HonkWatch #008: Guest House Paradiso (ii) – The Dowager

Crikey! It’s Fenella fielding, ‘er from Carry On Screaming, and the disembodied voice behind the announcements in The Prisoner! And she’s heaving her guts up!

Now that’s what I call value for money…
Crikey! It’s Fenella fielding, ‘er from Carry On Screaming, and the disembodied voice behind the announcements in The Prisoner! And she’s heaving her guts up!
Now that’s what I call value for money…
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Oh Blackwater Lovely War!

So, those uppity Iraqis are determined to exercise sovereign control over their own country by enacting a law to regulate even (gasp!) gun-toting western ‘bodyguards’:

Iraq has said it would review the status of all security firms after what it called a flagrant assault by Blackwater contractors. Eleven people were killed while the firm was escorting a U.S. embassy convoy through Baghdad on September 16.

“This legislation will cover everything to do with these companies. The companies will come under the grip of Iraqi law, will be monitored by the Interior Ministry and will work under its guidelines,” [Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Kareem] Khalaf said.

“They will be strictly punished for any (violations) on the street.”

(Reported by Reuters, 25th September)

As the BBC helpfully reminds us, “contractors are currently granted immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law by Order 17 of the Coalition Provisional Authority – the now-defunct interim body set up by the US-led coalition in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein.”

By Wednesday, Reuters was reporting that the American Defense Department was joining the State Department in running its own investigation:

Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert Gates had sent a five-person team to Iraq to review the contractors’ operations.

…Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England had also ordered commanders to collect copies of contractors’ standard operating procedures and guidance on the use of deadly force to ensure they conform with U.S. rules.

The State Department is investigating a shooting incident earlier this month in which 11 people were killed while contractors from the U.S. firm Blackwater were escorting an embassy convoy through Baghdad.

Those contractors worked for the State Department. The Pentagon employs 7,300 security contractors in Iraq, but none of them are from Blackwater.

Morrell avoided getting directly into the whole Iraqi law side of things, but then he would, wouldn’t he? He’s repping the DoD, which is scrabbling to cover its arse before some scandal breaks on its own contractors. Yet even while he “rejected suggestions that security contractors in Iraq operate without oversight”, he couldn’t help but push the line that America (and by implication not Iraq) should investigate the actions of Americans and American companies:

We have the means to go after them through the Department of Justice. We have the means to go after them through military courts. Just because there has not been a prosecution brought does not mean that the authority does not exist to deal with people who misbehave or break the law.”

There does seem to be a rather delicious irony here: the DoD, which is so feverishly opposed to the idea that “unlawful combatants” held by American forces should be released from the Pentagon’s own quasi-legal system – one which is outside the controls of the standard principles of jurisprudence – into the realm of habeas corpus and cross-examination, is now pushing for US private citizens to be accorded the protections of the American courts for crimes they may have committed in a far-off foreign land.

So on the one hand an Iraqi accused of killing an American in Iraq might well find himself or herself whisked away to the Guantanamo Hilton, held virtually incommunicado for years, subject to treatment which would not be acceptable within the (hardly cushy) civil American prison system, with extremely limited access to legal assistance or welfare checks, and the possibility of summary punishment at the eventual end. On the other, an American accused of killing an Iraqi in Iraq might well find himself or herself whisked away to the States, given access to lawyers, bailed, permitted to exercise their constitutional rights whilst waiting to hear whether the authorities intend to proceed, considered innocent until proven guilty, possibly prosecuted, and maybe, just maybe, convicted by a jury of their peers – and then given the opportunity through the appeals system to question any such conviction. C’est la vie!

Anyway, the State Department was in a tizzy on Tuesday, when Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, complained to Condi Rice that her goons were suppressing evidence about the Blackwater situation which the HOC wanted to see:

“Blackwater has informed the committee that a State Department official directed Blackwater not to provide documents relevant to the committee’s investigation into the company’s activities in Iraq without the prior written approval of the State Department,” Mr. Waxman’s letter [to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] stated. The letter was made available to the news media on Tuesday.

In response, a State Department statement late Tuesday said: “There seems to be some misunderstanding with regard to this matter. All information requested by the committee has been or is in the process of being provided.”

The statement added: “Blackwater has been informed that the State Department has no objection to it providing information to the committee. We have offered to make available for testimony those officials in the best position to respond to the specific issues the committee has raised.”

(Reported in the NY Times)

By Thursday 27th, Waxman was once more waxing Blackwater’s arse, this time over its behaviour back in 2004, when it sent its contractors into Fallujah, the “hottest zone in Iraq in unarmoured, underpowered vehicles.” This was the incident when “four Blackwater employees escorting a convoy were killed and their charred bodies hung from a bridge”.

Waxman said the committee’s research showed that leading up to the incident, Blackwater was an “unprepared and disorderly organization” operating in a hostile environment.

