Contract Hit

The American mercenary company Blackwater threatened to murder American inspectors in Iraq.

According to an article published in The New York Times last Sunday, a senior employee of the infamous private mercenary company Blackwater — since rechristened with the posh-sounding name “Academi” — threatened a U.S. government official with murder unless he stopped investigating the company. The Blackwater official’s threat was even supported by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which in turn forced the inspector to terminate his investigations in Iraq. Official government documents that have become public in the murder trial of four Blackwater mercenaries support this charge. The trial, which began June 11 in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., rekindles memories of U.S. actions in Iraq, which were characterized by extreme and inhuman brutality against the civilian population.

It has been nearly seven years since the four mercenaries — along with several other “companions” now standing trial for the Sept. 16, 2007 act in Baghdad’s Nisur Square —began firing wildly, an action that resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians (men, women and children) and the serious wounding of another 18 people. Several investigations took place at the time — one by the Iraqi government and others done by The New York Times and Washington Post — revealed that there was no provocation to justify the shooting of unarmed civilians by Blackwater mercenaries and that at no time were they ever under threat. Under public pressure, the George W. Bush administration dispatched a team of investigators to Iraq under the direction of Jean C. Richter, a special agent in charge of providing security for U.S. diplomats, to look into the charges made against Blackwater.

In this connection, attention began focusing on repeated meetings between U.S. inspector Richter and his assistant with Iraq’s Blackwater boss, Carroll, who was concerned about his billions of dollars in contracts to protect U.S. diplomats. According to Richter, Carroll threatened he could “shoot him here and now”* with no one ever questioning it because, as he said, they were in Iraq. Richter took Carroll’s threats seriously, according to memorandums written, and informed the State Department of the threats. Richter felt that in a war zone anything could happen, especially wherever there might be a possibility of interfering with lucrative contracts.

What is noteworthy in this story is the fact that despite this disturbing incident the U.S. State Department did not react and continues to award contracts to Blackwater and its successor up to the present day. This is an indication that corruption and moral decadence had long since permeated even the upper levels of supposedly sacrosanct American diplomacy. And it’s typical that the Nisur Square killers are on trial today not because of the efforts of the U.S. government, but due to the efforts of Iraqi survivors of the massacre and their relatives, who are supported by U.S. human rights activists.

*This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.