Think Progress

Blackwater tried to bribe critical Iraqi officials with $1 million after 2007 shootings.

On Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire in Iraq’s crowded Nissor Square, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and wounding dozens more. The incident set off a backlash of criticism against the contractor, and earlier this year, Iraq said that it wouldn’t issue Blackwater a new operating license. Today, the New York Times reports that in 2007, top executives at Blackwater approved $1 million to bribe critical Iraqi officials into supporting the company, although it is unclear whether the money ever made it to the intended recipients:

Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. [...]

The former Blackwater executives said it was not clear who proposed paying off Iraqi officials. But after Mr. Jackson, the former company president, approved the plan, the cash for the payoffs was taken from Amman and given to Rich Garner, then a top manager in Iraq, the former executives said. One of those executives said that officials in Iraq’s Interior Ministry, which is responsible for operating licenses, were the intended recipients.

Five Blackwater guards involved in the shooting now face federal manslaughter charges.

Former Bush officials ‘are leading a new business push into Iraq.’

In 2008, Tim Shorrock reported for Salon that while “working inside America’s ’shadow’ spy industry, George Tenet, Richard Armitage, Cofer Black and others are cashing in big on Iraq and the war on terror.” Now, the Financial Times reports today that even more Bush administration officials are eyeing profits in Iraq:

Senior Bush administration figures including Zalmay Khalilzad, former US ambassador to Baghdad, and Jay Garner, the retired general who led reconstruction efforts immediately after the war, are leading a new business push into Iraq.

The two one-time senior officials are among a raft of former US soldiers and diplomats either leveraging their war experience helping foreign companies to enter the Iraqi market or starting businesses there themselves.

Recently, former American diplomat Peter Galbraith, who was a key adviser to Iraqi Kurdish politicians, admitted that “he has had business dealings involving oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2004.” “The business interest, including my investment into Kurdistan, was consistent with my political views,’’ he told the Boston Globe. “These were all things that I was promoting, and in fact, have brought considerable benefit to the people of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan oil industry, and also to shareholders.’’

Bush: I regret standing in front of the ‘Mission Impossible’ banner.

President Bush was in Canada yesterday to speak at a luncheon of the Montreal Board of Trade. Approximately 300 protesters gathered outside the venue, blowing plastic horns, throwing shoes, and burning the former president in effigy. The Vancouver Sun reports on what happened during Bush’s speech:

Inside the regal Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, a relaxed-appearing Bush spoke with very few regrets about some of the most controversial moves of his presidency.

“I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul,” Bush told an audience of about 1,000 men and women at the $400-a-seat steak luncheon.

Bush also said that he regretted appearing in front of a “Mission Impossible” sign in 2003 during an address about the Iraq war. Of course, the sign actually said “Mission Accomplished.” Maybe “Mission Impossible” would have been more appropriate. (HT: Raw Story)

T. Boone Pickens: U.S. ‘entitled’ to Iraqi oil.

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens has in recent years been involved in efforts to develop alternative energy. He has even developed his own energy independence plan, dubbed “The Pickens Plan,” which on its website proudly pledges to reduce “our dependence on foreign oil” and enhance our national security. Yet in remarks to Congress yesterday, Pickens revealed that he is just as interested as ever in tying our national security to oil interests in the Middle East, suggesting that American oil companies are “entitled” to Iraq’s oil because we spent blood and treasure invading the Arab country:

T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are “entitled” to some of Iraq’s crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq’s vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

“They’re opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world … We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil. “Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars.”

Unfortunately for Pickens and others who feel that the U.S. can freely exploit Iraq’s oil because we invaded it, the U.S. is a signatory to the Hague Conventions, which specifically bar the confiscation of private property by occupying powers. And while Pickens is right that the invasion cost us tremendously in both blood and treasure, it is Iraqis who have suffered the most. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed in the war, millions fled the country, and the nation’s infrastructure remains in tatters.

Court rules that KBR employee’s gang rape wasn’t a personal injury ‘arising in the workplace.’

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. In an apparent attempt to cover up the incident, the company then put her in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” Even more insultingly, the DOJ resisted bringing any criminal charges in the matter. KBR argued that Jones’ employment contract warranted her claims being heard in private arbitration — without jury, judge, public record, or transcript of the proceedings. After 15 months in arbitration, Jones and her lawyers went to court to fight the KBR claims. Yesterday, a court ruled in favor of Jones.” Mother Jones reports:

Jones argued that the alleged gang rape was not related to her employment and thus, wasn’t covered by the arbitration agreement. Finally, two years later, a federal court has sensibly agreed with her. Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2 to 1 ruling, found her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract.

One of the judges who ruled in her favor, Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, is a West Point grad, Vietnam vet, and one of the court’s most conservative members, a sign, perhaps, of just how bad the facts are in this case. It’s a big victory, but a bitter one that shows just how insidious mandatory arbitration is. It’s taken Jones three years of litigation just to get to the point where she can finally sue the people who allegedly wronged her. It will be many more years before she has a shot at any real justice.

“We do not hold that, as a matter of law, sexual-assault allegations can never ‘relate to’ someone’s employment,” wrote the court. “For this action, however, Jones’ allegations do not ‘touch matters’ related to her employment, let alone have a ’significant relationship’ to her employment contract.

Iraqi shoe thrower being showered by ‘offers and gifts’ upon his anticipated release from prison.

