NEWS: Uncool Blackwater Gases U.S. Soldiers

POLITICS: Uncool Blackwater Gases U.S. Soldiers

The incident in question occurred nearly a year-and-a-half ago, but is just now coming to light.

The vehicles were part of a Blackwater convoy that apparently felt that riot gas was an appropriate way to deal with a traffic jam.

While a Blackwater spokesperson has characterized the release of the riot gas as a mere gaffe, in which CS gas canisters were mistaken for smoke canisters (which, admittedly, Blackwater uses routinely to clear traffic - a policy the US military frowns upon), it is not clear how such "mistake" might have been coordinated between both the helicopter and the armored car.

Blackwater also claims that the incident was reported to US Embassy in Baghdad, which conducted a "full investigation."

No American soldiers were hospitalized as a result of the incident, but its impact on civilians that day is unknown. CS gas is nonlethal, but neither is it particularly healthy. Moreover,

(Emphasis added)

The State Department's contract with Blackwater did not specifically mention riot gas at the time of incident, an omission which Blackwater evidently took as an "authorization" to deploy the gas at will.

But Michael Schmitt, a professor of international law at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, disagrees.

Fuck Blackwater to fucking hell.

And fuck everyone who continues to LET THEM WORK in Iraq. Or ever did.

oh blackwater, you lovable goof.

It's just like one of those summertime college student movies, and Blackwater is the lovable college dropout who gets into all sorts of zany adventures.

How is this news?

i know, right? we always knew blackwater was a bunch of dicks. this is kind of like beating said dicks into the ground.


good article, though, as always

Researching this, I ran into so much more bullshit than I could possibly include, like the lawsuit alleging steroid use and the fact the State Department's own inspector-general (already under investigation for the rotten embassy contracts) was compelled to recuse himself after it came to light that his own brother was a Blackwater advisor - and that he (the inspector-general) has lied about it at first. Not to mention various other, more well-known incidents. It's almost too much.

But yeah, there's no real controversy here. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone on SG willing to defend these venal, macho pricks. I just figured I'd try to inform.

Nice article.
Whats been happening between our government and contractors, particularly Blackwater has a frighteningly ominous air.

and thank you for that. i'd love to see more articles focusing on blackwater controversy. i mean, that shit is just crazy and fun, albeit ultimately distressing.

Thanks.

Fortunately, we're not at a point of no return. There's no compelling reason (beyond the chummy funnelling of taxpayer largesse into the pockets of the president's golfing buddies) for the world's premier military power to be employing mercenary companies instead of regular troops. The standard objection, that we can't retain good soldiers because they can make more money in the private sector, is simply made ludicrous by the obvious fact it's still ultimately the U.S. government that's actually paying them.

It'd be different if they had somehow become indispensable to the conduct of postindustrial warfare. That'd be bad. Like, imminent Fall of the Republic bad.

I could swear some came out of the woodwork last time a Blackwater article came up. But then, that was a while ago and most of those guys probably caught the zot by now.

Or went gray, yeah.

The closest to an intelligent defense of private security contracting I've seen was that of freshprnceblair, but if memory serves me correctly, even that was pretty half-assed and ultimately ineffective.

The truth of the matter is that if all you unpatriotic liberal assholes would just accept that islamofacists want us dead and that they are subhuman and want to kill us, then quit whining that our government is taking away our "Rights" and just join the fucking army and do something useful for a change we would not have to rely on Blackwater so much to do the things that the US army can't because it "morally wrong". I mean what good are rights when your dead due to terrorism?

what? the private security firms or freshprnceblair's argument?

welcome back!

Blackwater can go fuck themselves. One of the legacies of the Iraq war will be the institutionalizing of privatizing and outsourcing of war fighting and reconstruction to asshole mercs like Blackwater on such a massive scale.

Ironically, the free market (and by free market I mean private companies sucking off the massive tit of government handouts) has created a mirror image of the jihadist. Armies of international soldiers not affiliated with or loyal to any nation state waging wars throughout the globe. If the Bush administration's made-up terms of "unlawful combatants" and "enemy combatants" have any meaning (which they probably don't) they certainly should include mercs like Blackwater as well as Al-Queda.

They are trying to open a training facility near the border near Potrero, CA. Thankfully they have recalled several of the local planning group. I was at the SDSU/BYU football game last month, and they were trying to gain some publicity by having a skydive team land on the field prior to the game. The came in with the Blackwater flags flying behind them. The whole crowd went apeshit, cheering for them. I was booing, and did I ever get the evil eye from some in the crowd. No one wanted to hear my exlanation. I don't think most people would differentiate the Blackwater jerks from our military. That is a big problem.

goddamnit, you're late! now the dips gone bad and the cocktail shrimp are all warm and soggy. :angerous:

Fuck, that's terrifying.

That's good to know, and it's a huge problem. At least someone who has sworn service to our country has SOME kind of commitment to the country, whether they honor that or not. But for Americans to actively support mercenaries is scary.

I agree wholeheartedly. It is a sickening joke that these men can be better trained, equipped and paid than our soldiers by essentially just passing the buck through a middle man. Though I'm sure I'm making a vast oversimplification there, that seems the gist of it.

The idea that they have been contracted to work on our own soil is what I find most disturbing.
Their action in New Orleans doesn't sound much better than their reported behavior abroad. Though it might also be said that they were not alone.

And most of them seem to operate at about the same level of respect, responsibility and accountability. That is, without any.

Sounds as if someone in either the ground unit or the helicopter (whichever was second) said something about "gas", and someone else pulled the trigger on the CS.

The US Navy seems to do this better, given their lack of reaction to provocation a couple of days ago. If that had been Blackwater... hooo.

Blackwater should get thier asses kicked out of Iraq.

That's an idea!!! Send Blackwater into Iran!!

"This was not a maneuver by the United States Military. We can take no responsibility for Blackwater's actions, or the way they got Iran so pissed at them. That will teach them."

well, duh.

Technically, they have been. Like my cat's fleas, though, they're tenacious.