03 Oct 2007: ISS Today: Creating New Vulnerabilities - The Blackwater USA Debacle in Iraq

3 October 2007: Creating New Vulnerabilities - The Blackwater USA Debacle in Iraq

 

Erratum

 

In the original version of this article that was published on the ISS website, the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) was erroneously quoted as stating in a 2004 press release that Blackwater USA maintains `the finest private firearms for peace operations`. The IPOA statement in fact stated that Blackwater USA `maintains the finest private firearms and tactical training facility in the US`. ISS extends our apologies to IPOA for this misquote.

 

In what Naomi Klein refers to as ‘[t]he most important and chilling book about the death throes of US democracy…’ the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (published in 2007), Jeremy Scahill succinctly narrates the rise of the world’s most powerful ‘mercenary army’, Blackwater USA, whose licence was ironically recently revoked (albeit temporarily) after years of hard work in protecting Bush’s men in Iraq. Scahill recalls that Blackwater’s true fame and fortune was gained in the aftermath of 9/11 when Blackwater Security Consulting was formed in 2002. This is when Blackwater burst into the world of soldiers for fortune. For Blackwater, Scahill argues, ‘the opportunity of a lifetime would come when the U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad in March 2003.’ However, owing to Blackwater’s recent involvement in an unfortunate incidence that ‘touched a nerve with Iraqis’, this ‘lifetime opportunity’ may turn out to have been short-lived. It is alleged that, on September 16 2007, Blackwater contractors opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing 11 Iraqis in al-Nusur Square in western Baghdad.

 

In a press statement released by the International Peace Operations Association welcoming Blackwater, it was stated that ‘Blackwater USA maintains the finest private firearms ...’. These firearms seem not, in this case, to have been used in the service of peace in this predominantly Sunni neighbourhood. As a result of the September 16 incident, Blackwater USA has been labelled an ‘untouchable’ private security company which is often ‘given a wide latitude by State Department’, a company mainly staffed by ‘immature shooters’ who always have ‘very quick trigger fingers’. Blackwater’s ‘peace operations’ in Iraq have always pointed to the direction of a serious lack of accountability when things have gone wrong. Many questions have been left unanswered. How many people has Blackwater actually killed and wounded due to the absence of a body overseeing its activities in Iraq? In his book Scahill contends that ‘not a single U.S. military contractor has been prosecuted for crimes committed in Iraq’. This is hardly surprising given that Coalition Provision Authority (CPA) Order 17, dated June 27, 2004, granted private security companies immunity from Iraqi law.  

 

Throughout its operations in Iraq Blackwater has continued to be what Scahill refers to as ‘a patriotic extension of the U.S. Military.’ The company requires all company employees and contractors to swear the same oath of loyalty to the U.S. Constitution as Blackwater’s ‘National Security-related’ clients (including the Pentagon, State Department and several intelligence agencies): ‘to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…So help me God.’

 

The involvement of Blackwater in the alleged killings raises question of whether private security actors are indeed desirable instruments for keeping the peace, or have they become a law unto themselves? In what Naomi Klein considers to be ‘a triumph of investigative reporting’ Scahill exposes Blackwater’s close relationship with the US Government, a relationship that is unlikely to be significantly undermined by the recent incident in Iraq. After all, Eric Prince, the owner of Blackwater has served as a bankroller for Bush’s electoral campaigns. The Blackwater scandal has moved the debate around the subject of private security actors further in terms of their regulation and control, and possibly outright prohibition. Much has been said about the undesirability of foreign private security actors in Iraq. They pose a security threat to the Iraqi people despite the US Government’s assertion that it is winning the Iraqi war. Writing on the challenges of security privatisation in Iraq, David Isenberg noted that ‘[b]y and large, countries in the Middle East do not want Western foreigners carrying weapons…’ Perhaps this message should be hand delivered to the White House with the complements of the Iraqi people.

 

Whether or not the heavy reliance on ‘mercenary forces’ such as Blackwater by the US Government in places like Iraq is workable remains a challenging question, particularly so in the light of allegations that security companies have been involved in ruthless killings under the guise of acting in self-defence. Blackwater has pushed the already hard-pressed Iraqi people to the limit. As the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki noted that Blackwater’s crime has ‘inflamed contempt, hatred and anger both from the government and the Iraqi public.’ Mending the Iraqi people’s hearts will be next to impossible. The 16 September incident speaks to one thing: relying on ‘mercenary forces’ creates new vulnerabilities and insecurities in already complex conflict zones.

 

Sabelo Gumedze, Senior Researcher: Defence Sector Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)