Privatizing Terror, Outsourcing Diplomacy
By Wajahat Ali
10/13/07 "Counterpunch" --- - The international outcry over the recent Blackwater shootings forced the world to closely examine and appreciate the complex reality of the United States government's overdependence on private military contractors operating in Iraq. The foremost expert and most cited authority on the subject is Peter Warren Singer, a senior fellow at the prestigious Brookings Institute, co-founder of "The U.S. Policy towards the Islamic World" Program, and author of the seminal work on private military contractors, "Corporate Warriors." This interview, his most recent, examines the most current repercussions caused by the Blackwater scandal and private military firms within an overall context of The Iraq War, U.S. Foreign policy in the Middle East, and America's public relations with the Muslim world.
WAJAHAT ALI: Ok, the first question is an easy one. A fastball right down the middle regarding Blackwater (An American Private Military firm contracted by the U.S. government to provide security in Iraq). On September 16, Blackwater was involved in a catastrophic shooting incident in Iraq's Nisoor Square leaving nearly 20 Iraqi civilians dead. Are you at all shocked or surprised by this revelation?
P.W. SINGER: No. Short answer, no. Long answer is that--look, I've been researching and writing on private military firms for over a decade now. My book, Corporate Warriors, dealt with this issue even before the Iraq War. Since the war started the outsourcing of military functions has been put on steroids not only in terms of the growth of it, but also in terms of the negative aspects coming out of that growth. The incident in question regarding Blackwater needs to be put in a proper context. It's just one company out of 181 other private military companies operating in that space in Iraq. The incidents involving abuses of private military contractors go back to the starting of the war. This includes the incidents at Abu Ghraib (Torture Scandal) and the private contractor Aegis Trophy's infamous video of 2005 (Aegis employees posted a video online showing them shooting at Iraqi civilians.) You also had the Triple Canopy shootings lawsuit in '06. Blackwater is just one of the companies in the game.
Within Blackwater itself there have been multiple incidents well before this most recent one. An example is The Christmas Eve shooting where a Blackwater contractor allegedly got drunk, got into an argument inside the Green Zone with one of the Iraqi Vice President's security guards, and then shot him and killed him. It's been over 10 months since that happened. Weeks before the Nisoor Square September shooting, there were multiple incidents involving the Iraqi Interior Ministry. There was one such incident where an Interior Ministry employee was killed, one where there was an armed standoff between Blackwater contractors and the Iraqi police in which the U.S. military actually had to intervene. One of the U.S. government officials, embedded in the Iraqi Interior Ministry, described this as a "powder keg of anger." That powder keg exploded several weeks later (The September Nisoor Square shooting in Iraq). To answer your question, no, I wasn't surprised. Absolutely not.
The Iraqi government had some harsh words recently for Blackwater, publicly saying, "Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in the country." Could this statement also describe the conduct of the U.S. forces and other American private firms operating in Iraq?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18546.htm
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@gman586 wikipedia is a horrible source for informations HAHAHAH try again ;)
633390 1 year ago
@gman586 wikipedia huh LOL
633390 1 year ago
Everyone, no matter how ignorant, is welcome to their own opinion.
After all, it's a protected right for them, secured by the "US Wehrmacht". LOL...
Must be lonely in prison these days....
firejoe3 2 years ago
all of it is stupid panthers and kkk this is the 21st century
xlifewillcomex 2 years ago
Are you serious? Do you know anything about the black panthers? The shootouts with police? The ambush tactics they used regularly in the late 60s?
Do some research, dumbass.
jasonbravo77 2 years ago
how silly can you be to compare the panthers to the KKK. you talk about panthers being violent name some times when they were violent please, cause i would love to know. THE fbi should have shut themselves down for wrongfully framing and spying on the panthers martin luther king and malcolm. I could name more but im not
633390 2 years ago
I see. So any violence that the panthers were part of was all a set up.
Come back to reality, dood. The Black Panthers were a militant, racist, violent group. And a detriment to society as a whole. The FBI had good reason to shut them down, just as they do for any criminal group operating on American soil.
jasonbravo77 2 years ago
whats political about killing black people and bombing churches, what act of voilence did the panthers commit that they where not framed for. The kkk did not pledge violence but they did violence in public sight and the local police and the fbi did nothing about it, but they made sure to spy on the panters and take time to set them up.
633390 2 years ago
ok, let's take a look. The kkk pledged violence against people based on race, the panthers pledged violence against people...based on race. The kkk were political, the blp was...political. The kkk was militant, the blp was...militant.
You know, you're absolutely right - they were nothing alike!
jasonbravo77 2 years ago
actually it was himself when he decided to kill a cop but why would we hold him accountable for that?this is my last comment on this piece of shit because he isnt going anywhere anyways.
ptsmmrs 2 years ago