Passing the Bloodstained Buck
The mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater has argued in court that the company’s private contractors who killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007 should not be held accountable. Why? It’s Washington’s fault, they claim, as Blackwater fighters were acting as employees of the U.S. government at the time.
The mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater has argued in court that the company’s private contractors who killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007 should not be held accountable. Why? It’s Washington’s fault, they claim, as Blackwater fighters were acting as employees of the U.S. government at the time. –JCL
Your support matters…Al-Jazeera English:
The security company formerly known as Blackwater has told a US federal judge that the US government, and not the company itself, should be held accountable for a 2007 shooting by its contractors that killed 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square in Baghdad.
Lawyers for the company, now known as Xe Services, argued in court on Thursday that Blackwater contractors were essentially acting as employees of the US government because they were providing security to State Department personnel.
The North Carolina-based company and several of its contractors are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed on behalf of three people killed in the shooting: Ali Kinani, Abrahem Abed Al Mafraje and Mahde Sahab Naser Shamake. The lawsuit accuses the parties of wrongful death and negligence, and seeks punitive damages.
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Editorial Cartoons
The odds are against anyone ever answering for recent "inadvertent" deletions of electronic data at the two agencies.
Policies that chip away at the power, protection and prestige that law enforcement enjoys are crucial aspects in the fight.
We, the people, have more power than we think. To exercise our power, we must insist that our elected representatives serve us. If they don’t, we need to vote them out as quickly as possible.
By keeping us in the dark about how it spends our money, the Pentagon has made it virtually impossible for anyone to hold it accountable for just about anything.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has teamed up with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to introduce a bill that takes aim at the efficacy and malfeasance of government settlements on corporate wrongdoing and could bring billions of dollars back to taxpayers. If corporations have the same rights as people, then they should have to suffer the same consequences.
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