“Mistake apparently compounded mistake,” he said.

The report was based on documents and interviews with 18 individuals with knowledge of the incident, including Blackwater’s Baghdad operations manager and project director and seven other staff from the company.

A day before the incident, the report said Blackwater’s operations manager in Baghdad sent an e-mail to company headquarters in North Carolina complaining about a lack of equipment, including armoured vehicles, ammunition and weapons.

“I need new vehicles, I need COMS, I need ammo, I need Glocks and M4s … I’ve requested hard cars from the beginning,” said the e-mail.

It’s possibly not the slick image of military competence and professionalism which Blackwater is aiming for – and the eyewitness reports from this month’s Baghdad balls-up published in Thursday’s NY Times probably don’t help either:

Participants in a contentious Baghdad security operation this month have told American investigators that during the operation at least one guard continued firing on civilians while colleagues urgently called for a cease-fire. At least one guard apparently also drew a weapon on a fellow guard who did not stop shooting, an American official [who "was briefed on the American investigation by someone who helped conduct it"] said.

This unnamed ‘American official’ (hmmm…) goes on to provide a broad outline of the events of 16th September:

The episode began around 11:50 a.m… Diplomats with the United States Agency for International Development were meeting in a guarded compound about a mile northeast of Nisour Square, where the shooting would later take place.

A bomb exploded on the median of a road a few hundred yards away from the meeting, causing no injuries to the Americans, but prompting a fateful decision to evacuate. One American official who knew about the meeting cast doubt on the decision to move the diplomats out of a secure compound.

“It raises the first question of why didn’t they just stay in place, since they are safe in the compound,” the official said. “Usually the concept would be, if an I.E.D. detonates in the street, you would wait 15 to 30 minutes, until things calmed down,” he said, using the abbreviation for improvised explosive device.

But instead of waiting, a Blackwater convoy began carrying the diplomats south, toward the Green Zone. Because their route would pass through Nisour Square, another convoy drove there to block traffic and ensure that the diplomats would be able to pass.

At least four sport utility vehicles stopped in lanes of traffic that were entering the square from the south and west. Some of the guards got out of their vehicles and took positions on the street, according to the official familiar with the report on the American investigation.

At 12:08 p.m., at least one guard began to fire in the direction of a car, killing its driver. A traffic policeman said he walked toward the car, but more shots were fired, killing a woman holding an infant sitting in the passenger seat.

Nice work if you can get it.

PS Reuters is running with this story, citing both the report in the NY Times and a similar one in the Washington Post, which is sourced by an anonymous State Department official and our friend the “U.S. official familiar with the investigation”.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Ted Chippington’s Pebble Mill moment of glory

Okay, so posting up YouTube clips “is lazy and not MAN’s blogging,” but this a marvellous piece of television…

Oblique hat tip: Frankosonic, a rather fine repository of musical and other delights.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Martin Scorsese’s muthafucking Muppets

Shamelessly teefed from GYBO…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The key, the power..

This morning I suffered a chronic ECS*, and was forced to raid the piggy bank and go out keyboard shopping… Couldn’t be arsed to trek somewhere like Tantra, and I’m not sure if Bristol Mac Centre runs an actual real shop these days, so I ended up shuftying round that shithole Dixons (now, apparently, ‘Currys Digital’) and Staples, where the only Mac-compatible keyboards I could find were, erm, Muckrosoft.

Anyhoo, I now am the dubious owner of a ‘Wireless Optical Desktop 2000’ keyboard + mouse combo.

Seems okay, except the keys have a really low profile, and the mouse only has two buttons, so I can’t run app switcher, Dashboard and Exposé off it at the same time. And obviously, the fucking Apple button isn’t an Apple button, and it’s in the wrong fucking place At least the @ and the ” are located correctly, even if they’re not labelled right… But what’s with the randomly different sized buttons?!

Enough moaning for now. Here’s what she looks like:

* Extraordinary Coffee Spillage

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

“Don’t Tase me, bro!” – killer virus epidemic goes musical

Some Andrew Meyer/University of Florida Tasering tunes…

See also here, here, here, here and, erm, here…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Tased & Confused: Now in full audio glory!

Lots of people have been arriving here looking for audio of the Andrew Meyer University of Florida Taser incident: Well, ye who googles shall receive…

Direct linkies:*

• Long version (mp3)
• Medium version (mp3)
• Short version (mp3) (just the “Don’t Tase me, bro!” bit)

* For them wot can’t figure out how to strip the audio off the page

** Audio links now fixed! **

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

LTADW

You ever have moments like that? Days? Weeks, months…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The three golden rules…

This Blackwater thing rumbles on:

Admit nothing

The company has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons…

Deny everything

We have yet to see definitive proof that the firm in question is Blackwater…

Make counter-allegations

When it was uncovered internally that two employees were stealing from the company, Blackwater immediately fired them…

Job’s a good’un!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Gutterbreakz mixitude

Bristol’s finest purveyor of dubstep bloggery, Gutterbreakz, is currently serving up a couple of rather fine mixes you may be interested in…

First up, here’s a mix from Bristol’s Adam Kidkut, who runs the Immerse label. Recorded back in July, and recently featured on Artofbeats Radio, it’s “a good representation of what I listen to, the direction Immerse is going and what people can expect from the radio show Diccon (aka Thinking) and I run on Passion Radio”.

