Alternet: Blackwater Covered Up 195 Shootings and More

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing
tomorrow on Blackwater's activities in Iraq, and by all indications,
lawmakers will have plenty to talk about.

Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi
civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with
the help of the State Department, a report prepared for a
Congressional committee said today.

The report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and
State Department documents, depicts the security contractor as being
staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober
and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets.

In one incident, the State Department and Blackwater agreed to pay
$15,000 to the family of a man killed by "a drunken Blackwater
contractor," the report said. As a State Department official wrote,
"We would like to help them resolve this so we can continue with our
protective mission."

And when it comes to alleged Blackwater malfeasance, that's really just
scratching the surface...

 

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