Blackwater revisited

Jeremy Scahill has a lengthy piece in The Nation about the man, whose nine year old son was shot by Blackwater security guards, who is now the last obstacle to the company airbrushing the massacre out of existence.

Blackwater's Youngest Victim
Jeremy Scahill writes for The Nation (January 28th): Every detail of September 16, 2007, is burned in Mohammed Kinani's memory. His 9 year old son was the youngest person killed by Blackwater forces in the infamous Nisour Square massacre. In May 2008 Mohammed flew to Washington to testify in front of a grand jury investigating the shooting. But this past New Year's Eve, federal Judge Ricardo Urbina threw out all the criminal charges against the five Blackwater guards. The manslaughter charges were dismissed not because of a lack of evidence but because of what Urbina called serious misconduct on the part of the prosecutors.
Then, a few days after the dismissal of the criminal case, Blackwater reached a civil settlement with many of the Nisour Square victims, reportedly paying about $100,000 per death.
Blackwater released a statement declaring it was "pleased" with the outcome, which enabled the company to move forward "free of the costs and distraction of ongoing litigation." But Mohammed Kinani would not move on. He refused to take the deal Blackwater offered. As a result, he may well be the one man standing between Blackwater and total impunity for the killings in Nisour Square.

See more at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/scahill

Legacy of war

Iraq littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, study finds
The Guardian reports (January 22nd): More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found.
Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and ­Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. The joint study by the environment, health and science ministries found that scrap metal yards in and around Baghdad and Basra contain high levels of ionising radiation, which is thought to be a legacy of depleted uranium used in munitions during the first Gulf war and since the 2003 invasion.
The environment minister, Narmin Othman, said high levels of dioxins on agricultural lands in southern Iraq, in particular, were increasingly thought to be a key factor in a general decline in the health of people living in the poorest parts of the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/iraq-nuclear-contaminated-sites

An exclusive in The Indepedent

UK troops 'executed Iraqi grandmother'
The Independent reports (January 11th): Allegations that a 62-year-old Iraqi grandmother was tortured and executed by British soldiers after her family home was raided three years ago are being investigated by the Royal Military Police.
The Army's involvement in the death and abuse of Sabiha Khudur Talib is one of the most serious charges to be made against Britain during its six-year occupation of southern Iraq.
An investigation led by Lieutenant Haidar Yashaa Salman from Al-Qibla police station of the Al-Hussein Police Directorate found: "At 11 o'clock, we were informed by the police operation room of the finding of a dumped body, so went to the site and found out that the body belonged to the victim Sabiha Khudur Talib, who was arrested by the British forces on 14-15 November 2006 ... I saw the body in a brown dish- dash [one-piece tunic], bare feet and hands with marks of handcuffs. I saw traces of torture on the body of the victim. I saw a non-penetrated bullet entry in the abdomen."
More details:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uk-troops-executed-iraqi-grandmother-1863887.html

British firms 'did pretty well' out of overthrowing Saddam

The Times reports (January 6th): British companies have benefited from the award of oil contracts in Iraq because of the decision to help to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Gordon Brown’s chief foreign policy adviser told the Chilcot inquiry yesterday.
Simon McDonald said British companies had “done pretty well” in a recent auction of oil rights and that Britain had “privileged access” to the Government of Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6976933.ece