Iraq Sovereignty Goes On Trial Once Again (Blackwater)

[WillyT]

Iraq report: Oust Blackwater from nation
Panel wants firm to pay $8 million per death, guards to stand trial in Iraq

AP

<snip>

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.

The demands — part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press — also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.

The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square — which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.

Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings — which were translated from Arabic by AP — mark the most definitive Iraqi positions and contentions about the shootings last month.

The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad’s Green Zone after a nearby bombing, while a second backup team in four gun trucks sped into the square as a backup team.

<snip>

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21197877/

At least they are keeping it front and center.

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

1. They should take even more of a stand and start demanding that the

REST of our presence there leave. That would be a gift, for both pro and anti-war sides, if they vote to kick us out and stop listening to our oil-law demands and the like. We could leave with a shrug, and hopefully fairly peacefully--a nice anticlimactic ending.

[IDemo]

2. Maliki said we could leave anytime and Iraq would be fine

This after Chimp1 said we would leave when Iraq wanted us to.

Everyone is still waiting...

[TwilightGardener]

3. No, he took that back a few days later. I remember that--at the time I wondered

what sort of threats they made to him--but ChimpCo definitely jerked the puppet strings.

[USA_1]

4. Blackwater = TERRORISTS!!

DISPENSE WITH THE TRIAL AND BRING ON THE HANGMAN!!!