Blackwater paid victims' families to cover up shootings

Iraq has often been referred to as the wild west -- an utter state of lawlessness where contractors behave as they wish.  Last month, the private firm Blackwater was involved in a shootout that caused the unnecessarily killed 10 Iraqi civilians.  According to a report this morning in the Washington Post, of the 200 Blackwater shooting incidents since 2005, in a few of the incidents Blackwater paid off family members of victims to keep quiet:

In at least two cases, Blackwater paid victims’ family members whocomplained, and sought to cover up other episodes, the Congressionalreport said. It said State Department officials approved the paymentsin the hope of keeping the shootings quiet. In one case last year, thedepartment helped Blackwater spirit an employee out of Iraq less than36 hours after the employee, while drunk, killed a bodyguard for one ofIraq’s two vice presidents on Christmas Eve.

Even with shady behavior like this, the Pentagon awarded them with a new $92 million this week.

Comments

[bethanyc]

reading this almost made me physically sick.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Now you know how I felt when I wrote it. Good thing I didn't eat breakfast beforehand.

And Blackwater is being paid by our tax dollars to guard State Department employees in Iraq.

[granny]

Blackwater and its conduct of business very well reflect the ideology of the government leadership that has contracted their business. I suspect there is a great deal more to learn about Blackwater and its genesis as well as its supporters.

This is not all "news". A lot of people have known about this for a long time. Another example of the loss of legitimate news reporting.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

I happen to think this actually is a legitimate news story. Granny, many Americans don't know that there are more private contractors in Iraq than US soldiers. A story like this brings it to the forefront.