Posted on 06/30/2014 11:46:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Blackwater was one of the largest security contractors during the Iraq War. An investigation was opened into the company after five of the contracted security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad in 2007.
A top manager at Blackwater threatened the life of a State Department official who was investigating the company's operations in Iraq in 2007.
According to the memo obtained by The New York Times, State Department investigator Jean C. Richter reported to officials that the "Blackwater contractors saw themselves as above the law," and the State Department's management structure had become subservient to the security company.
The investigation into the company's activities concluded prematurely after Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's project manager, threatened to kill him.
"No response to my inquiries, Mr. Carroll claimed that WPPS II Camp Baghdad was not technically Department of State property and therefore not under Chief of Mission (COM) Authority. Mr. Carroll accentuated this point by stating that he could 'kill me' at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq. A second individual present, Mr. Donald Thomas, then made a remark that compared the lawless working environment in Iraq to the 'O.K. Corral'." Richter said he took the threat seriously because they "were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract."
After Richter and his colleagues left Iraq, the U.S. Embassy made a statement in favor of the contractors. It called the investigation "unsustainably disruptive to day-to-day operations and created an unnecessarily hostile environment for a number of contract personnel."
The investigation came weeks before guards from Blackwater killed 17 civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square. Since leaving Iraq, the company, which is now called ACADEMI, has changed its name twice and is still acting as an "elite security services provider" in North Carolina.
Probably the right thing to do at the time.
/s
It’s a joke....
Flame suit certified and donned.
Is this necessarily a bad thing...?
War creates very twisted people, unfortunately - even ones on our side.
Decision made by State Dept to end investigation and no mention at the time made of any threats. No witnesses mentioned to any of this which in any case does not sound to me as if it was a threat on anyone’s life, rather a description of the danger of being in Iraq at the time.
You cannot believe this is anything more than a distraction, another one to draw attention away from a rapidly crumbling Administration.
Should we be angry?
Well, now we know how the IRS can get out from under. Just business, not personal.
Had a State Dept rep complain of a “threatening, hostile working environment.” Why? Because during our lunch break, I was talking guns with a Marine we had on staff.
Do you suppose these people were trigger happy because they liked to live?
Why is this story reported 7 years later? Is the MSM trying to provide cover for yet another evil action of the current Regime?
I wish the writer had done a thorough enough investigation to tell us why so many North Carolinians are need of "elite security services"...
Probably.
Blackwater would be a hell of a “loose end” to tie up for a socialist tyrant.
What did Jack say last night about it being a profession courtesy or something like that.
I thought Jack and Renee took care of the Blackwater problem on Day 7.
He/She probably deserved it.
Raise your hand if you are shocked that a merc threatened to kill somebody. Who do you think the long haired bearded guys were that were mixed in with the BLM at the Bundy Ranch? They were Mercs. Mercs were used in NO during Katrina to disarm people and confiscate weapons. These guys are not your friends and when the resolution conflict begins they really won’t be your friends. They will be your targets.
2007? And it comes out now? Maybe the IRS lost the emails. But that proves they could find the emails.
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