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Hurray! Even the FBI can't prove that the Blackwater guards were at fault in this terrible incident. The odds are that the insurgents did fire and were hiding in the crowd to get as many innocents killed as possible. There is no proof to contradict the story that the guards told.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/blackwater_forensics_2

FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection.

Five Blackwater guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by insurgents.

The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.

Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck and around Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns.

The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.

While this is found in Pravda, which is Russian word for Truth and a source of some amusement to speakers of the language, I have noticed the same trend, as have others. Private and corporate armies are becoming the new trend. Conflict is becoming too specialized to be left to basically trained troops.

This happened before in the Renaissance when mercenaries led the way in most if not all conflicts. That is why the Swiss still guard the Vatican.

http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/24-02-2009/107146-private_military_company-0

Private military companies to supersede regular armies

Private military companies (PMCs) have become rather popular nowadays in terms of providing specialized expertise or services of a military nature. These units can compete with special services and regular armies. There are such companies in Russia, although they are not so widely spread in the country in comparison with their prototypes in the West. As experience shows, the PMCs will prevail in the future.

The history of private military companies started on June 24, 1997, when experts of the US Intelligence Department proclaimed the PMCs as a major tool in the implementation of the military security policy of the United States and its allies in other countries.

The professional level of a private military company is its major advantage. Inexperienced military men are not welcome there. A PMC member is usually a man between 35-40 years of age. A human being of this age is resistant to stresses and emergency situations. In addition, a man of this age can also do routine work very well, which can not be said about younger men.

Potential fighters of the private military companies possess the required level of experience and have an adequate insight, which allows such units to achieve better results in their activities in comparison with regular armies.

A private military company can be very efficient in local conflicts, where the use of regular armies can be complicated for legal reasons. For example, Russia can not send its troops to Nigeria if Nigerian gunmen attack employees of Russian companies - it would be a gross violation of international laws.

Russian PMCs - Tiger Top Rent Security and Orel Antiterror - do not lag behind their US or British colleagues. The only difference is that Russian PMC fighters are paid a lot less.

Russian PMCs took part in the military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine.

Russia's largest companies such as Russian Aluminium (Rusal), Lukoil, Rosneft and Gazprom received a carte blanche to form military structures to protect their interests both inside and outside Russia.

Private military companies supply bodyguards for the Afghan president and pilot armed reconnaissance planes and helicopter gunships to destroy Coca crops in Colombia. They are licensed by the State Department; they are contracting with foreign governments, training soldiers and reorganizing militaries in Nigeria, Bulgaria, Taiwan, and Equatorial Guinea. The PMC industry is now worth over $100 billion a year.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87757

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.

As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,463171,00.html

Five indicted Blackwater Worldwide security guards plan to surrender to the FBI Monday in Salt Lake City, about 2,000 miles from the Washington courthouse where they were charged, a person close to the case said.

Such a move would be the opening salvo in what is shaping up to be a contentious legal fight before the guards can even get to trial. By surrendering in Utah, the home state of one of the guards, the men can argue for a trial there -- a far more conservative, pro-gun venue than Washington.

The person described the decision to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the indictment against the men remains sealed.

The five guards, all military veterans, were indicted for their roles in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. The shooting strained U.S. diplomacy and fueled anti-American sentiment abroad.

Steven McCool, a lawyer for Blackwater guard and former Marine Donald Ball, confirmed Sunday that his client would surrender in Utah. Ball is from West Valley City, Utah.

"Donald Ball committed no crime," McCool said. "We are confident that any jury will see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution to appease the Iraqi government."

I am glad that they are trying to prove this case in court, but without any material evidence, I am not sure what they are going to work with. Accidents happen, especially in wars and combat zones. I believe the shooters in this case and not the "witnesses" who have great incentive to lie.

Let these people go. Give them a fair trial and they will be free.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081206/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/blackwater_prosecution

More than a year after the fatal shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians, five decorated military veterans who were Blackwater Worldwide security guards are headed to court in a case that strained diplomatic ties and raised the level of anti-Americanism in Baghdad.

Iraqis hope the charges, to be unsealed Monday, finally will bring justice and improve relations with the United States after the gruesome slayings on Sept. 16, 2007.

Defense lawyers say the case unfairly has tarnished the images of the Blackwater guards. Each man has received honors for his service in some of the world's most dangerous places, from Bosnia and Afghanistan to Iraq. The five were to surrender to the FBI on Monday, when the Justice Department plans to unseal the charges against them.

"These are indictments that never should have been brought," said Mark Hulkower, a lawyer for Army veteran Paul Slough of Keller, Texas.

I think that it is time for a mercenary company to form in international waters that can operate for whom ever needs the help. The limits on Blackwater by working out of the US is good most of the time, but to fight against pirates in international waters takes special capabilities that the International Community refuses to use anymore.

If not Blackwater, then who?

Foreign navies have begun patrolling the Gulf of Aden to rein in the pirate gangs off the coast of northern Somalia, but they have had only limited success. As a result, ship owners have seen insurance premiums for coverage of passage through the Straits of Aden climb from an average of $900 to $9,000.

In Pictures: The World's Most Dangerous Waters

It's bad news for shippers, but an opportunity for Blackwater Worldwide, the North Carolina-based private military contractor. Last week, the company announced plans to dispatch the MV MacArthur, a 183-foot vessel with a crew of 14 and a helicopter pad, to the Gulf of Aden to provide escort services for ships in need of security.

"Billions of dollars of goods move through the Gulf of Aden each year," said Bill Matthews, executive vice president of Blackwater Worldwide, in a press release. "We have been contacted by ship owners who say they need our help in making sure those goods get to their destination safely. The McArthur can help us accomplish that."