This is the second installation of my series on Blackwater. In part one I concentrated on the executive officers of Blackwater. Since then I have discovered some interesting facts about the rank and file employees. They are not only comprised of former American special forces types, but also foreign nationals. Most interesting is the 60 former Chilean commandos who served under the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. They were flown from Santiago to North Carolina for training and then deployed to Iraq. The international flavor of the Blackwater security forces brings up the question of how loyal they actually are to the United States. My guess is that their primary loyalty is to Blackwater. Like most people I first became aware of Blackwater when four of their security people were killed in an ambush and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah on March 31, 2004. So this seems like a good place to start.
With these horrific images from Fallujah, Blackwater burst upon the world stage in 2004. This was when I first became aware that mercenaries were being used in Iraq. I knew that private contractors were being used, but when I think of contractors, plumbers and carpenters come to mind, not soldiers. I had a WTF moment when I realized this. The names of the contractors who were killed that day are: Scott Helvenston, Wesley Batalona, Jerry Zovko, and Michael Teague. Rest in peace. Blackwater claims that their deaths were unavoidable. But the facts tell a different story. It is a story of greed, corruption, and blatant war profiteering.
First, let's look at what kind of vehicles they were in. The four contractors were in two Mitsubishi Pajeros, two in each vehicle. You have got to be shitting me. They sent their people into Fallujah? In 2004? In these things? Blackwater's contract called for armored vehicles and also for a rear gunner armed with a heavy machine gun. These vehicles had neither. Why? Blackwater decided not to use them in order to cut costs and improve their profit margin. As I pointed out in part I, mercenaries aren't really concerned about the war, they're just there for the money. Because of these shortcomings, when they were caught in a traffic jam in the middle of Fallujah, it allowed the insurgents simply to walk up from behind them and shoot them at point blank range. Why did they decide to drive through Fallujah to begin with, instead of going around it which would have been a much safer route? Well, Blackwater failed to provide them with any maps and they were lost. Their mission that day was to escort three flatbed trucks owned by a Kuwaiti company under contract to provide food services to the U.S. military. They were on their way to pick up kitchen equipment. They never made it, the trucks were empty. The night before, Scott Helvenston had refused to go on the mission because of these shortcomings, no armored vehicles, no rear gunner, no maps, no risk assessment. He was told to either go or be fired. And he would have to pay back money Blackwater had already given him. And he would have to make his own way back to the United States. He had no choice, he had to go. At the time of the ambush Blackwater was in the process of taking over a contract with Eurest Support Services from another security company, Control Risks Group. CRG had in fact turned down this very mission twice, considering it too dangerous to move a slow moving convoy from Camp Ridgeway to Camp Taji, an area infested with insurgents. Such missions were not part of their contract and they suggested to ESS that they request military escort. They warned Blackwater about the dangers. Blackwater ignored the warnings, eager to impress ESS and win more contracts from them. The lack of a rear gunner was not limited to the team that was ambushed. Another Blackwater team on another mission that same day to pick up an ESS employee at the Jordanian border had their rear gunners cut from the team too. They too protested this and also their lack of maps. Like Scott Helvenston, they too were threatened with being fired if they didn't go on the mission. Although they also were ordered to drive through Fallujah, they decided to go around it. They were able to find their way with the help of a GPS.
Another screw up was the fact that Blackwater sent them to the wrong camp. They arrived at Camp Fallujah at 3:00 PM on March 30, believing that the kitchen equipment that they were supposed to pick up was there when in fact it was at Camp Ridgeway. When they left the camp they were stopped at a military checkpoint and ended up having to spend the night at Camp Fullujah. KBR (owned by Halliburton) employees there warned them against driving through Fallujah. The Blackwater people said that they would see how it goes the next day. When they set out for Camp Ridgeway the next morning they made the fateful decision to drive through Fallujah, most likely because the diversion to Camp Fallujah had put them behind schedule and they had no maps. According to Blackwater, the convoy had arranged to meet with members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps on the outskirts of Fallujah who would lead them through the city. Blackwater claims that the ICDC led them into the ambush and blocked their escape with their vehicles , although this is disputed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. There is evidence that the convoy was stopped by a roadblock set up by three vehicles, a dark Mercedes 300, a tan Opel seden, and a 1990 white pickup truck with a double cab. After several minutes the convey was attacked from behind by at least five insurgents, probably more. They killed the passengers in the SUVs first, then the drivers. The three trucks were not targeted and were able to drive off after the attack. These four men would not be the last to die. As a result of this ambush the United States launched one of the largest assults of the war against the insurgents in Fallujah. Over 1000 would die, insurgents, Iraqi civilians, and U.S marines.
The next day Erik Prince called Blackwater's Baghdad headquarters and instructed them "to perform an immediate internal audit and to keep the information close." When Henry Waxman later tried to get these audits Blackwater refused on the grounds that they were classified, although they were not. When Waxman persisted, Blackwater tried to get the Defense Department to classify them. When the Defense Department refused, they then refused to turn them over on the grounds of attorney-client privilege. When Waxman issued a subpoena for the documents Blackwater again refused to turn them over to the committee. Only when Waxman threatened to have the committee vote to hold Blackwater in contempt of Congress did they comply.
At a memorial service held for the slain men at the Blackwater compound, the families of the dead tried to find out how their loved ones died and asked to see Blackwater's "After Action Report". They were told that if they wanted to see the paperwork they'd have to sue them. The families filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court in January 2005. Blackwater hired the influential D.C. lawfirm that once employed Jack Abramoff. When Blackwater learned that the families' attorney planned to fly to Alaska to take a deposition from John Potter, the former Blackwater employee who was fired for blowing the whistle on Blackwater's removal of the word "armored" from their contract describing the type of vehicles to be used, Blackwater rehired Potter and flew him to Jordan to keep him from doing so. Blackwater then tried to have the deposition order removed but a federal court refused. Blackwater also tried to get the suit dismissed on the grounds that it cannot be sued for deaths or injuries of it's workers and that only the U.S. government is liable. The suit is still pending.
Blackwater is connected in an elaborate maze of contractors and subcontractors including Blackwater, Eurest Support Services, Regency Hotel and Hospital Company, and Halliburton (of course). As the bill for services moves up the chain of contractors, more money gets tacked on at each level. So even though Blackwater only pays their security people $600 a day, as it moves up through the contractors it goes from $600 to $815 to $1250 to Halliburton billing the government $1500 per day.`No fucking wonder the Chimp in Chief comes asking congress for billions more every other day to "support the troops". This is the real reason why the Republicans are in no hurry to end the war. The Iraq war is a real money maker for their corporate masters. And on our dime too. Mine and yours. Or more accurately, on our grandchildren's dime, since it's all going on the national credit card. Halliburton refuses to comment. I wonder why.
In preparing this report I relied heavily on two sources: One is an article written for The Nation by Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestselling book Blackwater USA, the worlds most powerful mercenary army Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater. The other is a report prepared for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Henry A. Waxman, Chairman. Private Military Contractors In Iraq : An Examination of Blackwater's Actions In Fallujah.
There will be more reports. I'm not through with these sons of bitches. I'm just getting started. I'd like to leave you with these words from Katy Helvenston, mother of slain contractor Scott Helvenston.
Blackwater seems to understand money. That's the only thing they understand. They have no values, they have no morals. They're whores. They're the whores of war.