Democracy Now: Ground-Breaking lawsuit against Blackwater

[rman]

Democracy Now
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
Blackwater in the Crosshairs: The Families of Four Private Security Contractors Killed in Fallujah File a Ground-Breaking Lawsuit
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/20/1340246

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MARTIN SMITH: But the men were uneasy. One team member, former Army Ranger Wes Batalona, complained to a friend that the team had never worked together before.

HAROLD VIDINHA, Security Contractor: Wes was very upset because you're breaking your team, and you're putting people -- different people together. That's what's very upsetting. And then you are sending them in undermanned.

MARTIN SMITH: Contractually, Blackwater was to supply two SUVs with three guards per vehicle. Instead, the men set out at 8:30 in the morning with just two men per car, each short a rear gunner. They were escorting three empty trucks on their way to pick up some kitchen equipment at a base west of Fallujah. They were vulnerable -- and obvious. The commander responsible for Fallujah was Marine Colonel John Toolan.

...
Had they had a rear gunner, had they had armored vehicles, a very strong case could be made that they never would have been killed.
...

These four guys were sent out without armor, without the adequate guns, without adequate personnel, and Blackwater takes it as a moment to say, ‘Hey, we're famous now. Let's take this opportunity.’ Now, just recently, last month, Cofer Black, who is a former C.I.A. and State Department official that Blackwater hired up, was in the country of Jordan announcing that Blackwater was interested in essentially farming out its services to the highest bidder to engage in overt combat missions. Blackwater is scooping up lucrative Homeland Security contracts. They made a killing off of New Orleans. They charged the government $400,000 for 14 guys for 28 days in September of 2005 -- 14 guys, $400,000 for 22 days in September.

<more>

[Chimichurri]

1. Watched it on democracynow.org and wow!

What is happening is astonishing I hope they win!

[hiley]

2. "Blackwater in the Crosshairs"

oh this is beautiful to see.

Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater

Jeremy Scahill

It is one of the most infamous incidents of the war in Iraq: On March 31, 2004, four private American security contractors get lost and end up driving through the center of Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance to the US occupation. Shortly after entering the city, they get stuck in traffic, and their small convoy is ambushed. Several armed men approach the two vehicles and open fire from behind, repeatedly shooting the men at point-blank range. Within moments, their bodies are dragged from the vehicles and a crowd descends on them, tearing them to pieces. Eventually, their corpses are chopped and burned. The remains of two of the men are strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River and left to dangle. The gruesome image is soon beamed across the globe.

In the Oval Office the killings were taken as "a challenge to America's resolve," according to the Los Angeles Times. President Bush issued a statement through his spokesperson. "We will not be intimidated," he said. "We will finish the job." Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt vowed, "We will be back in Falluja.... We will hunt down the criminals.... It's going to be deliberate. It will be precise, and it will be overwhelming." Within days of the ambush, US forces laid siege to Falluja, beginning what would be one of the most brutal and sustained US operations of the occupation.

For most people, the gruesome killings were the first they had ever heard of Blackwater USA, a small, North Carolina-based private security company. Since the Falluja incident, and also because of it, Blackwater has emerged as one of the most successful and profitable security contractors operating in Iraq. The company and its secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder, Erik Prince, position Blackwater as a patriotic extension of the US military, and its employees are required to take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. After the killings, Blackwater released a statement saying the "heinous mistreatment of our friends exhibits the extraordinary conditions under which we voluntarily work to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people.... Our tasks are dangerous and while we feel sadness for our fallen colleagues, we also feel pride and satisfaction that we are making a difference for the people of Iraq."
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060508/scahill

[saigon68]

7. Those mercenaries got theirs

we also feel pride and satisfaction that we are making a difference for the people of Iraq."


RIP SUCKERS

[Nostradammit]

3. $1300 a day per person for patrolling domestic soil?

Thank God that money wasn't wasted on welfare queens. :sarcasm:

[izzie]

4. You are a man after my own heart. I love your wit.

--

[Nostradammit]

14. *kiss*

:toast:

Amazing the hypocrisy good people have had to endure for the last five years, innit?

[dmr]

16. Families describe a corporate "classic war-profiteering scheme"

I hate the idea of mercenaries over there for the same reasons written in this thread, but I hate more the collusion between our GOP-run government and corporate greed. Read the Nation article "Blood is Thicker Than Water" to see just how dirty Blackwater is, and how they turn their backs on their own - all in the name of profit. Oh, yeah, even the resident in decider-land thinks it's all a big fucking joke. I hate these bastards!

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060508&s=scahill

- snip -
According to former Blackwater officials, Blackwater, Regency and ESS were engaged in a classic war-profiteering scheme. Blackwater was paying its men $600 a day but billing Regency $815, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. "In addition," the paper reports, "Blackwater billed Regency separately for all its overhead and costs in Iraq." Regency would then bill ESS an unknown amount for these services. Kathy Potter told the News and Observer that Regency would "quote ESS a price, say $1,500 per man per day, and then tell Blackwater that it had quoted ESS $1,200." ESS then contracted with Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which in turn billed the government an unknown amount of money for the same security services, according to the paper. KBR/Halliburton refuses to discuss the matter and will not confirm any relationship with ESS.

