Despite the fact that it’s being investigated for the conduct of its employees, specifically regarding the Nisour Square massacre in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed, and tax violations, the US State Department has extended Blackwater USA’s contract in Iraq for another year.

If that’s not enough to enrage your average American, perhaps the fact that, according to a Congressional estimate, Blackwater has received some $1.25 billion dollars in federal contracts since 2000 is. That is, if the average American even hears about it.

Blackwater is, for all intents and purposes, the State Department’s de facto military arm in Iraq. Like all US personnel in Iraq, Blackwater employees enjoy legal immunity and cannot be held or tried by Iraqi authorities in conjunction with crimes perpetrated against Iraqis in their own country. Despite a host of first hand accounts provided by witnesses regarding the Nisour Square massacre that completely contradict Blackwater’s versions of events that day, the company has not seriously been held accountable for what occurred. In fact, Iraqi demands that the company be removed from the country altogether have been completely ignored.

The hypocrisy is overwhelming when one looks at past precedents regarding war crimes that the United States has itself prosecuted. In the five years that the United States has occupied Iraq, not one single instance of criminality has been legally treated as a war crime. Murder, rape, and abuse – yes. But none of them have ever been termed war crimes, including what transpired at Abu Ghraib. That’s what happens when you have the luxury of investigating your own and deny the nation in which such crimes are committed any legal recourse whatsoever.

Home. Finally.

Unpacked, doing laundry, walked the dogs, clean bed linens. Put Leopard on my iMac, went and got some milk, packed the fridge full of left over beer, water, and Coke from the tour.

A few things of interest. According to the FBI investigation into the Nisour Square massacre…

“Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

The case could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by Michael B. Mukasey, who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He may be faced with a decision to turn down a prosecution on legal grounds at a time when a furor has erupted in Congress about the administration’s failure to hold security contractors accountable for their misdeeds.”

I’m going to hold with my initial opinion – I don’t think anyone involved in the incident that day will be brought to justice. Then again, given the sensitive nature of the subject and the Iraqi government’s position on the legal status of foreign contractors, it can’t be entirely ruled out. But it should be noted that if legal action is taken, the State Department will also be scrutinized, something that I simply can’t see happening.

Also of interest is an article in today’s Jerusalem Post…

“The newly formed Genocide Prevention Task Force indicated Tuesday night that it will not be examining whether Israel has committed genocide in the West Bank and Gaza despite earlier statements that it would be addressing the subject.

The task force of prominent former US officials was announced at a press conference earlier Tuesday and will be working over the next year to help the American government best respond to and prevent genocide.

Though one of the co-chairs, former US Defense Secretary William Cohen, originally said that the situation in the West Bank and Gaza would be considered, the task force later clarified that such an inquiry would be beyond the scope of the panel.

“Its task is not to determine which situations, past or present, including the West Bank and Gaza, constitute genocide, but to develop policy recommendations that enable the United States to prevent future genocides from occurring,” Cohen, along with co-chair Madeleine Albright, said in a statement issued Tuesday night.”

Never you mind the present. It’s the future of genocide we’re interested in.

Here’s the information on the attack regarding Peter MacKay and the suicide bombing that took the lives of some 50 people in Afghanistan, including members of Parliament. I found this passage particularly interesting…

“You had rockets fired at you?,” asked Karzai as he waited for the end of a photo opportunity. “How close did they come?” he asked.

“Close enough,” replied MacKay.

“That is very, very bad,” sighed the Afghan president.

MacKay refused to discuss the possibility that the Taliban might be changing its tactics and focusing attacks on high-level politicians like the six who were killed - or even himself.”

The strong suit of any guerrilla movement is that it has the ability to alter tactics on a whim, causing confusing to those whose vision is clouded by the adherence to conventional military strictures.

The fact that the President of Afghanistan had no idea that a visiting Defence Minister, especially one who represents the third largest combat force in his country, was attacked says something very disturbing indeed.

