-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 19, 2007 8:19:57 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "Surge Working" but US (Blackwater, CIA) under Lockdown in
Iraq. IRAN, Anyone?
CIA Shut Down in Iraq
A perfect storm set to roil Blackwater?
Are we witnessing Iran’s counter-strike to the surge?
September 19, 2007 11:58 AM
Richard Miniter, PJM Washington Editor
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/09/cia_shut_down_in_iraq.php
Movements of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad —along with most
State department diplomats and teams building police stations and
schools— have been frozen for the second day in a row, according to
a State department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Essentially, the CIA, State department and government contractors
are stuck inside the International Zone, also known as “the Green
Zone,” in Central Baghdad. Even travel inside that walled enclave
is somewhat restricted.
Pajamas Media is the first to report that the CIA station is all
but motionless — as meetings with informants and Iraqi government
officials have been hastily cancelled.
What caused the shut down?
Following a firefight between Iraqi insurgents and a Blackwater USA
protection detail on Sunday (12:08 PM Baghdad time), Iraqi
officials suspended the operating license of the North Carolina-
based government contractor. While the Iraqi government is yet to
hold a formal hearing on the matter, Blackwater and all it protects
remain frozen.
“By jamming up Blackwater, they shut down the movements of the
embassy and the [CIA] station,” a State department source told
Pajamas Media. He is not cleared to talk to the press.
Blackwater provides Personnel Security Details —or PSDs— for most
CIA, State department, and U.S. Agency of International Development
officers. In addition, Blackwater’s special-forces veterans guard
many of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams —or PRTs— that build
schools, clinics, police and fire stations and other structures
that house essential Iraqi government services. Work on these vital
“hearts and minds” projects has all but stopped across Iraq.
The State department has long insisted on using Blackwater and
other private security firms so that its convoys and legations
would not be controlled by the Defense department.
There are now more private contractors working in Iraq than U.S.
soldiers serving there. Many are not U.S. citizens. Triple Canopy,
another private firm, usually hires Peruvians to man the
checkpoints inside the International Zone and Ugandans to guard
distant airbases. The Peruvians, known as “incas” among Americans
there, usually do not speak English or Arabic—a persistent source
of complaint by Iraqi politicians who speak one or both languages.
At least eight Iraqis are reported dead after the Sunday shoot out
and some press reports refer to the local casualties as “civilians.”
“Initial press accounts were inaccurate,” said Blackwater USA
spokeswoman Anne Tyrell. “The ‘civilians’ reportedly fired upon by
Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater
personnel returned defensive fire. Blackwater regrets any loss of
life but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents,
not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life.”
“Blackwater professionals heroically defended American lives in a
war zone on Sunday and Blackwater will cooperate with any inquiry
into this matter.”
It’s well known in Iraq that dead insurgents become “civilians” as
soon as their comrades carry away their AK-47s and spare magazines.
Captured al Qaeda manuals detail how militants should use deaths as
a propaganda tool.
TIME magazine received a partial copy of the official incident report.
According to the incident report, the skirmish occurred at 12:08
p.m. on Sunday when, “the motorcade was engaged with small arms
fire from several locations” as it moved through a neighborhood of
west Baghdad. “The team returned fire to several identified
targets” before leaving the area. One vehicle engine was hit and
disabled by bullets and had to be towed away. A separate convoy
arriving to help was “blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police
and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel,” the report
says. Then an American helicopter hovered over the traffic circle,
as the U.S. convoy departed without casualties. Some reports have
said the helicopter also opened fire on Iraqis, but a Blackwater
official told TIME that no shots were fired from the air.
By apparently lifting Blackwater’s license, the democratically
elected Iraq government may stall the forward progress created by
the Gen. Petraeus’ surge and change in counterinsurgency tactics.
Indeed, some contend that the actions of Iraq’s Ministry of
Interior, which supervises police and some intelligence functions,
may be influenced by insurgents or even by Iran.
The staffing and internal rules of the Interior ministry were set
up by Biyat Jabr, an affable and charming Shia Muslim who once
worked for Saddam Hussein. (He was never a member of the Ba’ath
party and thus survived de-Ba’athification with ease.)
Jabr is widely believed to be in the pay of Iranian intelligence
services, although U.S. officials caution that there is no firm
evidence of this charge. Jabr left the ministry in August 2006 and
is now Finance Minister, but before he exited he salted the ranks
with people loyal to Iran and hostile to the U.S. “Innocents dying
[in the Sunday gun battle with Blackwater] is just a pretext,” the
same State department source said.
Enemies of the U.S. inside the Interior ministry have been looking
to shut down Blackwater for some time.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has adopted the same hard line
against the American company. “This company should be punished. We
are not going to allow it to kill Iraqis in cold blood. We have
frozen all its activities and a joint panel has been formed to
investigate the incident,” the prime minister told wire-service
reporters.
“For their own interests, the Americans should hire a new company
to protect their people so they can move freely.”
Both the State department and the Congress have signaled that
investigations in to Blackwater will begin soon.
The State department hopes to shift blame onto Blackwater’s low-
level “trigger pullers,” says the State department source, while
Rep. Henry Waxman’s committee is expected to target senior
executives at Blackwater and top Bush Administration officials. A
perfect storm is set to roil Blackwater.
If Blackwater and other private contractors are shut out of Iraq,
Democrats in Congress and Iranian intelligence operatives may have
stumbled on a way to end the Iraq War — less than a week after Gen.
Petraeus testified that the U.S. is turning the corner.
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