Monday, October 01, 2007
Iraq Reconstruction, Defense and Security
New Questions About Blackwater Actions in Iraq
Previously undisclosed information reveals (1) Blackwater has engaged in 195 “escalation of force” incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 per week, including over 160 incidents in which Blackwater forces fired first; (2) after a drunken Blackwater contractor shot the guard of the Iraqi Vice President, the State Department allowed the contractor to leave Iraq and advised Blackwater on the size of the payment needed “to help them resolve this”; and (3) Blackwater, which has received over $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001, is charging the federal government over $1,200 per day for each “protective security specialist” employed by the company.
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Henry Waxman, chair.
Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater, will testify before congress tomorrow.
5 comments:
I'm sporting a woody over that prick having to testify. I hope Waxman lets him have it.
erik prince --- i could swear in a previous life he wore a brown shirt and hunted down jews for the fatherland
Let's just HOPE something comes of this. Waxman is one of the few good guys in Washington, and I hope he fuckin' NAILS Prince.
"On my mind are the more than 2,000 men and women of the United States military who have died fighting this war in Iraq. And the more than 15,000 who have been wounded or disfigured, many with injuries that they will carry for life. Some of them are recuperating just up the road a few miles from the Capitol at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They have sacrificed so much for this country and so much for this war."
"They have done their duty, and now it is time for Congress to its constitutional duty to provide a check on the abuses of the Executive Branch." Rep. Henry Waxman
#1 is, as I'm sure you know, "shot to death."
The first I heard about Blackwater's abuses was on blogs. But hey, we're just a bunch of losers in bathrobes, right?
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