All this was shady enough--but the real danger for Helvenston and the others lay in Blackwater's decision to cut corners to make even more money. The original contract between Blackwater/Regency and ESS, obtained by The Nation, recognized that "the current threat in the Iraqi theater of operations" would remain "consistent and dangerous," and called for a minimum of three men in each vehicle on security missions "with a minimum of two armored vehicles to support ESS movements."

But on March 12, 2004, Blackwater and Regency signed a subcontract, which specified security provisions identical to the original except for one word: "armored." Blackwater deleted it from the contract.

"When they took that word 'armored' out, Blackwater was able to save $1.5 million in not buying armored vehicles, which they could then put in their pocket," says attorney Miles. "These men were told that they'd be operating in armored vehicles. Had they been, I sincerely believe that they'd be alive today. They were killed by insurgents literally walking up and shooting them with small-arms fire. This was not a roadside bomb, it was not any other explosive device. It was merely small-arms fire, which could have been repelled by armored vehicles."

Before Helvenston, Teague, Zovko and Batalona were ever sent into Falluja, the omission of the word "armored" was brought to the attention of Blackwater management by John Potter, according to the families' lawyers. They say Blackwater refused to redraft the contract. Potter persisted, insisting that his men be provided with armored vehicles. This would have resulted in Blackwater losing profits and would also have delayed the start of the ESS job. According to the suit, Blackwater was gung-ho to start in order to impress ESS and win further contracts. So on March 24 the company removed Potter as program manager, replacing him with McQuown, who, according to the families' lawyers, was far more willing than Potter to overlook security considerations in the interest of profits. It was this corporate greed, combined with McQuown's animosity toward Scott Helvenston, which began at the training in North Carolina, that the families allege played a significant role in the deaths of Helvenston and the other three contractors.

more ...

[hiley]

5. PBS's Private Warriors on FRONTLINE

can be watched online.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/

Private Warriors:
introduction, June 21, 2005



As the Army struggles to meet recruitment numbers, FRONTLINE takes a hard look at private contractors servicing U.S. military supply lines, running U.S. military bases, and protecting U.S. diplomats and generals. Between the logistics giant Halliburton and a myriad of armed security companies, private military contractors comprise the second largest "force" in Iraq, far outnumbering all non-U.S. forces combined. There are as many as 100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security forces.

In "Private Warriors," FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith travels throughout Kuwait and Iraq to give viewers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at companies like Kellogg, Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, and its civilian army. KBR has 50,000 employees in Iraq and Kuwait that run U.S. military supply lines and operate U.S. military bases. KBR is also the largest contractor in Iraq, providing the Army with $11.84 billion dollars in services since 2002.

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/etc/synopsis.html

[wordpix]

10. Private Warriors is an eye-opening look at private ops in Iraq & IMO

this is why the repukes don't want to fund CPTV

[rman]

12. highly recommended

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. I remember back in 1995, when there was a scare

over the militia movement, why isn't there a move to regulate or ban this practice of private armies?
Marine General Smedley Butler talked of a plot by buisnessmen to recruit him and a private
army to overthrow Roosevelt in the '30s. All one has to do is look at South America to see how evil this practice is?

[seemslikeadream]

8. 4 Killed in Iraq Worked for N.C. Firm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=456077

[Vidar]

9. Glad Blackwater's being sued, but no sympathy for mercenaries.

[rman]

13. BW is being sued for the death of some of their mercenaries

The families of those mercenaries have sympathy for them, which is why the families are suing Blackwater.

[DS1]

11. Or. Unlike the Military, you can not go to pick up kitchen equipment.

You can be fired, and you can fly home on your own nickel. But as you've been getting paid a few thousand dollars a day, 1st class won't be too much a stretch :eyes:

[AuntiBush]

15. Watching it, now.

Thanks for the FYI heads-up. What a sad, sad story. Know first-hand how they feel and it is traumatic when facing BIG ones that do not care about loss of life such as your loved-one.

:(

[Hekate]

17. Very impressed with Katy Helvenston -- yet another bereaved mom speaks out

I watched Democracy Now at 4:00 PST. Like Cindy Sheehan, Katy H is a great woman for taking her searing grief and turning it to the good against this evil regime and its war-profiteering pals.

Scot Helvenston is as much a victim of the economic draft as the dead in uniform. Beyond that, like the uniformed personnel he also was sent into harm's way without adequate numbers of men, equipment, maps, or anything else that would have made sense. And to top off the criminal negligence -- the murderous motives of the man he challenged for incompetence just days before this suicide assignment.

The Goddess knows what a mother should do when her son is murdered. Thank the Goddess for women like Cindy and Katy.

Hekate

[troubleinwinter]

18. When will lawsuits be filed by families of Iraqis killed by mercenary BW?