Xe Blackwater
United States Attorneys are currently investigating. The United States State Department and Blackwater USA had attempted to keep his identity secret. Department of Defense tried to call him back to active duty, but cancelled the request because Moonen was overseas.
Blackwater Security guarding U.S.
Three Iraqi insurgent groups claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter, however, this has not been confirmed by the United States. A U.S. and Iraqi officials. On May 30, 2007, Blackwater employees shot an Iraqi civilian deemed to have been "driving too close" to a State Department convoy that was being escorted by Blackwater contractors. Other private security contractors, such as Aegis Defence Services have been accused of similar actions. Doug Brooks, the president of the International Peace Operations Association ("IPOA"), a trade group representing Blackwater and other military contractors, said that in his view military law would not apply to Blackwater employees working for the State Department. In October 2007, Blackwater USA announced that the company was taking a "hiatus" from membership in IPOA.
On February 6, 2006, a sniper employed by Blackwater Worldwide opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry, killing three guards working for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network.
State Department, based on information obtained from Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force."
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, Baghdad, killing 17 civilians in the Blackwater Baghdad shootings incident. Two Blackwater helicopters were also spotted at the time, that witnesses say aided in the attack.
A number of victims and victims' families have filed a lawsuit against Blackwater in Atban, et al. The Chief Operating Officer of the Prince Group, Joseph Schmitz, is an honorary member of the group the Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, considered to be the main successor to the crusader Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order, and now also a voluntary disaster relief and aid organization.
This linkage is, in the words of Malta Today, "the latest conspiracy theory". Jordanian Member of Parliament Jamal Muhammad Abidat wrote in the Abu Dhabi daily newspaper Al-Bayan that:
The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in the Crusades of the 11th century, when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders. These assertions have absolutely no factual basis,”
He further stated that these accusations put “the lives of volunteers offering humanitarian assistance in grave danger”.
The European Parliament published a report by legislator Giovanni Claudio Fava, detailing connections between Blackwater and Malta.
We are happy to engage them there.“We question the judgment of anyone who relies upon and anonymous declarations.”
A number of Iraqi familes with killed relatives are taking Blackwater to court over alleged "random killings committed by private Blackwater guards".
Christian Right Ideology
A book on Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill, claims that the leadership of Blackwater was driven by a Christian agenda deployed by, ‘extreme religious zealots’. Congress
On October 2, 2007, Erik Prince attended a congressional hearing conducted by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform following the controversy related to Blackwater's conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater hired the public relations firm BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, to help Prince prepare for his testimony at the hearing.
State Department official who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, was one of the executives handling the account. Burson-Marsteller was brought aboard by the Washington law firms representing Blackwater – McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring. BKSH, a self-described "bipartisan" firm (Hillary Rodham Clinton, when pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination, was also a client), is headed by Charlie Black, a prominent Republican political strategist and former chief spokesman for the Republican National Committee, and Scott Pastrick, former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.
In his testimony before Congress, Prince said his company has a lack of remedies to deal with employee misdeeds. courts, and Senate Democratic leaders have said they plan to send similar legislation to President Bush as soon as possible. The legal status of Xe and other security firms in Iraq is a subject of contention. Two days before he left Iraq, L.
The State Department will also install video surveillance equipment in all Blackwater armored vehicles, and will keep recordings of all radio communications between Blackwater convoys in Iraq and the military and civilian agencies which supervise their activities.
In December 2008 a US State Department panel recommended that Xe should be dropped as the main private security contractor for U.S. State Department told Blackwater Worldwide that it will not renew its contract in Iraq.
Iraqi courts and legal action
On September 23, 2007, the Iraqi government said that it expects to refer criminal charges to its courts in connection with a shooting involving Blackwater guards. However, on October 29, 2007, immunity from prosecution was granted by the U.S.
government is unlikely to allow a trial in the Iraqi courts, because there is little confidence that trials would be fair. Contractors accused of crimes abroad could be tried in the United States under either military or civilian law; however, the applicable military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, was changed in 2006, and appears to now exempt State Department contractors that provide security escorts for a civilian agency.
According to a company press release, it provided airlift, security, logistics, and transportation services, as well as humanitarian support. The families say they are not suing for financial damages, but rather for the details of their sons' and husbands' deaths, saying Xe has refused to supply these details, and that in its "zeal to exploit this unexpected market for private security men," the company "showed a callous disregard for the safety of its employees." Four family members testified in front of the House Government Reform Committee on February 7, 2007.
Presidential Airways, a division of Blackwater, questioned the validity of the Army's report, stating that it "contains numerous errors, misstatements, and unfounded assumptions." On April 19, 2006, The Nation magazine published an article titled, "Blood is Thicker Than Blackwater," concerning the families' lawsuit against Blackwater. and international media. Critics consider Xe's self-description as a private military company to be a euphemism for mercenary activities.Jeremy Scahill points out that Chilean nationals, mostly former soldiers, whose country of origin does not participate in hostilities in Iraq, work for Xe in that country; thus, those Chileans meet the definition of "mercenary." At least 60 Chilean Blackwater employees were trained during dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime. Author Chris Hedges wrote about the establishment of mercenary armies, referring to Blackwater as an example of such a force, asserting its existence as a threat to democracy and a step towards the creation of a modern day Praetorian Guard in a June 3, 2007, article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Critics have suggested this may be going too far in putting political decisions in the hands of privately owned corporations. The company denies this was ever said.
In December 2006, an Iraqi politician, Ayham al-Samarie, escaped from a prison in Iraq, where he was awaiting trial for 12 criminal corruption cases. Blackwater, which he had hired for protection before his arrest, allegedly helped him escape. He said from Dubai he would return to the United States as he hadn't broken any U.S. There was absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever." He then stated, "There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries, they are guns for hire; No more, no less."
Xe, which had been operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license, applied for one for the first time, but the request was denied by Iraqi officials in January 2009.