US refuses to discuss Blackwater mission in Pakistan

Expert says Washington does not need private security personnel for domination





By Ansar Abbasi




ISLAMABAD: While in Pakistan there are growing reports of the presence of Blackwater personnel, at home in America the US security agency's founder and former owner is alleged to have used the company as "merchants of death" as he views himself as a "Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe".




Defence analysts and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf Information Secretary Dr Shireen M Mazari in her article in The News, published on Wednesday, claimed that after Peshawar now Islamabad has Blackwater (now hiding under the new label, Xe Worldwide) and the rather obvious CIA front-company Creative Associates International Inc (CAII). She cited the last week sealing off of the road in Super Market in front of a school as the endorsement of her information.




US embassy spokesman Richard W Snelsire, however, when asked about the presence of Blackwater personnel in Pakistan, said, "We don't discuss security, issues related to the security that include the contractors, who are assigned the security tasks." Snelsire or Rick, as he is commonly known, said that making public such details would endanger lives. He said that 95% of the security personnel doing security work with the US embassy and its officials are from the Pakistani security companies. Regarding Marines, he said that presently the US embassy has only eight Marines and when the expansion project of the embassy would complete in years to come, this strength would go up to 15-20 maximum.




Rick though did not want to discuss anything about the American security contractors assigned security task here, there are many here who talk of the presence of Blackwater personnel here. A senior lady anchorperson was heard sharing her information about Blackwaters with a senior PML-N leader during Nawaz Sharif's recent interaction with a group of newspaper and electronic media journalists.




She insisted that the Blackwater operators are in Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad. She also said that in the recent Pearl Continental terrorist attack in Peshawar, amongst other two Blackwater men were also killed. Blackwater is a US security company that has track record in Iraq where they killed innocents.




Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit was not in Pakistan to confirm if the foreign security contractor hired by the US embassy is Blackwater.




Meanwhile at home in US, the Blackwater is facing a district court in Alexandria, which will decide whether one of the darkest chapters of the Bush era, the relationship between the administration and the private security company Blackwater, should be re-examined?




According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, a German publication, some of Blackwater's former employees want to shine light on the company's shadowy activities. In just one incident, according to the report, 17 people including women and children were killed on Sept 16, 2007 at Nisoor Square in Baghdad by mercenaries working for Blackwater.




Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and former owner, is referred in the suit, filed by one Susan Burke as a "modern-day merchant of death," and she alleged that the 40-year-old created a "culture of lawlessness and unaccountability" at Blackwater, where the "excessive and unnecessary use of deadly force" was commonplace. In her motion, Burke also accuses Blackwater of war crimes.




The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Alexandria, Virginia, will now decide whether to take on Burke's civil suit. Burke now plans to call 40 witnesses to testify against Prince. If the court agrees to hear her suit on Friday, eyewitnesses to the various killings will be summoned from Baghdad.




Meanwhile, a Pakistani expert on Pak-US relations deplored that the Pakistanis used to indulge in politics of blame games. On condition of not being named, he said in the presence of its army in Iraq, the US did not need security personnel of its private companies to fight civilians or dominate the host country. He said when the US missions or buildings came under attack in Iraq, several innocent women and children of US citizens are also killed. Similarly, he said it is possible that in retaliatory attack by the security personnel civilians including women and children are killed. He said such casualties do occur in the situation of war and they are always unintentional. He said such killings should not be portrayed as campaign to kill innocent Muslims.