In the matter of Jeremy Ridgeway v United States:
In November, 2008, Ridgeway, an employee of the former Blackwater Worldwide – now Xe Services LLC – plead guilty to one count of manslaughter, attempt to commit murder and aiding and abetting. Five other employees of Blackwater were indicted along with Ridgeway by a federal grand jury.
According to ABC News in an article dated 8 December, 2008:
“The five other Blackwater guards surrendered to the FBI today in Salt Lake City, Utah to face charges in a 35-count federal grand jury indictment announced by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Their arraignment has been set before District Judge Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 6, 2009.
Click here to read the full indictment.
Justice officials revealed shocking new details of the attacks at a DOJ press conference today, which they said included shooting a grenade into a nearby girl's school and the killing of an Iraqi man who has his hands up in the air.
All of the victims were unarmed and none were insurgents, officials said.
"Many were shot while inside civilian vehicles that were attempting to flee from the convoy," said Jeffrey Taylor, the U.S. Attorney. Taylor said the guards knew that they were not allowed to use suppressive fire, engage in offensive military action, or "exercise police powers."
In documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, Ridgeway acknowledged killing at least one civilian, a female doctor, with "multiple rounds" into a vehicle.
Ridgeway, in the document, acknowledged the government evidence would prove he and the others "opened fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians."
He agreed none of the civilians "was an insurgent, and many were shot while inside of civilian vehicles that were attempting to flee."
Ridgeway also admitted one victim was shot in his chest "while standing in the street with his hands up."
Ridgeway also admitted to prosecutors "there was no attempt to provide reasonable warning" to the driver of a vehicle that was first targeted. “
A Federal judge threw out the indictment against the five on 31 December 2008. Judge Urbina cited what essentially amounts to coerced self-incrimination, in that the State Dept, the agency using the six as convoy guards when the shootings occurred, required after-action debriefing statements in order for the six to remain employed by the Dept.
The Iraqi government and many Iraqis are angered by the dismissal of charges.
So am I.
The use of private contractor mercenaries is highly problematic. If these six had been employed by another nation, one out of favor with our government, they would not be called “contractors.” They would be called what they actually are, mercenaries, men fighting for nothing but money, loyal only to the employer, if loyal to anything.
Blackwater contracts to the Dept of State and other agencies with 90% of their revenue coming from U.S. government contracts, of which two-thirds are no-bid contracts.[11] Xe provided security services in Iraq to the United States federal government, particularly the Central Intelligence Agency [1][12] on a contractual basis. They no longer have a license to operate in Iraq. They have also been found providing contract personnel in the Afghanistan Theater. They have been connected with snatch and grab operation carried out by the CIA.
These mercenaries are paid many times what our men and women in uniform are paid. This ability to leave the service and join a private army is detrimental to retention of trained soldiers.
One much-used argument to justify the use of mercenaries is that it is not cost effective to use trained soldiers to pull convoy security, to provide security for diplomats and civilian workers, to perform duties that were once performed by soldiers during the period when the draft provided sufficient manpower. I fail to see how it is cost effective to pay a mercenary three to five times what a member of our armed forces is paid to perform the same job.
If it were a matter of wishing to serve our nation, Blackwater employees could have, for the most part, remained in uniform. Since they did not remain in uniform it becomes pertinent to question both their motives for seeking employment with a private army and the reasons they left the armed forces.
If money is the primary motivator, then there may well come a time when their employer chooses to follow the same motivation and accepts contracts that place its employees in direct armed opposition to our government. That would essentially amount to treason against the United States carried out by a corporation and its employees. While many may find this to be an unlikely scenario, I don’t discount it either as possible or as likely. Given the performance of American corporations in the financial industry I find no reason to trust any other corporate entity to be concerned about the physical or economic security of the U.S. For instance, according to the Boston Herald: “In November 2008, the U.S. State Department prepared to issue a multimillion-dollar fine to Blackwater for shipping hundreds of automatic firearms to Iraq without the necessary permits and without paying the proper tariffs. Some of the weapons were believed to have ended up on the country’s black market”
If the employee was separated from the armed forces for violation of the UCMJ or for violation of civil or criminal law of such nature that he or she is no longer found suitable to serve in our armed forces, then I certainly don’t want such individuals hired and used as security men with automatic weapons. Blackwater employees have a tendency to shoot first and not question. They operate under different rules of engagement, often answering to neither military nor civil authority, or to only limited military authority.
Essentially, Blackwater has fielded a private army that does as it pleases. Previous complaints have focused on the makeup of Blackwater’s forces. It has been alleged that the mercenaries employed largely come from the evangelical Christian populace; that some aspects of the current Iraqi and Afghani wars are being presented as religious wars for the forces of Christianity. Combined with the evangelical infestation of the armed forces that came to light in 2007, this is cause for concern. We find reluctance among the armies of Moslem nations to engage in combat against other Moslems and know this to be problematic in fielding armies that can be trusted to complete their missions. The escape of bin Laden from Tora Bora was made possible by Afghani troops who refused to advance and engage in combat and who simultaneously held a vastly outnumbered U.S. Ranger unit at gunpoint until the escape was executed.
We’ve just ended a decade in which the theocon base was supported and catered to by an administration that found them useful in maintaining power. During that time we watched as science was discredited in our public schools so that the theocon base was not offended. We allowed medical research that might have provided many beneficial treatments for disease to be shelved and even prohibited by the same base. It is time to allow science and rationality to return in education, time to end wars waged for the benefit of corporations, and time to outlaw the use of mercenaries by the U.S. government. If we need more troops to prosecute a war or carry out a mission, enlist or draft them. Pay them decent wages. Don’t allow the growth of a religious warrior culture. We decry jihad when we are the target, it is equally wrong when we initiate it.
It’s cold and partly cloudy here. We woke up to a light dusting of dry snow, not quite powder but easy to move with a broom. The turkeys have been and gone. Loki is sleeping by the stove. I’ve carried in two loads of firewood. I’m sure I’ll bring in at least one more before dark.
We’ll have leftover chili tonight.
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