More "Democracy" In Action

Source? In order to retain any credibility you need to cite a source for something like this.

The associated press website.

I really don't care to much about proving myself as credible. What I post is easilly found by anyone thats interested

Here's a link from the NY times story about but its all over the place

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/wo...10iraq.html?hp

I saw it on teh news, sounds like another win for Blackwater. Representing America thug life style in Iraq.

So my credibility is in tact with you?

You should post links. Had the story been some obscure crackpot blog entry, one could spend an hour looking for it. Why would anyone care enough to look for something you don't care enough to link?

Thats the point. The story WAS easilly accessable and I didn't think I NEEDED to post the link. But I totally understand where you're coming from though. I, because of some of the media outlets that I'm at, get the news ahead of the rest of the "common folk" because it hasn't hit mainstream news yet. IF it was an obscure blog post, I agree, it would be difficult if not impossible to find the info.

I'll try to remember to cite sources in the future. Thanks for the feedback.

Print Story: Funeral for 2 slain in security shooting on Yahoo! News

Funeral for 2 slain in security shooting

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago

Weeping mourners called for justice Wednesday at a funeral for two Armenian Christian women killed while driving in Baghdad ? the second shooting of civilians involving a security firm linked to U.S. government-financed work in Iraq in less than a month.

The funeral Mass for Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal, who died in Tuesday's shooting, was held at the Virgin Mary Church. Awanis' three daughters cried and other female relatives wailed over the caskets, adorned only with a golden cross.

Iraqi authorities blamed the deaths on guards working for Unity Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.

Unity, which provides protection for USAID contractor RTI International, said an investigation was under way, but initial findings showed its security team fired after a car failed to stop despite "an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare."

Statements from both Unity and RTI have made clear the guards were not escorting RTI clients when the shooting occurred.

Witnesses and police said it appeared that Awanis, who was driving, was trying to stop when the shooting began.

The Rev. Kivork Arshlian urged the government to punish those responsible despite the immunity that has generally been enjoyed by foreign security contractors in Iraq.

"This is a crime against humanity in general and against Iraqis in particular. Many other people were killed in a similar way," he said. "We call upon the government to put an end to these killings."

He demanded that those responsible be held accountable in Iraq.

"This security company should leave the country. Those who committed this crime should be punished because they claimed the lives of two people," he said. "We do not want a trial in Australia, which we would know nothing about."

His comments reflected the growing anger against the private security companies ? nearly all based in the United States, Britain and other Western countries ? as symbols of the lawlessness in Iraq since the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"What is the use of the word 'sorry?'" screamed Nora Jalal, Awanis' daughter and a student at Baghdad's Technology University.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the shooting was "part of a series of reckless actions by some security companies."

The deaths of the two women ? including one who used the white car as a taxi to raise money for her family ? came a day after the Iraqi government gave U.S. officials a report demanding hefty payments and the ouster from Iraq of embattled Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater USA for a shooting last month that left at least 17 civilians dead.

The Blackwater guards implicated in the Sept. 16 shooting also were protecting American specialists working under USAID contracts on development projects in Iraq, highlighting the difficult balance facing Western agencies trying to help rebuild Iraq while keeping their own staff safe.

Tuesday's killings were certain to sharpen government demands to curb the expanding array of security firms in Iraq watching over diplomats, aid groups and others.

Unity provides security services to RTI International, a group based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that promotes governance projects in Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Both Unity and RTI acknowledged a security contract between them but said RTI staffers were not present at the shooting in Baghdad's Karradah district.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said RTI was under contract by USAID but was responsible for its own security. "USAID does not direct the security arrangements of contractors," Mirembe Nantongo said.

According to the USAID Web site, RTI has about $450 million in U.S. government contracts to work on governance projects in Iraq. USAID is a semiautonomous arm of the State Department that manages U.S. aid programs.

Michael Priddin, chief operating officer of Unity, told The Associated Press the firm was working with Iraqi authorities "to find out the results of the shooting incident. ... We are trying to work out a true picture of what happened."

In a statement Tuesday night, Priddin said, "We deeply regret this incident."