Last December, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi made headlines across the world when he hurled his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. Although al-Zaidi was originally sentenced to three years in prison, Iraqi courts recently decided to release him on Sept. 14 for “good behavior.” Now, the Guardian is reporting that al-Zaidi is being inundated “by offers and gifts” from all over his country:

From his prison cell, Zaidi has a sense of the gathering fuss, but not the full extent of the benefactors and patrons preparing for his release.

A new four-bedroom home has been built by his former boss. A new car – and the promise of many more – awaits.

Pledges of harems, money and healthcare are pouring in to his employers, the al-Baghdadia television channel.

“One Iraqi who lived in Morocco called to offer to send his daughter to be Muntazer’s wife,” said editor Abdul Hamid al-Saij.

“Another called from Saudi offering $10m for his shoes, and another called from Morocco offering a gold-saddled horse.

For his part, al-Zaidi has told the press that he plans to leave journalism and open an orphanage upon his release.

Anti-reform town hall attendees are unable to locate Iraq on a map.

Many town hall protesters enjoy boasting to federal lawmakers about how knowledgeable they are about public policy. For example, at a town hall meeting with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday, an attendee stood up and declared, “I have taken the time to look at certain provisions of a bill on the Internet and I can quote…the sections and the page.” But the Omaha City Weekly went to a recent town hall hosted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and found that the health care protesters actually aren’t all that informed about public policy. They asked 40 pro-reform and 40 anti-reform attendees to locate Iraq on a map. The results:

A full 75%, 30 of 40 pro-reform attendees, could identify Iraq in its rather eye-catching, dead center position on the map. Only 52.5 %, 21 of 40 anti-reformers could do so. [...]

More telling was the startling reactions I got while conducting the test. Pro-reform people, even those geographically challenged few who laughed out loud at the futility of the task before them, portrayed a uniformly agreeable front. Most gave a knowing, touch_-like nod and smile. I received no negative comments, none at all, from that group.

The same could not be said of the other camp. Far from it.

One gentleman practically knocked the clipboard out of my hand in jabbing – angrily and correctly – at the country that (John Kerry was right) represented the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Many sneered. Most at least glowered. Four accused the test itself of being somehow biased.

One anti-reform Vietnam veteran also responded, “Why the hell should I care where Iraq is?”

Human Rights Watch documents ‘campaign of systematic killings’ against Iraqi gays.

In a new report released today, Human Rights Watch documents a “spreading campaign of torture and murder” against gay men. HRW says “hundreds of gay men” have been targeted and killed since 2004,” and nearly 90 gay men have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of January. “A campaign of systematic killings gathered gradually in strength through the early months of 2009,” the report states. “Murders are committed with impunity, admonitory in intent, with corpses dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street.” The report continues:

Iraqi police and security forces have done little to investigate or halt the killings. Authorities have announced no arrests or prosecutions; it is unlikely that any have occurred. … Most disturbingly, Human Rights Watch heard accounts of police complicity in abuse—ranging from harassing “effeminate” men at checkpoints, to possible abduction and extrajudicial killing.

The campaign has been largely blamed on Shiite extremists affiliated with Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia who are targeting behavior deemed un-Islamic.

Life ‘better’ for gay Iraqis under Saddam Hussein.

A new report by the BBC looks at the “deteriorating conditions for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people” in Iraq. In fact, all the LGBT Iraqis the team interviewed said that “life was easier for them when Saddam Hussein was in power, from 1979 to 2003. Some spoke fondly of an underground gay culture that flourished before the war in Baghdad.” Recent stories of violence include an Iraqi LGBT leader being gunned down and Iraqi militias gluing anuses of gay men and inducing diarrhea to cause death. “Homosexuality was generally tolerated under Saddam,” Hali, founder of Iraqi LGBT, said in 2007, adding, “Life in Iraq now is hell for all LGBT people; no one can be openly gay and alive.”

Iraqis jubilantly celebrate U.S. troop withdrawal.

U.S. forces handed over formal control of Iraq’s major cities today (it is already Tuesday in Iraq), “a defining step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country.” In celebration, Iraqis launched fireworks and “thousands attended a party in a park [in Baghdad] where singers performed patriotic songs. … Loudspeakers at police stations and military checkpoints played recordings of similar tunes throughout the day, as Iraqi military vehicles decorated with flowers and national flags patrolled the capital.” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had called the withdrawal a “great victory,” declared June 30 a public holiday. Some scenes of celebration around the country:

Rumsfeld initially declared Iraq ‘off limits’ for new biography.

Washington Post reporter Bradley Graham has a new biography out on Donald Rumsfeld called “By His Own Rules.” According to a review in the New York Times, Graham “goes out of his way to give Mr. Rumsfeld the benefit of the doubt,” but ultimately concludes that the former Defense Secretary was “neglectful” in planning for post-war Iraq. However, Rumsfeld originally refused to talk about Iraq at all:

Mr. Graham writes that Mr. Rumsfeld initially “put talk about Iraq off limits” when he agreed to be interviewed for this book, and while he “relented and addressed a number of aspects of the war” in their final interview in late 2008, his remarks in this area aren’t terribly illuminating for the reader.

President Bush has similarly been trying to erase Iraq from his legacy. A recent five-minute promotional video for his presidential library had just one mention of Iraq (and a full 35 seconds of clips of 9/11 and Bush’s subsequent reaction). Bush’s official bio on his presidential library doesn’t have a single mention of Iraq either.