Blackwater security shot Iraqi man

Lawyers for Blackwater, the private security company, today publicly acknowledged that one of their security guards shot dead an Iraqi man whom he worked with.  "He was off-duty that day," said Andrew Howell, the company's general counsel told a Congressional hearing today. "We brought him back to the States the next day and took him off the contract."

The story of the killing, which took place on December 24, 2006, was first broken by Bill Sizemore of the Virginian Pilot less than a month ago.

The admission by Blackwater's lawyer came at a hearing that was convened by U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman at the House Government Reform Committee.

Blackwater, a North Carolina company, became famous when four of their contractors were shot and killed in Fallujah in March 2003, sparking a massive U.S. military assault on the city in which hundreds were killed. (Excellent accounts of this incident can be found in Robert Young Pelton's new book: "Licensed to Kill" and Jeremy Scahill's forthcoming book: "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army." out later this month from Nation Books) The company was back in the news ten days ago when five of their employees were shot down as they accompanied U.S. embassy employees in Baghdad.

The admission by Blackwater confirms worries that armed contractors working directly or indirectly for the U.S. government have been involved in killing Iraqi civilians and that they have escaped the rule of law in Iraq or in the United States.

An article in the Washington Post in September 2005 quoted Brigadier General Karl R. Horst, deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is responsible for security in and around Baghdad. "These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force. They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place."

The article described the shooting of an Iraqi man named Ali Ismael in Erbil, Northern Iraq by unnamed U.S. private security contractors.

Nor is Blackwater the only company to have been accused of shooting at Iraqi civilians with an intent to kill.

* In July 2006, two security contractors working for Triple Canopy in Iraq witnessed their boss shoot at Iraqi civilians.

Shane B. Schmidt, a former Marine Corps sniper, and Charles L. Sheppard III, a former Army Ranger, have sued the company, which they say fired them after they filed a report on July 8 that their shift leader fired deliberately and unnecessarily at Iraqi vehicles and civilians in two incidents while their team was driving in Baghdad.

Schmidt and Sheppard's lawsuit claims that the Triple Canopy employee announced that he was ''going to kill someone today,'' stepped from his vehicle and fired several shots from his M4 assault rifle into the windshield of a stopped white truck. The men claim that the truck was not an evident threat and that their team was not in danger. The men say in the suit that the shift leader then returned to their truck and said, ''That didn't happen, understand.'' Later that day, the suit says, the shift leader said, ''I've never shot anyone with my pistol before,'' and then opened the vehicle door and fired seven or eight shots into the windshield of a taxi.

* Custer Battles, another U.S. security company, was accused of shooting at Iraqis in February 2005, in an investigative report by NBC News. Titled  "U.S. Contractors in Iraq Allege Abuses." The report quotes four former U.S. soldiers.

"[He] sighted down his AK-47 and started firing," says (Corporal Ernest) Colling. "It went through the window. As far as I could see, it hit a passenger. And they didn't even know we were there."

Later, the convoy came upon two teenagers by the road. One allegedly was gunned down.

"The rear gunner in my vehicle shot him," says Colling. "Unarmed, walking kids."

In another traffic jam, they claim a Ford 350 pickup truck smashed into, then rolled up and over the back of a small sedan full of Iraqis.

"The front of the truck came down," says (Captain Bill) Craun. "I could see two children sitting in the back seat of that car with their eyes looking up at the axle as it came down and pulverized the back."

* CorpWatch's David Phinney was among one of the first reporters to chronicle the infamous "Trophy Video" in November 2005, in which security contractors for Aegis, a British company, in Iraq, were seen shooting at Iraqi civilians.

David Phinney also broke the story of another North Carolina company named Zapata, whose security guards allegedly fired at U.S. Marines in Fallujah in May 2005.