident, not a single Iraqi official patted on my head." Another commented that the families were forced to sign papers with financial settlements with Blackwater, which were in English. One man who was shot in the leg three times was to receive $30,000. Another group of 10 victims have not agreed to settlements. The Iraqi government is considered filing a civil lawsuit in US courts.

The Times reported back in December that the shootings led Iraq to cancel a license for the company (thought others were approved) and insist on a 2008 provision that eliminated immunity from Iraqi law for US contractors. The provision would not effect to earlier shootings.

Two Blackwater guards were charged with murder in Afghanistan in early January, 2010. The killings were in May 2009.

In mid-February, 2010, Blackwater again proved unable to stay out of bad news category. Two ex-workers accused the company of defrauding the US for years, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Hurricane Katrina. A lawsuit filed by Brad and Melan Davis alleges that the company filed bogus receipts, double billed for the same services, and even a new allegation, that Blackwater charged the US for strippers and prostitutes." Last year an audit concluded that Blackwater was overpaid by the State Department $55 million. Ms. Davis was fired after she was told to "back off" in 2006 and told that she would never "win a medal for saving the government money." She further asserts that a Filipino prostitute in Afghanistan was put on Blackwater payroll under the "Morale Welfare Recreation" category and that her plane tickets and monthly salary were billed to the government. Mr. Davis was a former marine.

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