Blackwater-Academi mercenaries’ contract on Iraq?

This video from the USA says about itself:

On September 16, 2007, Blackwater military contractors shot Iraqi civilians killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad.

Jeremy Scahill on the Blackwater security scandal. This video was uploaded from an Android phone.

The Blackwater scandals set to the Talking Heads’ classic Psycho Killer. The video is inspired by Jeremy Scahill’s book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain today:

… more signs that the US plans to take over the the oil-rich Syrian-Iraqi border region in its entirety.

Last Saturday, the New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi had handed a contract to run the the Freeway 1 motorway from Baghdad to the Jordanian capital Amman as a toll road to military services corporation Constellis.

Under the plan, which has attracted criticism from the Iraqi media, Constellis subsidiary Olive Group would manage the road and stablemate Academi would provide armed escorts for convoys travelling along it.

Academi is the latest rebranding of mercenary firm Blackwater, four of whose operatives were jailed in 2015 for the 2007 massacre of 14 Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

The motorway forks east of Jordan and continues to the Syrian capital Damascus through the at-Tanf border crossing.

The road dominates the deserts of western Anbar province on the Saudi Arabian border, and could serve as a route for arms and recruits for Riyadh-backed extremists.

At-Tanf is occupied by US, British and Norwegian special forces backing Free Syrian Army (FSA) guerillas in their bid to seize the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and prevent Syrian government forces capturing it from Isis.

On Wednesday, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon confirmed reports that Syrian government troops and allied militia … had not retreated from the Damascus-Baghdad road.

That was despite propaganda leaflets dropped by US planes warning them to leave and rocket artillery barrages by the FSA — which were met with Russian air force raids.

Col Dillon claimed the Syrian forces — which US jets bombed earlier this month in support of the FSA — were a threat to the illegally occupying coalition troops.

One of the biggest private security firms in Iraq has created outrage after a memo to staff claimed it is ‘fun’ to shoot people. Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that ‘actually it is “fun” to shoot some people’: here.

On December 19, Nick Slatten, former Blackwater mercenary and US Army-trained sniper, was convicted of first-degree murder. It was the second time Slatten had been convicted of murder for his role in the September 2007 massacre in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, during the US military occupation, which left 14 Iraqi civilians dead and another 17 injured. Slatten was convicted by a jury of firing the first two shots that killed 19-year-old Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y and touched off a shooting spree by US mercenary troops that killed and wounded unarmed innocents, including women and children. While no sentencing date has been set, the murder conviction means Slatten faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison: here.