Maher Arar Vs. The United States

From the CBC…

“Lawyers for Maher Arar, a Canadian tortured in Syria on false terrorism allegations, appeared in a New York court Friday to revive his lawsuit against senior officials in the U.S. government.

A legal team from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is representing Arar’s case in the U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing against a lower court decision to throw out the suit because of national security and foreign policy concerns.

Maria LaHood, a senior attorney with the centre, argued the lower court denied Arar a fair hearing when it dismissed his suit against current and former members of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Following the appearance, LaHood said she was “optimistic” the court would reverse the lower court’s decision.”

Secrets From The Mulroney Era

Again, from the CBC…

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday he will appoint an independent third party to review new allegations by German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber over his dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Speaking to reporters at the National Press Theatre, the prime minister said the action was necessary “to review what courses of action may be appropriate.”

Harper said his government “can’t ignore” the allegations because they relate to Mulroney’s term in office and they must “always protect the office of the prime minister.”

“The person will be asked to give us a recommendation on how to proceed, what the most appropriate venue and most appropriate process is to proceed after reviewing all the documents,” the prime minister said, adding he hasn’t ruled out calling an inquiry into the allegations.”

What becomes of this will be interesting. That said, dirty laundry abounds elsewhere, and don’t think for a second that the Conservatives aren’t going to disinter the bones of others because of this. Ultimately, no matter who is guilty of wrongdoing, the people of this country have the right to the truth – I could care less what party, or member of that party, it involves.

Now, You Tell Me It’s Not Torture

By way of Current TV…

I wrote, some weeks ago, that nothing would come of the criminal behaviour that Blackwater has been guilty of in Iraq. I stand by that statement, despite various investigations into criminality, predominantly to do with the events on September 16th of this year at Nisoor Square in Western Baghdad.

Witnesses of that event claim that Blackwater personnel did not come under fire, but rather opened fire without provocation. They are, believe it or not, in the majority as far as witnesses go. Unfortunately, they’re Iraqis, and thus somehow not as believable as, for example, Blackwater representatives that deny any wrong doing. And who, at the end of the day, is the Western public going to believe? Iraqis or Blackwater’s prim and proper all-American president?

The event hasn’t hurt Blackwater’s contractual relationship with the government either, having recently secured a $92 million dollar contract with the Pentagon to operate flights in Central Asia and a portion of a $15 billion dollar contract to help fight the ‘war on drugs’.

The ugly truth is that despite what happened at Nisoor Square that day, or on a variety of other occasions that could certainly be deemed criminal, Blackwater will be protected by The State Department because the State Department’s chief goal in this affair is to protect itself. It doesn’t matter if the Iraqi government passes legislation ending the immunity from prosecution of foreign security contractors, nor does it matter that the military is now in control of supervising all State Department security convoys in Iraq. Like the Abu Ghraib scandal, those ultimately responsible for oversight with regards to Blackwater’s conduct will never be properly scrutinized. And it’s not as if the conduct of Blackwater hadn’t been brought to the State Department’s attention by the Iraqi government in the past either. Not surprisingly, on those occasions, absolutely nothing was done, which only helped expand the company’s reckless parameters.

It is easy for us to claim that the rule of law now exists in Iraq, having been hammered over the head that the country has been gifted democracy, but the reality is that it is entirely ambiguous in its application, and certainly does not have the power to reach into the realm of dealing with foreigners that are guilty of war crimes. Going in, the United States took steps to protect themselves, the most important being their refusal to adhere to the scrutiny of the International Criminal Court. Had they not, then the President down to those guilty of the Nisoor Sqauare massacre could very well be tried for war crimes. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world, we live in this one – the one in which nations that profess to promote justice and transparency are, themselves, anything but just or transparent. Such is the reality of nations that knowingly have the ability to exercise their own set of specific rules precisely because they cannot be confronted. Justice, liberty, and a host of other terms are merely warm remembrances used to placate societies that desperately want to believe that such principles actually still endure. A Greek orator once remarked - “the theatre never was what it was”. The same is true of those principles on which we lean for comfort and a sense of lasting right. We are not only not what we once were, but we never were to begin with. And until we come to terms with that, then government by and for the people will never truly exist, let alone justice being done to those among us that are guilty of crimes against others deemed of less worth.

