“The Warrior Class”: Blackwater videos in Harper's Magazine show brutality on display

[video link]

This month's Harper’s Magazine includes a feature by Charles Glass about the growth of private security firms since 9/11, “The Warrior Class: A golden age for the freelance soldier.”

The conclusion to the piece describes a series of videos shown to Glass by a source who had worked for the private-security company Blackwater (now Academi, formerly also Xe Services) in Iraq.

Above, one of the five Blackwater clips published online by Harper's. This one is dated April 1, 2006, and was shot from the front seat of the fourth car in an armored convoy. Glass describes its contents:

Driving along a wide boulevard in Baghdad, the lead vehicle swerved close to the curb of a traffic island. A woman in a black full-length burka began to cross the street. The vehicle struck the woman and knocked her unconscious body into the gutter. The cars slowed for a moment, but did not stop, nor did they even determine whether the victim was dead or alive. A voice in the car taking the video said, “Oh, my God!” Yet no one was heard on the radio requesting help for her. Most sickeningly, the sequence had been set to an AC/DC song, whose pounding, metallic chorus declared: “You’ve been… thunderstruck!”

As Glass notes, the tape ends with a still frame which reads: "IN SUPPORT OF SECURITY, PEACE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY EVERYWHERE."

(via Jeremy Scahill)

• [Mohamad Kouli]

  Repeat after me: “They hate us for our FREEDOM! They hate us for our FREEDOM!”

  Also, “We’re bringing them FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY!”

• [ffabian]

  Must be one of those brave american heroes …

• [Ihavenofuckingname]

  I can only assume that these videos have been thoroughly investigated and the guilty parties are being tried in the jurisdiction where their crimes were committed, just like we did with Saddam Hussein…  Please don’t answer that question, let me pretend.

  • [phisrow]

    If I remember correctly, the situation was carefully designed to ensure that there simply wasn’t any jurisdiction. 

    UCMJ has nothing because they aren’t military. The locals have nothing because CPA Order 17 says exactly that. US civil or criminal courts don’t have jurisdiction because it didn’t happen over here. 

    Rest assured, though, all the entities that did have jurisdiction conducted a thorough investigation.

    • [Hakan Koseoglu]

      I just hope one of these guys end up in UK and the CPS will have the balls (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_jurisdiction#Universal_jurisdiction_laws_around_the_world has Murder and manslaughter (ss. 9 and 10 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861) and also IMHO Terrorism (ss. 59, 62-63 of the Terrorism Act 2000) should apply).

  • [Cowicide]

    Well, when you have evil characters like these running the show:

    http://boingboing.net/2011/02/24/report-army-deployed.html

    The apples don’t always fall far from the tree…

• [steveboyett]

  “Freelance soldier” sounds so much better than “mercenary,” doesn’t it?

  • [headcode]

    Yep.  And mercenary sounds so much better than hired killer.

  • [phisrow]

    Please, please… “Private-Sector Patriots”.

• [jayson]

  I’ve been reading a book set during the Thirty Years’ War that describes the hideous behavior of mercenaries in the 1630s. I thought how savage and inhuman they were and how happy I was to live in the 21st century instead.

  Then I saw this. If this is what was captured on video, my stomach sinks to imagine what was done when the cameras weren’t around.

  If an armored car filled with armed Middle Eastern militants drove down an American street crashing into people, firing indiscriminately into crowds, and running people down, what word do you suppose we’d use to describe that?

  • [BrianOman]

    Not a word really, but I think we’d call it ‘police evicting occupy’.

    • [Hanglyman]

       That’s a large exaggeration even when applied to the Occupy police brutality, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I woke up tomorrow and it wasn’t. Mercenaries are cops who don’t have to pretend to care, and lately it seems like the cops aren’t trying very hard. Maybe both of them realize that the average American will support them and throw more money at them no matter what they do.

