-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 7, 2007 1:40:03 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Blackwater Halliburton's Private Army
FAMILIES SAY 4 PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS KILLED IN IRAQ LACKED ARMOR,
HEAVY WEAPONS
The Associated Press, February 7, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/07/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-
Contracts.php
WASHINGTON: The families of four private guards whose bodies were
burned and dragged through the streets by a mob in Iraq told
Congress on Wednesday that the security company that hired them
failed to provide armored vehicles and other promised protections.
The guards' families have sued the company, Blackwater USA, telling
a House of Representatives hearing it was the only way they can
learn all the circumstances of the deaths. Blackwater and several
Republican lawmakers said the lawsuit should not be argued at a
congressional hearing.
The deaths of the four, all former members of the military, brought
to U.S. television some of its most gruesome images of the Iraq
war. A frenzied mob of insurgents ambushed a supply convoy the
guards were escorting through Fallujah on March 31, 2004. The men
were attacked, their bodies mutilated; two of the corpses were
strung from a bridge.
At the hearing, Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, mother of Stephen
Helvenston, read a statement on behalf of the families. She stopped
several times to collect herself as she recounted the emotional day.
She said the security guards were denied armored vehicles, heavy
weapons and maps for their convoy routes, and that the rear gunners
were removed from vehicles to perform other duties.
"Blackwater gets paid for the number of warm bodies it can put on
the ground in certain locations throughout the world," she said.
"If some are killed it replaces them at a moment's notice."
Helvenston-Wettengel said her son was alive when Iraqis tied him to
his vehicle and dragged him through the streets. He eventually was
decapitated.
In a statement prepared for House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, Blackwater USA general counsel Andrew Howell said
lawyers for the family members were using the hearing for their own
purposes and that the case should be heard in court, not in Congress.
Howell said the hearing should not delve into an "incomplete and
one-sided exploration of a specific battlefield incident."
Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican, said he did not believe the
testimony was germane to a House committee scrutinizing U.S.
companies with Iraq contracts. He pressed the witnesses on whether
their lawyers wrote their statement, but Ms. Helvenston-Wettengel
said each of the four women at the hearing wrote a portion of the
statement.
The three men killed in addition to Helvenston — a former Navy SEAL
— were Wesley Batalona, a former Army Ranger represented by his
daughter Kristal; Michael Teague, formerly in an Army helicopter
unit, represented by his widow Rhonda; and Jerry Zovko, a former
Army Ranger represented by his mother Donna.
The committee also is looking into Blackwater's contract to provide
security services in Iraq.
After numerous denials, the Pentagon has confirmed that Blackwater
provided armed security guards in Iraq under a subcontract that was
buried so deeply the government at first could not find it.
The secretary of the Army on Tuesday wrote two Democratic lawmakers
that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military
support operation by run by Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR. Dick
Cheney ran Halliburton before he became vice president.
Several times last year, Pentagon officials told inquiring
lawmakers they could find no evidence of the Blackwater contract.
Blackwater did not respond to several requests for comment.
The discovery shows the dense world of Iraq contracting, where the
main contractor hires subcontractors who then hire additional
subcontractors. Each company tacks on a charge for overhead, a cost
that works its way up to U.S. taxpayers.
"This ongoing episode demonstrates the Pentagon's complete failure
to safeguard taxpayer dollars," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a
Democrat and one of the lawmakers who had asked about the
Blackwater contract and received denials.
"They continue to look the other way in the face of overwhelming
evidence that Halliburton was charging taxpayers for unauthorized
security services," Van Hollen said.
Blackwater employees have suffered heavy casualties in Iraq. In
addition to the four killed in Fallujah in 2004, the company said
three of its employees were killed in Mosul in 2005, and last
month, five of its employees died when a helicopter went down in
Baghdad under heavy fire.
Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and
security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from
across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
