A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq’s faulty justice system.
“We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis,” Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.
“In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial. That is not the case right now,” said Mr. Prince. Read more…
Here is video from CNN of family members telling horrific tales of their loved ones having their skulls blown up by members of Blackwater during the September 16 massacre in Baghdad:
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The arrogance is staggering. His company has been terrorizing Iraqi citizens for years and now he says his men can’t get a fair trial there. Welcome to the world you helped to create, Mr. Prince. Iraq is a sovereign nation and has every right to enforce their laws. Prince goes on to say that his men might be tried in a U.S. military court, but after learning from a U.S. Colonel that his men turned their weapons on our own soldiers, he may find he’s no more welcome here than in Iraq.
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it was valid enough to convict and execute Saddam wasn’t it? The Iraqi Court I mean…
Fuck you Erik Prince and your little death squad too!
Here we go with this other dumbass Frat-Boy.
Corporate tyranny…don’t ya just love it?
let’s prosecute him
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Nnph3zkHNw
Well, what have we learned in the last 6 or so years?
RICH MOTHERFUCKERS CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT, WITH IMPUNITY.
Get it? Got it! Good.
Rucka @ 1:
My first thoughts exactly!
OH but if you’re black and you sell drugs, you’re going to jail for a loooong time! This country is so f*cked up!
“But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial.”
Kettle, meet pot.
But Iraq is a “sovereign” country and, therefore, has power to charge and try anybody within its borders, right? Of course, that’s IF Iraq is truly sovereign, and not a puppet of the Chimp and the neocons.
Reich-wingers, are you proud of the murder your support?
He doesn’t think his employees should be held responsible for their crimes. Who the hell does he think he is, george bush?
welfare king Erik Prince needs to be frog marched. He’s an international terrorist
Okay - if that’s the way you want it. You prefer OUR faulty justice system then? Can we “render” them? That would save a lot of time and energy. Anything else you need? diapers? a private bathroom stall at the airport? A couple of wet suits?
*
I would say the Iraqis should expel Blackwater and all of the mercenary groups in Iraq. But that would literally destroy our involvment in Iraq, and we’d be forced to pull our own forces out since the Chimp relies on the 180,000+ mercenary groups to perform such functions as guard convoys and diplomats in Iraq.
“We will not let our people be taken by the …,”
Why do I think that Erik Prince will be saying the same thing years from now but the last word will be AMERICANS?
I’m wondering…Does the CEO Prince think Saddam and Chemical Ali got fair trials?? If the answer is yes then his case holds no water…If the answer is No then he’s going against everything his president and state department employer have been tellling the american people and rest of the world.
bush says terrorist are willing to kill innocent people to impose their ideology. Isn’t that exactly what we have done to the Iraqis? We have killed innocent people to impose our form of democracy on them. Blackwater guys were hired as one more means to that end.
Actually he and his employees would get precisely the justice they deserve in Iraq…
hahaha - I don’t mean to make light of the Iraqi civilian deaths, there is no denying the horrifying and terrible pain of those who lost family and friends in this mystifying tragedy. Nothing will take that pain away. Hopefully those deaths won’t be in vain. Could this screw the administration and the GOP cheerleaders any better though? Holy crap - they spent months touting the progress being made, how the Iraqi government has been taking giant leaps toward being capable of independence, and that democracy is “blooming” so well there, and now it’s all blowing back in their faces like some twisted cartoon! The Iraqi government makes an accusation against a US contractor, and wants to act as an independent nation against those people. Now, contractors in America under the Bush (mis)administration are…um, favored - to put it nicely. Now, the administration has to say either that the Iraqi government, the one that they have been “building” and touting the accomplishments of for years now, as incompetent OR that the contractor in an industry that paid for the Bush administration and feeds off it, is at fault. Making things even worse is a CEO saying that the Iraqi Government that THEY AND THE ADMINISTRATION BUILT is corrupt and invalid!
You’re move, Dick and George. Either way, you’re screwed - and of course, somehow the brave men and women in our armed forces will pay for your mistakes, as will the Iraqi children.
What do you do? What do you do!?!
Have we had enough?
Imagine if you will that China invaded our country on false pretenses to steal our oil, then sent in Chinese contractors to “protect” America by shooting our civilians, then refused to be held accountable to our laws in so doing. How would we react?
Erik Prince — a spoiled-rotten little shit who thinks his name ought to be taken literally.
I think we should dispatch his ass to Iraq and let them prosecute him for the crimes of his employees. As the person responsible it’s only the right thing to do.
Failing that, send that little fuckstick to the Hague.
pissed off patricia @ 11:
Right on the mark!!! :-)
miss_kitty @ 5:
THIS!!!
Wouldn’t Iraq’s ‘faulty’ justice system be preferred to what our administration offered those at Gitmo - NO JUSTICE?
“We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis …”
Um, what do you propose to do? An armed battle against the people who come to arrest your men? I’m sure the U.S. military will be real happy about that. It’ll make their jobs so much easier.