Iraqi government officials, police and witnesses said guards working for Unity fired on a white Oldsmobile as it approached their convoy, killing the two women before speeding away. The incident occurred near a Unity facility in Karradah.

Four armored SUVs ? three white and one gray ? were about 100 yards from a main intersection in the Shiite-controlled district, according to Iraqi accounts. As the car moved into the crossroads, the Unity guards threw a smoke bomb in an apparent bid to warn the driver not to come closer, said policeman Riyadh Majid, who saw the shooting.

Two of the Unity guards then opened fire. The driver tried to stop, but was killed along with her passenger. Two of three people in the back seat were wounded.

Police said they collected 19 spent 5.56 mm shell casings, ammunition commonly used by U.S. and NATO forces and most Western security organizations. The pavement was stained with blood and covered with shattered glass.

Majid said the convoy raced away after the shooting. Iraqi police collected the bodies and towed the car.

A second policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said the guards were masked and wore khaki uniforms. He said one left the vehicle and started to shoot at the car, while another opened fire from the open back door of an SUV.

Awanis' sister-in-law, Anahet Bougous, said the woman had been using her car to drive government employees to work to raise money for her three daughters after her husband died during heart surgery last year.

An Iraqi investigation of the Blackwater shooting on Sept. 16 was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and called for the company to pay $8 million in compensation to the families of each of the 17 victims. The commission also said Blackwater guards had killed 21 other Iraqis since it began protecting American diplomats.

Unity also has come under scrutiny before.

In March 2006, the company issued an statement of sympathy after one of its guards was blamed for shooting a 72-year-old Iraqi-born Australian, Kays Juma, at a Baghdad checkpoint.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Juma was killed because he was in a car that failed to stop. Unity said multinational forces and Iraqi police also were present at the checkpoint at the time.

Unity provides armed guards and security training throughout Iraq. Its heavily armed teams are Special Forces veterans from Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Britain ? as well as former law enforcement officers from those countries.

In other violence Wednesday, a roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi bystander and wounding three others, police said.

The explosion in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah also damaged a Humvee, a police officer said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment and no American casualties were reported.

U.S. soldiers quickly sealed off the area and U.S. Apache helicopters circled to provide support.

Another roadside bomb targeted a U.S. convoy in eastern Baghdad, police said, but no casualties were reported.

In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber slammed his minibus into blast walls at the offices of a key Kurdish political party, killing a party official and a guard, and wounding five other guards, the party said.

The attack targeted a regional office of the Kurdish Democratic Party, or KDP, some 13 miles outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to party spokesman Ahmed Tawfiq. KDP is led by Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of guerrilla activity, and the scene of many bombings, drive-by shootings and assassination attempts.

Also Wednesday, a parked car bomb exploded near a market in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian, and wounding another policeman and three civilians.

___

Associated Press writers Katarina Kratovac, Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this story.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of KDP leader's first name to Massoud, not Masoud.)


There is the source.

What's the big deal? I think the story is believable enough, on its' face, than most of the crap the WH press secretary puts out. I don't believe diddly coming out of the WH.

Posting that "some contractors killed a couple women and drove off" while believable, has no merit without a source. Obviously it's all over hte news now, but atm he posted it was breaking and not quite "out" yet, at least to those of us that don't scoure the interent 24/7.

I would say that reporting on a story prior to it "breaking" speaks volumes for my credibility.

Not if it turned out to be untrue. Copy pasting a sentence as a news story isn't credible, links, sources, siting.

I agree. The story is true however.

Besides the fact that this is a discussion forum NOT a news service.

True enough, and on that note, another win the belt notch of democracy by hired guns in Iraq. Boy, aren't those mercenacies making us look great?

America hasn't looked great since bush and his henchmen took control.

I don't think Black Water was involved in this one if I recall what I read yesterday about it as I posted it on another site.
But it could effect all the different security groups doing business there.

