Blackwater CEO Says He Won’t Let Iraqi Government Prosecute His Employees

Washington Times:

A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq’s faulty
justice system.

“We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis,” Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.

“In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial. That is not the case right now,” said Mr. Prince. Read more…

[See the video from CNN of family members telling horrific tales of their loved ones having their skulls blown up by members of Blackwater during the September 16 massacre in Baghdad.]

Logan Murphy, Crooks and Liars: The arrogance is staggering. His company has been terrorizing Iraqi citizens for years and now he says his men can’t get a fair trial there. Welcome to the world you helped to create, Mr. Prince. Iraq is a sovereign nation and has every right to enforce their laws. Prince goes on to say that his men might be tried in a U.S. military court, but after learning from a U.S. Colonel that his men turned their weapons on our own soldiers, he may find he’s no more welcome here than in Iraq.

RELATED: ThinkProgress.org: Blackwater confiscated Iraqi planes. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has revealed that “Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them.” Waxman today wrote to Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and requested that he “provide all documents related to the attempted shipment and to explain where the aircraft are now.”

RELATED: Moyers on Blackwater’s “Spectacle of Spin” (by SilentPatriot). Bill Moyers meticulously documents Erik Prince’s exhaustive spin campaign over the last week, offering a crystal clear picture of how professional deceivers operate. Prince’s rehearsed answer about Blackwater not being a mercenary force — “we’re Americans fighting for America”/ “a mercenary force is hired by a foreign army” — shows just how out of touch and clueless he is. From the Iraqi perspective, Blackwater fits perfectly the definition of a mercenary force — a for-profit killing force hired by (our) foreign army. Does he really not see that? The entire interview with Blackwater expert Jeremy Scahill — who wrote the definitive book on the rise of the private army — can be streamed from the PBS site. Scahill does a tremendous job of exposing Prince and Blackwater for what they are — a taxpayer-funded, for-profit, private killing force that operates outside the rule of law.