      • [BrianOman]

        ‘Large’ is a good adjective. But still, cops shoot indiscriminately into protesters in our grande ol’ NA near every week these days. Might not be lethal rounds, but the core violence is parallel.
        Though vehicular manslaughter is not what people might associate with occupy evictions, that core violence is also very present. Nothing says “I can kill you” like driving a SWAT car right through a crowd of people, no matter how slow and loud you are about it.

  • [DeargDoom]

    If an armored car filled with armed Middle Eastern militants drove down an American street crashing into people, firing indiscriminately into crowds, and running people down, what word do you suppose we’d use to describe that?

    Give it a generation or two and whatever name its given will probably be used to market sneakers.

• [Bob N Johnson]

  This is their excuse, she was there to stop the convoy, so it could be attacked. They were probably under orders not to stop for any reason, otherwise they become a sitting duck.

  Don’t hate these guys for wanting to stay alive. Hate the people that placed these vicious, soulless bastards in a situation where this type of behavior is absolutely predictable.

  • [headcode]

    I think you have it backwards.  Vicious, soulless bastards will always seek out places where they can inflict pain without fear of retribution.  Macho shitheads will gravitate to places where they can wield guns and kill people while thinking of themselves as defenders of…something.

    • [Bob N Johnson]

      While you are certainly right, our government, and a large percentage of our ignorant population, wanted this war; our actions or inaction created this environment, an environment full of murderous bastards on both sides, neither of which cares or can care about the civilians caught in the middle. We are getting what we asked for.

      So, no, not at all, I have it exactly as it is; animals only eat the food thrown their way.

      • [MB44]

        “The best way to stop terrorism is to stop participating in it.” NC

         Not everybody wanted these wars so please don’t use “we” too much. I’m sorry if you got caught up in the fervor and supported it when you did but please don’t speak for everyone.

        • [ocker3]

          He’s using the corporate We, as in We the People. Your nation, my nation, our nations decided to do these things, in our name. So yes, We the People consented to have these things done. Can I seperate myself as an Australian from the foolish idiots who showed horrible racism during the Cronulla riots? No, I am an Australian, they are Australians, as are many of the people of middle-east (and various) descent who they showed such disgusting behaviour towards.

          The question is, what are we doing to try and prevent it from happening again? Here in Australia, we voted out the guy who took us to war in Iraq, just like you did. What did your guy do? He got us mostly Out of Iraq, started the process of leaving Afganistan, and when Libya happened,took a path that included the EU and the people on the ground (shades of WWII?).

          We voted out the leaders who took us to the last wars, and hopefully we’ll continue to learn our lessons and elect better leaders. We cannot prevent our countries from making mistakes, however we Can fight to force our leaders to remember those mistakes and learn from them, and push our fellow citizens to remember, and learn.

        • [Bob N Johnson]

          We the people are wholly responsible for everything. Our individual opinions are meaningless. Saying I did or didn’t support anything is a cop-out. We are there now. We support this war through our labor and taxes. We are all guilty. Nothing will change until we understand our complicity.

          P.S. The only fervor I have allowed myself, in recent memory, was supporting Obama, who I begrudgingly continue to support.

      • [MB44]

        Again, “We” are not all complicit and choose not to be. Some of your fellow citizens are actively engaged financially and through their own labor, are fighting against what is only a funneling of public sector money into the pockets of a select few at the top of the military industrial complex. It is possibly the largest money laundering operation in history. 
         If the total of your actions amounts to lessening the war effort, then you are not complicit in it. These wars would have happened whether the people would have initially opposed them or not. It was just made easier because everyone was shitting themselves and consenting to it. You make the mistake of buying into the myth that the US is a self governing society and the people here somehow control what the ruling oligarchy do. What the US has now is soft-despotism and it is taking on harsher forms everyday because more and more people are catching on and protesting it. The US is basically following a blueprint of “How To Become A Totalitarian State.” I’m pretty sure that, in our lifetimes, this country will cross the threshold into despotic, totalitarian rule. If I am wrong I’ll be the first to admit it and celebrate.

