Blackwater sued

Upton · #1 (**permalink**) 11-28-2007, 10:14 PM

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Blackwater bodyguards were taking steriods.

Quote:

Blackwater sued over Iraqi deaths

By LARA JAKES JORDAN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A lawsuit against government contractor Blackwater Worldwide accuses its bodyguards of ignoring a direct order and abandoning their post shortly before taking part in a shooting in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqi civilians.

Filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the complaint also accuses North Carolina-based Blackwater of failing to give drug tests to its guards in Baghdad — even though the suit says an estimated one in four of them was using steroids or other "judgment-altering substances."

A Blackwater spokeswoman said Tuesday its employees are banned from using steroids or other enhancement drugs but declined to comment on the other charges detailed in the 18-page lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of five Iraqis who were killed and two who were injured during the Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square. The shootings enraged the Iraqi government, and the Justice Department is investigating whether it can bring criminal charges in the case, even though the State Department promised limited immunity to the Blackwater guards.

The three teams of an estimated dozen Blackwater bodyguards had already dropped off the State Department official they were protecting when they headed to Nisoor Square, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyers working with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Blackwater and State Department personnel staffing a tactical-operations center "expressly directed the Blackwater shooters to stay with the official and refrain from leaving the secure area," the complaint says. "Reasonable discovery will establish that the Blackwater shooters ignored those directives."

The civil complaint offers new details of the incident that has strained relations between the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards.

The Justice Department says it likely will be months before it decides whether it can prosecute the guards, and it is trying now to pinpoint how many shooters in the Blackwater convoy could face charges. A senior U.S. law-enforcement official confirmed Tuesday that government investigators are looking at whether the Blackwater guards were authorized to be in the square at the time of the shooting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.

In an interview, lead plaintiff attorney Susan Burke said private investigators turned up the new evidence through interviews with people in Iraq and the United States "who would have reason to know." Those people do not include government officials, Burke said, and she declined to comment when asked if they include Blackwater employees.

The civil lawsuit does not specify how much money the victims and their families are seeking from Blackwater, its 11 subsidiaries and founder, Erik Prince, all of whom are named as defendants.

"We're looking for compensatory [damages] because the people who were killed were the breadwinners in their families," Burke said. "And we're looking for punitive in a manner that suffices to change the corporation's conduct. We have a real interest in holding them accountable for what were completely avoidable deaths."

The lawsuit also accuses Blackwater of routinely sending its guards into Baghdad despite knowing that at least 25 percent of them were using steroids or other "judgment-altering substances." Attorneys estimated that Blackwater employs about 600 guards in Iraq.

The company "did not conduct drug-testing of any of its shooters before sending them equipped with heavy weapons into the streets of Baghdad," the lawsuit states.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Blackwater employees are tested for drug use before they are hired and later given random quarterly tests.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times

Still Dizzy · #2 (**permalink**) 11-28-2007, 11:16 PM

CIVILIAN employees using THEIR OWN drugs? I much prefered the Meth that the U.S. GOVERNMENT provided to damn near everybody in Vietnam.

cat's meow · #3 (**permalink**) 11-28-2007, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Dizzy

CIVILIAN employees using THEIR OWN drugs? I much prefered the Meth that the U.S. GOVERNMENT provided to damn near everybody in Vietnam.

And the Nazis were doing speed in the Russian campaign too...

Sam · #4 (**permalink**) 11-28-2007, 11:49 PM

Unf**king believable- I thought any position where one is responsible for others lives required drug testing.

Exactly who were they guarding?

cat's meow · #5 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Unf**king believable- I thought any position where one is responsible for others lives required drug testing.

Exactly who were they guarding?

A spokesperson for Blackwater said they do drug test their employees, she could not really give evidence of that and what they are tested for though.

Still Dizzy · #6 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Unf**king believable- I thought any position where one is responsible for others lives required drug testing.

Exactly who were they guarding?

Hi Sam,

Almost 40 years ago the military started drug testing. With the pot, and Heroin, in Vietnam abuse was VERY HEAVY in the rear areas, but was non existant in the field. I NEVER, NEVER, was tested, nor did know of anyone who was tested.
Maybe someone with more recent experience can shed some light if it is done now.

Moggy · #7 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 05:03 AM

Read a good article the other day about Blackwater.
It come from :
http://www.projectcensored.org
The company that most embodies the privatisation of the military-industrial complex-a primary part of the Project for a New Amrican Century and the new-consevative revolution-is the private security firm Blackwater. Blackwater is the most powerful mercenary firm in the world with 20,000 soldiers, the worlds lagest private mlitary base, a fleet of 20 aircraft including helicopters gunships, and a private intelligence division.
Blackwater is headed by a very right wing christian supremacist and Ex-Naval Seal named Eric Prince, who's family has deep neo-conservatie conections.
Bushes lasted voluntary civilialian military corps to accommodate the "surge" will add to over 1/2 a billion dollars in federal contracts with Blackwater, allowing Prince to create a private army to defend Christendom around the world against Muslims and anothers.
As Jeremy Scahill points out, private contractors currently constitute the secondly largest force in Iraq. At last count there were about One Hundered Thousand contractors in Iraq, 48,000 who work as private soilders, according to the government accountability office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no over-sight or effective legal constraints and are politically expendable, as contractors deaths go unaccounted in the official toll. With Prince calling for the creation of a "contractor Brigade" before military audiences, the Bush administrations has found a back door for engaging in undeclared expansion of occupation.

What you think?

Still Dizzy · #8 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moggy

Read a good article the other day about Blackwater.
It come from :
http://www.projectcensored.org
the creation of a "contractor Brigade" before military audiences, the Bush administrations has found a back door for engaging in undeclared expansion of occupation.

What you think?

What do I think? Well for starters you really need to do your homework friend. Blackwater became a 'arm' of our Military in 1996. Guess who was president then? B.J.

ONEWHITEDUCK · #9 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 10:02 AM

Hi Froggy Moggy.......:-(

Moggy · #10 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Dizzy

What do I think? Well for starters you really need to do your homework friend. Blackwater became a 'arm' of our Military in 1996. Guess who was president then? B.J.

Well thanks for the info Still Dizzy, didn't know that. Just posted the article because I read it that day, and thought it would add to this debate.
Clinton, Bush, I mean who really cares, neither has the interest of your nation and its people at its heart.