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Missile Fire Downs Chopper in Iraq
April 22nd, 2005 at 10:01 Björn Hallberg
Via AP …
Insurgents brought down a Russian-made helicopter carrying 11 civilians with missile fire north of the capital Thursday and said they captured and shot to death the lone crew member who survived. The dead from the crash included six American bodyguards for U.S. diplomats.
The helicopter had three Bulgarian crewmembers, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The six Americans were employed by Blackwater Security Consulting � a subsidiary of North Carolina-based security contractor Blackwater USA, which had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago.
The helicopter had three Bulgarian crewmembers, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The six Americans were employed by Blackwater Security Consulting � a subsidiary of North Carolina-based security contractor Blackwater USA, which had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago.
Insurgents and contractors. It’s euphemism weekend over at mainstream news central it seems. How about freedom fighters and mercenaries instead. Doesn’t that make more sense. Or pirates and emperors.
Blackwater has managed to stay out of the spotlight mostly but they and other contractors like them still number in the tens of thousands. And it is one of the least reported "features" of the Iraq war. In other words, corporations go to war. Referring to them as civilians is more than a little misleading. But I think that is the general idea.
Entry 90 filed under: Middle East. This entry was posted 3 years, 8 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.
