GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS BLACKWATER ORDERED OUT OF IRAQ

One way the Bush-Cheney clique and their Congressional confidants have pursued their bloody war in Iraq is by hiring about as many mercenary forces as they have deployed troops of the empire.

Blackwater is the poster child of U.S. mercenary forces. After another one of their gratuitous acts of violence they have been ordered out of Iraq, something the Maliki government may have wanted to do for some time. Of course, I am only speculating. I don't even want these U.S. based mercenary forces back in the United States. Furthermore, this could be a message by Maliki that all U.S. forces had best go home and otherwise leave Iraq to the Iraqis, the one thing that Bush-Cheney seems to want to avoid at all costs.

I believe I remember him being asked about what he thought about American threats to leave because Iraq wasn't meeting American imposed benchmarks. He didn't beg the Americans to stay. He said something to the effect that they might leave if they wished.
It wasn't a "get the hell out", but that's what the whole war has been about, getting the United States out of Iraq. Only the Americans have gotten it backwards.

I really don't know much about the Iraqi Maliki government. I do know he has good relations with both Iran and Syria. He is not the puppet that Bush-Cheney and the imperial policy elite had hoped for. Like the Diem brothers who ran South Vietnam way back when the United States was so desperate to help the Vietnamese. Mr. Maliki may be killed by Bush-Cheney, the liberators of Iraq.

The Diem brothers were negotiating with those other "bad" Vietnamese for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, ie. the made up conflict between North and South Vietnam. I think they were gunned down in a truck in a plan executed by the usual suspects and their tools, in this case the next puppet. Was that Nguyen Cao Ky? I don't remember.

Yes, I am skeptical about the idea that most Iraqis want the United States to stay in Iraq. I think reasonably reliable polls suggest otherwise. Still, I think you see Iraqis saying things about how they want the U. S. to stay in Iraq in the U.S. pro-war,
pro-imperialist media. That's what they want us to believe, that the Iraqis like us being in Iraq.

What will be the impact of mercenaries being kicked out of Iraq? It seems to me that it will knock a big piece of the U. S. military machine out, even if it is more of a security thing, or at least portrayed as such.

Will the United States try to force Iraq to accept Blackwater? Will they call it Whitewater or something else and try to keep the mercenaries there under a different name, as employees of some other "private contractor", mercenary company?

Or could this be a clever way to deploy Blackwater mercenaries to the United States to participate in a coup against the United States Government and Constitution, ie. the Bush-Cheney criminal clique will declare a state of emergency during a crisis of their own creation and with their mercenary forces seek to abolish the fragile remnants of democracy in this nation and shut down the 2008 elections? Is Bush more of a Hitler than a Napoleon? There was a lot of laughing about Hitler until he cut the throats of even the most talented comedian.

BBC NEWS
'Fair probe' vow on Iraq gunfight
Iraq and the US have pledged a "fair and transparent" investigation into a gunfight involving a private security firm that left eight civilians dead.

Iraq has banned North Carolina-based Blackwater USA from the country after the shoot-out in Baghdad on Sunday.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has telephoned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki about the incident.

The two have agreed to investigate and hold any wrongdoers accountable, according to Mr Maliki's spokesman.

All Blackwater personnel have been told to leave Iraq immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the incident.

The United States does everything it can to avoid such loss of life in contrast to the enemies of the Iraqi people who deliberately target civilians
State Department spokesman

They will have to remain in the country and stand trial, the Iraqi interior ministry said.

The convoy carrying officials from the US State Department came under attack at about 1230 local time on Sunday as it passed through Nisoor Square in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Mansour.

The Blackwater security guards "opened fire randomly at citizens" after mortars landed near their vehicles, killing eight people and wounding 13 others, interior ministry officials said.

Most of the dead and wounded were bystanders, the officials added. One of those killed was a policeman.


BLACKWATER USA FACTS
Founded in 1997 by three former US Navy SEALs
Headquarters in North Carolina
One of at least 28 Private Security Companies in Iraq
Employs 744 US citizens, 231 third-country nationals, and 12 Iraqis to protect US state department in Iraq (May 2007)
Provided protection for former CPA head Paul Bremer
Four employees killed by mob in Falluja in March 2004
Personnel have no combat immunity under international law if they engage in hostilities

A spokesman for the US State Department told the AFP news agency that during her phone call to Mr Maliki, Ms Rice had "reiterated that the United States does everything it can to avoid such loss of life in contrast to the enemies of the Iraqi people who deliberately target civilians".

A Blackwater official was quoted as telling Time magazine's online edition that "the convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job, they fired back to defend human life".

Thousands of private security guards are employed in Iraq.

They are often heavily armed, but critics say some lack proper training and are accountable only to their employers.

Blackwater is reported to have a contract worth $300m (£150m) with the state department to protect its diplomatic staff and equipment in Iraq.

The firm's personnel have no combat immunity under international law if they engage in hostilities.

Sunday's violence followed the publication of a survey of Iraqis by a UK-based polling agency that suggested up to 1.2m people might have died because of the conflict in Iraq.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7000018.stm

Published: 2007/09/17 23:25:19 GMT

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