Antonio Roman-Alcala
Double Portrait: San Francisco: 2007
iPhone camera
02 October 2007
Blackwater
Photo: Chris Curry/The Virginian-Pilot/ZUMA Press
Blackwater USA Academy recruit Gregory Collier screams to team members during a drill at the Blackwater compound in Moyock, N.C., on Aug. 2, 2006.
via Salon: The dark truth about BlackwaterOutsourcing the war to private military contractors such as Blackwater has shattered the United States' moral authority and its ability to win wars like that in Iraq.
By P.W. Singer
On Sept. 16, 2007, a convoy of Blackwater contractors guarding State Department employees entered a crowded square near the Mansour district in Baghdad, Iraq. But versions of what caused the ensuing bloodshed diverge. Employees from the firm claim they were attacked by gunmen and responded within the rules of engagement, fighting their way out of the square after one of their vehicles was disabled. Iraqi police and witnesses instead report that the contractors opened fire first, shooting at a small car driven by a couple with their child that did not get out of the convoy's way as traffic slowed. At some point in the 20-minute gunfight, Iraqi police and army forces stationed in watchtowers above the square also began firing. Other Iraqi security forces and Blackwater quick-reaction forces soon reportedly joined the battle. There are also reports that one Blackwater employee may even have pointed his weapon at his fellow contractors, in an effort to get them to cease firing.
Since then, the Iraqi and U.S. governments have launched separate investigations, likely ensuring that the differing versions of the story will never meet. The only thing agreed upon is the consequences: After a reported 20 Iraqi civilians were killed, including the couple and their child, who was subsequently burned to the mother's body after the car caught fire, the Iraqi government and populace exploded with anger.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the killings a crime, announcing that his government was pulling Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq and would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have been involved in the killings. But there were two problems: Despite its mission of guarding U.S. officials in Iraq, Blackwater had no license with the Iraqi government. Secondly, the murky legal status of the contractors meant they might be considered exempt from Iraqi law because of a mandate left over from the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. governing authority in Iraq that was dissolved more than two years prior.
The Blackwater mess has roiled Capitol Hill and shined light on the many questions surrounding the legal status, management, oversight and accountability of the private military force in Iraq, which numbers more than 160,000 -- at least as many as the total number of uniformed American forces there. The debate will heat up again Tuesday with hearings by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California. The problem is, some of the most critical questions may yet go unasked.
I've done a decade's worth of research and writing on the military's use of private contractors... and when I evaluate the facts, the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq, going against our best doctrine and undermining critical efforts of our troops. Even worse, the government can no longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation's wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities.
On Tuesday, among those testifying on Capitol Hill will be Erik Prince, the chairman and owner of Blackwater, as well as a series of State Department officials who were supposed to have overseen the firm's activities. We can expect that Prince will wrap himself in the flag, discussing all the vital missions that Blackwater conducts in Iraq, while downplaying the recent killings. State Department officials are likely to say that they had no other option but to use the firm, given their lack of Diplomatic Security forces -- conveniently ignoring that the department has chosen to hollow out its Diplomatic Security corps and instead hand over the task to a consortium of private firms led by Blackwater under a multibillion-dollar contract.
Waxman's committee, which has already been focused on politically connected companies and contracting corruption in Iraq, has disclosed a series of documents in recent days that reveal some dark patterns with Blackwater. The documents appear to show that the firm cut corners that may have contributed to employee deaths, it may have tried to have documents classified in order to cover up corporate failures, and the State Department's own inspector general may have tried to impede investigations into Blackwater, including threatening to fire any of his inspectors who cooperated with Congress.
Prince will take his shots, and State officials will point to new investigations they are now launching to try to mollify congressional anger. But regardless of whether the Blackwater contractors were justified in the shooting, whether there was proper jurisdiction to ensure accountability, or even whether using firms like Blackwater saves money (the data shows it does not), there is an underlying problem that everyone is ignoring.
Our dependency on military contractors shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction. If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to counterinsurgency and the use of private military contractors, the U.S. has locked its national security into a vicious cycle. It can't win with them, but can't go to war without them.
More: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/02/blackwater/print.html
01 October 2007
27 September 2007
Burma
Reuters
Riot policemen stopped a monk on Wednesday as he tried to enter a pagoda in Yangon.
Seth Mydans/NYTimes:The violence of the past two days has answered the question of whether the military would fire on Buddhist monks, the highly revered moral core of Burmese society. For the past 10 days, the monks have led demonstrations that grew to as many as 100,000 before the crackdown began.
“The military is the one who proudly claims to preserve and protect Buddhism in the country, but now they are killing the monks,” said Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine based in Thailand that has extensive contacts inside Myanmar.
Like others monitoring the crisis, which began on Aug. 19 with scattered protests against steep fuel price increases, he said it was difficult to learn the numbers of dead in a chaotic situation in which hospital sources are sometimes reluctant to talk. Mr. Aung Zaw said he had been told of one death today when soldiers attacked two columns of monks and other people.
“The military trucks, I was told, just drove in, and soldiers jumped out and started shooting,” he said, describing a scene that was reminiscent of the mass killings in 1988, when the current junta came to power after suppressing a similar peaceful public uprising. On Wednesday, the junta acknowledged the death of one man, but news agencies and exile groups put the number as high as seven.
26 September 2007
Burma
via Sullivan: A Cambodian blogger writes:
I am aware that in Buddha's teaching, monks should be reserved and by all means shouldn't be involved in politics. However, if we think realistically, they are also one of the rightful citizens of the nation. Whatever happens to the country affects everyone — ordinary people and monks alike. We can use the Khmer Rouge time as an example. Thousands of monks were killed. For many reasons, I don’t think they should be silent at all. When society requires their intervention, it’s appropriate enough to hear their voice and initiatives.
25 September 2007
Fire
EcoSmart Fire, an Australian company that makes “green” fireplaces, recently introduced the Vision, a freestanding, see-through unit with a flueless burner (no chimney required), which uses environmentally friendly ethanol. The Domus Design Collection, one of the Vision’s American distributors, sells it in a standard white or black frame ($6,125), as well as in custom colors. And in an ultramodern take on the hearth, Domus has incorporated EcoSmart’s flueless burners into some of its cabinets and credenzas, like the Studimo ($18,230) and the Cube ($20,575), as well as custom-made one-of-a-kind pieces, like the one above (prices vary). Domus Design Collection, 181 Madison Avenue (34th Street), (212) 685-0800 or
21 September 2007
My Boy Jack
Daniel Radcliffe from his upcoming film My Boy Jack. The television movie will air later this year on ITV in the UK and U.S. public television station PBS has bought the rights to air the movie via its Masterpiece Theatre series.
20 September 2007
Massachusetts
Photo:
Robert Spencer for The New York Times
Residents of Truro, Mass., are trying to protect the view from the Edward Hopper house.
19 September 2007
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