[NYTr] US security firm Blackwater banned from Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

RTE (Ireland) - Sep 17, 2007
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0917/iraq.html

US security firm Blackwater banned from Iraq

US security contractor Blackwater has been banned from
operating in Iraq after eight civilians were killed in Baghdad
yesterday.

Blackwater offers personal security to US officials working in
Iraq and is one of the better known firms involved in what
critics call the privatisation of the war in Iraq.

Yesterday, a US diplomatic convoy came under fire in the
Iraqi capital's western al-Yarmukh neighbourhood.

Blackwater members accompanying the convoy returned fire,
leaving nine people dead, one of whom was an Iraqi police officer.

All of the other fatalities were civilian bystanders.

Iraqi Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf confirmed that a
mortar had landed close to the convoy and said the US firm
had 'opened fire randomly at citizens'.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has strongly condemned the
company's actions and denounced what he called the criminal
response of the US contractors.

And today Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani issued an order
to cancel Blackwater's licence and prohibit the company from
operating anywhere in Iraq.

Mr Bolani also confirmed that a criminal investigation had been
following the incident.

A US embassy official only said that security vehicles of the
'Department of State' were involved in an incident near al-Nissur
Square.

Blackwater representatives were not immediately available
for comment.

Thousands of private security contractors, many of them US
and European, have worked in Iraq since the US-led invasion
in 2003.

Following a number of similar incidents in recent years, foreign
private security firms have been accused of operating outside
the law with little or no accountability either to the Iraqi
government or US military forces.

                             ***

BBC - Sep 17, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6998788.stm


Iraq shootout firm loses licence Iraq has cancelled the licence
of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was
involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians
died.

The Iraqi interior ministry said the contractor, based in North
Carolina, was now banned from operating in Iraq.

The Blackwater workers, who were contracted by the US state
department, apparently opened fire after coming under attack in
Baghdad on Sunday.

Thousands of private security guards are employed in lawless
Iraq.

They are often heavily armed, but critics say some are not
properly trained and are not accountable except to their
employers.

"We are taking it very seriously indeed" - US embassy in Baghdad

The interior ministry's director of operations, Maj Gen Abdul
Karim Khalaf, said authorities would prosecute any foreign
contractors found to have used excessive force.

"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who
committed the crime," he told the AFP news agency.

All Blackwater personnel have been told to leave Iraq
immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the
incident on Sunday.

They will have to remain in the country and stand trial, the
ministry said.

US investigation

The convoy carrying officials from the US state department came
under attack at about 1230 local time on Sunday as it passed
through Nisoor Square in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood
of Mansour.

The Blackwater security guards "opened fire randomly at
citizens" after mortars landed near their vehicles, killing
eight people and wounding 13 others, interior ministry
officials said.

Most of the dead and wounded were bystanders, the officials
added. One of those killed was a policeman.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad later confirmed
there had been an incident in which state department security
personnel reacted to a car bomb "in the proximity", and that
they had been shot at.

"We are taking it very seriously indeed," she told the BBC,
adding that discussions were still taking place about
Blackwater's status now that they had been ordered to leave.

When asked if Blackwater was complying with the order, the
spokeswoman said she could not comment because the
investigation into the incident was still in progress.

A spokesman for the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice,
said she wanted to ensure that everything was being done to
avoid the loss of innocent life and to make sure this kind of
incident never happened again.

She is also expected to telephone Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
Maliki to reassure him that the US had launched its own
investigation.

Blackwater is reputed to have a contract worth $300m (#150m)
with the state department to protect its diplomatic staff and
equipment in Iraq.

The company, whose personnel have no combat immunity under
international law if they engage in hostilities, has so far
refused to comment on the shootings.

Civilian toll

Sunday's violence followed the publication of a survey of
Iraqis which suggested that up to 1.2m people might have died
because of the conflict in Iraq.

A UK-based polling agency, Opinion Research Business (ORB),
said it had extrapolated the figure by asking a random sample
of 1,461 Iraqi adults how many people living in their household
had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural
causes.

The results lend weight to a 2006 survey of Iraqi households
published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000
Iraqi deaths were "a consequence of the war".

However, these estimates are both far higher than the running
total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign
group Iraq Body Count which puts the figure at between 71,000
and 78,000.

BLACKWATER USA FACTS

-Founded in 1997 by three former US Navy SEALs
-Headquarters in North Carolina
-One of at least 28 Private Security Companies in Iraq
-Employs 744 US citizens, 231 third-country nationals, and
-12 Iraqis to protect US state department in Iraq (May 2007)
-Provided protection for former CPA head Paul Bremer
-Four employees killed by mob in Falluja in March 2004
-Personnel have no combat immunity under international
  law if they engage in hostilities