Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN OUR GOVERNMENT AND BLACKWATER DISGUSTS ME
Blackwater defends team in Baghdad shootingsby Kelli Arena
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Security contractor Blackwater said any guards who acted improperly in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad should be held accountable, but believes its team acted in self-defense, a company spokeswoman said.
Officials familiar with the case said Sunday that six Blackwater contractors have been told they face possible charges in the September 2007 shootings in Baghdad's Nusoor Square.
All six received "target letters" from the Justice Department, which has convened a grand jury to hear evidence in the case, the officials told CNN.
No final decisions have been made, but target letters often signal that criminal charges are in the works.
Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater guards of killing 17 civilians and wounding nearly 30 in the shootings. But Blackwater has repeatedly said its guards were acting " in response to a hostile threat," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said in a written statement late Sunday.
"Since the September 16, 2007 incident, we have said that, based on statements of company personnel who were directly involved, we believe those involved acted appropriately," Tyrrell said. "If it is determined that an individual acted improperly, Blackwater would support holding that person accountable. But at this stage, without being able to review evidence collected in an ongoing investigation, we will not prejudge the actions of any individual."
The company has given its full cooperation to the grand jury, which was seated in November, Tyrrell said.
Blackwater said its guards were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under fire in Nusoor Square in western Baghdad. But an Iraqi government commission that investigated the shootings accused the guards of firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers who arrived on the scene also told investigators they found no evidence the guards were fired upon, sources familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
An estimated 25,000 private security contractors protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials there.
Security contractors have had immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq
The Nusoor Square shootings led to angry protests from Iraq, as well as demands that the contractors face trial in Iraqi courts.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Security contractor Blackwater said any guards who acted improperly in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad should be held accountable, but believes its team acted in self-defense, a company spokeswoman said.
Officials familiar with the case said Sunday that six Blackwater contractors have been told they face possible charges in the September 2007 shootings in Baghdad's Nusoor Square.
All six received "target letters" from the Justice Department, which has convened a grand jury to hear evidence in the case, the officials told CNN.
No final decisions have been made, but target letters often signal that criminal charges are in the works.
Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater guards of killing 17 civilians and wounding nearly 30 in the shootings. But Blackwater has repeatedly said its guards were acting " in response to a hostile threat," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said in a written statement late Sunday.
"Since the September 16, 2007 incident, we have said that, based on statements of company personnel who were directly involved, we believe those involved acted appropriately," Tyrrell said. "If it is determined that an individual acted improperly, Blackwater would support holding that person accountable. But at this stage, without being able to review evidence collected in an ongoing investigation, we will not prejudge the actions of any individual."
The company has given its full cooperation to the grand jury, which was seated in November, Tyrrell said.
Blackwater said its guards were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under fire in Nusoor Square in western Baghdad. But an Iraqi government commission that investigated the shootings accused the guards of firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers who arrived on the scene also told investigators they found no evidence the guards were fired upon, sources familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
An estimated 25,000 private security contractors protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials there.
Security contractors have had immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq
The Nusoor Square shootings led to angry protests from Iraq, as well as demands that the contractors face trial in Iraqi courts.
Check Out A Segment From Kanye West *******CHECK THIS OUT*****
The 2nd skinniest friend I have, DL, "thought this was cool and watched the program. He [Kanye] actively tried to changed ppls lives that needed help. Being and icon with so much power can be a gift and a curse, looks like kanye proves to use it more as a gift as he uses his celebrity status to better some one elses life besides his own."Check Out A Segment From Kanye West & Choose Or Lose’s ‘Homecoming’
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Ambassador: al-Qaida leaving Iraq for Afghanistan
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press WriterAl-Qaida's foreign fighters who have for years bedeviled Iraq are increasingly going to Afghanistan to fight instead, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States said Wednesday.
"We have heard reports recently that many of the foreign fighters that were in Iraq have left, either back to their homeland or going to fight in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is now seeming to be more suitable for al-Qaida fighters," said Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie.
Al-Qaida had training camps and a headquarters in Afghanistan, under the protection of the then-ruling Taliban, until the U.S. invaded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. With al-Qaida forced out of Afghanistan, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 quickly drew outside fighters there.
Sumaida'ie said al-Qaida is finding it now increasingly difficult to operate in Iraq, beginning with the rebellion of the largely Sunni tribes in Anbar Province in 2006 and 2007. Until then, al-Qaida had ruled by intimidation and violence, establishing physical control and setting up a shadow government in large swaths of Iraqi territory.
"There were large tracts that were run by al-Qaida, administered by al-Qaida — they had ministers, administrators, paid salaries and so on. This no longer exists, so they do not have any territory to control (where it) is safe for them to move in and around Iraq," he said. "In whole areas they ceased to operate as effective terrorist networks."
Sumaida'ie's comments echoed those of the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press last week that al-Qaida appears to be reassessing its chances of success in Iraq.
"They're not going to abandon Iraq. They're not going to write it off. None of that," Petraeus said. "But what they certainly may do is start to provide some of those resources that would have come to Iraq to Pakistan, possibly Afghanistan.
"We do think they are considering what should be the main effort," he said.
A U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence reporting said foreign fighters are generally not leaving Iraq for Afghanistan, but new recruits to al-Qaida are being sent to Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of Iraq. The numbers in all countries are small, however. The vast majority of al-Qaida in Iraq are native born, and extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan are overwhelmingly Pashtun fighters from the region.
Sumaida'ie's remarks come as Democratic presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is conducting an overseas trip which included stops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama toured two war zones with Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
Last week they issued a written statement saying that Afghanistan and Pakistan's border area, where the Taliban is resurgent and Osama Bin Laden is believed to be hiding, should be the central front in the war against terrorism.
Monthly death tolls of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan surpassed U.S. military deaths in Iraq in May and June, even though there are far fewer coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Both Sumaida'ie and Petraeus warned, however, that security progress made in Iraq is not irreversible and al-Qaida could reassert itself there.
"If things break down in Iraq, they are capable of coming back," Sumaida'ie said.
-yahoo.com
THE MIZ SPEAKETH
Food for thought:In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel released Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Obama's suggestion of 16 months "the right timeframe for a withdrawal" and said U.S. troops should leave Iraq "as soon as possible. His statement was a sharp contrast to Bush administration policy, supported by McCain, opposing a set timetable for withdrawal.
-THE MIZ
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