This Blackwater fiasco is threatening to get very messy. Reports today by Juan Cole and TPM are starting to shed some light on this, and it isn't pretty.
According to Professor Cole, McClatchy is reporting that witnesses are coming forward to dispute Blackwaters claims of what happened. Apparently, this all started when Blackwater, I am assuming by helicopter, opened fire on a vehicle that either did not stop, or did not stop fast enough after being commanded to. As Professor Cole summizes, there are numerous reasons why this may have happened and we have seen dozens of reports of checkpoint shootouts that were simply mistakes. Obviously giving Blackwater the benefit of the doubt, they must have thought the vehicle was a potential suicide bomber.
Apparently they were wrong. Here is the really disturbing part:
The offending car in this instance had a family of three in it, including a toddler that ended up being melted to his mother's body in the resulting conflagration
Oh my, I don't know what more to say about that other than I am not feeling particularly good as I write this.
This fiasco is not going away apparently as Iraqi's seem absolutely outraged. Also, Professor Cole is reporting that Condoleeza Rice actually personally apologized to Maliki for the killings. Now we all know that the Bush Administration never apologizes for anything so if this report is accurate it gives further credence to witness claims that these shootings were unprovoked and innocent civilians were slaughtered.
Further fallout is evident by the State Dept. directive that its personnel, who are guarded by Blackwater, not circulate outside the Green Zone "for the time being." Obviously Bushco is hoping this will all just blow over, but this cannot help the cause. Melted babies have a way of inflaming passions.
Josh Marshall has more details. The Iraqi Minister of Interior is vehemently denying Blackwater's version of the facts. According to him,
a small bomb detonated far from the (State Dept. convoy) prompting Blackwater to overreact. A traffic policeman attempted to clear an area for the convoy to pass, but a small car did not heed the warning. Blackwater responded as if the car represented a follow-on attack.
I am sure there will be an "investigation" by the State Dept. and then they will "round up the usual subjects" and everything will go back to Blackwater cowboys running around shooting up the place. Maybe this time they went too far.