From the New York Times…

“Fresh accounts of the Blackwater shooting last month, given by three rooftop witnesses and by American soldiers who arrived shortly after the gunfire ended, cast new doubt Friday on statements by Blackwater guards that they were responding to armed insurgents when Iraqi investigators say 17 Iraqis were killed at a Baghdad intersection.

The three witnesses, Kurds on a rooftop overlooking the scene, said they had observed no gunfire that could have provoked the shooting by Blackwater guards. American soldiers who arrived minutes later found shell casings from guns used normally by American contractors, as well as by the American military.

The Kurdish witnesses are important because they had the advantage of an unobstructed view and because, collectively, they observed the shooting at Nisour Square from start to finish, free from the terror and confusion that might have clouded accounts of witnesses at street level. Moreover, because they are pro-American, their accounts have a credibility not always extended to Iraqi Arabs, who have been more hostile to the American presence.

Their statements, made in interviews with The New York Times, appeared to challenge a State Department account that a Blackwater vehicle had been disabled in the shooting and had to be towed away. Since those initial accounts, Blackwater and the State Department have consistently refused to comment on the substance of the case.

The Kurdish witnesses said that they saw no one firing at the guards at any time during the event, an observation corroborated by the forensic evidence of the shell casings. Two of the witnesses also said all the Blackwater vehicles involved in the shooting drove away under their own power.

The Kurds, who work for a political party whose building looks directly down on the square, said they had looked for any evidence that the American security guards were responding to an attack, but found none.

“I call it a massacre,” said Omar H. Waso, one of the witnesses and a senior official at the party, which is called the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. “It is illegal. They used the law of the jungle.”

Many of the American soldiers were similarly appalled. While Blackwater has said its guards were attacked by automatic gunfire, the soldiers did not find any casings from the sort of guns typically used by insurgents or by Iraqi security forces, according to an American military official briefed on the findings of the unit that arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after the Blackwater convoy left. That analysis of forensic evidence at the scene was first reported Friday by The Washington Post.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, added that soldiers had found clear evidence that the Blackwater guards were not been threatened and also opened fire on civilians who had tried to flee. “The cartridges and casings we found were all associated with coalition forces and contractors,” the official said. “The only brass we found where somebody fired weapons were ones from contractors.”

The case has angered many in the military who believe that the conduct of the security guards makes the troops’ jobs harder. “If our people had done this,” another American military official said, “they would be court-martialed.”

The shooting, on Sept. 16, and the deaths of two Iraqi women in a shooting by a different security company on Tuesday, have provoked anger at politically potent levels of Iraqi society. In the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, officials affiliated with Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for sanctions against the companies.

In Karbala, a spokesman for the ayatollah inveighed against “the cheapening of Iraqi blood” and called for Parliament to take action. In a legacy of orders handed down during post-invasion American rule here, Western contractors essentially have immunity to Iraqi law.

None of the roughly two dozen witnesses previously interviewed by Iraqi investigators said that they saw or heard anyone but the Blackwater guards fire during the shooting, which Iraq says killed 17 and wounded 27. Still, because nearly all of those witnesses were in the field of fire, their accounts could conceivably have been skewed by the terror and confusion of the moment.

The Kurdish witnesses on the rooftop said they had not been interviewed by Iraqi investigators. They said they had been visited by American investigators, but had not been fully interviewed.”

It will never happen. It doesn’t matter if they’re private contractors or not, they’re still Americans, and that carries more weight than the deliverance of justice, even in a country to which the rule of law was supposedly delivered…

“Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.

The demands - part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press - also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.

The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square - which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.”