        • [Bob N Johnson]

           Dear MB44, your assumptions of my fervor, motivations and naivete are causing you to come to conclusions about me that simply do not exist.

          Say what you wish to maintain the illusion of innocence, but the truth remains, when we decide to stop the madness it will stop. All we need do is sit down and refuse to stand. Until then we are all covered in blood.

          Not until more people are willing to die than comply will things change. This is why OWS has been so ineffectual.

          We must all come to the simple understanding that we must be willing to starve to death before eating the scraps we currently fight over every day. Whatever it is so many think they’re doing to fight the man is meaningless except for the dangerous illusion it allows them to maintain.

      • [MB44]

        Fair enough. Sorry to be presumptuous. I don’t totally agree with you on all of your points but you make some really valid ones and I can see it from your perspective much better now. Sadly, I think you may be right about activism. I’ve been worried that it is pointless for a while now and I think I’m just going to stop trying. btw I am not being sarcastic right now. I really have had concerns that what you say is true and hearing it really drives them home. 

        • [Bob N Johnson]

          To clarify my position on activism, first doing whatever we can is always important, but at the same time we must acknowledge the nature of our complicity. Also, the specter of a few thousand OWS participants starving to death would tend to send a message not just to the wealthy elites who control our financial and political systems, but more importantly to the general population in the U.S., which for various reasons fails to understand or believe the nature of the current situation.

          As you said we are at a point in history and technology that is going to end with either the general population having the freedom to communicate globally allowing us to improve conditions for everyone everywhere, including the wealthy, or the wealthy elites controlling access to international communication and crippling global commerce.

          The people clinging to their wealth and control, are dinosaurs. The evidence is plain to see in the way their corporations refuse to accept the new models of commerce created by the free flow of information. Instead of exploiting net neutrality and the free flow of information, they attempt to control access and content even to their own detriment.

          Their belief in military force, monitoring communications, incarceration, and outright violence and oppression are ways they prove they do not understand the unique opportunities of our age. Allowing people to be free, educated, healthy, and prosperous will improve everyone’s lives including their own. Police states are not cost effective and hurt productivity.

• [BonzoDog1]

  The next time Exxon/Mobil needs to keep its supply lines open, they should go to Blackwater for an equipped 250,000-man army and then tack it on to the pump price.
  And quit bothering the U.S. military.

  • [phisrow]

    Blackwater may have liked AC/DC; but I don’t remember ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ ever making the soundtrack cut…

    I suspect that letting Uncle Sam help you out is a great deal better for shareholder value.

• [Incipient Madness]

   I remember how totally scared I was after Blackwater intervened post-Katrina. After the rita debacle a month later I really feared what might happen. We had a limited National Guard deployment here in 2001 during Allison, and that was cool. But the Katrina refugee crisis and the total panic of Rita made me fear what would happen if we got a direct hit by the big one.

  Fortunately Mayor Bill White made rick Perry his bitch and got us movable barriers and contraflow signals.We got through Ike just fine, and people actually followed the “shelter in place” orders so that people who really did need to evacuate could get away.

  But why couldn’t White make Perry his his bitch again in the last governor’s election?

  So Backwater never came. Sad, really. I had all these cans of spray paint saved up.

• [WinstonSmith2012]

  “”IN SUPPORT OF SECURITY, PEACE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY EVERYWHERE.”

  Offer not valid for brown people with oil.

• [Robert Ray Little]

  Am I mistaken or do they actually shift to hit her?
  Need to find my glasses…

• [BombBlastLightingWaltz]

  Reading a vietnam novel a soldier was asked ‘if a pregnant gook women steps in front of the transport vehicles what do you do?’
  Soldier reply; “I would avoid her.” 
  Reg soldier reply, “negative! you run the bitch over!”

  You know, she might not be pregnant and trying to blow your truck transport up, yada yada yada. 

  It is old school psychopathology 1o1.