Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
October 24, 2007 By Richard Lardner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Heavier guns and sturdier trucks would not have saved a team of Blackwater USA guards brutally killed in March 2004 after being lured by corrupt Iraqi forces into a well-planned ambush, the embattled private security contractor contends in a report to Congress.
This conclusion sharply contradicts the findings of a congressional investigation led by House Democrats and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of the four slain guards. Blackwater is cast in both as an incompetent, penny-pinching outfit that sent an understaffed and poorly equipped detail through Fallujah, a known insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad.
In the 10-page report, obtained by the Associated Press and delivered yesterday to lawmakers, Blackwater said Democrats and the lawyer for the families have teamed up against the company for political gain.
Calling the deaths "a tragic event," Blackwater said the killings were unavoidable and the guards - former Navy SEALs and Army Rangers - understood the risks of their mission and could have refused to go.
"Stronger weapons, armored vehicles, ammunition, or maps would not have shielded these brave military veterans from the certain death that awaited them on that morning," Blackwater said. "Even if Blackwater had placed six men on the mission, the result would likely have been the same."
Members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, swayed by sectarian influences, "intentionally betrayed" the Blackwater guards, the report said - a deception no amount of equipment, training, or skill could overcome.
"It was ICDC betrayal and enemy ambush - not contractor incompetence - that led to the deaths of four Blackwater personnel on March 31, 2004," the company said.
In a Sept. 27 report on the Fallujah slayings, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed that the guards were ambushed by insurgents but said that there was no evidence the civil defense corps participated.
Written in response to the Democratic staff's findings, Blackwater's Fallujah report is the latest rumble in the volatile debate over the company's performance and its future as the protector of US diplomats in Iraq.
The Mitsubishi Pajeros that Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, Michael Teague, and Scott Helvenston were driving had armor plates behind the back seats but were otherwise just sport utility vehicles, the staff said.
According to Blackwater, a civil defense corps representative showed the guards the fastest route through Fallujah. The convoy was stopped briefly at a busy intersection by Iraqi police.
As the convoy moved out of the intersection, at least five assailants opened fire. Two attackers held weapons in one hand and video cameras in the other, the company said.
"The fact that the assailants were set to record the murders is further proof that there was a preexisting plan at work," according to Blackwater.
October 24, 2007 By Richard Lardner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Heavier guns and sturdier trucks would not have saved a team of Blackwater USA guards brutally killed in March 2004 after being lured by corrupt Iraqi forces into a well-planned ambush, the embattled private security contractor contends in a report to Congress.
This conclusion sharply contradicts the findings of a congressional investigation led by House Democrats and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of the four slain guards. Blackwater is cast in both as an incompetent, penny-pinching outfit that sent an understaffed and poorly equipped detail through Fallujah, a known insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad.
In the 10-page report, obtained by the Associated Press and delivered yesterday to lawmakers, Blackwater said Democrats and the lawyer for the families have teamed up against the company for political gain.
Calling the deaths "a tragic event," Blackwater said the killings were unavoidable and the guards - former Navy SEALs and Army Rangers - understood the risks of their mission and could have refused to go.
"Stronger weapons, armored vehicles, ammunition, or maps would not have shielded these brave military veterans from the certain death that awaited them on that morning," Blackwater said. "Even if Blackwater had placed six men on the mission, the result would likely have been the same."
Members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, swayed by sectarian influences, "intentionally betrayed" the Blackwater guards, the report said - a deception no amount of equipment, training, or skill could overcome.
"It was ICDC betrayal and enemy ambush - not contractor incompetence - that led to the deaths of four Blackwater personnel on March 31, 2004," the company said.
In a Sept. 27 report on the Fallujah slayings, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed that the guards were ambushed by insurgents but said that there was no evidence the civil defense corps participated.
Written in response to the Democratic staff's findings, Blackwater's Fallujah report is the latest rumble in the volatile debate over the company's performance and its future as the protector of US diplomats in Iraq.
The Mitsubishi Pajeros that Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, Michael Teague, and Scott Helvenston were driving had armor plates behind the back seats but were otherwise just sport utility vehicles, the staff said.
According to Blackwater, a civil defense corps representative showed the guards the fastest route through Fallujah. The convoy was stopped briefly at a busy intersection by Iraqi police.
As the convoy moved out of the intersection, at least five assailants opened fire. Two attackers held weapons in one hand and video cameras in the other, the company said.
"The fact that the assailants were set to record the murders is further proof that there was a preexisting plan at work," according to Blackwater.
