The official blog of the Libertarian Party
November 28, 2005
Are Defense Contractors Randomly Shooting Iraqi Civilians?
By Stephen Gordon
The Sunday Telegraph broke what appears to be a significant story coming out of Iraq, but it is not being seriously covered by the mainstream media at this time. They report:
A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis. The video, which was allegedly found on an employee website for UK private security contractor Aegis Defence, Ltd., shows distinct clips of vehicles being shot at and then crashing. It appears to be a case of defense contractors going on a joyride randomly targeting Iraqi civilians.
Commentary at the Aljazeera version of the story has one person already claiming that one of the cars contained three hundred pounds of high explosives, but the video gives no indication of the claim being accurate. On another site, a commenter suggested that the video is a "a deliberate anti-coalition propaganda effort designed precisely to shock sensitive souls."
He did bring up one valid point, however:
You can conclude virtually nothing from that video except that people fired on [pursuing]. We do not know if they were fired on FROM those cars or if they were [attempting] fight off a VBIED or otherwise knew that they carried enemy combatants. We don't even see who they are.
There seems to be but three possibilities: there is more to the video than meets the eye, some really twisted person faked the video, or that what one sees on the video is entirely accurate.
According to the newspaper article, Capt. Adnan Tawfiq of the Iraqi Interior Ministry claims there have been 50-60 similar incidents. With allegations such as this, there needs to be an immediate and thorough investigation, no matter whether the video was faked or not.
Once again, the mainstream media seems a bit hesitant to cover the story and it's about time for the blogosphere to give them a swift kick in the butt.
Links to watch the video are available here.
Posted by Shane Cory at November 28, 2005 04:49 PM
Reader Comments:
BPerry:
1) On what reason or evidence do you suggest that it is faked?
2) If it is faked, who did it and for what purpose? That would be an interesting story in and of itself.
I watched the video, it doesn't seem to be faked. Of course, no way to know who is doing the shooting, who is in the other cars, were the other cars pursuing or just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My judgement on the video would be that as far as proving anything, it is entirely inconclusive. All it proves is that some unidentified gunmen were taking potshots out of the back of a moving vehicle.
Off topic but of much more import, is the story currently on Drudge, about Miami police demanding ID from anybody in certain places that the police will designate. Papers please.
I just wonder why the soundtrack had that song playing. The song sure didn't sound to me like it was coming from the car radio. It sounded more like it had been supplied later as a separate, overlaid track.
Is anybody else even a little bit disturbed about how this story is presented?
"Are defense contractors randomly shooting Iraqi civilians?"
Sounds like propaganda to me. He even admits, "You can conclude virtually nothing from that video"
Matt C is correct. The title of the story should have been "Ambiguous video of someone shooting something out of a car somewhere". If there was any tangible proof in that video that defense contractors were randomly shooting at Iraqi civilians the anti-war anti-Bush liberal media would have jumped on it like white on rice.
Libertarian TV pointed out that the music sounds like it was added in later, and I think he's right. You can't even prove that video is shot in Iraq. You can prove nothing at all from that video yet the title of this thread is extremely suggestive that you can.
I know that there are many in this party who are against the war in Iraq. I also know that there are many like myself who support it and think it was the right move. But please, no matter what stance you take, lets be honest with each other. I think that the most likely scenario is that video was put together by a bunch of anti-war con artists trying to create more ammo for their cause. As Libertarians I would hope that we try to eliminate the B.S. coming from both the left and the right and focus on the TRUTH, not obsure videos and suggestive titles.
side note: I should have bought gold last year! Aarrgh!
I know it is offtopic but:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Sen. Arlen Specter has accused the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles of treating Terrell Owens unfairly, and might refer the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democracy is at work; beautiful!
On Irak, I don't think anybody (but Libertarians) care seriously about human rights. Democrats only care about them now because they are after Bush. Their principles depend on whether there is a political gain or not.
"... but it is not being seriously covered by the mainstream media at this time"
Of course its not being covered by main stream media. Even reporters have some sense of shame... they can't completely make up news and get away with it (except maybe Geraldo).
The most interesting thing about this blog entry is how it reads like Fox News. Heck, even NPR does a better job at NOT making up news to fit a picture.
When horrible crimes against AMERICANS are occuring every moment here in the USA (in the forms of theft by taxes, kidnapping and then torturing in prison of citizens for things like possessing a PLANT, imprisonment of citizens for simply peacefully carrying a firearm, and so fourth)why in the world is the LP concerned about the above story?
There are LOTS of horrible things happening in Iraq. They are being done by various middle eastern factions, OUR troops, contractors, and OTHERS as well. We all know this. The above incident is just one of a long list.
Lets get back to making the USA a free nation once again.
When you can go to prison for growing a plant without violating anyone elses rights this nation is not free.
When you can go to prison for not paying the unconstitutional income tax (because the 16th ammendment was never ratified and of course for other reasons as well) this nation is not free.
When you can go to prison for carrying a firearm for self-defense even though you harmed no one else and had no intention of violating anyone elses rights but only wanted to protect your family and property this is NOT a free nation.
When the government can spy on whoever they want for whatever reason by simply claiming with no proof they are involved in "terror" due to the Patriot Act this is not a free nation!
Lets get back to fixing the USA!
Iraq is a quagmire. The only thing we can do is get out immediately. The national LP does not even want us to get out immediately any longer. So lets forget Iraq is even happening and fix what is occuring HERE.
The LP's job needs to be to promote the restoration of freedom and liberty in the USA.
Apparently, that is hardly on their agenda anymore.
TickedOffLper,
To become a major political party in this country we need to be concerned with both domestic and foreign issues. Foreign issues are becoming more important every day with our planet becoming more and more globalized.
Privatization is a good idea when it comes to a lot of things, but I don't think war is one of them. Allowing non-state actors to take combat roles is a recipe for the abuse of the established rules of engagement. If we're going to run a military, we should run it like a military. And that means set rules of engagement being practiced by troops who answer to a ligitimate authority representing a state. IC's can't offer that. And I really have to wonder, since so many of them are ex-soldiers, often of high rank, how many of them are still on the government's payroll. Sort of a smaller, secret army on the side that doesn't mess with those pesky rules of conduct. They've done it plenty of times before. Keeps the media out of the messy stuff. But maybe that's just my libertarian paranoia acting up again.
How does this relate to the business of the LP? Seriously, let's worry about something important.
"the anti-war anti-Bush liberal media"
LOLOLOL does anyone seriously believe that anymore?
| 
Fake. Gimme a break.
Posted by: BPerry at November 28, 2005 04:56 PM