[Peace-discuss] This may come up at P4P this Sat

[C. G. Estabrook]

"...four American contractors," indeed. According to AFP, the State
Department confirmed that the four killed were employed by Blackwater
Security Consulting of Moyock, North Carolina -- a military outsourcing
firm run by ex-Pentagon and CIA types.  The "contractors" were
mercenaries.  I haven't heard any reporters ask what sort of "contracts"
were they working on.  Were they part of a US death squad, like the
Vietnam Phoenix program? --CGE


On Wed, 31 Mar 2004, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> [Grisly as this is, we have to wonder if it will affect Bush in any
> way similar to the way the Somalian incident affected Clinton.  
> Somehow I doubt it, but the potential should be there.  Clinton's
> adventurism in Somalia was billed as humanitarian, as Bush & Co have
> claimed to be Iraq's liberators.  There's even a Black Hawk helicopter
> in this story.  The willfully naive, if they were honest, would
> certainly say this is another case of good intentions (that's a good
> one!) gone awry, an example of the foolhardiness of trying to help the
> less fortunate, etc., etc.  But will they?  My guess is they'll say,
> "That's different," and just blame us even more for "siding with these
> animals" or some such nonsense.  I guess we have to wait and see. -
> RB]
> 
> Iraqis drag US corpses through streets 3/31/04
> 
> By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
> 
> FALLUJAH, Iraq - In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds
> dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors
> through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung
> two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs.
> 
> 
> Five U.S. soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division also were killed in
> the same area when a bomb exploded under their M-113 armored personnel
> carrier, making it the bloodiest day for Americans in Iraq since Jan.
> 8.
> 
> The four contract workers were killed in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle
> city about 35 miles west of Baghdad and scene of some of the worst
> violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the
> American occupation a year ago.
> 
> Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," residents cheered
> after the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles
> left both SUVs in flames.
> 
> Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a
> charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body,
> hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two
> blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green, iron bridge
> spanning the Euphrates River.
> 
> "The people of Fallujah hung some of the bodies on the old bridge like
> slaughtered sheep," resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some corpses
> were dismembered, he said.
> 
> The White House blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein's
> former regime for the "horrific attacks" on the American contractors.
> 
> "It is offensive, it is despicable the way these individuals have been
> treated," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
> 
> Referring to the planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis,
> McClellan said "the best way to honor those that lost their lives" is
> to continue with efforts to bring democracy to Iraq.
> 
> "There are terrorists, there are some remnants of the former regime
> that are enemies of freedom and enemies of democracy, but democracy is
> taking root and we are making important progress," McClellan added.
> "We will not turn back from that effort."
> 
> State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the contractors, all men,
> "were trying to make a difference and to help others." He did not
> identify the dead or the nature of their work because the next of kin
> had not yet been notified.
> 
> The abuse and mutilation of the corpses was similar to the scene more
> than a decade ago in Somalia, when a mob dragged corpses of U.S.
> soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the
> American withdrawal from the African nation.
> 
> On Wednesday, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones
> and the phrase "Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans" beneath the
> blackened corpses after they were pulled from the vehicles.
> 
> One body was tied to a car that had a poster in its window of Sheik
> Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas who
> was assassinated by the Israeli military in Gaza City.
> 
> One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one
> body. Residents also said there were weapons in the targeted cars.
> APTN showed an American passport near a body and a U.S. Department of
> Defense identification card belonging to another man.
> 
> Some of the slain contractors were wearing flak jackets, resident Safa
> Mohammedi said.
> 
> In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the coalition would not be
> deterred from its mission to rebuild Iraq, and that numerous
> reconstruction projects were moving forward nationwide even though
> attention was focused on the attacks.
> 
> The roadside bomb that killed the five American soldiers Wednesday was
> in Malahma, 12 miles northwest of Fallujah, where anti-U.S. insurgents
> are active.
> 
> Their deaths raised the number of U.S. troops killed in March to at
> least 48, making it the second-deadliest month for U.S. troops since
> President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. The deadliest
> month was November, when 82 U.S. troops were killed.
> 
> In all, at least 597 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began
> March 20, 2003. Of the total, 459 have died since May 1 when Bush flew
> onto an aircraft carrier off the California coast to declare the end
> of major combat.
> 
> In the deadliest previous incident this year, nine soldiers were
> killed Jan. 8 when their Black Hawk medevac helicopter crashed near
> Fallujah, apparently after being shot down.
> 
> Fallujah is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where support for Saddam
> was strong and rebels often carry out attacks against American forces.
> U.S. Marines recently took over authority in the region from the
> departing U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
> 
> In an effort to forcefully establish their presence, the newly arrived
> Marines have conducted numerous patrols in Fallujah and have engaged
> in fierce firefights with rebels. In recent months, U.S. soldiers were
> not seen as often in the center of town.
> 
> 
> The Marines have said they will aggressively pursue guerrillas in
> Fallujah. However, no U.S. troops or Iraqi police were seen in the
> area after the attacks Wednesday, and the city was quiet.
> 
> In nearby Ramadi, insurgents threw a grenade at a government building
> and Iraqi security forces returned fire Wednesday, witnesses said. It
> was not clear if there were casualties.
> 
> Also in Ramadi, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy, witnesses
> said. U.S. officials in Baghdad could not confirm the attack.
> 
> Northeast of Baghdad, in the city of Baqouba on Wednesday, a suicide
> bomber blew up explosives in his car when he was near a convoy of
> government vehicles, wounding 14 Iraqis and killing himself, officials
> said.
> 
> ###
>