Deep pockets the US certainly has, and I am certain that financial reparations will be made by the State Department – which ultimately means that US taxpayers will flip the bill for Blackwater’s actions that day. But they’ll not be tried in any Iraqi court, of that I can assure you. Nor will the State Department sever ties with Blackwater until an investigation is completed that clears the State Department of any complicity with regards to the actions of Blackwater during their time in Iraq. To sever ties, which would see Blackwater lose its largest contracts, as The Pentagon would certainly have to follow suit, would be to risk the divulgence of any impugning information that Blackwater might have with regards to State Department or Pentagon complicity. At the very least, it would result in a civil law suit against the government for contractual breach, which would also result in the divulgence of information.

Seeking Haditha Reference Materials

I was recently contacted by a US Marine that pointed out that those tried for murder in connection with the Haditha massacre have all be cleared of wrong doing. I, personally, have not come across anything about this, though having been on tour I must admit that my daily access to information is limited. I do not doubt the Marine’s email whatsoever, but I would appreciate it if readers could email me as many different articles concerning this matter as possible. I would very much appreciate it.

More Blackwater developments. According to an unnamed senior US military official…

“Blackwater security guards involved in a Baghdad shootout last month that left up to 17 Iraqi civilians dead were “obviously wrong,” a senior US military official was reported as saying.

The unnamed official told the Washington Post newspaper that the US military reports from the scene of the September 16 incident suggested the US private security firm was to blame for the deaths, and that its employees in Iraq were trigger-happy.

“It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong,” the official told the newspaper.

“The civilians that were fired upon, they didn’t have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them,” he said.

In reports after the incident, Blackwater executives insisted their teams had come under fire in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

But according to US military officials cited in the Congress report, Blackwater’s teams, contracted to protect US State Department diplomats and other officials in Iraq, behaved like impervious “cowboys” in Iraq.

“They tend to overreact to a lot of things,” the US military official told the Washington Post. “When it comes to shooting and firing, they tend to shoot quicker than others,” he said.

The official added that Blackwater has resisted sharing information with the US military on the incident, and prevented military officials from contacting company managers in Baghdad.”

The Guardian is reporting that the Iraqi government has received the report of Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi which calls for those involved to be prosecuted in Iraq and the families of those affected to be compensated…

“The official Iraqi investigation into last month’s Blackwater shooting has been submitted to the government and recommends the security guards face trial in Iraqi courts, and that the company pay compensation to the victims, an Iraqi government minister told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The three-member panel, led by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, finished its work earlier this week and submitted the report and recommendations to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday, the government minister told AP on condition he not be identified by name.

The minister said the report was issued under the signatures of al-Obeidi, Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Baldawi, the deputy minister of national security; and Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister for intelligence and security affairs.

The cabinet minister said the report determined that 13 Iraqi civilians - not 11 as originally reported - were killed when Blackwater USA guards sprayed western Baghdad’s Nisoor Square with gunfire Sept. 16. The investigation maintained, as Iraqi authorities have throughout, that the Blackwater guards had not been fired on when they unleashed the fusillade. It said no shots were fired at Blackwater personnel throughout.”

Of course, no matter what the Iraqi government wants to do, those employees of Blackwater that were responsible will never see the inside of an Iraqi courtroom. In fact, I’ll wager that they’ll never see the inside of an American courtroom either.

Unfortunately, that’s the reality of war crimes. When you’re on the side writing the rules they’re never labeled as such.

Henry Waxma’s opening at the Blackwater hearing today. Watch it.

With Blackwater in front of a Congressional Committee answering questions today, a new fifteen page House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report has lambasted the security company, claiming it ‘out of control’…

“Blackwater USA is an out-of-control outfit indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties, according to a critical report released Monday by a key congressional committee.

Among the most serious charges against the prominent security firm is that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.

Blackwater has had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, says the 15-page report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Just after the report was released, The Associated Press learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to investigate an incident that has angered the Iraqi government.

