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<font size=3> Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New
Orleans<br>
By Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo<br>
t r u t h o u t | Report<br>
<br>
Saturday 10 September 2005<br>
<br>
New Orleans - Heavily armed paramilitary
mercenaries from the <br>
Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq,
<br>
are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the <br>
mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the
Louisiana governor; <br>
indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges
<br>
on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their
<br>
arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland
<br>
Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force.
<br>
Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on
the <br>
personal security details of the former head of the US occupation,
L. <br>
Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John
Negroponte.<br>
<br>
"This is a totally new thing to have
guys like us working CONUS <br>
(Continental United States)," a heavily armed Blackwater
mercenary <br>
told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.
"We're <br>
much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq."<br>
<br>
Blackwater mercenaries are some of the
most feared professional <br>
killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without
<br>
worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New
<br>
Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining
<br>
residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the
<br>
government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places
<br>
like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now
<br>
patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as
recently <br>
as 2 weeks ago.<br>
<br>
What is most disturbing is the claim of
several Blackwater <br>
mercenaries we spoke with that they are here under contract from
the <br>
federal and Louisiana state governments.<br>
<br>
Blackwater is one of the leading private
"security" firms <br>
servicing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has several
US <br>
government contracts and has provided security for many senior US
<br>
diplomats, foreign dignitaries and corporations. The company rose
to <br>
international prominence after 4 of its men were killed in Fallujah
<br>
and two of their charred bodies were hung from a bridge in March
<br>
2004. Those killings sparked the massive US retaliation against the
<br>
civilian population of Fallujah that resulted in scores of deaths
and <br>
tens of thousands of refugees.<br>
<br>
As the threat of forced evictions now
looms in New Orleans and <br>
the city confiscates even legally registered weapons from
civilians, <br>
the private mercenaries of Blackwater patrol the streets openly
<br>
wielding M-16s and other assault weapons. This despite Police <br>
Commissioner Eddie Compass' claim that "Only law enforcement
are <br>
allowed to have weapons."<br>
<br>
Officially, Blackwater says it forces are
in New Orleans to <br>
"join the Hurricane Relief Effort." A statement on the
company's <br>
website, dated September 1, advertises airlift services, security
<br>
services and crowd control. The company, according to news reports,
<br>
has since begun taking private contracts to guard hotels,
businesses <br>
and other properties. But what has not been publicly acknowledged
is <br>
the claim, made to us by 2 Blackwater mercenaries, that they are
<br>
actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including
<br>
"securing neighborhoods" and "confronting
criminals."<br>
<br>
That raises a key question: under what
authority are <br>
Blackwater's men operating? A spokesperson for the Homeland
Security <br>
Department, Russ Knocke, told the Washington Post he knows of no
<br>
federal plans to hire Blackwater or other private security.
"We <br>
believe we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for
<br>
the federal government to meet the demands of public safety."
he said.<br>
<br>
But in an hour-long conversation with
several Blackwater <br>
mercenaries, we heard a different story. The men we spoke with said
<br>
they are indeed on contract with the Department of Homeland
Security <br>
and the Louisiana governor's office and that some of them are <br>
sleeping in camps organized by Homeland Security in New Orleans and
<br>
Baton Rouge. One of them wore a gold Louisiana state law
enforcement <br>
badge and said he had been "deputized" by the governor.
They told us <br>
they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal
<br>
force. We encountered the Blackwater forces as we walked through
the <br>
streets of the largely deserted French Quarter. We were talking
with <br>
2 New York Police officers when an unmarked car without license
<br>
plates sped up next to us and stopped. Inside were 3 men, dressed
in <br>
khaki uniforms, flak jackets and wielding automatic weapons.
"Y'all <br>
know where the Blackwater guys are?" they asked. One of the
police <br>
officers responded, "There are a bunch of them around
here," and <br>
pointed down the road.<br>
<br>
"Blackwater?" we asked.
"The guys who are in Iraq?"<br>
<br>
"Yeah," said the officer.
"They're all over the place."<br>
<br>
A short while later, as we continued down
Bourbon Street, we ran <br>
into the men from the car. They wore Blackwater ID badges on their
<br>
arms.<br>
<br>
"When they told me New Orleans, I
said, 'What country is that <br>
in?,'" said one of the Blackwater men. He was wearing his
company ID <br>
around his neck in a carrying case with the phrase "Operation
Iraqi <br>
Freedom" printed on it. After bragging about how he drives
around <br>
Iraq in a "State Department issued level 5, explosion proof
BMW," he <br>
said he was "just trying to get back to Kirkuk (in the north
of Iraq) <br>
where the real action is." Later we overheard him on his cell
phone <br>
complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per
diem. <br>
That is much less than the men make serving in more dangerous <br>
conditions in Iraq. Two men we spoke with said they plan on
returning <br>
to Iraq in October. But, as one mercenary said, they've been told
<br>
they could be in New Orleans for up to 6 months. "This is a
trend," <br>
he told us. "You're going to see a lot more guys like us in
these <br>
situations."<br>
<br>
If Blackwater's reputation and record in
Iraq are any indication <br>
of the kind of "services" the company offers, the people
of New <br>
Orleans have much to fear.<br>
<br>
-----<br>
<br>
Jeremy Scahill, a correspondent for the
national radio and TV <br>
program Democracy Now!, and Daniela Crespo are in New Orleans.
<br>
<<a href="http://visit%20www.democracynow.org/">
http://Visit%20www.democracynow.org</a>Visit
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/">www.democracynow.org</a> for <br>
in-depth, independent, investigative reporting on Hurricane
Katrina. <br>
Email:
<<a href="mailto:jeremy@democracynow.org">
mailto:jeremy@democracynow.org</a>jeremy@democracynow.org.<br><br>
<br><br>
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