Like I have repeatably said things are quickly getting out of human control. Or it is starting to come under Gods' control and His, time frame. IMHO.
One has to remember this all is about a family feud starting a long time ago. By 3 adults and 2 children in the center of it all. Iraq, and our involvement there is still part of this same feud. Oh how we lose site of the truth when our opinions and feelings get in the way! Oh hereis a follow up on the action yesterday.

Outraged Iraqis condemn killings by foreign guards by Salam Faraj
27 minutes ago



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Outraged Iraqi authorities on Wednesday condemned the killing in Baghdad of two women by foreign security guards but the Australian-run firm that hired the contractors said they had opened fire fearing a suicide attack.

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"The government and the prime minister and everybody categorically condemns the actions of this company," the head of Baghdad security, General Qassim Mussawi, said in a statement.

Tuesday's shooting came just days after Iraq vowed to punish US firm Blackwater when a probe found that its guards opened "deliberate" fire in another incident in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 civilians.

Witnesses to the latest shooting, in Karrada neighbourhood, said a woman taxi driver mistakenly got too close to a convoy of Dubai-based Unity Resources Group (URG) and came under immediate gunfire by the guards.

The taxi driver, an Armenian Christian identified as Maroni Ohannes, 49, and a female passenger died of gunshots to the head. Another woman passenger was wounded in the shoulder, while a child was injured by flying glass.

Several witnesses reported barrages of gunfire, and a policeman who witnessed the shooting said that after blazing away at the car the foreign security guards sped off "like gangsters."

Commenting on the incident, Unity said in a fresh statement issued late Wednesday that its convoy was "approached at speed by a white car."

"The security team used graduated and escalated responses which included non-lethal means such as signage, strobe lights, hand signals, and a signal flare fired in front of the vehicle in an effort to get it to stop.

"The vehicle did not heed these warnings and failed to halt. Fearing a suicide attack, only then did the team use their weapons in a final attempt to stop the vehicle."

It regretted the loss of lives and said its officials had been meeting with Iraqi authorities "throughout the day and are cooperating with their investigations."

A small group of the dead women's grieving relatives gathered for their funerals at the Armenian Church in central Baghdad on Wednesday.

"The incident is a barbarous crime," said one sobbing relative, Kasbar Boghos. "Those guards are inhuman. They have no pity nor do they have any religion."

Another, Kevork Armelian, judged the shootings a "crime against humanity."

"We call on the Iraqi government to put an end to this," Armelian told AFP. "It was clear that women were inside the car when they opened fire haphazardly and deliberately.

"We demand the expulsion of the company so that others can learn a lesson. The Australian government when sending envoys should teach them human rights -- not how to kill innocent people."

The US State Department, whose personnel Blackwater had been escorting during the earlier incident on September 16, has denied any link between the latest shooting and the American government.

However, it has emerged that Unity was returning to its headquarters after transporting members of RTI International, a company under contract to the US government agency USAID, when the two Iraqi women were killed.

"No RTI staff members were involved or present when the incident occurred. Unity was not transporting RTI personnel at the time.

"They had completed a transportation mission and were returning to their base of operations," Patrick Gibbons, the group's communications director, told AFP, while confirming RTI personnel had just been dropped off.

RTI is a non-profit organisation involved in training Iraqis in local government management and administration.

"USAID does not direct the security arrangements of contractors," US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP.

"Contractors are contractually responsible for the safety and wellbeing of their employees," she said, adding that the State Department was in contact with the Iraqi authorities about the shooting.

Iraq's government said on Monday that it was determined to rein in private security contractors operating in the war-torn country following the Blackwater shooting, which an Iraqi report said was unprovoked.

"We have set strict mechanisms to control the behaviour of the security companies and their conduct in the streets," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
Outraged Iraqis condemn killings by foreign guards - Yahoo! News

Christians have been singing that end of times tune since the alleged time of Jesus. If we have mercenaries in the region, that are quite obviously paid better than the troops, don't you think that worsens the situation? Especially after news come out that exposes them as cold blooded assassins.

Mlurp, you have stated that you were in Iraq. In what capacity and for how long? What did you see? What is your honest opinion of how the Iraqi's view America? Are we liberators or are we considered occupiers?

I would actually like to interview you on the subject.