Today’s Must ReadWhen Blackwater CEO Erik Prince marches up to the Hill for a hearing today, he’s sure to be confronted a portrayal of his guards as trigger-happy, remorseless, greedy mercenaries — or as one former Blackwater employee put it, “lazy f**ks [who] care about one thing, money.”
Prince’s response, as indicated by his prepared statement (pdf), is to counter that with an image of U.S. military men and women “volunteering” to serve their country (although for a pot of money):
Under the direction and oversight of the United States Government, Blackwater provides an opportunity for military and law enforcement veterans with a record of honorable service to continue their support to the United States. Words alone cannot express the respect I have for these men and women who volunteer to defend U.S. personnel, facilities, and diplomatic missions. I am proud to be here today to represent them.
And countering Henry Waxman’s numbers, Prince defends Blackwater’s performance with his own numbers. Waxman’s House oversight committee report showed that Blackwater had been involved in 195 “escalation of force” incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 shooting incidents per week. From January 2005 to April 2007, Blackwater employees used their weapons 168 times. Waxman also reported that, in 80 percent of those incidents, Blackwater fired first.
Prince offers a different metric: in 2007, his guards have opened fire during only 56 of the their 1,873 security details for diplomatic visits outside the Green Zone. That’s “less than three percent of movements,” he says. (Think of all the times they didn’t shoot.) As to what percentage of those incidents had Blackwater guards firing first, he doesn’t say. Thirty Blackwater guards have been killed in Iraq, he says.
And, of course, Prince offers a version of the September 16th Mansour incident. According to the Iraqis, the Blackwater fired first, after a car didn’t slow down enough at a traffic stop. In Prince’s telling, the Blackwater guards came under fire first and from a variety of attackers (men toting AK-47s and “approaching vehicles that appeared to be suicide bombers”), some of whom “appeared to be wearing Iraqi National Police uniforms, or portions of such uniforms. Only five of the twenty Blackwater guards at the scene that day fired their weapons, Prince says. Based on “everything we currently know,” he concludes, “the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone in September 16.”
The hearing starts at 10 this morning; we’ll be providing running updates throughout.
