Interesting to note that the private security contractors involved, Unity Resources Group, has a picture of a young woman holding a child on the front page of their website! http://www.unityresourcesgroup.com/

Their site goes on to mention “Our Critical Support Services include Life Support…” and “Global Risk Awareness and Safety Programs”

From the MURDOCH press: “The chief operating officer of Unity Resources Group, Michael Priddin…. said the company had not been formally advised by either the Iraqi Government or the staff members themselves that the women had been killed…. The personnel who fired on the car had not seen anyone shot and had heard about the deaths via the media, he said…. Mr Priddin said the car approached the convoy “in a threatening manner, at speed when all other vehicles were stationary”......”

Also, despite contrary reports in other worldwide media, The Murdoch-owned The Australian has today reported that “A third woman was apparently uninjured in the shooting…” and this story has been shoved off its website’s front page. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22566353-31477,00.html

This has received very limited response in the Australian media. It coincided with a gushing story about one (yes, just one) Australian soldier killed by a roadside bomb Afghanistan which ran for days. Needless to say, the Murdoch-owned site, The Australian, has already pulled the story.

The national radio/TV website, the ABC,  is still referring to the incident as “Dubai security firm admits to latest Iraq shooting” and not that it was Australian-owned but just “mainly staffed by Australians”.

A number of aspects of the story have been re-interpreted in various ways by some media to diminish the culpability of the Australian “contractors” (gunmen). Typically, “women” was changed to “female civilians” and driving peacefully in their home town was changed to “failed to stop” and “repeatedly warned”, etc etc.

Quote: Shopkeeper Basim Mohammed said four or five vehicles were driving down the road when the shooting happened. “An Oldsmobile came out of this side road and it had two women in the front and children in the back,” he said. “They fired a warning shot when they were about 80 metres away, which probably made them panic because they went forward a little bit, and (the security guards) started firing at her from all directions…” http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055325.htm

We need to stop blaming Bush.

This is our responsability.

We, all of us allowed this to happen.

Democracy:  The only form of government that can be voted out of office.

“...It tried to avoid the convoy of four white SUVs of the foreigners but it came close to the last vehicle, which then opened fire immediately.” Mr Jabar said two women were killed but said a third woman in the back seat had been wounded in the shoulder. One of the children had been struck by flying glass….

An AFP reporter counted 40 bullet holes in the bloodspattered car, which was later towed to the nearby Masbar police station. A policemen who heard the shots and came running to the scene said that after the shooting the security guards “rode away like gangsters”....

The US State Department website says the company is staffed and managed by experienced security professionals drawn from the special forces and police SWAT communities of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Europe….”  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22561521-2703,00.html

Those beasts are drinking more blood from innocent Iraqis.

How does one comment on this? 
There is no bigger quagmire anywhere on Earth. 
But, as the Bush Administration has pointed out ad nauseam, this is how a young democracy develops.  Oh yeah… now that I think of it, I remember reading in history class about 18th century Americans and how many of them had their brains blown apart at random.  President Washington’s private security firms had hair triggers too.  You never knew when some crazy Virginian was going to attack a resident of Maryland who strayed into their territory.