Blackwater in Baghdad - "may be worse that Abu Ghraib"

Now even the military is privately piling on the Blackwater cowboyswho shot up civilians in Baghdad, and the Department of State has gone into "hunker-down" mode. Here are a few choice quotes from the Washington Post:

In high-level meetings over the past several days, U.S. military officials have pressed State Department officials to assert more control over Blackwater, which operates under the department's authority, said a U.S. government official with knowledge of the discussions. "The military is very sensitive to its relationship that they've built with the Iraqis being altered or even severely degraded by actions such as this event," the official said.

"This is a nightmare," said a senior U.S. military official. "We had guys who saw the aftermath, and it was very bad. This is going to hurt us badly. It may be worse than Abu Ghraib, and it comes at a time when we're trying to have an impact for the long term."

In last week's incident, Blackwater guards shot into a crush of cars, killing at least 11 Iraqis and wounding 12. Blackwater officials insist their guards were ambushed, but witnesses have described the shooting as unprovoked. Iraq's Interior Ministry has concluded that Blackwater was at fault.

"This is a big mess that I don't think anyone has their hands around yet," said another U.S. military official. "It's not necessarily a bad thing these guys are being held accountable. Iraqis hate them, the troops don't particularly care for them, and they tend to have a know-it-all attitude, which means they rarely listen to anyone -- even the folks that patrol the ground on a daily basis."

the military has long been wary of private security guards, especially those who, in the military's view, don't follow the rules of engagement that govern soldiers. Often, private guards quickly drive away from the scene of an incident, leaving soldiers to deal with the aftermath, officials said.

"I personally was concerned about any of the civilians running around on the battlefield during my time there," said retired Army Col. Teddy Spain, who commanded a military police brigade in Baghdad. "My main concern was their lack of accountability when things went wrong."

"They are immature shooters and have very quick trigger fingers. Their tendency is shoot first and ask questions later," said an Army lieutenant colonel serving in Iraq. Referring to the Sept. 16 shootings, the officer added, "None of us believe they were engaged, but we are all carrying their black eyes."

"Many of my peers think Blackwater is oftentimes out of control," said a senior U.S. commander serving in Iraq. "They often act like cowboys over here . . . not seeming to play by the same rules everyone else tries to play by."

"The deaths of contractors from Blackwater helped precipitate the debacle in Fallujah in 2004 and now the loss of Blackwater is causing disruptions in the war effort in 2007," a military intelligence officer said. "Why are we creating new vulnerabilities by relying on what are essentially mercenary forces?"

It should not be forgotten that this Blackwater incident occurred as they were providing security to officials from the Department of State and Blackwater was working under a contract with the Department of State, not the Department of Defense. While the Iraqi people are going to blame "The American Troops" for what Blackwater did, The Blackwater cowboys were not operating under the control of the U.S. military. They are the responsibility of Condi Rice and the Department of State.

So what reaction have we gotten from Condi and the DoS? Josh Marshall writes:

the Department of State is telling Blackwater the company may not answer Congress's question without the specific approval of the State Department. What's more, Condi Rice has told Chairman Waxman (who plans an investigation of the incident) that she will not testify about Blackwater or contracting corruption cases in general.

Congress and Henry Waxman have the Constitutional power to perform oversight hearings as needed at their discretion.

There is no legal justification for Condi or Blackwater to defy a subpoena from Henry Waxman's committee. Does Condi expect the Department of Justice to simply not act on Congressional legal action to enforce a subpoena?

If so, then the cowboy antics of Blackwater become very clearly reflective of the Unconstitutional cowboy antics of the Bush White House in general. This administration was also responsible for Abu Ghraib. The timing of these incidents may be accidentle, but they are the natural outcome of the mismanagement, incompetence and crony-capitalist corruption of the Bush administration.