Iraq OKs Raids on Blackwater

[kpete]

Iraq OKs Raids on Blackwater
By Noah Shachtman November 08, 2007

This sounds like a recipe for something very ugly. The Times is reporting that "the Iraqi interior minister said Wednesday that he would authorize raids by his security forces on Western security firms to ensure that they were complying with tightened licensing requirements on guns and other weaponry, setting up the possibility of violent confrontations between the Iraqis and heavily armed Western guards."

“Every company will be subject to such examination, and any company that does not follow the law will lose its license,” the minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said of the planned raids. “They are called security companies. They are not called violate-the-law companies...”

Within Baghdad’s relatively safe and heavily guarded Green Zone, there have been early indications of a battle over who controls Iraqi streets. Private security guards say that Iraqi police officers have already descended on Western compounds and stopped vehicles driven by Westerners to check for weapons violations in recent weeks.

Any extension of those measures into the rest of the country, known as the Red Zone, could quickly turn into armed confrontation. Westerners are wary of Interior Ministry checkpoints, some of which have been fake, as well as of ministry units, which are sometimes militia-controlled and have been implicated in sectarian killings. Western convoys routinely have to choose between the risk of stopping and the risk of accelerating past what appear to be official Iraqi forces.

And because Western convoys run by private security companies are often protecting senior American civilian and military officials, the Iraqi government’s struggle with the companies has in some cases become a sort of proxy tug-of-war with the United States.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/world/middleeast/08ministry.html?ei=5088&en=744435e9964ad7ef&ex=1352178000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

more at:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/iraqi-forces-ok.html

[underpants]

1. Um... the Iraqis are going to lose that one

They aren't trained up enough to take on Blackwater

[madokie]

7. but at least they're fighting back. You have to give them credit for that

[EFerrari]

2. BW's license expired months ago. Were they renewed?

Is the the Iraqi gov trying to look independent?

[blogslut]

3. Oh my

Ugly indeed.

[Botany]

4. And the hunters will now become the hunted.

Sounds like the Iraqis are tired of taking crap from Blackwater. I hope
Erik Prince is in one of the cars stopped by the families his company
killed.

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. Good! Does this mean the Iraqis are starting to stand up?? I hope so!

Let them take on the mercs.. I have no pity for them.

[wtmusic]

9. Mission Accomplished...oops!

:rofl:

[mmonk]

6. It's always interesting when a puppet country attempts to

exercise independence. Lot's of potential for more violence.

[KharmaTrain]

8. So Much For The "Lull"

Yes, a showdown between Iraqi Militias and Blackwater has long been spoilin'. The State Department, as usual, screwed up in covering up for these mercenaries and the Iraqis now have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Sadly, what that could mean is a rise in attacks on all American forces...or American forces being dragged in to bail Blackwater out (just like Fallujah). While this regime is attempting to trumpet the downtick in American deaths as some sign of progress, this eerily reminds me of the days prior to Tet in '68. I remember how we were being told nightly how we were "winning" there as well until the VC started pouring over the embassy walls.

Iraq remains a nation armed to the teeth, with our own military adding to the numbers of those armed every day and Blackwater profiting. This short-sighted game all but begs for deadly results.

[gratuitous]

10. Look for LOTS more death and chaos

And as usual, someone with a hell of a lot of money will plunder even more. Mission accomplished, baby!