Rucka beat me to it ….
The LAW? What do I care for the LAW? Hain’t I the power?
Commodore Eric Vanderbilt, Prince of Darkness
He just admitted that he and his thugs are above the law.
bob @ 6:
Put me down for that as well very first thought
He “will not allow” them to be taken by the legitimate Iraqi authorities? What will Prince’s mercenaries do if the legitimate Iraqi authorities try to take them? Hmmmm, Mr. Prince?
We know how this will end. “Blackwater” will be expelled from Iraq. Then Prince will start a new company with the same mercenaries who will get the same State Department contract. And things will go on exactly the same.
they are unlawful combatants. send them to gitmo.
Here’s a video worth checking out. Sickening.
Supposedly Blackwater in Iraq.
Not surprised.
Ah, isn’t that sweet, the head of Bush’s Brownshirts thinks he can dictate to the Iraqi government, that according to Der Chimperor is Legitimate.
These Reich Wing nutjobs know no shame.
In the end, these assholes will be singing the Nuremberg chorus “We were just obeying orders” while Der Chimperor, and the Snarling Oil Guy are living in Paraquay.
Screw Blackwater. May the Iraqi Government meat them out the justice they deserve.
“The arrogance is staggering” - not only of BW, but also of the entire cabal of cheney/bush war criminals. This war and the killing of innocents must stop!
When cheney, bush, et al finally get charged as war criminals, include prince, and whomever else is involved in this barbaric, all-too-common murderous activity.
It seems as if all involved, from our so-called president right on down to the thugs who work in BW and similar organizations, really, really enjoy killing people.
And just how the fuck do you think you’re going to stop them there, hotshot? You think your employees can withstand the entire sovereign will of the Iraqi government? you going to stand against their army or an organized assualt? You going to fight if the US troops are part of those doing the arrests (keeping in mind that most of our trrops would just love a reason, any reason at all, to empty their weapons into your thugs).
But the biggest question is, are you really willing to so readily sacrifice the lives of your employees on the alter of your ego? Are you so fucking lost in your arrogance that you think they won’t notice? Yes, you are indeed. These are mercenaries we’re talking about; they’ll notice.
I imagine Prince and his guys were told when given the contract that they would be protected from the law so do what you gotta do. Now that promise is worth nothing and the govt is going to let them blow in the wind. He can’t say he was promised immunity from the law so he’s left to deal with this on his own and he’s pissed. Good!
Would Mr. Prince rather have his employees twiddle their thumbs in Gitmo? I can’t find the cite offhand, but the overbroad definition of ‘enemy combatant’ I saw recently seems to qualify them for free room and board at Uncle Sam’s expense, forever.
What I fear is that all these guys will be let go, and then be back terrorizing the Iraqi people in a month employed by yet another contractor.
Since U.S is the only force providing security and law enforcement in large measure, why would Erik Prince be wrong in pointing out they don’t have a justice system? clearly this is the crowd that executed Saddam in a poor manner, much to the chagrin of its leaders.
Why can’t U.S also conduct the investigation (like it did with Abu Gharib) and show the black water is innocent (like Don Rumsfeld was) and possibly award blackwater a medal of courage and sacrifice.
If I were a contractor and I had a chance at getting blackwater’s contract, I sure as hell wouldn’t hire any of their ex employees. That would be a recipe for disaster.
Prince, the rotten jerk, needs to be held accountable for Blackwater’s actions, and put in an Iraqi jail with his band of hellacious murderous mercenaries.
Great Frybread King @ 14:
Bad data/information. There are between 1,000 and maybe 1,100 Blackwater mercenaries
within Iraq.
I’m the father of a very good looking daughter so I fully understand the concept of double-standards, but this is taking it too far.
“Support Our Mercenaries”
funny how Iraq’s justice system was just fine when it came to hanging Hussein…
kangaroo, anyone?
And I thought telecom immunity was bad.
What is he afraid of? His employees getting the same level of justice that they exercised?
This isn’t 2003, where his four mercenaries - NOT contractors - were hung and burned. It’s a different country now. 9_9
bob @ 6:
Me, too!
Rick Massimo @ 26:
As mercenaries have no loyalty, but to the highest bidder, I’d like to see them get overrun by the Iraqi police force, come to serve an arrest warrant. Do these guys have a letter of marque and reprisal, or something similar? If not, fuck ‘em. If you go to a foreign country and kill people for profit, you’re a murderer, and you get what you deserve.
We don’t have a 180,000 mercs over there, we have 180,000 contractors. Expelling the mercs would number about 20,000 according to the Frontline documentary “Private Warriors”.
I like Jon Stewarts reasoning. We have the best military in the world, but they aren’t competent to guard our own embassy? The USMC is up to that job in every other country on the planet, but not Iraq?
konchster @ 30:
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Me fourth, however, he was smart enough to mention the westerners.
I wonder what P.R. company, tied to a certain democratic front runner advised him?
He who rides the tiger is afraid to dismount.