Showing posts with label Blackwater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackwater. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Victims of an Outsourced War -- Printout -- TIME
Victims of an Outsourced War -- Printout -- TIME: " *
Thursday, Mar. 15, 2007
Victims of an Outsourced War
By Brian Bennett
In many ways, Katy Helvenston is like any mother who has lost a son in Iraq. She talks to others who have survived their kids. She wonders whether she could have done more to keep him out of harm's way. She breaks down in tears at random intervals.
But Helvenston has problems that military mothers do not have. Her son Scott, who was killed in 2004 at the age of 38, was neither a soldier nor, really, a civilian. He was an ex--Navy seal who worked for a private security firm called Blackwater. Instead of a headstone at Arlington, he has his name etched in a rock at Blackwater's corporate campus in North Carolina. And Helvenston says that three years later, she still has no real answers from the company about what led to her son's death--a death that she believes was due in part to the company's negligence.
You probably remember how Scott Helvenston and his three colleagues died. Video of their killings made newscasts around the world on March 31, 2004, when a Blackwater security convoy was ambushed by gunmen in Fallujah, Iraq. The four men were dragged from their cars, mutilate"
Thursday, Mar. 15, 2007
Victims of an Outsourced War
By Brian Bennett
In many ways, Katy Helvenston is like any mother who has lost a son in Iraq. She talks to others who have survived their kids. She wonders whether she could have done more to keep him out of harm's way. She breaks down in tears at random intervals.
But Helvenston has problems that military mothers do not have. Her son Scott, who was killed in 2004 at the age of 38, was neither a soldier nor, really, a civilian. He was an ex--Navy seal who worked for a private security firm called Blackwater. Instead of a headstone at Arlington, he has his name etched in a rock at Blackwater's corporate campus in North Carolina. And Helvenston says that three years later, she still has no real answers from the company about what led to her son's death--a death that she believes was due in part to the company's negligence.
You probably remember how Scott Helvenston and his three colleagues died. Video of their killings made newscasts around the world on March 31, 2004, when a Blackwater security convoy was ambushed by gunmen in Fallujah, Iraq. The four men were dragged from their cars, mutilate"
What set off the investigation
New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Five members of a private security detail sent to assist a U.S. Embassy convoy that was under attack were killed Tuesday when their helicopters were fired on and one plummeted to the pavement through a tangle of electrical wires in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods.
The four-man crew in one helicopter was killed, and the gunner in a second helicopter apparently died when he was struck by gunfire,
The crash set off a chaotic five-hour battle in the Fadhil neighborhood in which American attack helicopters fired at least one Hellfire missile.
It is unclear if the first helicopter crashed as the result of gunfire, because it got tangled in the wires or as it was trying to land because a passenger was wounded.
An American military official said that at least four of the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head, raising the prospect that some of them were shot on the ground.
The Sunni insurgent groups the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors terrorism Web sites"
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Five members of a private security detail sent to assist a U.S. Embassy convoy that was under attack were killed Tuesday when their helicopters were fired on and one plummeted to the pavement through a tangle of electrical wires in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods.
The four-man crew in one helicopter was killed, and the gunner in a second helicopter apparently died when he was struck by gunfire,
The crash set off a chaotic five-hour battle in the Fadhil neighborhood in which American attack helicopters fired at least one Hellfire missile.
It is unclear if the first helicopter crashed as the result of gunfire, because it got tangled in the wires or as it was trying to land because a passenger was wounded.
An American military official said that at least four of the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head, raising the prospect that some of them were shot on the ground.
The Sunni insurgent groups the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors terrorism Web sites"
The helicopters were operated by Blackwater USA of North Carolina, the same private security firm that lost four contractors in March 2004 in an ambush in Fallujah, their mutilated bodies hung from a bridge.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced three more troop deaths, a Marine killed Sunday and two soldiers killed Monday. That raised the three-day toll since Saturday to 31.
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