Blackwater murdered Iraqi civilians as ‘9/11 revenge’

This video from the USA is called Blackwater Guards Indicted for Role in Nisour Square Massacre; Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now.

By Jeremy Scahill in the USA:

NYT Reports on Justice Dept. Charge That Blackwater Saw Killing Iraqis as “Payback for 9/11”

September 14, 2009.

When will a major paper report on the allegation that Erik Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”?

Last week, I wrote about the U.S. Justice Department’s allegations about Blackwater, which were filed in the criminal case against the men alleged to be responsible for the Nisour Square massacre. Blackwater forces “fired at innocent Iraqis not because they actually believed that they were in imminent danger of serious bodily injury and actually believed that they had no alternative to the use of deadly force, but rather that they fired at innocent Iraqi civilians because of their hostility toward Iraqis and their grave indifference to the harm that their actions would cause,” the acting U.S. Attorney in DC, Channing Phillips, alleged in court papers submitted by Kenneth C. Kohl, the lead prosecutor on this case. “[T]he defendants specifically intended to kill or seriously injure the Iraqi civilians that they fired upon at Nisur Square.” Prosecutors also allege that “defendant Nicholas Slatten made statements that he wanted to kill as many Iraqis as he could as ‘payback for 9/11,’ and he repeatedly boasted about the number of Iraqis he had shot.”

Of course, even Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had been guilty of many things, but notably NOT of any role in the 9/11 atrocities in New York City and elsewhere in the USA. As even the George W. Bush administration acknowledged, after first having used that lie as propaganda for their Iraq war. Let alone the innocent Iraqi civilians butchered by the Blackwater mercenaries.

The New York Times reporter Jim Risen reports on these charges today. His report is here. The dramatic understatement of the piece is this line: “The new allegations also seem to raise questions about whether there was adequate oversight of the security details by either Blackwater or the State Department.” No comment.

I am still waiting for a major paper in the U.S. to report on the allegation made in a sworn statement by a former Blackwater employee that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

US actually increasing personnel in Iraq: More contractors, fewer troops: here.

Democracy Now: Judge Rejects Blackwater Attempt to Dismiss Cases Filed by Iraqi Victims. By Heather Saturday Oct 24, 2009 11:00am: here.

The Pakistani police said they had raided a local security firm that had a contract with the American embassy: here.

Police have raided a Pakistani security firm that provides services for the US embassy in Islamabad, seizing 70 allegedly unlicensed weapons and arresting two people: here.