Then there’s “a half hour of spontaneous [minimal] techno jamming” for good measure.

Stream or download both mixes on Gutterbreakz.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

WoBcast hits the quarter-century!

Says Pete Juxtaposeur…

To mark our 25th WoBcast we did a largely cover versions show because covers are in, what with copy,right and other blogs getting national media exposure and the Observer doing a top 50 covers article etc.

Check out the WoBcast website for full tracklistings plus RSS links and extra bonus beats!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

HonkWatch #007: Third Watch (S1E1)

Rookie cop Davis at the warm end of street policing…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Blackwater in deep

The killing of ‘at least’ eleven Iraqis, all apparently unarmed civilians, by private security men last Sunday, continues to shine a light on Pentagon policies of revolving door recruitment and of pushing legal accountability to the furthest remove, as well as on the very nature of contemporary imperial power.

Since Sunday’s deaths – caused by armed employees of the Blackwater USA firing “‘randomly at citizens’ in a crowded square in the capital, killing innocent bystanders and a policeman” – it was first announced that the nominally independent Iraqi government would launch an investigation into all foreign private military and security contractors, and that all Blackwater people were being expelled from the country.

But by Friday Blackwater had “resumed limited operations in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.” According to Mirembe Nantongo at the US embassy, “the decision to allow Blackwater to resume work had been taken in consultation with the Iraqi government.” Well, naturally…

One wonders exactly how much longer the immunity deal for these artists-formerly-known-as-mercenaries can last:

Armed guards contracted by US and other government agencies were granted immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law under an agreement dating from 2003.

It was extended just days before the Coalition Provisional Authority – the now-defunct interim body set up by the US-led coalition in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein – was disbanded in June 2004.

Especially as Federal prosecutors back in the States are investigating awkward allegations that Blackwater has in some way been involved in the smuggling into Iraq of unlicensed automatic firearms and other military hardware:

Two former Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville, North Carolina, to weapons charges and are cooperating with the investigation, The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina reported.

Federal prosecutors in North Carolina are handling the case, the News & Observer reported.

Blackwater, based in Moyock, North Carolina, employs around 1,000 contractors to protect the U.S. mission in Iraq and its diplomats from attack.

The newspaper quoted two unnamed sources as saying prosecutors are probing whether Blackwater was shipping weapons, night-vision scopes, armour, gun kits and other military goods to Iraq without the required permits.

The News & Observer also reported that prosecutors are probing whether Blackwater lacked permits for dozens of automatic weapons used at its training grounds in Moyock.

So, what are the odds on Blackwater taking the heat for its own high-profile sharp practices whilst other, perhaps less blatantly cavalier PMCs, get away with it?

Linkies:

• ‘Iraq to review all security firms’ (Tues, BBC)
• ‘The puppet talks back’ (Tues, The Nation)
• ‘US diplomats grounded in Iraq row’ (Weds, BBC)
• ‘Iraq to review security firms after shooting’ (Weds, Reuters)
• ‘Guards’ Iraq impunity under scrutiny’ (Thurs, BBC)
• ‘Blackwater working again in Iraq’ (Fri, BBC)
• ‘U.S. investigates Blackwater arms smuggling’ (today, Reuters)
• ‘Iraq Probe of U.S. Security Firm Grows’ (today, Washington Post)
• ‘Blackwater Resumes Guarding U.S. Envoys in Iraq’ (today, New York Times)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Just because you’re paranoid…

“Welcome to the testing room of the Parallax Corporation’s Division of Human Engineering…”

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

What are they looking for?

A handful of police were noseying around the Backfields Industrial Estate in St. Paul’s this afternoon.

The site, which is being redeveloped into flats and commercial premises by Knightstone Housing Association, has been seeing more and more activity from contractors and surveyors in recent days, so just what is it that the boys in blue were looking for?

PS There are now five police officers with sticks prodding around the car park and communal garden of Wilder Court, the housing estate which backs onto Backfields Industrial Estate.

Given that it’s pissing down with rain, one presumes that it must be fairly important… Could this be connected to the suggestion that one or more tenants there are either related to Mohamoud Muse Hassan, the Somali man stabbed to death in the Criterion early on Sunday morning, or to one of the three people thus far arrested in connection with the murder?

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::