On Sept. 16, 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defense after the convoy came under attack. Iraqi witnesses have said the shooting was unprovoked.

The FBI team was sent at the request of the State Department and its findings will be reviewed for possible criminal liability.

The 122 personnel terminated by Blackwater is roughly one-seventh of the work force that Blackwater has in Iraq, a ratio that raises questions about the quality of the people working for the company.

The only punishment for those dismissed was the termination of their contracts with Blackwater, says the report, which uses information from Blackwater’s own files and State Department records.

The report, prepared by the majority staff of the committee, also says Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005, or roughly 1.4 per week.

In more than 80 percent of the incidents, called “escalation of force,” Blackwater’s guards fired the first shots even though the company’s contract with the State Department calls for it to use defensive force only, it said.

“In the vast majority of instances in which Blackwater fired shots, Blackwater is firing from a moving vehicle and does not remain at the scene to determine if the shots resulted in casualties,” according to the report.”

While today’s New York Times is reporting that US helicopters opened fire on a group of civilians in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Abu Dshir, killing an estimated eight people, the accounts of which are, as usual, contradictory with regards to US military and local versions of events – the Times Online has run a story regarding the September 16th incident involving Blackwater Security. It seems that one of Blackwater’s guards actually yelled for restraint during the incident and reportedly trained his own weapon on his colleagues in an attempt to restrain them…

“A Blackwater guard reportedly yelled at colleagues to “stop shooting” during an afternoon of chaos in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqis dead and called into question the accountability of all Western private security firms operating in Iraq.

The US-based company, which protects the American Embassy in the capital and its staff, is at the centre of a storm concerning the September 16 drama, which has enraged the Iraqi Government and sparked a series of investigations.

The controversy involved a car bomb, a shootout at a busy roundabout and a standoff between Blackwater guards and Iraqi security forces, according to an initial embassy report that was seen by The Washington Post.

An American official familiar with the investigation said those involved in the incident claimed that at least one Blackwater guard had drawn a weapon on his colleagues and shouted at them to “stop shooting”, the newspaper reported.”

The convolution surrounding this incident is bound to only increase as time passes, which is to Blackwater’s benefit. The more convoluted the investigation, the harder it will be for the truth to be revealed with regards to what actually happened that day. For some bizarre reason, eye witness accounts of the incident don’t seem to be getting the attention that they deserve, which says something about how the media views such reports compared to the statements released by US and Iraqi officials. And while numerous investigations are currently underway, politicking will no doubt influence the ‘findings’ of those investigating it. After all, were any report to be released that Blackwater was wholly in the wrong, it could lead to increased violence, and that is a factor that can’t be overlooked as it pertains to the manipulation of any final report on the matter.

Also of interest are the following:

Report: Blackwater ‘impeded’ probe into contractor deaths
U.S. general: Security contractors use ‘over-the-top’ tactics in Iraq

Despite occurrences in Iraq, the Pentagon has awarded another contract to Blackwater Security…

“A U.S.-based private security firm received a contract worth up to 92 million dollars from the Department of Defense amid hard questions about its involvement in two separate violent incidents in Iraq.

“Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future,” said the U.S.’s top-ranking military officer, General Peter Pace, at an afternoon press conference here.

The future arrived just two hours later when the Pentagon released a new list of contracts – Presidential Airways, the aviation unit of parent company Blackwater, was awarded the contract to fly Department of Defense passengers and cargo between locations around central Asia.”

And the President of the United States has the audacity to condemn the Burmese government for their conduct? Jesus. Maybe they should take a page from the Bush administration’s playbook and just outsource their blood work. That way they can claim it beyond their control and shrug it off as ‘unfortunate’.

If there is one man that I’ll not listen to lecture others on human rights, it’s George Bush – nor any member of his administration. As long as the facility at Guantanamo exists, as long as black sites exist, as long as rendition exists, and until the United States is held internationally responsible for its war crimes and human rights violations with regards to The War On Terror and the war in Iraq – not a snowball’s chance in hell.