Over at Newsweek, Michael Hirsh lays out the case against Blackwater . . .
Take the case of the Blackwater guard who got drunk at a Green Zone party last Christmas Eve and reportedly boasted to his friends that he was going to kill someone. Acording to both Iraqi and U.S. officials, he stumbled out and headed provocatively over to the "Little Venice" section, a lovely area of canals where Iraqi officials live. He had an argument with an Iraqi guard, then shot him once in the chest and three times in the back. The next day Blackwater put him on a private plane out of the country---probably only because the incident involved a rare killing inside the Green Zone and the victim was a security guard for a high-ranking politician. That was it.
. . . and places the blame squarely where it belongs:
The Bush administration's lack of concern about holding its employees responsible for their actions extends to obstructing civil suits against rogue contractors under the False Claims Act. "None of the lawsuits has been successful," says lawyer Alan Grayson. "In a couple of cases the government has said the case has to be shut down because it involves state secrets." (The Justice Department has said it is carefully looking at the suits.) Who has been in charge of this? None other than Peter Keisler, the former head of Justice's civil rights division who is now acting attorney general, says Grayson, who is involved in cases against Blackwater and other contractors. "They run people off the road. The treat the local population like it's some big shooting gallery. It's not just Blackwater; it's everybody." No, that's letting the responsible party off too easily; it's the Bush administration.
Read the whole essay. For a bylined article in an MSM pub, it's about as unsparing and harsh as anything you're likely to ever see.
And Nancy, please, please, can we put a certain Constitution-related program activity back on the table, finally?
---Vitelius
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