Blackwater blamed in Pentagon report on incident; Rice orders cameras on cars; Blackwater hires publicity firm

Above: 'Security contractors' from Blackwater fighting alongside U.S. troops in 2004.

Blackwater Faulted In Military Reports From Shooting Scene

U.S. military reports from the scene of the Sept. 16 shooting incident involving the security firm Blackwater USA indicate that its guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force against Iraqi civilians, according to a senior U.S. military official...

The U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the shooting incident in Nisoor Square, in which hospital records say at least 14 people were killed and 18 were wounded.

"It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong," said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident remains the subject of several investigations. "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP or any of the local security forces fired back at them," he added, using a military abbreviation for the Iraqi police. The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, the official said...

"They tend to overreact to a lot of things. They maneuver around town very aggressively, they've got weapons pointed at people, they cut people off, of course their speeds -- I mean a whole bunch of things they do fairly consistently. But when it comes to shooting and firing, they tend to shoot quicker than others," the U.S. military official said.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

Rice puts cameras on Blackwater convoys

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday ordered measures to boost oversight of U.S. security firm Blackwater, including putting video cameras on its convoys, after last month's deadly shootings in Iraq.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said dozens of diplomatic security agents would also be sent to Iraq to accompany each convoy protected by Blackwater guards...

Special agents would begin immediately accompanying Blackwater when the firm transports U.S. diplomatic personnel outside the fortified international zone, McCormack said.

"Agents are en route to Baghdad and we will continue to deploy them," he said, declining to provide exact numbers for security reasons.

Read the rest at Reuters

State Overhauls Embassy Security in Iraq

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered an overhaul of U.S. Embassy security practices in Iraq, tightening government oversight of diplomatic convoys escorted by private security contractors following the Blackwater USA shooting incident in which 13 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad.

Rice accepted preliminary recommendations from an internal review board that call for Diplomatic Security agents to accompany every convoy, the installation of video cameras in security vehicles, audio recordings of radio traffic between the embassy and such convoys and improved coordination and communication between convoys and the U.S. military.

The moves are aimed at "putting in place more robust assets to make sure that the management, reporting and accountability function works as best as it possibly can," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He did not say that previous Blackwater and U.S. practices were lacking in proper safeguards for accountability, but instead noted that under the new orders State will have better control of the operations of private contractors, including Blackwater. The company is the largest of three private security firms that guard U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

Read the rest at the LA Times

Blackwater Hires PR Giant to Help Image

Public relations giant Burson-Marsteller has vast experience steering companies through tough times. But there's a limit to how much it can help Blackwater USA, a new client that's been battered by negative publicity.

The State Department, which pays Blackwater hundreds of millions of dollars to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, has stringent rules barring the private security contractor from discussing with the media the details of its work, according to those familiar with the arrangement.

Under those limitations, it's difficult to repair a corporate image, said one official close to Blackwater...

One of the Burson-Marsteller executives working on the Blackwater account is Robert Tappan, a former State Department official who joined Burson-Marsteller in July and is president of the company's Washington office.

At State, Tappan was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. While at State, he spent six months in Baghdad as director of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the temporary governing body that disbanded in June 2004.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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